Ben Fractenberg
By Ben Fractenberg
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News Jewish Vote Looms Large In Key Florida Congressional Races
Florida is known for warm weather, wild partying and even wilder elections. The Democratic Party is hoping that a “blue wave” of November election victories will crash onto the state’s fabled beaches — and two Jewish politicians are central to its strategy. Former Obama official Lauren Baer has raised more than $1.5 million in her…
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Fast Forward Democrat Holds Slim Lead In Jew vs. Jew Race For Pennsylvania Swing Seat
Correction Appended Democratic candidate and local Jewish Federation board member Susan Wild has a small lead in a hotly-contested Pennsylvania congressional race that could help decide who controls the House of Representatives in November. Wild, who is running against Republican candidate and former champion cyclist Marty Nothstein, was ahead 46% to 40% in a survey…
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Fast Forward Simcha Felder Holds On For Win In Contentious Brooklyn Primary
Brooklyn State Senator Simcha Felder notched a victory over liberal challenger Blake Morris in a primary focused on Felder’s role as a Republican-friendly kingmaker in Albany. Felder, who faced criticism after he held up the state budget in an effort to lessen yeshiva oversight and then continued to caucus with Republicans, garnered more than 60%…
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News Julia Salazar Shrugs Off Controversies To Grab Sweeping Win In Brooklyn
Julia Salazar won a stunning victory in her insurgent battle for a New York state Senate seat after a tumultuous campaign focusing on her shifting accounts of her Jewish immigrant background and a raft of other issues. The 27-year-old leftist activist rode a wave of young, enthusiastic voters in the Bushwick-based district to oust incumbent…
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News North Carolina Rabbi Can’t Muster Minyan As Jews Flee Hurricane Florence
With Hurricane Florence heading straight for Wilmington, North Carolina, Rabbi Moshe Lieblich huddled with his congregation for the second day of Rosh Hashanah on Tuesday. But as the service began, he quickly realized that so many congregants had fled the storm’s path that he couldn’t get a minyan together. “People really panicked,” the co-director of…
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News Nasty Ads Drop (Gasp!) The ‘L-Word’ As Primary Roils Orthodox Brooklyn Over High Holidays
The full-page spread in the Flatbush Jewish Journal, a Brooklyn community newspaper, screamed that traditional Jewish education could be destroyed if unnamed “liberals” get their way. The anonymous ad, which hit the streets just as observant Jews prepared to go offline for the Rosh Hashanah holiday, apocalyptically warned that yeshiva school buses, $5 million in…
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Fast Forward Protesting Rabbi Shouts ‘It’s A Shonda’ During Kavanaugh Hearing Before Arrests
Rabbi Barat Ellman was wearing her kippah and tallit when she stood up in the middle of a packed room during Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination hearing Wednesday morning and shouted, “It’s a shonda!” Guards immediately grabbed the 59-year-old Brooklyn teacher and activist and forcibly removed her from the Senate hearing. Ellman was one…
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News Jewish Democrat Uses Moderate Message In Quest To Flip Florida GOP Stronghold
In a more traditional election year, a centrist Democratic running in a southwest Florida district that went for President Trump by 11 points wouldn’t get much national attention. But this is no typical political season. David Shapiro is one of a crop of strong Jewish candidates running in districts where Democrats have not been competitive…
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Fast Forward Why neo-Nazis marched in Ohio this weekend, and almost every weekend in the US
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Opinion The group behind Project 2025 has a plan to protect Jews. It will do the opposite.
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Opinion Just about every interpretation of Trump’s narrow election victory is wrong
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News Your complete guide to Trump’s Jewish advisers and pro-Israel cabinet
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Opinion After all that controversy, here’s why Ta-Nehisi Coates (probably) didn’t change any minds on Israel-Palestine
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Looking Forward How a Jewish student at Columbia became an icon of a movement
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Culture At 95, Shaindel Schreiber is still dispensing babka and advice on the Lower East Side
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Fast Forward Fighting antisemitism is ‘an American issue’ not a Democratic or Republican one, says House Democratic leader
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