This is the Forward’s coverage of the United Kingdom and British Jews.
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Culture Jonathan Sacks Offers Strident Defense of Faith
The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning By Jonathan Sacks Doubleday, 384 pages, $28.95 Jonathan Sacks, whose long tenure as chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth expires in March, when he turns 65, has for decades been an inspiration to many Modern Orthodox Jews, who…
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Fast Forward Amy Winehouse Drank Self to Death: Inquest
Grammy Award-winning singer Amy Winehouse died of consuming too much alcohol, a second inquest into her death confirmed. Results of the second inquest provided Tuesday by the coroner, Dr. Shirley Radcliffe, matched those of the original in October 2011. The second inquest was required because the deputy coroner in the first investigation lacked the required…
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Fast Forward 48,000 Want Piers Morgan Deported Over Guns
More than 48,000 people have signed a petition that they posted on the White House website demanding that British CNN talk show host Piers Morgan be deported over comments he made on air about gun control. Morgan last week lambasted pro-gun guests on his show, after the Dec. 14 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary…
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News For Ephraim Mirvis, Big Shoes to Fill
Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has big shoes to fill. Appointed this week as the 11th British chief rabbi, he will succeed Jonathan Sacks, an internationally renowned author and public intellectual who speaks frequently on moral, philosophical and theological affairs. The widespread assumption among British Jews has long been that a Mirvis chief rabbinate would be quite…
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Opinion Hail to the Chief (Rabbi)
As soon as I heard the name of Great Britain’s newly named chief rabbi, I knew it sounded familiar. I met Ephraim Mirvis back in 1986, when I was a foreign correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer based in London, and he was the relatively new chief rabbi of Ireland. I was young for my job….
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Opinion Greek and Latin, Yes. Hebrew, No.
Ancient Greek and Latin, yes. Hebrew, no. That’s the headline from a new British government proposal that excludes Hebrew from plans to encourage primary school children to learn a second language. The plan, which remains under discussion and would come into effect in September 2014 if implemented, would mandate that pupils aged 7 to 11…
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Fast Forward British Nix Hebrew From Foreign Language Options
The British government reportedly is planning to exclude Hebrew from a list of recognized foreign languages in the national education system. Board of Deputies of British Jews warned last week that the exclusion of Hebrew could damage Jewish education in the country, the Jewish Chronicle reported. Education Minister Elizabeth Truss announced plans last month to…
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Opinion Pushing for Gay Marriage Across the Pond
British Prime Minister David Cameron is setting himself up for a most almighty clash with the British religious establishment this week, as he prepares to amend the laws on marriage. The leaders of all three main parties support government plans to afford same-sex couples the right to civil marriage, plus permission to wed in churches…
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News ‘It’s the Jews’: San Diego mosque shooters decried ‘the universal enemy’ in hate-filled manifesto
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Music For Bob Dylan’s 85th birthday, an 85-minute playlist
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Opinion Netanyahu is facing electoral catastrophe — and could place Israel in existential peril
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Culture Proposal to ban Israeli products roils a Brooklyn members-only grocery
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Yiddish World Why children in Rio de Janeiro are singing in Yiddish
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Fast Forward Massive fire breaks out at kosher supermarket in London’s Golders Green
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Books Reading a Pakistani author’s 30-year-old novel helped me understand my parents’ views on intermarriage
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Yiddish נײַ־אַנטדעקטע פּרטים וועגן די סאָוועטישע ייִדן צווישן 1945 און 1953Newly discovered details about Soviet Jewry between 1945 and 1953
אַנאַ שטערנשיס האָט געזאַמלט הונדערטער בעל־פּהיִקע גבֿית־עדותן פֿון מענער און פֿרױען פֿון פֿאַרשײדענע סאָציאַלע שיכטן.