Stewart Ain, an award-winning veteran journalist, covers the Jewish community. Follow him on Twitter @AinStewart or email stewartain@gmail.com.
Stewart Ain
By Stewart Ain
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News Cool runnings: This Florida bobsledder is Israel’s next big hope for Olympic Winter Gold
The bobsled/skeleton track in Germany is about 2 ½ miles from Eagle’s Nest, Hitler’s vacation home. When Jared Firestone of Hollywood, Florida, competed on that track last season as a member of the Israeli team, he made sure to wear a helmet he had specially emblazoned with the Star of David. “It was important for…
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News Rabbinical seminaries take steps to admit students with learning disabilities
Jonah Sanderson expects to get a Masters Degree in Jewish Studies this year from a Los Angeles rabbinical seminary. Not especially noteworthy— until you learn that Sanderson, 32, has had lifelong struggles with learning disabilities. Although it was founded 18 years ago, the Academy of Jewish Religion in Los Angeles, which Sanderson attends, didn’t receive…
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News Jewish group sets bold goal to screen hundreds of thousands for genetic diseases
Since screening for Tay-Sachs began in the 1970s, the number of Ashkenazi Jews born with the rare inherited disease that destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord has plummeted by 90 percent worldwide. Now, JScreen, a non-profit organization associated with the Department of Genetics at Emory University in Atlanta, is trying to replicate…
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News Groundhog Day: Meet the Jews of Punxsutawney, Pa.
In anticipation of Tuesday’s observance of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pa., it should be remembered that a Jewish coal mine operator added pizzazz to the festivities. Soon after becoming president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club in 1952, Sam Light decided he would give the day some added flair by wearing a top hat and tails…
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News What a Kristallnacht survivor says about Kristallnacht comparisons
The comparison of last week’s attack on the U.S. Capitol to Kristallnacht may be well-intentioned but grossly diminishes the magnitude of the Nazis’ crimes, according to a Holocaust survivor who witnessed the Nazis’ actions. Further, the survivor, Herbert Karliner, condemned any comparison of social media policies today to any action of the Nazis. Karliner, who…
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News Johns Hopkins teaching assistant suspected of lowering Jewish students’ grades
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore has launched a probe into allegations against a university teaching assistant for “alleged anti-Semitism and potential abuse of authority in the discharge of academic responsibilities on our campus.” The campus Hillel is calling upon students to contact its office if they suspect the teaching assistant lowered their grade as an…
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News Pinched by the pandemic, congregants are cutting synagogues dues from their household budgets
Across denominations and across the United States, Jewish families under financial pressure from the coronavirus pandemic are deciding that synagogue dues are an expense they can cut. “More congregations are seeing declines in members than are seeing growth,” said Amy Asin, vice-president of Strengthening Congregations, the synagogue advising arm at the Union of Reform Judaism….
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News On TikTok, on the pulpit and in legal rulings, rabbis tell congregants: get vaccinated
The TikTok video of Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld receiving a shot of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine isn’t racking up Cardi B numbers, but it has reached an impressive 400,000 views. “I saw an advertisement that they were looking for people for their clinical trial,” Rabbi Herzfeld, 46, said. “I am not a doctor or a nurse,…
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News What a Trump second presidency will mean for school prayer, campus antisemitism and other education issues Jews care — and worry — about
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Culture Has Mark Zuckerberg become the anti-Elon Musk?
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Yiddish באַקענט זיך מיטן אוקראַיִנישן איבערזעצער פֿונעם ליד „אויפֿן וועג שטייט אַ בוים“Meet the Ukrainian translator of the song ‘Afn veg shteyt a boym’
דער ייִדישער מוזיקער אָלעס וואַלינטשיק וויל ווײַזן דער וועלט די טיפֿע צונויפֿפֿלעכטונג פֿון דער ייִדישער און אוקראַיִישער קולטור.
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Culture Why is the latest Jesus movie about, uh, mixed martial arts?
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