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Repair the World’s New CEO David Eisner Boosts Volunteer Funding
Jewish not-for-profits are cutting back on pricey volunteering trips, but the new CEO of the organization charged with boosting these programs insists the field is still growing. David Eisner, a former corporate executive, took over the leadership of Repair the World in early January. He arrives as a handful of major Jewish organizations, including Hillel,…
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Dazzling Torah Bells Spark Legal Battle for Touro Synagogue and Shearith Israel
Within a matter of months, the congregation at Touro Synagogue will celebrate the 250th anniversary of America’s oldest Jewish house of worship. But the members of Congregation Jeshuat Israel, who have prayed at the Newport, R.I., building for generations, may have to celebrate outside. That’s because an argument over a dazzling pair of silver Torah…
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Orthodox Jewish Groups Exploit E-Rate Library Subsidy Program
Down a gritty dead-end alley in ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn, past a loading dock and a couple of dumpsters, a set of stairs leads up to a small room with bare walls and a dozen computers. The plaque on the door at Kollel L’Horauh calls the room a library. As a library, it has received $135,000 in…
The Latest
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Max Kampelman, Voice for Soviet Jewry, Evolved But Never Changed
Max Kampelman, who died on January 25 at the age of 92, was lauded often as one of the great men of our times for his role as chief U.S. arms control negotiator in the Reagan administration. He won no less praise for his diplomatic role in enabling the emigration of hundreds of thousands of…
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An Old Dog’s New Tricks
When I was a little girl, there were things as clear as sunlight, as the sea God had split just for the Jews. One of those things was that dogs were despicable creatures. They were scary and dirty, with teeth like knives, and paws with claws, ripping flesh off bone, the way they’d done to…
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Brooklyn College Blasted for Sponsoring Boycott Israel Event
All of New York City’s Democratic mayoral candidates and a handful of congressmen have asked a public college in Brooklyn to withdraw its political science department’s co-sponsorship of a panel discussion on the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel. In a January 31 letter, the congress members and mayoral candidates decried the department’s…
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Jewish Big Easy’s Back — In Time for Super Bowl
The Jewish Big Easy is back — and the Super Bowl proves it. New Orleans Jews are eagerly trumpeting Super Bowl XLVII as a means to showcase their rebuilt community, almost seven and a half years after it suffered a devastating drop in population following Hurricane Katrina. “We were impacted by Katrina just like everyone…
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Friends of Bezalel Gathering and a Surprise Phone Call from Tovah Feldshuh
Ido Aharoni Touts “Borat” at Friends of Bezalel Gala Honoring Leonard Polonsky “A win-win situation in politics in Israel means I win twice!” joked Ido Aharoni, Israel’s consul general in New York, at the January 24 Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design gala that honored financier, philanthropist and renaissance man extraordinaire Leonard Polonsky. Surprising the…
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Ed Koch, New York Legend, Dies at 88
Edward Irving Koch, New York City’s long-serving, charismatic, controversial 105th mayor and arguably the most visible American Jewish official of his day, passed away this morning at age 88 from congestive heart failure. His three epitaphs, chosen several years before his death, expressed the centrality of Judaism to his identity. The first quotes the murdered…
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What Happens When Jewish Law Hampers the Disabled?
About 10 years ago, Jason Lieberman stopped wearing tefillin. This was not an act of rebellion — Lieberman’s cerebral palsy simply made it too difficult for him to put them on. Seven years later, Lieberman, 34, who serves as treasurer of Matan, which provides Jewish education programs to special needs children, sought help from his…
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Circumcision Rebellion, Dubious Orthodox Libraries, Bagel Battle
In this week’s Reporters Roundtable podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by Forward Fellow Seth Berkman to discuss why Orthodox mohels are refusing to present consent forms to parents before performing metzitzah b’peh — the controversial practice of suctioning blood following circumcision. Then, assistant managing editor Larry Cohler-Esses talks with Josh about the federal program…
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