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News Is Controversial Circumcision Ritual Dangerous?
To many, it’s a disgusting ritual. But is it dangerous? For years, New York City health officials have cited scientific evidence that metzitzah b’peh, in which a mohel uses his mouth to suction blood from the circumcision wound, infects babies with the potentially fatal herpes virus. Now, the ultra-Orthodox community claims to have scientific evidence…
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The Schmooze What My Jewish Mom Thinks About Deflate-Gate
Getty Images Most Jewish boys just call their moms. Josh Seftel turned his chats into a web series. Every week, the New York filmmaker Facetimes his mom in Sarasota, Florida. After covering the basics, the conversation always segways into to Pat’s favorite subject: celebrity gossip. Over the past year, they’ve tackled some of the great…
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The Schmooze I.B. Singer’s Wife Alma Dishes About His Women
After a screening of “The Muses of Isaac Bashevis Singer,” I replied to a chutzpedik questioner: “Isaac never hit on me!” A frequent visitor in the 1930s to my parents’ Leszno 6 one-room home in Warsaw when I was toddler, I reconnected with him in New York in the 1960s when he and my father…
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Culture ‘Conversion’ Is Key to Early Education
A new effort underway in Denver, backed by a wide-ranging coalition of Jewish organizations, hopes to use modern marketing techniques to increase enrollment at early childhood education centers and, in the process, lure a new generation of young and sometimes leery families back into Jewish life. The goals of the $810,000 initiative, led by the…
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The Schmooze Bacon Scratch-and-Sniff Lottery Tickets Are Here!
Thinkstock What’s better than winning $1,000? Winning $1,000 while smelling bacon. At least, that’s what New Hampshire wants you to think. According to The New York Post, the state lottery has launched a special “scratch and sniff ‘I Heart Bacon’ ticket” this month. Players “will think it’s time for Saturday morning breakfast,” Lottery Commission Executive…
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The Schmooze PHOTOS: Capturing a 1970s Borscht Belt Singles’ Weekend
Born and raised in New York, my mother, Rani Stevens Goodman, grew up going to the Catskill Mountains every weekend from the time she was still in the womb until her mid-twenties. For the uninitiated, The Catskills, which include Sullivan, Orange, and Ulster Counties in upstate New York, was once known as The Borscht Belt,…
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The Schmooze Barbra Streisand is #1 at Everything
We’ve always known that our Barbra is the greatest; so great that we don’t even need to use her last name. But did you know that she is literally number one at everything? This week, Columbia Records sent out a press release announcing that her latest album “Partners,” which was released in September, has been…
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Opinion 4 Ways SOTU Was Good for the Jews
Getty Images Yesterday’s State of the Union address was a success for Obama. From ending the war in Afghanistan and helping to revive the economy, the president touted his accomplishments. The same accomplishments his fellow party members were reluctant to use to their advantage in the last elections. So many stood up and applauded as…
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Opinion Outrage over Nicholas Kristof’s op-ed on sexual assault of Palestinians is missing the point
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Culture At Eurovision, Israel’s near triumph shows the limits of tolerance
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Opinion I run The Jewish Theological Seminary. Here’s the real story about President Isaac Herzog speaking at our commencement
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Opinion The profound internal contradiction that could spell doom for Hillel
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Hundreds of Jewish leaders call on Israeli ambassador to apologize for attack on J Street
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Culture Despite what (Ashkenazi) tradition says, not everyone eats dairy on Shavuot
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News ‘It’s the Jews’: San Diego mosque shooters decried ‘the universal enemy’ in hate-filled manifesto
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News Rep. Dan Goldman urges ‘no’ vote on proposed grocery Israel boycott, warning of antisemitism