Ben Sales
By Ben Sales
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News Hadar’s Popular Egalitarian Yeshiva Grapples With Sex Before Marriage
Just weeks before starting his year as a fellow at Yeshivat Hadar, an egalitarian Judaic learning program for adults, Itamar Landau moved in with his girlfriend. The fellowship demanded that Landau keep kosher and observe the Sabbath. The couple agreed to separate milk and meat in their shared kitchen and to refrain from activities such…
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News Unrest on the Day of Rest: The Halakha of the Middle East Protests
For many weeks, thousands of people have massed in public squares across the Arab world, protesting for democracy. Many of the largest gatherings have occurred on Friday, Islam’s day of public prayer, sometimes stretching past sunset and continuing the following day. The protests have drawn young and old, religious and secular, men and women. But…
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News The Halacha of WikiLeaks
If Julian Assange were an observant Jew, would he still have publicized his WikiLeaks? Aside from shaking up the world of foreign policy, the flood of diplomatic cables that Assange released November 28 has caused a corresponding flood of questions about the leaks’ morality and legality. Assange’s defenders claim that he’s making the world a…
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News Requiem for Russ
Wisconsin’s voters may have rejected Senator Russ Feingold, but he still has a place in the heart of the state’s Jewish community. Feingold, a Democrat who lives in Middleton, Wisc., lost his seat to Republican businessman Ron Johnson on Nov. 2 and will end his 18-year career as the state’s junior U.S. Senator next month….
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News A Look at the Franken Files
Al Franken is a Jewish senator, but is he a senator for the Jews? The comedian-turned-commentator-turned-politician first became known as one of the Jewish writers for Saturday Night Live’s original cast, later performing in the sketch “Jew, Not a Jew” and developing the character of Stuart Smalley, a nervous self-help guru. Since then, as his…
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News A Shliach Is Born: Chabad Conference Prepares New Generation of ‘Rebbe’s Army’
The rebbe loomed large. His face looked down on the crowd from the oversize television screens around the room, and his voice boomed. He sang a traditional Hasidic chant. In rhythmic unison, 4,000 of his rabbis repeated the melody. They were sitting in a Brooklyn banquet hall, one of the largest rooms in New York’s…
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The Schmooze Dmitriy Salita Announces Next Fight
Orthodox boxer Dmitriy Salita held an intimate press conference yesterday in Manhattan that could have easily been mistaken for a “Kiddush Club” at Saturday morning services — had there been schnapps and herring. The boxer was announcing his next scheduled fight, “Redemption,” slated for September 1 at Brooklyn’s Oceana Hall. Who he will be fighting…
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