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Fast Forward Rabbi Finds 7 Tefillin Sets in Lost-Luggage Store
A Florida rabbi discovered seven pairs of tefillin at a store that sells the contents of unclaimed airline baggage. Rabbi Uri Pilichowski was on vacation with his family when he visited the store in Scottsboro, Ala., looking for cheap cell phones, the New York Daily News reported. The rabbi bought the religious items, worth hundreds…
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Life When Reb Zalman Met the Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama speaks during a visit to Germany. / Getty Images It was, and will always remain, one of the most mysteriously significant experiences of my life. In 1990, eight of us travelled to Dharmsala, India at the invitation of his Holiness the Dalai Lama under the auspices of the Nathan Cummings Foundation. The…
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News Reb Zalman Married Counter Culture to Hasidic Judaism
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, one of the important Jewish innovators in postwar America, inspiration to a generation and ecumenical spiritualist, died on July 3 aged 89. A tireless organizer and spiritual architect, Schachter-Shalomi single-handedly created a new form of Jewish practice and spirituality known as Jewish Renewal, founded on the idea of Gaia consciousness: the notion…
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Fast Forward What Now for Chabad 20 Years After Death of Rebbe?
(JTA) — What does a fervent religious movement do after the death of its singular leader? That was the existential question the Chabad-Lubavitch movement faced 20 years ago this week when its charismatic rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, died with no heir. Amid the grief and turbulence following his 1994 death, many believed Chabad would be…
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Opinion The Perks of Being a Lubavitcher
Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, seen here (at left) in 1993 / Getty Images There’s a hidden perk to being a Lubavitcher, one often not talked about but widely experienced: People like to talk to you. I’ve been called out as a Lubavitcher and brought into impromptu conversations everywhere from a small bridge over the Bled…
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Life First Woman in Her Job, Toronto Rabbi Yael Splansky Has Big Plans
Copyright Mark Blinch The Toronto Star headline seemed almost comically anachronistic: “Holy Blossom Temple official appoints a female as senior rabbi”. But that was the news in Toronto last month as Canada’s largest reform temple named Rabbi Yael Splansky, 43, as its spiritual leader — a first for a major congregation in Canada’s largest city….
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Fast Forward Israel Supreme Court Overturns Ruling Forcing Mother to Circumcise Son
Israel’s Supreme Court has overturned a ruling by a court of rabbis that would have forced a mother to have her son circumcised under the terms her divorce. Circumcision is not legally obligatory for Jews in Israel, but a rabbinical court presiding over the woman’s divorce case had ruled she must fulfill her husband’s wish…
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News Rabbis Return to Florida Civil Rights Battleground as Heroes
(JTA) — For Rabbi Richard Levy, it was an emotional return to this historic northeastern Florida city. The first time Levy came to St. Augustine 50 years ago, he and 15 other rabbis and a Reform Jewish leader endured taunts from segregationists armed with broken bottles and bricks. They were jailed along with other civil…
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News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
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Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
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Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
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Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
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News Who would protect New York Jews better? Cuomo and Lander trade attacks on the campaign trail
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News Rabbis revolt over LGBTQ+ club, exposing fight over queer acceptance at Yeshiva University
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Opinion In Qatargate fiasco, Netanyahu’s ‘witch hunt’ narrative takes cues from Trump
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Yiddish די הגדה ווי אַ לעבעדיקער דענקמאָל פֿון אַשכּנזישער פּאָעזיעThe Haggadah as a living monument to Ashkenazi poetry
אַמאָל זענען די פּייטנים, מיסטישע דיכטער־וויזיאָנערן, געווען אויבן־אָן בײַ די פֿראַנצויזישע און דײַטשישע ייִדן.
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