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News The Mirror in the Mikveh
Ellie Goldenberg and Emily Blum are getting ready to immerse for the first time in the mikveh, or Jewish ritual bath. One might assume that Ellie and Emily are soon-to-be brides; in traditional communities, women immerse in the mikveh for the first time before they are wed. But they’re not — Ellie is an 11-year-old…
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Fast Forward Rabbis Demand End of Boy Scouts Gay Ban
More than 500 rabbis and cantors urged the Boy Scouts of America to drop its ban on homosexual members when the youth group’s National Council convenes in Dallas this week. Representatives of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements signed the letter, which was coordinated by the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism and sent to…
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Opinion News Quiz: Babs’s Honor, Israel’s Unlikely Ally
What do Mel Gibson, Joyce Brothers, Barbra Streisand and Stephen Hawking have in common? Almost nothing! And yet, here they are, all together in this week’s news quiz, along with Isabella Rossellini, Anthony Weiner and the Zionist Organization of America. It’s got all the makings of a terrible movie — but a great quiz!
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Fast Forward Israel Warns of Attack if Syria Regime Falls
Israel is prepared to attack Syria to prevent advanced weapons reaching jihadi rebels or Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon if President Bashar al-Assad is toppled, Israel’s air force chief said on Wednesday. Major-General Amir Eshel also said Israelis should brace for a protracted and painful conflict should their forces engage in combat with Hezbollah or its…
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Fast Forward Eric Garcetti Declared First Jewish Mayor of Los Angeles
Los Angeles Councilman Eric Garcetti has been elected mayor of the United States’ second-largest city after defeating his rival by a margin of 8 points, according to preliminary results. Garcetti, who becomes the first Jewish mayor of Los Angeles, won 53.9 percent of the vote on Tuesday to defeat City Controller Wendy Greuel who garnered…
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Opinion Does Anthony Weiner Have a Chance?
Anthony Weiner’s entry into the New York City mayoral contest further crowds a packed Democratic primary field and gives the race its first major Jewish candidate. The disgraced ex-lawmaker, who resigned from Congress in 2011 after he sent racy pictures of himself to women online, announced his comeback candidacy in a YouTube video posted late…
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Opinion Hugo Chavez Protege Insists He’s a Jew
You can’t call me an anti-Semite. My grandparents were Jewish. That’s the message from newly elected Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, who rejected charges of anti-Semitism by revealing his Jewish roots in an interview with pro-government news site Apporea. But even if the Venezuelan president is a member of the tribe, some observers are questioning his…
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Fast Forward Low-Cost Airline Mulls Israel-to-Auschwitz Flight
The low-cost airline Ryanair announced it was considering flying a route from Tel Aviv to Krakow, the southern Polish city situated near the former Auschwitz death camp. The announcement Monday came one month after Israel’s government decided to allow new flights to Europe. “It seems that every Israeli child has to go to Poland to…
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News That whites-only, no Jews allowed Arkansas community is legal, says state’s attorney general. How?
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Opinion As an Israeli political scientist, I resisted thinking this war was a genocide. Here’s what changed my mind
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News In a first, Orthodox rabbinical school ordains an out gay rabbi
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Fast Forward From Shabbat dinners to ‘Talmudic discourse’: Jewish women killed in NYC shooting leave legacies of faith and family
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward What does the Star of David represent? A new ruling offers a legal answer
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BINTEL BRIEF I prepare bodies as part of my synagogue’s burial society, but I’m an anti-Zionist. Is that OK?
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Books Amid the terror of war in Ukraine, a stirring debut novel demonstrates the power of love and art
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Opinion Hamas should release all the hostages. But it’s foolish to think that would end the war
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