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Opinion The Lessons of Jewish Pluralism
The assertiveness of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox religious authorities over the country’s social life — and particularly over the role of women in the public square — has generated headlines and condemnation on the part of friends of Israel and, gleefully, from the country’s antagonists and enemies. These developments, and the potentially disastrous ever increasing growth in…
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News Titan of the Sea Meets Its Match
Nearly a century after the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the stories about how those aboard fared during the ship’s final hours remain as fresh today as they were on the fateful night of April 14, 1912. The luxury ocean liner, helmed by Capt. Edward Smith, was carrying the fabulously wealthy and the steerage poor…
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News Chabad ‘Likes’ Facebook, But Not for Girls
An Orthodox girls school’s recent decision to fine students $100 for using Facebook made national headlines. But there was nary a mention of the story on the popular Chabad website. And the news was nowhere to be found on the Facebook page or Twitter feed of Chabad-Lubavitch, the Hasidic sect with which the school, Beth…
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News Jews Stream Back to Germany
For decades after the Holocaust, many Jews harbored an almost instinctive aversion to things German. But today, tens of thousands of Israelis, Jews from the former Soviet Union and even many American Jews are actively choosing German citizenship. Sound unreal? It’s today’s reality. According to a study by Dr. Sima Salzberg of Bar-Ilan University, 100,000…
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News Food Pantries Swell at Passover
Rebecca speaks four languages and has four degrees. She also has four children, no job and a house that is about to slip into foreclosure. “I could be on the street soon, with four kids,” said Rebecca, a 44-year-old divorcée, as she loaded two bags of Passover food into a friend’s car outside a pop-up…
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Opinion Poll: 81% of Jews Back Gay Marriage
It isn’t news that American Jews overwhelmingly support legalizing gay marriage. But a new survey out today puts that level of support at 81%, a few notches higher than previous polls. An older survey conducted last May by the same polling group, the Public Religion Research Institute, pegged American Jewish support for same-sex marriage at…
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Culture Jewish Gangsters Get Their Day at Museum
In the mid-20th century, a cadre of tough Jews, shedding the bookish bearing of exile, went forth to create a new society in a forbidding desert. Armed to the teeth, they lived outside the law and built their outpost by any means necessary. Against all odds, despite implacable enemies, the desert bloomed. Think you already…
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Culture Rewriting ‘Hatikvah’ as Anthem for All
Back in 1998, I wrote a column about “Hatikvah.” It was occasioned by a European Cup soccer game between Israel and Austria, before which, as usual on such occasions, the national anthems of both countries were played. When the band struck up the Israeli anthem, the whole Israeli team joined in singing it except for…
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Opinion The staggering hypocrisy behind Trump’s deal to free the last living American hostage
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Fast Forward Russell Brand defends Ye’s ‘Heil Hitler’ music video
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