Ben Sales
By Ben Sales
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Breaking News Israel Touts Gay Friendly Climate — but Religious Leaders Block Progress
(JTA) — It felt like Israel’s gay community had taken a major step forward. On Feb. 23, eight separate Israeli parliamentary committees convened to discuss a broad set of issues facing the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Lawmakers from a range of parties talked about protecting LGBT Israelis in the classroom, at home, in…
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News Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Slams Reform Jews as ‘Heretics’ — but Backs Western Wall Prayer Deal Anyway
(JTA) — Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzahl, former chief rabbi of Jerusalem’s Old City, is no fan of Reform and Conservative Judaism. In a letter sent Thursday to Israel’s chief rabbis, the haredi Orthodox Nebenzahl calls the movements “heretical religions.” They are “uprooting the religion and hurting everything holy to us,” he writes. “Their war against the…
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News Countries Across the Globe Kvell for Bernie on Facebook – But Not Israel
Bernie Sanders’ campaign issued a message of multicultural unity last week, posting graphics on social media that read, “Not me, us,” in 14 different languages. Facebook users generally responded positively to the posts, which in each language feature a silhouette of Sanders — fist raised — comprising smaller silhouettes of various shapes and colors. Israelis,…
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News Bernie Sanders Reaches Out to Israelis on Facebook — and Gets an Earful
(JTA) — Bernie Sanders’ campaign issued a message of multicultural unity last week, posting graphics on social media that read, “Not me, us,” in 14 different languages. Facebook users generally responded positively to the posts, which in each language feature a silhouette of Sanders — fist raised — comprising smaller silhouettes of various shapes and…
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Culture Why Israel Is Paradise for Birds — and Birdwatchers
(JTA) — Thousands of cranes sit in pairs in a field here, their outlines approaching the horizon. Then, all at once, they take flight, a cloud of black-and-white feathers filling the sky. Shai Agmon isn’t interested in most of these. All he cares about is one pair near the front, slightly shorter than the rest. Most…
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Life Israeli Breast Cancer Survivor Filling a Niche with Nipples
(JTA) — Michelle Kolath-Arbel squeezes a nipple, rolling it in her fingers with a look of mild disgust. This model, which Kolath-Arbel ordered from China two years ago for $50, is thick and crude and took three months to arrive in the mail. “It was hard, rubbery,” she said. “It looked like a doll’s. My…
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Breaking News Meir Kahane’s Widow Says Jewish Extremists Stray From His Path
(JTA) — Her husband was assassinated and her grandson is in prison. But Libby Kahane, widow of the late far-right Rabbi Meir Kahane, has remained faithful to her husband’s ideology. She repeats his call for Israel to expel its Arab population. She believes the Israeli left, Jewish media and some American Jews – particularly college students…
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Breaking News Faux Brooklyn Brownstone Rises 6,000 Miles Away in Only All-Chabad Kibbutz
(JTA) — In an otherwise deserted field at the center of this rural Israeli village, a Brooklyn brownstone presents an incongruous sight. If it looks like it would fit perfectly in Crown Heights, that’s because it already does. The three-story apartment house topped by three gables is a brick-for-brick reconstruction of 770 Eastern Parkway, the…
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