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Books
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Life Why You Should Sneak-Read In Shul This Yom Kippur
My journey, both personally and professionally, in Orthodox and non-Orthodox circles alike, has introduced me to a surprising divide, one that does not map neatly onto the denominational divide but evokes diverging passions that grow more animated as one moves from right to left. Namely: The practice of reading in shul. Every year I try…
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Life The Rebbetzin’s Guide: What To Bring Your Host For Rosh Hashanah
So you’re invited out for a Rosh Hashanah meal — and you’re stuck as to what to bring? We’ve got you covered. For The Gourmand We’re itching for a copy of celebrity Israeli chef Yotam Ottolenghi’s Sweet (his publisher should have timed the release better, with the chief holiday of sweets upon us now), but…
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Life In Leaving Orthodoxy, Tova Mirvis Voices Questions Many Secretly Harbor
I was not raised in modern Orthodoxy; I married into it. And as I read Tova Mirvis’ memoir, The Book of Separation, it often felt as though I was reading my own misgivings and hesitations. Her book opens with a chronicling of her first Rosh Hashanah, after leaving her marriage and Orthodox Judaism. Mirvis grew…
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Culture In Praise of Giving Offense: A Review Of Eli Valley’s Diaspora Boy
There’s a concept in the early Zionist writings that still haunts contemporary Jewish life. It’s the belief that the Diaspora Jew is an outmoded kind of Jew. Weak and effeminate from too much studying, he is submissive and abject, always apologizing to the gentiles who hate him. As opposed to this Diaspora Jew, the early…
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Food I’m Black, Jewish And Gay — And Food Is My Weapon Against Bigotry
I am going back to the mountaintop. In three weeks, I will return to Charlottesville, Virginia. It is not because last Saturday it became the site of an American pogrom. Last weekend dozens of people were injured during violence sparked by the Unite the Right rally and counter-protests. Two law enforcement officers were killed in…
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Fast Forward German Project Reunites Books Stolen During Holocaust With Rightful Heirs
BERLIN (JTA) — A new search in Germany for books stolen from Jews during the Third Reich is beginning to bear fruit. Recently, a man in California who was the only survivor of the Holocaust in his family received a book from Germany that had been dedicated to him by a teacher. The only other…
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Fast Forward Milo Yiannapoulos Hires Dwarfs Wearing Yarmulkes To Mock Rival
Disgraced ‘alt-right’ provocateur Milo Yiannapoulos hired dwarfs wearing yarmulkes to perform at a New York book launch party as part of an elaborate stunt to mock an observant Jewish rival. Yiannapoulos used the dwarfs to ridicule Ben Shapiro, the editor of the conservative website The Daily Wire, at a Thursday night shindig for his new…
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Fast Forward In The Age Of Trump, Hannah Arendt’s 66-Year-Old Philosophy Tome Is Selling Bigly
In 1951, the Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt published “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” her 600-page twin study of Nazism and Stalinism. The book received rave reviews; Norman Podhoretz, the Jewish New York intellectual, compared it to an epic poem. Then, 66 years later, in December of last year, Arendt’s book began selling at 16 times its…
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Fast Forward ‘Rabbi rebellion’: 33 Orthodox rabbis endorse Harris
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Opinion Almost all voting groups shifted toward Trump, except American Jews. Why?
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Opinion I was a Bernie supporter. This year, I’m voting Trump. Here’s why liberal Jews like me made the switch
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Opinion Here’s why Orthodox Jews are loyal to Trump — even if they don’t love him
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Yiddish World Violinist Deborah Strauss wins 2024 ‘Dreaming in Yiddish Award’
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