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Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Its Conductor, Zubin Mehta, Bask in Bravos and Mazel Tovs
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Its Conductor, Zubin Mehta, Bask in Bravos and Mazel Tovs The American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra concert, held February 22 at Carnegie Hall, was in celebration the 75th anniversary of the IPO and the 50th anniversary of Zubin Mehta as its lifetime conductor. So blown away was composer, pianist…
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Rather Than Defend Obama, J Street Is Now Pushing Him
Shifting sands in the Middle East and new political realities in Washington are forcing J Street to recalibrate its strategy. The dovish Israel lobby, whose supporters gathered recently in Washington for its second national conference, had previously tried to provide political cover for President Obama as he pushed for a speedy resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian…
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Hollywood’s Latest Holocaust Project Splits Survivors’ Heirs
Think “Erin Brockovich” meets “Schindler’s List.” That’s the pitch for a new film in development by Sony Pictures that may star Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock. As improbable as it sounds, the movie will tell a suspenseful story about insurance companies and the Holocaust, an epic battle that led to one of the largest programs of…
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‘Help Us! Help Us! Help Us Now!’
Composer Elizabeth Swados has dramatized tragedy before, but never the fear that rises from the gut when flames are sweeping nearby and escape is far away. In creating the music for the most terrifying moments in an original oratorio for the centennial of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, Swados turned to raw instinct. “I didn’t…
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Did D.C. Editor Lose Her Job Because of Politics?
The editor of the weekly Jewish newspaper of the nation’s capital has been fired following tensions with the paper’s new owners over coverage of the local Jewish federation. Debra Rubin was dismissed from Washington Jewish Week on February 23 and was told that the owners had decided to take the paper “in a different direction.”…
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Extradited to L.A., the Abergils Get Ready To Face the Music
Hayyim Nahman Bialik, Israel’s first national poet, defined Zionism’s aspiration to make the Jews a normal people via statehood: “We will be a normal state only when we have the first Jewish prostitute, the first Hebrew thief, and the first Hebrew policeman.” But in the 21st century, it’s not enough to be a local thief;…
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Former AIPAC Staffer Loses Lawsuit
A long and sometimes ugly legal battle between the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its former employee Steve Rosen has ended with a victory for AIPAC. A Washington, D.C., Superior Court judge effectively threw out Rosen’s $20 million lawsuit against the pro-Israel lobby in which the former staffer alleged AIPAC had defamed him by…
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100 Years Later, Saying Kaddish in a Staten Island Cemetery
In a cold and windswept Staten Island cemetery, four dozen people huddled together to recite Kaddish, the mourner’s prayer, and to mark the 100th yahrzeit of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire’s victims. Twenty-two of the victims were laid to rest in 1911 at the Mount Richmond Cemetery, which is owned by the Hebrew Free Burial…
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Unrest on the Day of Rest: The Halakha of the Middle East Protests
For many weeks, thousands of people have massed in public squares across the Arab world, protesting for democracy. Many of the largest gatherings have occurred on Friday, Islam’s day of public prayer, sometimes stretching past sunset and continuing the following day. The protests have drawn young and old, religious and secular, men and women. But…
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Triangle Factory Employee’s Great-Granddaughter Crafts a Tribute
Like all other mornings, on March 25, 1911, Rose Bernstein had planned to arrive at 245 Greene Street, in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, and begin working. Instead, a sibling fell ill, so she stayed home — thus avoiding the tragic fate of other colleagues who died or were injured in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire later…
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Alan Dershowitz: Above the Assange Fray
Another day, another Jewish conspiracy. And another smear campaign against Julian Assange? Here’s what happened. According to the New York Times, Julian Assange called Ian Hislop, the editor of British magazine Private Eye on Feb. 16 and rambled on and on about a Jewish conspiracy spearheaded by the UK’s Guardian newspaper. The Times reports: He…
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