This is the Forward’s coverage of Jerusalem, the holiest city in Judaism and the capital of Israel.
Jerusalem
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Music Israel’s Gender Wars: A Week of Changes
It was small, low-key and the participants numbered in the hundreds, not the thousands. But a crowd of Israeli women took to the streets to speak out — or, more accurately, sing out — against the continuing attacks by religious extremists on women’s right to be seen and heard freely in the public square. The…
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Culture Ezekiel’s Clear and Piercing Point
Reading Avrum’s thoughts on this week’s torah portion, I find it hard to choose what to focus on. I feel intrigued by the invitation to think about God’s ‘color,’ especially God in shades of gray. I feel a need to agree with his open embrace to the various life-bearing options of new families. But like…
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Life We Won’t Sit in the Back of Jerusalem’s Bus
One issue I never quite thought I would experience in 2011 is bus segregation. I am not referring to blacks and whites, because, after all, this is not 1960 in Mississippi. I am referring to the gender segregation of men and women on buses with routes originating from the predominately Orthodox neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo…
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The Schmooze Jerusalem Judge to Jews: Don’t Spit On Christians
Some Christian clergymen in the Old City of Jerusalem have taken matters into their own hands after being spat at by Haredi Jews, and they are finding sympathy among Israeli judges. Last week the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court threw out an indictment against an Armenian seminarian who punched an ultra-Orthodox man who spit on him. Siding…
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News Is Jerusalem Online U. A Real College?
This past summer, Rebecca Abramson found herself a credit short of completing the sophomore-year requirements for her international affairs major at George Washington University, in the nation’s capital. Having returned recently from Israel after participating in a Hasbara Fellowship, a program that trains students to be pro-Israel activists on campus, Abramson was eager to learn…
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Life The Women of Jerusalem Find Their Heads
When Sandy Bar lost her head, many Jerusalem residents decided that enough was enough. The actress and model, who is featured in Israeli fashion company Honigman’s ads for its new winter line, was suddenly reduced to a hand holding a purse. The public could see Bar’s face, framed by her long dark hair and adorned…
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Life Women Disappearing from Jerusalem Ads
As I recently reported, Jerusalem City Councilmember Rachel Azaria lost her job and membership in the governing coalition for having gone to the High Court of Justice to oppose gender segregation in that city and to protect the equal rights of women. An online petition has begun circulating to pressure Mayor Nir Barkat into giving…
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Life Jerusalem’s Mayor Bending to Haredi Pressure?
Israeli blogger Hanna Beit Halachmi asks in the title of her most recent post whether Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat is good for Jewish women. For her the question is rhetorical, as she is outraged as what she perceives as the many signs that Barkat is capitulating to Haredi political pressure, especially when it comes to…
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News Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s selection as JTS commencement speaker roils graduating class
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געוויסע עקספּערטן האַלטן, אַז מע דאַרף באַטראַכטן ל״ג־בעומר ווי אַ פֿרילינגדיקן מײַ־פֿעסטיוואַל
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News ‘Don’t give up on us now’: Israel peace summit convenes thousands to aim for elusive progress
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Fast Forward A GOP lawmaker tried to put a Holocaust denier on New Hampshire’s Holocaust education board