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News The Real Truth About Santa Claus
I was raised Jewish in a suburb outside Atlanta. Being Jewish in the South during the 1980s and ’90s was such a difficult task. It left me sympathetic to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and how he must have felt while being ostracized and excluded from all the “reindeer games.” I myself was never invited to…
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The Schmooze The Case For (and Against) Watching Christmas Movies
Should Jewish parents let their kids watch Christmas television specials? Maybe, writes Slate senior editor Dahlia Lithwick in a column yesterday. On the one hand, “one needn’t be virulently anti-Christmas to experience the seasonal anxiety felt by parents who want their children to enjoy the winter holidays while avoiding religious indoctrination,” she contends. And characters…
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The Schmooze And the Most Jewish City in America Is…
As Hanukkah celebrations got underway last week, The Daily Beast ranked the 30 most Jewish cities in America. Their results were determined by three per capita factors: Jewish population, number of synagogues and kosher restaurants. As expected, New York claimed the top spot. With a Jewish population of 9.6%, four synagogues per capita and an…
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The Schmooze ‘Wandering’ Jews Head to Church
Some Florida Jews have become regular churchgoers. No, they haven’t converted; the members of tiny Congregation Matah Chaim in coastal Palm Bay have made a local Christian worship hall their temporary base while they raise money for a permanent home, reports Florida Today. Twice a month at the Riviera United Church of Christ, “a projection…
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The Schmooze Dance Dance Revolution, Jew Point 0
A Jewish version of “Dance Dance Revolution” is coming to a shul near you. Just in time for Hanukkah, “Step It Up” is a new game designed for Orthodox Jews who’d prefer to get down to techno versions of Hebrew and Yiddish tunes than to Lady Gaga’s racy lyrics. The game’s inventor, Faigy Grossman, 25,…
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The Schmooze Embracing Judaism in Indonesia
A 62-foot menorah graces a mountaintop. Israeli flags flutter from taxi stands. The local synagogue shines after a government-sponsored renovation. The images don’t immediately bring Indonesia to mind. But a tiny northern outpost in the nation with the world’s largest Muslim population “has become the unlikely setting for increasingly public displays of pro-Jewish sentiments,” reports…
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The Schmooze An Interfaith Thanksgiving Celebration in Pleasantville
In a news year that’s brought us a fundamentalist, Koran-burning Christian preacher, pan-religious outcry against a proposed mosque near Ground Zero and threats of an exclusive Israeli conversion bill, leave it to the New York Times to celebrate the holiday season with a story about ecumenicalism. Deputy Metropolitan Editor Peter Applebome traveled to Pleasantville, N.Y….
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The Schmooze Gay Orthodox Jews Say ‘It Gets Better’
Check out this video, the latest in the “It Gets Better” installments against anti-gay bullying. This one, a collaboration between JQYouth and the The Gay and Lesbian Yeshiva Day School Alumni Association, features gay Orthodox Jews discussing their experiences growing up and telling how life ultimately gets better.
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News Exclusive: ADL chief compares student protesters to ISIS and al-Qaeda in address to Republican officials
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News A Jewish farmer drove 600 miles to rescue a century-old synagogue. Now he’s building a new one in a cornfield.
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Opinion Pete Hegseth is targeting a Jewish American hero — who’s next?
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Opinion The two things I fear most after the horrifying attack on Jews in Boulder
In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish אַ טור פֿון דער אויסשטעלונג „מגילת־אסתּר אין דער רעמבראַנדט־תּקופֿה“ — אויף ייִדיש!A tour of “The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt” exhibit — in Yiddish!
אין דער אויסשטעלונג געפֿינען זיך 120 מאָלערײַען פֿון דער פּורים־העלדין, געמאָלט פֿון די האָלענדישע קונסטמײַסטערס.
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Fast Forward NYC Mayor Adams pushes controversial antisemitism definition as issue dominates mayoral election
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Opinion If Trump is being compared to Hitler, who was Hitler before he was Hitler?
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Culture Aaron Lansky built a home for 1.5 million Yiddish books. Now he’s handing over the keys.
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