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The Confederate governor who loved Jews
By Andrea Cooper ASHEVILLE, NC — A granite obelisk at Pack Square in this city’s downtown has commanded attention for more than a century. It’s a landmark set in a spot where groups from evangelicals...
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Vaccine passports — and reaction to them — critiqued
WASHINGTON — Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) and a member of the US Holocaust Memorial Council compare the idea of “vaccine passports” to Nazi Germany, with the Libertarian Party of Kentucky invoking the...
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Jews begin to protest China’s policy
WASHINGTON — When Rayhan Asat attended a Passover seder last month, its contours seemed familiar and different at once — especially the tradition of leaving a seat empty at the table. Protesters, among...
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Conservative Judaism faces the Zoom question
NEW YORK — On the first weekend of the coronavirus lockdowns in New York City in March, 2020, Rabbi Rachel Ain decided that her Conservative synagogue would conduct Shabbat services online over Zoom,...
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When a beautiful shul declines
By Alanna E. Cooper CHICAGO — Just three stories high and hemmed into a small 5,000-square-foot lot, the building at 16 S. Clark St. is a small jewel situated amid this city’s dense urban fabric....
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Whither immigration?
WASHINGTON — Three weeks after taking office, Joe Biden announced that he would quadruple the number of refugees allowed into the US. For HIAS, it seemed like an answered prayer. Activists during a...
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Walter Mondale: The liberal for Israel
MINNEAPOLIS — Walter Mondale, the former vice president who represented a time in American history when being pro-Israel and progressive were often synonymous, has died at 93. He passed away Monday,...
View ArticleGabby Giffords: ‘Change in our grasp’
we becoming numb to mass shootings? Are incidents of gun violence in which multiple people are killed or injured becoming so routine that after the initial shock for a day or two, we move on? Are such...
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New Pew picture of American Jewry
NEW YORK — Meet America’s Jews: They’re older, more educated, richer and less religious, on average, than the rest of the country. They’re overwhelmingly white, though Jews under 30 are more diverse....
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Bail reform debate sharpens
NEW YORK — When a suspect in a series of synagogue attacks in the Riverdale section of the Bronx was released by a judge without bail on May 2, it was a tough pill for some in the Jewish community to...
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Anti-Semitism erupts in the US
NEW YORK — The organization that advises US Jewish communities on security matters said it recorded an 80% spike in anti-Semitic acts in the last month amid Israel’s 11-day war with Hamas. The...
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Mental health, post-COVID
By Stewart Ain NEW YORK — When New York was caught in the midst of a brutal wave of COVID-19 last spring, the daily death toll reaching as high as 800, the stress for many Jewish schoolchildren was...
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Halal and kosher in the same store
By Nicole Raz, Jewish News of Greater Phoenix TUCSON — Tucked between a dance school and a ’60s retro lounge on a quiet street in Tucson, Ariz., sits a small Middle Eastern and African foods store. But...
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Where are the allies?
By Philissa Cramer NEW YORK — When Daniela Weiner heard about a virtual bake sale against anti-Semitism, the Chicago pastry chef and food photographer didn’t think twice about joining. Whitney Fisch is...
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Pro-Israel advocacy faces change
WASHINGTON — When a Jewish Democratic congressman initiated a letter last week demanding increased assistance for the Palestinians following the latest Israel-Gaza war, he laid bare a shift in how some...
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Young Zionists try to stand up
NEW YORK — Two weeks after the recent flareup of violence in Israel and Gaza, as fights over Israel and Palestine raged on social media, Julia Jassey wondered aloud whether any of her effort was worth...
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Jews split on court fostering ruling
Catholic agency tailors fostering to religion; ‘religious liberty’ or ‘discrimination’? WASHINGTON — A key, unanimous Supreme Court decision on religious freedom earned praise from Orthodox Jewish...
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Miami-Dade’s Jewish mayor is steady voice in haunting circumstances
SURFSIDE, Fla. — Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava speaks fluent English and what she calls passable Spanish, but some of her constituents use a Yiddish word to describe her. Miami-Dade...
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In Surfside, burial societies struggle with how to proceed
SURFSIDE, Fla. — Among Rabbi Mayer Berger’s first thoughts on seeing the 12 stories of the Champlain Tower South pancaked upon themselves: This is like Sept. 11. Search and rescue personnel working on...
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Max Lewis, Denverite, killed in Chicago
By Ben Sales, JTA & Andrea Jacobs, IJN Max Solomon Lewis, 20, a Jewish student at the University of Chicago from Denver who attended Kent Denver for six years, was shot in the neck by a stray...
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