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Demjanjuk’s Long Road to Justice Nears a Murky End
The day I arrive in Munich is dismal and gray. One of the jewels in Germany’s crown, the Bavarian capital does not impress on a day like this. Rather, the Glockenspiel at Marienplatz, and the elegant shopping boulevard Maximilianstrasse seem dull and lifeless. Inside, the beer halls are bustling. No wonder — they are the…
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Federations Find Youth Outreach Tricky Terrain at Yearly Meeting
At this year’s General Assembly of The Jewish Federations of North America, young Jews took to the streets of New Orleans to work on social service projects. They heard Jewish leaders exhort them about the dangers of the “delegitimization” of Israel. And some young Jews were ejected from the gathering when they stood up in…
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Robert Putnam Assays Religious Tolerance From a Unique Angle
Robert D. Putnam is one of those Harvard University professors respected for his scholarly research and celebrated for the masterful way he connects it to the narrative of modern life. When he wrote that Americans were “bowling alone” — and therefore no longer building up “social capital,” the trust, informal networks and energetic communities necessary…
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‘Social Suitability’ Nears OK As Israeli Housing Criterion
Israel is poised to enshrine in law the right of some villages to handpick residents, following the advance of legislation that some decry as carte blanche for ethnic discrimination. The Knesset Law Committee has approved a bill that protects the right of communal villages of 500 or fewer families to select residents by using the…
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Jewish Congressman Loses Florida Seat to Hard-Line, Pro-Israel Republican
For a Jewish Democratic congressman who has been a staunch ally of Israel, it was a troubling sign. A few days before the Republican tsunami crashed ashore in South Florida’s coastal Congressional District 22, the National Jewish Democratic Council felt the need to buy newspaper advertisements on consecutive days, reassuring Jewish voters that Rep. Ron…
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A Shliach Is Born: Chabad Conference Prepares New Generation of ‘Rebbe’s Army’
The rebbe loomed large. His face looked down on the crowd from the oversize television screens around the room, and his voice boomed. He sang a traditional Hasidic chant. In rhythmic unison, 4,000 of his rabbis repeated the melody. They were sitting in a Brooklyn banquet hall, one of the largest rooms in New York’s…
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The ‘Missing Males’ of Liberal Judaism
After attending Jewish overnight camp for five summers and graduating from eighth grade at a Jewish day school, Caleb Bloomfield was ready for a break. The 18-year-old Brooklynite, now a public high school senior at The Beacon School, in Manhattan, wasn’t interested in going to his Conservative synagogue’s Hebrew high school program, or services, or…
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Women Who Write Torah
Nearly a decade ago, when the Kadima Reconstructionist Community, in Seattle, was looking for a Torah to purchase for its congregation, it decided to have one written by a woman. This seemed like a reasonable request to the members of the small congregation, who knew female rabbis, female cantors, even female mohels. Women around them…
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Yid Lit: Adam Levin
In this week’s Yid Lit, debut author Adam Levin discusses his novel “The Instructions.” The story follows a 10-year-old scholar and weapons expert with a messiah complex who gets kicked out of two yeshivas then stages a coup with a band of Israelites in his secular school after his identity is questioned and he falls…
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J Street and Republican Jewish Coalition Clash Over Their Own Influence on the Elections
Republicans and Democrats may be done with their electoral battle, but the fight between their Jewish surrogates is just beginning. It is a struggle not only about the Jewish narrative of the 2010 Republican earthquake, but also a fight to prove each side’s raison d’être. The Republican Jewish Coalition, which has spent millions on campaign…
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Jewish Voice for Peace Activists Interrupt Bibi at GA
Benjamin Netanyahu was interrupted five times by protesters who shouted and held up signs while the Israeli prime minister was delivering an address on Monday to the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America. The protesters shouted “the loyalty oaths delegitimize Israel” and “the occupation delegitimizes Israel” while being escorted from the room….
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