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News Jews Held Abroad Win Very Different Reactions at Home
In Brooklyn, on December 16, a Jewish family celebrated the return of its loved one from an overseas prison. Jacob Ostreicher, an ultra-Orthodox businessman imprisoned in Bolivia for two and a half years, managed to escape his house arrest there and returned to the United States. In Florida, another family of a Jewish man in…
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Fast Forward Benjamin Netanyahu’s ‘Jewish’ Christmas Message Gaffe
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his holiday blessings to the Christian citizens of Israel on Tuesday, in which he stressed the importance of the community’s contribution to the Israel Defense Forces – accidentally stopping just short of uttering the word “Jewish” state. The video, released in Hebrew on the prime minister’s official channel, was widely…
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Opinion Shunning Christmas Is Bad Choice for Jews in Heartland
Sarah Seltzer takes aim at Jews who choose to embrace a number of “Christian” traditions. Her guidance is simple: “No trees, no wreaths, no carols, no cookies — unless, of course, they’re fortune cookies.” As a firmly rooted Jew, I took offence to Seltzer’s, and I worry about what they imply. It seems that for…
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Fast Forward Christmas Comes to Holy Land
Thousands of tourists and Christian pilgrims gathered in Bethlehem for Christmas Eve. Many will attend midnight mass at the Church of the Nativity, where the patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Fouad Twal, will deliver a sermon. Twal is expected to condemn Israeli settlement during the sermon, which reportedly will be attended by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud…
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Life A Family Leave Policy That Works
Good news for families everywhere, no matter how much the moms and dads are leaning in. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) just introduced a Senate bill that would create a national paid family leave policy. The legislation, called the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, or FAMILY Act, would provide up…
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Life I Will Never Love Christmas
Every year around Christmas, I see a schism among Jews. There are those of us with Christmas envy who want to join in and embrace it, and then there are those like me, the Scrooges. The ones who say, “Hey guys, this holiday celebrates the birth of Jesus. Not my messiah. Not my religion. Not…
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The Schmooze Ben and Jerry’s Excellent Holy Land Adventure
The Christmas-release underdog this year — in the ring with “American Hustle” and “Wolf of Wall Street” — is “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” in which Ben Stiller plays a man with a vivid imagination who embarks on the adventure of a lifetime. In an interview with Parade to promote the movie, Stiller dished about a…
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The Schmooze Lizzy Caplan Imitates Memes Like a Pro
If you thought Lizzy Caplan’s magical transformation from Janis Ian in “Mean Girls” to her current role as Virginia Johnson in “Masters of Sex” showed major acting chops, you haven’t seen the best of it. The 31-year-old was interviewed by Paul F. Tompkin’s for his “Speakeasy” web series, where the comedian asked her to recreate…
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Culture Inside the ancient Christian theology driving modern antisemitism
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News Jews paused Indiana’s abortion ban — by turning a religious freedom law against the evangelical right
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Opinion The moral degradation of Israel’s far right is even worse than you think
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News Mamdani voices concerns about synagogue buffer zone bill poised to pass NYC Council
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Fast Forward Seder under sirens: Israelis mark Passover in the shadow of war with Iran
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Culture Israel closed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and set off a Holy Week firestorm
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Opinion The stories of Passover and Pittsburgh share a common humanity
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News Seder subway stunt rolls Passover out in public — but watch that matzo ball soup
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