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Opinion Hasidic boys like mine don’t receive the education they deserve
In September 2019, almost 1,000 days ago, I filed a complaint with New York City and Yeshiva Mesivta Arugath Habosem, alleging that my youngest son, who was 6 years old at the time, was not receiving a secular education as required by NYS law. The New York Supreme Court this past week finally confirmed what…
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Opinion I’m a Jewish gay man who resisted apartheid. LGBTQ rights in the U.S. are slipping away from us.
Last month, the world lost a transformational giant in the LGBTQ rights movement. Urvashi Vaid was a pioneering social justice activist, attorney and award-winning author. She was also one of my great human rights teachers. Urvashi was bold, unflinching and driven. She introduced questions of race, nationality and ethnicity into the LGBTQ space in the…
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Opinion Putin is no match for my Jewish Ukrainian babushka
When I was in the fourth grade, I came home from school one afternoon to find my babushka’s warm cheese blintzes waiting for me on the kitchen table, but my babushka was nowhere in sight. Instead, my grandma, Hannah, had gone to see our neighbor Avi, a former special-ops officer in the Israeli Defense Forces,…
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Opinion What will it take for Orthodox Judaism to hold sexual abusers accountable?
I’m a survivor of abuse in the Haredi community and the director of a survivor advocacy organization. Seeing the results of investigations taking place in various religious denominations feels a lot like being an “older single” at a wedding. You sit there wondering if it will ever happen for you while well-meaning friends and relatives…
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New York Voices Where have all the hanging ducks gone?
I’ve always thought there is nothing better than eating Chinese food in China. But if you can’t get there, and you want superb Chinese cuisine, there’s always Flushing, Queens, New York. Within a mile radius of its center you can find restaurants replicating all of the exciting dishes I ever tasted in China. The streets…
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New York Voices 99 years ago, she was born on the Lower East Side (and she still remembers everything)
I’m not positive why I asked my Aunt Paula what she thought about Don Rickles and Nikita Khrushchev. I guess because Rickles and Khrushchev looked alike. To backtrack (easy to do when an article is three sentences in), I’d asked my auntie, who just turned 99, permission to publish a story of her (mostly) 20th-century…
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Opinion Jewish, Asian and taking over Broadway: meet the next great musical star-in-the-making
“‘Wait, you’re Jewish? Oh!’” Zachary Noah Piser leaned forward, his eyebrows raised and hand to his chest in a mock depiction of the surprised reaction he gets when he tells people he is a member of the tribe. A gifted actor, Piser is the first Asian-American to take the lead role of Evan in “Dear…
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New York Voices In a new exhibit on Eldridge Street, an artist dreams of kosher hot dogs
In a new exhibit at the Museum at Eldridge Street, “Steve Marcus: Top Dog of Kosher Pop Art,” the artist shows off a series of new drawings which revel in the history of the kosher hot dog, a handheld treat with deep roots in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side. You may chuckle at the…
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Theater Billy Crystal’s fake Yiddish was a Jewish standout at the Tonys — but how should Jews feel about it?
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News ‘Whose religious freedom?’: Scenes from a Jewish rally for abortion rights
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Culture On Bob Dylan’s 81st birthday, his 10 most Jewish songs
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New York Voices 99 years ago, she was born on the Lower East Side (and she still remembers everything)
In Case You Missed It
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Culture Meet the mind behind the hilarious mashups of Hasidic dance and hip-hop
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Fast Forward A silver lining of Israel’s political turmoil: Naftali Bennett’s neighbors can finally get their driveways back
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Music Folk dance is a national pastime in Taiwan. Israeli songs are a big part of the tradition.
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Fast Forward Lennie Rosenbluth, forefather to North Carolina hoops legends, dead at 89