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News Russia Hate on Rise — But Not Against Jews
Just three weeks before the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, two dozen Russian reporters, photographers and cameramen squeezed into the spartan first-floor office of the Independent Press Center in Moscow, a five-minute walk from the capital’s main Orthodox church, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The journalists were there to see Ilya…
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Opinion Sochi’s Olympic Games Are a Missed Opportunity
An activist wearing a mask of Russian President Vladimir Putin joins protesters on the opening day of the Sochi Winter Olympic Games. / Getty Images As the winter Olympics open today, there has been a crescendo of condemnation in the West of Russia’s many human rights violations. Sadly, in spite of all the attention Vladimir…
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News Sochi Gets Ready To Host Jews With Kosher Food and 3 Synagogues
(JTA) — Soft sand and turquoise beaches make Sochi a lovely holiday destination, but this coastal Russian city is less than ideal for providing religious services to thousands of Jewish tourists. With few native Jews and only one resident rabbi, the Black Sea resort of 400,000 residents would seem ill-equipped to handle the tens of…
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The Schmooze L.A. Shop Displays Holocaust Mannequin
Spotted: A mannequin dressed as a Holocaust victim on display at L.A. Jock in West Hollywood, California. Oy. But there’s more to the striped uniform and yellow star than meets the eye. The display is meant as a symbol of protest ahead of a rally tomorrow against Russian president Vladimir Putin’s anti-gay policies, according to…
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Fast Forward Russian Poklonnaya Hill Synagogue Rented Out for Parties
Several prominent Russian Jews criticized the recreational use of a Russian synagogue that also functions as a Holocaust memorial monument. The criticism regarded the renting out on Jan. 20 of Moscow’s Poklonnaya Hill Memorial Synagogue to the management of Russia’s Bank of Industrial and Investment Settlements, or PIR Bank. The bank’s senior staff celebrated the…
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Culture The Russian (Authors) Are Coming
One thing we know for sure is that 2014 will be a big year for young post-Soviet Jews who write in English. Gary Shteyngart’s forthcoming memoir, which he did not title “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Jewness,” has already called attention to itself with a four-minute video that almost but not quite redeems the genre…
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Fast Forward Russian Immigration to Israel Seen as Success Story
(JTA) — Growing up in the Urals, Pavel Polev was a precocious ice skater and a member of the Soviet Union’s national youth figure-skating team. But in 1992, at age 15, Polev’s life was upended when he joined the massive wave of Jews immigrating to Israel from the crumbling Soviet Union. After serving a mandatory…
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Fast Forward Anti-Semitic Vandals Leave Pig’s Head at Russian Shul
Vandals used a pig’s head to desecrate a synagogue in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar. Representatives of the Jewish community of the city, which is located 600 miles west of Baku, Azerbaijan, found the pig’s head at the entrance to their synagogue on Dec. 20. They believe the perpetrators are also responsible for English-language…
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Opinion Israel deported me for helping West Bank Palestinians. I won’t give up on a peaceful future for the country I love
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Culture Hey, Irving — why are there so many Jews named Irving?
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Culture A shocking true story of Mexico’s Jewish community comes to Netflix
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Books Esteemed by Oscar Wilde, England’s ‘greatest Jewess’ may finally be getting her due
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Germany’s antisemitism czar says slogans like ‘From the river to the sea’ should be illegal
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Fast Forward There’s something missing from John Fetterman’s memoir: Israel
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Looking Forward How a Russian samovar connects me to the old country — and my black market dealing great-great-grandmother
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Fast Forward Mark Mellman, pollster who championed Democrats and Israel, dies
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