By DAVID KAUFMAN
DES MOINES, Iowa (JTA) — A Jewish woman walks into the post office to buy Chanukah stamps for her holiday cards.
The person behind the counter asks, “What denominations?”
The Jewish woman responds, “Oy! Are we so polarized? Some Orthodox, some Conservative and some Reform.”
Yes, we...
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By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — This week, only six months after I became a Dutch citizen, my wife congratulated me for being mentioned in parliament for my reporting on the Netherlands’ relations with Israel.
Flattered, I looked it up, expecting to find praise for my work. I was already...
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By ALISSA THOMAS-NEWBORN
LAS VEGAS (JTA) — We just got into our car and drove. Going to Las Vegas after the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history felt like the right thing to do. As Americans and as Jews, we wanted to be a source of support and love in the...
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By JACOB KAMARAS
(JNS.org) — As a member of Houston’s Jewish community writing about a devastating flood for the third time since May 2015, I’m at a loss for words. Sitting in the comforts of my third-floor apartment, where I’m fortunate enough to view the unprecedented waters of Hurricane Harvey...
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By Lizz Goldstein
(JTA) — I was in Charlottesville on Saturday. I felt called to go because white supremacy is a hateful ideology that has murdered millions throughout history and continues to kill.
I went because my family and ancestors suffered at the hands of anti-Semites throughout history, because I...
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By RON KAMPEAS
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (JTA) — The white supremacists, for all their vaunted purpose, appeared to be disoriented.
Some 500 had gathered at a park here Saturday to protest this southern Virginia city’s plans to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from the park. Pressured by the American...
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By ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL
JERUSALEM (JTA) — I was in Israel for 36 hours before I saw daylight. Which can only mean one of three things:
1. The weather was lousy. 2. I am speaking metaphorically. 3. I am at a conference in the sub-basement of a Jerusalem hotel.
Here’s a...
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By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ
(JTA) — Using his M-16 assault rifle as a pillow, my father awoke abruptly from a dreamless sleep by the pleading voice of a young woman outside his tent in the Sinai.
The woman, a uniformed volunteer, was urging reservists like him to forego shuteye to hear...
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By BEN SALES
(JTA) — Some of us are voting for Trump. Most of us are voting for Clinton. But we Jews are all afraid.
There are the scandals, yes. There are emails and sexual assault allegations and emails and fraud and racism and anti-Semitism and emails. There are...
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By BEN HARRIS
(JTA) — It was 9 o’clock on a weekday evening and I was lounging around my Brooklyn apartment in pajamas when the call came summoning me to a Midtown Manhattan hotel. Shimon Peres needed a speechwriter; I was a speechwriter at the time for Israel’s...
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