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Fast Forward Virginia GOP Official Refuses to Apologize for Anti-Semitic Pope Joke
WASHINGTON — A GOP official in Virginia refused to apologize for an anti-Semitic joke, although the party’s candidate for governor called it inappropriate. “I did not tell an anti-Semitic joke,” John Whitbeck, the Republican Party’s chairman in its 10th Congressional District, in northern Virginia, told the Free Beacon on Wednesday. “I told a joke I…
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Books German Literary Critic and Survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, Dies at 93
Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Germany’s best-known literary critic and a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, died on Wednesday aged 93, his publisher said. Reich-Ranicki, a Jew born in Poland in 1920, almost perished at the Nazis’ hands in World War Two but went on to become one of the leading advocates of German literature and culture during…
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Opinion Don’t Ban ‘Y-Word’ From British Soccer
“There is a problem in my country… and this problem is the Jew,” Borat chanted famously. But it may as well be David Baddiel singing. Who is David Baddiel, you ask? He is a mid-table British comedian who has initiated a campaign to expunge what he calls the “Y-word” from British football chants. The Y-word,…
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Life Coming Out of the Orphan Closet
It’s the beginning of another Jewish year, holidays are bookending each week, and death is in the air. Two of the Yizkor prayers — the mourner’s prayer, which is recited on four different holidays throughout the year — are said this month alone. If that weren’t enough to put death on my mind, my father’s…
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Opinion Striking Sukkahs
Happy Sukkot! Starting Wednesday night, we can all look forward to a week of eating (and in some cases, sleeping) outside. Sukkahs come in all shapes and sizes. Some people will cobble something in their backyard, others will use the handy space provided by an outdoor balcony, and still more may see it as a…
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The Schmooze So, Zac Efron Went to Rehab
Apparently, America’s favorite squeaky clean celebrity spent some time in rehab this year. According to E!News, the 25-year-old actor completed treatment roughly five months ago for what was initially thought to be alcohol abuse. But sources told TMZ that Efron, set to star as a frat boy in Seth Rogen’s upcoming film “Neighbors,” was actually…
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News Driver in Yom Kippur Accident That Killed Jewish Mother Had Previous Killer Crash
A Florida driver under investigation for the death of a Jewish woman on her way to Yom Kippur services has a long record of driving infractions — and was behind the wheel during a 2009 crash that killed a 6-year-old girl. Esther Benzohar Ohayon, 57, and her daughter Orly, 16, were crossing a highway intersection…
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Fast Forward Belgium Teachers Urged To Compare Israel to Nazi Germany
A Belgian Education Ministry website offered teachers comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany, a newspaper in Antwerp reported. The comparisons were available until recently on the KlasCement.be website, a major teaching resource offered to teachers in training by the Education Ministry of the Flemish Region, one of three entities that make up the federal Belgian…
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Fast Forward A whites-only, no-Jews community says it’s found a legal loophole. A Jewish lawmaker in Pennsylvania wants to close it.
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Film & TV So, what’s the deal with the honey scene in ‘Marty Supreme?’
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Opinion What if Donald Trump puts his name on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum?
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News Ben Shapiro is mounting a last stand against right-wing antisemitism. It’s not going well.
In Case You Missed It
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Israel News Somaliland already operates as a de facto state. So why is Israel’s recognition of it so controversial?
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Fast Forward Julius Berman, Orthodox rabbi whose influence spanned secular and observant Jewish institutions, dies at 90
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Opinion The case for Jewish optimism in 2026
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Antisemitism Decoded Things are only going to get worse for Jews from here
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