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Community Why I Call Out Israel’s Mistreatment Of Palestinians More Than Syria’s
Yesterday, a right-wing Zionist Twitter personality directed the following question at me and some others: 1000s of Palestinians killed, tortured, jailed in Assad’s Syria. Why the silence of many pro-Palestinian voices? Could it be that #Israel isn’t involved? Do these folks truly care about Palestinian welfare? Or are they just cynically using Palestinians as a…
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Fast Forward ‘Officially A Member Of The Family’: Paul Ryan Is Excited To Be A Jew
House Speaker Paul Ryan is embracing his newfound Jewish roots. Ryan, a practicing Catholic, learned he’s 3% Ashkenazi Jewish during the filming of an upcoming season of PBS’s “Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr,” The Washington Post reported Wednesday. “You could have knocked him over with a feather and then he was very…
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Fast Forward Paul Ryan Is Part-Jewish — But Some Jews Wish He Wasn’t
House Speaker Paul Ryan, a practicing Catholic, recently learned he’s 3% Jewish — to the chagrin of much of the tribe. His family history — which includes the revelation that he’s 3% Ashkenazi Jewish, with eastern European roots — was revealed during the filming of an upcoming season of PBS’s “Finding Your Roots With Henry…
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Letters Israel Was Right To Define Itself As A Jewish State
Dear Editor, I must, with respect, differ from my friend Alan Dowty, who argued against defining Israel as a Jewish State. While I strongly disagree with much of the recently Knesset-passed Nation-State Bill, especially its denigration of the role of the Arabic language in Israel and its claim that a united Jerusalem is the capital…
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Opinion I’m A British Jew. Jeremy Corbyn Is Not A Threat To Us.
Last week, the three Jewish newspapers in Britain made a point of publishing the same front page editorial to highlight the “existential threat to Jewish life” that a Jeremy Corbyn-led government would pose to British Jews. I am a life-long Labour supporter, a 52-year-old British Jew, born and bred in the outer suburbs of London…
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Life What You’re Getting Wrong About Abortion And Judaism
The nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court has brought to the fore the question of his attitudes toward abortion and the possibility of overturning Roe v. Wade, a key Supreme Court decision on this issue. Predictably, opposition to Kavanaugh aligns with a “pro-choice” position and with Democratic partisanship, whereas support for Kavanaugh…
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Community Israel Is Normalizing Gender Segregation
It had been 50 years since I last traveled to Israel. Much has changed in the start-up nation, including real toilets, delicious and plentiful food, new archaeological excavations and high-tech innovation. There have also been changes for Israeli women — though not all for the better. I recently joined a group of 60 Jewish women…
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Opinion Jeremy Corbyn Purports To Defend Minorities. What About Jews?
Since Jews are so notoriously argumentative and Jewish communities notoriously fractious, the joke is that for every two Jews you need three synagogues. So a unified statement from a community citing an “existential threat” to Jewish life in a Western democracy is really news. Even in Britain, a community once noted for its surprising unity…
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Fast Forward ‘Rabbi rebellion’: 33 Orthodox rabbis endorse Harris
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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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FIRST PERSON As a rabbi, he helped others mourn. So why wouldn’t his daughter say kaddish for him?
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Many Israelis are celebrating Trump’s win, seeing him as more likely to back their country
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Fast Forward Eugene Vindman, whose Jewish immigrant story played a role in Trump’s impeachment, elected to Congress
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Fast Forward Anxiety, concern and hope: How swing-state rabbis, and their communities, are reacting to Trump’s win
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News For some Orthodox Jews, joy and a little schadenfreude as their candidate reclaims the White House
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