Ben Sales
By Ben Sales
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Breaking News French Muslims Hope To Learn on Israel Visit
Standing in long, colorful robes and wearing traditional rounded hats, a group of men stood in reverent silence as one of their leaders placed a memorial wreath at Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust museum. The group was a delegation of 19 Muslim leaders from France, in Israel to learn more about the Jews and their…
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Culture Jewish Filmmaker Goes Uptown
Like most Jewish camp staff members over 21, Mark Blackman isn’t in it for the money. Blackman, 27, enjoys working with kids at Maryland’s Camp Airy, as well as taking walks near the mountains. He calls it “home to me.” But more than anything, Mark Blackman has returned almost every summer since 1998 because camp…
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News Exploring Ties Between Halacha and Shariah
Abraham and Isaac — or, as some would have it, Ibrahim and Ishmael — took center stage when a panel including Muslim imams and some of America’s most prominent Modern Orthodox rabbis discussed their respective legal systems and foundational texts, and their implications for Jewish-Muslim relations today. The October 30 seminar “Ancient Texting” brought together…
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The Schmooze Israeli Rabbi Wants To Bring Polygamy Back
One thousand years ago, German Jewish sage Rabbeinu Gershom forbade polygamy in the Jewish community. Now, a rabbi in Israel wants to reinstate the practice. Rabbi Yehezkel Sopher, who heads the organization Complete Jewish Family, placed an advertisement in a popular pamphlet handed out at synagogue calling for the return of plural marriage, according to…
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The Schmooze Rabbi Wins Buenos Aires Parliamentary Election in Landslide
In the metropolitan area where Adolf Eichmann once hid, a rabbi is now a member of parliament. Rabbi Sergio Bergman, representing the center-right PRO Party Buenos Aires’s municipal election, won 45% of the vote in a race featuring 10 candidates, according to the JTA. He garnered more than three times the votes of his runner…
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The Schmooze ‘LaunchBox’ Wins ‘Next Big Jewish Idea’ Competition
She had to compete against an interactive Jewish history website for kids, a service-learning trip for b’nai-mitzvah and a financial education program, but Batsheva Frankel will receive a $100,000 grant from the Los Angeles Jewish Federation for her new program, “LaunchBox.” LaunchBox, an initiative to send to families in Los Angeles boxes containing tools and…
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The Schmooze Former Klan Leader Exploring GOP Presidential Bid
A field crowded with governors, senators and a past speaker of the house may be welcoming a man with a more unique qualification: David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Duke is embarking on a tour of 25 states to see whether he could go all the way to the White…
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News A Gay-Friendly Israel Is Complicated for Jewish LGBT Congregations
Like many synagogues, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah — New York’s only lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender synagogue — takes its members on a mission to Israel. Many other American synagogue missions focus on the Jewish state’s political and security challenges, and spend significant time touring Israel’s holy sites. But the recent two-week trip of CBST…
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