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Fast Forward Brooklyn Bridge Gunman Admits Targeting Jews
The gunman who opened fire on a van filled with ultra-Orthodox Jews on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1994 has reportedly finally admitted he wanted to kill Jews. After years of spinning excuses, Rashid Baz told investigators he fired on the van, killing 16-year-old Ari Halberstam, on March 1, 1994 to avenge Israeli actions against the…
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News Orthodox Jews Find Pick in Santorum
While presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is the pick of the Republican Jewish establishment, Rick Santorum enjoys notable support among Orthodox Jews — a phenomenon that could become more visible with the approach of primaries in states that have large Orthodox populations. Romney, the front-runner in the Republican primary race, has raised millions from prominent Republican…
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Opinion Living With the Church-State Tension
Few topics are as fraught and complicated, or as tempting to oversimplify, as the encounter between religion and state. Take Israel. The balance of religion and state seems to be particularly imperiled for a variety of cultural and political reasons. Some Israelis think the problem has to do with an increase in religious commitment itself….
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Opinion Abusing Tikkun Olam
Google “tikkun olam” together with “same-sex marriage,” “global warming” or “abortion,” and you’ll get tens of thousands of hits. Yet in these many, many instances, “tikkun olam” is being invoked by Jewish groups or Jews in two ways that disconnect it from its true meaning. First, the original and entire phrase is “tikkun olam b’malchut…
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Israel News AIPAC Not Just for Jews Anymore
It didn’t take much to notice the changing face of the pro-Israel activist community. A walk through the packed ballroom at the recent American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual conference revealed a crowd more diverse than the stereotypic image of the Jewish lobby. AIPAC is still the prime location for pro-Israel Jewish activism, but an…
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Opinion Six Things South Africans Learned at AIPAC
Being an effective pro-Israel activist in South Africa is no easy feat. We do not yet have a strong American-style “lobbying culture,” which is partially because our democracy is only 18 years old. The historic relationship that existed during the apartheid years between the white minority regime and the Israeli government, and between the Palestine…
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Opinion What Feels so Icky About Those Mormon Baptisms?
Israelism, the idea of a nation or people’s direct descent from one of the ten lost tribes of Israel, or the appropriation of Jewish ideas or texts for use in new belief systems, is not unique to the Mormon faith. At the height of British imperial power in the early twentieth century, notions of a…
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News Anti-Sharia Law Bill Dies in Florida Senate
A Florida bill that would have barred applying Muslim sharia law in family or divorce court matters, has reportedly died in the state Senate. The measure, which experts warned could also impact Jewish divorce issues, was never brought up for a vote in the closing hours of the Senate’s legislative session, according to local reports….
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Opinion Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go
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News What a Mayor Mamdani would mean for New York Jews
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Fast Forward Mamdani tells Colbert — and a national audience — why NYC Jews shouldn’t fear him as mayor
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Opinion Mamdani’s victory is an opportunity for Jews to relearn the art of disagreement
In Case You Missed It
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Music Anyone who tells you that you shouldn’t meet your heroes never met Jill Sobule
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Opinion Can we say Donald Trump’s Middle East nuclear strategy is dangerous — if it isn’t even a strategy?
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Opinion ‘Israel is seen as violent’ — and Israeli chefs, once global culinary icons, are feeling the heat
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Culture As Mel Brooks turns 99, his wisdom matters more than ever
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