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Culture Redemption of the First Shorn
Forward reader Susan Rogol writes: “I receive many invitations to the ceremony of cutting the hair of a boy who has reached the age of 3, and I do not understand why it is referred to as an ‘upsherenish’ rather than an ‘upsheren.’ I always associate the Yiddish suffix “-nish” with something negative, as in…
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Opinion A Jewish Summer Camp That Doesn’t Feel Like One
‘Please can we go to this camp?” my older son asked me after a parlor meeting in my town with the director of an overnight camp. “I really want to go!” my younger son said. I wasn’t ready for this. Sure, one could argue that when you go to a parlor meeting about an overnight…
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News Jewish Big Easy’s Back — In Time for Super Bowl
The Jewish Big Easy is back — and the Super Bowl proves it. New Orleans Jews are eagerly trumpeting Super Bowl XLVII as a means to showcase their rebuilt community, almost seven and a half years after it suffered a devastating drop in population following Hurricane Katrina. “We were impacted by Katrina just like everyone…
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Fast Forward Venezuela’s Secret Service Is Spying on the Country’s Jewish Community
Venezuela’s secret service SEBIN is spying on the country’s Jewish community, according to purportedly leaked documents recently posted online. Last week Analisis24, a right-leaning Argentinean news website, released 50 documents attributed to the Venezuelan intelligence agency containing private information on prominent Venezuelan Jews, local Jewish organizations and Israeli diplomats in Latin America. The papers include…
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Opinion 4 Jewish Things at the Chuck Hagel Hearing
Chuck Hagel will step into the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday morning to face what is expected to be the toughest grilling any Obama nomination has yet to encounter. It will be long, grueling, and could easily draw some sweat from the Vietnam veteran sitting across the room from his former Senate colleagues. But at…
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Fast Forward Jewish Groups Back Obama on Immigration Reform
Jewish organizations praised President Obama’s immigration reform proposals, as well as similar measures offered by a bipartisan group of U.S. senators. In addressing the problem of the 11 million undocumented people in the United States, Obama at a speech Tuesday in Las Vegas stressed the need to enforce current laws and create a path to…
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Fast Forward Gabby Giffords Makes Emotional Plea to Congress To Curb Gun Violence
Former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, grievously wounded in a 2011 mass shooting, made an emotional plea on Wednesday for Congress to take action to curb gun violence in the aftermath of last month’s Connecticut school massacre, urging lawmakers to “be bold, be courageous.” Wearing a red outfit and speaking haltingly, Giffords appeared as the first person…
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Fast Forward Hasidic Modesty Patrols Enforce Jewish Law in Orthodox Neighborhoods
One of the most striking ironies of the Nechemya Weberman trial, which ended with his conviction on 59 counts of sexual abuse, was the revelation that the unlicensed therapist was a member of the Va’ad Hatznius, or modesty patrol, the self-appointed arbiters of right and wrong in the Satmar community. Until recently, the Va’ad Hatznius…
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Holy Ground A Jewish farmer broke ground on a synagogue in an Illinois cornfield. His neighbors showed up to help.
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Opinion I discovered anti-Zionism at the University of Michigan. I’m glad it lives on there
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Culture An Israeli genocide scholar looks to Israel’s history to understand ‘what went wrong’
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Opinion An alarming new battleground in campus fights over Israel
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Alleging conflicts, California judge boots Jewish DA from trying Stanford pro-Palestinian protesters
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Fast Forward Israel bars YouTuber Tyler Oliveira from entering country, citing ‘harassment of Jews’ on social media
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News Hochul makes play for Orthodox voters with tuition relief and synagogue buffer zones
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News Middlebury College Hillel votes to rebrand, distancing from parent group on Israel