Nathan Jeffay
By Nathan Jeffay
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News Losing a Mentor, Gaining an Opponent
Three years ago, Naftali Bennett was celebrating with Benjamin Netanyahu. Bennett had just managed Netanyahu’s successful campaign in the Likud primaries, in which the former prime minister won a decisive victory over far-right challenger Moshe Feiglin, cementing his control over the party and paving the way for his return to the premiership. But today, Netanyahu…
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The Schmooze Sefer Torah Thefts Baffle Israel’s Haredi Community
There is intrigue across Israel’s Haredi community, after the sector’s media has reported on what seems to be a case of serial sefer Torah theft. Several communities in and around the central-Israel city of Lod have had scrolls stolen in recent weeks. The criminals were seemingly not opportunists, but rather individuals or gangs who had…
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News In Unlikely Desert Town of Dimona, an American-Style Jewish Summer Camp Takes Root
It’s rare for an American to set foot in Dimona. With an unemployment rate of 14.5%, almost double the national average, Dimona is one of Israel’s poorest cities. Tourist attractions are nonexistent, and if non-Israelis have heard of the city, it’s because of its nuclear reactor. But for 22 high-flying American university students, it’s this…
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News Israel’s Keenest Yeshiva Students
A year ago they were living by the bank of China’s Yellow River. Now, the seven yarmulke-and-tzitzit-clad young men, sitting in central Jerusalem and chatting about their lives, are Israel’s keenest yeshiva students. It is the end of July, the day after the Fast of Av, when every yeshiva halts for summer break — but…
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The Schmooze Pill Makes Fasting Easier
Israeli Arabs may soon make your Yom Kippur fast easier. It’s often said that Jews and Muslims have a lot in common when it comes to religious observance, and that’s rarely highlighted better than when it comes to fasting. Both religions require full-on fasting several times a year. Now there’s a theory that a drug…
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News In Israel, Many Russians View Conversion Bill With a Shrug
Amid the din of Diaspora and Israeli voices shouting to be heard in July during a heated intercontinental debate over a proposed Knesset bill on Jewish conversion, it was easy to miss the silence of one major stakeholder in the legislation: the non-Jewish immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union, on whose behalf the…
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The Schmooze Israeli Newspaper Bashes Clinton Wedding
Still kvelling about Chelsea Clinton’s wedding, complete with keutba and tallit? Well the Israeli newspaper Yated Neeman wants you to stop. The ever-earnest Yated Ne’eman never runs items on celebrities – it is one of the two rabbinically-endorsed newspapers of Israel’s Haredi community. But when it came to Chelsea, it made an exception. “We were…
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The Schmooze A Judge’s Mixed Ruling on Israel’s Cat Problem
It’s as divisive as the “are you a cat or a dog person?” question in America. Every Israeli has an opinion on the hundreds of thousands of ownerless cats that wander the country, rummaging through garbage and screeching at all hours. Now the courts are getting involved. In a precedent-setting ruling a judge has just…
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