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Hit by Sandy, Jewish Congregation in Rockaways Finds Renewed Faith in Trailer
On a recent Friday evening, Shabbat services at the West End Temple in the Rockaways was literally humming. The vibrations weren’t emanating from members immersed in prayer. They came from a diesel generator that powers the 50-foot-long trailer where services are being held since the congregation’s sanctuary suffered severe damage from Hurricane Sandy. Nearly six…
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Passover Kosher Meat Scandal in Los Angeles Latest in String of Mishaps
Less than a day before the start of Passover, the phone rang at the Brooklyn home of Rabbi Yisroel Belsky. On the line were concerned members of the Rabbinical Council of California, a rabbinical association in Los Angeles that provides kosher certification, among other services. The RCC had just discovered that Mike Engelman, the owner…
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Black Market Sales of Jewish Cemetery Plots Blocked by Regulators
New York State officials have interceded in the case of a defunct Jewish burial society that was selling graves on the open market, effectively forcing the society to give up its remaining plots. At least eight people who purchased graves at Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, N.Y., from the Przedborzer Friends Society received letters in…
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Second Jewish Infant Contracts Herpes From Controversial Circumcision Rite
Another Jewish newborn — the second in three months — has contracted neonatal herpes due to a controversial oral suctioning technique employed during ritual circumcision, New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has reported. The parents of the child did not sign a recently mandated city consent form authorizing the mohel who conducted…
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Leftist Jewish Groups Want Synagogue To Cancel Speech by Pamela Geller
Leftist Jewish groups are calling on a Long Island synagogue to cancel a speech by an outspoken Jewish blogger known for her outspoken anti-Muslim views — raising questions about a double standard on free expression. New York activist groups Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, and Jews Say No! announced their…
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How Kosher Meat Scandal Exploded in Los Angeles
On March 7, at 6:10 a.m., a van and an SUV sit in adjacent parking spaces in the lot of a McDonald’s near the junction of the 101 and the 405 freeways, their rear lift-gates open. Mike Engelman, the driver of the SUV, with the help of the driver of the van, loads something into…
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Nobelist Eric Kandel Witty and Cerebral at Jewish Book Council Awards
“You’ll walk out of this room with a slightly different brain than you walked into it, because of [the evening’s] experience,” said neuropsychiatrist Eric Kandel, Nobel Prize winner and the recipient of the Jewish Book Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award, at the JBC’s National Book Award Ceremony, held on March 14 at the Center for Jewish…
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The Angel in Aaron
Aaron walked into our lives on the day of my next-to-youngest son’s bar mitzvah. The services and the Kiddush reception were over; I was cleaning up, shoving plates of half-eaten cakes I’d baked myself into garbage bags, when he turned up on the arm of Shimon, one of our guests. “We can’t have Aaron for…
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Orthodox Developer Moses Stern Played Key Role in Blockbuster N.Y. Sting
The real estate developer who helped prosecutors crack a wide-ranging corruption case involving six prominent New York politicians is reportedly a key Orthodox power broker in an upstate Jewish community. Moses Stern, a member of the Satmar Hasidic community in upstate Monsey, was the central figure in the FBI sting that led to the April…
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Jim Diamond, Princeton Hillel Rabbi, Dies as Bizarre Crash Ends Life of Teaching
When Rabbi Jim Diamond was killed suddenly and unexpectedly, it was just moments after taking leave from the very activity that defined him as a scholar: a Talmud study session. Our Talmud study group in Princeton, N.J. met every Thursday over breakfast — six men, including three rabbis and three civilians. We usually met at…
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New Leader Josh Block Gives Makeover to The Israel Project
As the new head of The Israel Project, Josh Block brings an aggressive, in-your-face style of operation to one of the Jewish community’s fastest-growing organizations, even as the group undergoes sweeping changes with his arrival. It’s an approach that contrasts strikingly with that of his predecessor, TIP founder Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, under whose tenure the…
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