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Life Why Are We Afraid of Being Too Religious?
Recently, I have been thinking a lot about what makes some people uncomfortable with varying degrees of belief within their own religion. Certainly even within the Russian-Jewish community, there are misunderstandings about what Jews of a stronger religious lifestyle represent. I wanted to know what creates a divide between being Jewish by blood and stringently…
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Life Iran Must Be Taken Seriously
The past few weeks have been filled with events that pushed the limits of diplomacy with the Islamic Republic of Iran, including attacks on Israeli diplomats in Georgia, India and Thailand. No one was killed in any of the attacks, but the secretive operations point to the tension between Iran and Israel. Another bomb plot…
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Life Russia and the Jewish Penicillin
For some American children, the world loses its natural order when they find out that Santa Claus isn’t real or when the tooth fairy is revealed to be their very own large, mustachioed father creeping toward their bed with a dollar bill in his hand, while quietly trying to avoid stepping on Barbie. While I’ve…
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Life My Russian Girl Problems
Russian Jewish girl problems: We have many problems that American Jewish girls just don’t understand — so many, that there’s even a website devoted to them. There are the health ones: “If you sit on something cold, you risk infertility!” If you are Eastern European, your mom yelled at you every time you sat on…
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Life You’re Majoring in What?!
In an earlier post I touched upon the subject of education, writing that Russian Jews of a certain age often view college as a pressure cooker for liberal propaganda. I find that, in addition to this one-sided view, many Russian Jews both old and young approach the term “liberal arts” with general skepticism, if not…
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Life Valentine’s Day and the Coolness Factor
Valentine’s Day is a holiday sometimes tinged with controversy along the secular-religious American Jewish divide. Many people are familiar with the conundrum: should we as Jews celebrate a holiday that has its roots in a Roman priest trying to celebrate Christianity in light of adversity? The holiday has also caused a lot of angst in…
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News Russian Jews Organize Against Iran
Sitting at the head of an expansive boardroom table at the luxury Setai hotel in Manhattan, Alexander Levin ponders the 300-square-foot room in Odessa, Ukraine, where he was raised. It is January 23, two days before Levin will address up to 600 guests at the United Nations in a ceremony organized by the Ukrainian and…
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Opinion The Losers in Russia’s Adoption Ban
I used to see them fairly often in airports, nicer hotels or restaurants. Living in Eastern Europe, first as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine and later working for a non-profit in Russia, I’d become adept at spotting other Americans in public. I sized them up, taking into account the color and style of their…
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News A pioneering Reform synagogue makes way for a booming Iranian Jewish community
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News Hampshire College closure reverberates for alumni who treasured a Yiddishist hub
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Opinion Who’s responsible for deadly antisemitism? Everyone will hate the answer
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Opinion Epstein and Iran are an antisemitism mega-crisis. Here’s what Jewish organizations should do about it.
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