NEWS ABOUT: Judaism
Judaism stories: 39 news briefs
Imams, priests, rabbis, and monks given chance to convert unbelievers live on TV
Guardian (UK) Jul 3, 09 1:29 AM CDT
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This was probably only a matter of time: A Turkish game show starting this fall will bring on 10 atheists per show and give holy men from four faiths the chance to convert them, the Guardian reports. A Muslim imam, a Greek Orthodox priest, a rabbi, and a Buddhist monk will do their best. Contestants who are persuaded to choose a religion will win a pilgrimage to Mecca, Jerusalem, or Tibet.
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'I will not be boxed in,' says newly ordained Stanton
Guardian (UK) Jun 16, 09 6:43 AM CDT
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Last week Alysa Stanton was ordained as a rabbi at the Plum Street Temple in Cincinnati, one of the country's oldest synagogues, and a little history was made—the US had its first black female leader of a Jewish congregation. Stanton, born a Pentecostal Christian, converted in 1987, enduring hostility and isolation from both white Jews and other African Americans. "But my God is bigger," she tells the Guardian . "I will not be boxed in."
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Benedict meets with leading Muslim cleric after visit to Dome of the Rock
Associated Press May 12, 09 5:52 AM CDT
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Pope Benedict XVI began the second day of his Holy Land tour at one of the most contentious sites in the Arab-Israeli conflict: the Dome of the Rock, where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven, and the adjacent Western Wall. The pontiff urged both sides to engage in "a sincere dialogue aimed at building a world of justice and peace," reports the AP.
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Los Angeles Times Apr 4, 09 5:47 PM CDT
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The kosher alcohol scene has long been dominated by sweet Manishevitz, but that old standby is getting a run for its money as premium wines, and even hard liquor, are crossing the kosher barrier. Making kosher product has many restrictions, but entrepreneurs seem to think Jewish tipplers are in the mood for something different. The Los Angeles Times checked in on the trend.
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'I wouldn't go into a church wearing Jewish symbols,' Rabinovitch says
Time Mar 19, 09 1:58 PM CDT
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Pope Benedict XVI plans to visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem next month as a show of mutual understanding and sensitivity between Catholicism and Judaism—but a request from a prominent rabbi almost ensures he’ll offend someone, Time reports. Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch said the pontiff should remove the cross he wears constantly, “out of respect” for the Jews and their sacred site.
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Hidden treasures abound in local libraries across the country
Smithsonian Mar 7, 09 3:20 AM CST
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Your local library may be home to an odd or wonderful specialized stash of artifacts. The Smithsonian compiles a list of the nation’s most unusual library collections: The Cleveland Public Library sports perhaps the world’s largest collection of chess- and checkers-related material, with more than 30,000 items that include Arab manuscripts and letters from chess masters.
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Catholic actress wants to convert
New York Post Mar 3, 09 9:05 AM CST
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Lindsay Lohan apparently thinks her relationship with Samantha Ronson is strong enough to warrant a change in religion, the New York Post reports. The pair recently attended Ronson’s half-brother’s bar mitzvah, and Lohan, raised Catholic, now wants to convert to Judaism. LiLo’s dad? Not convinced: “She’s explored the Church of Scientology, she tried Kabbalah, and now this. I think it’s just another phase.”
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ABC News Feb 20, 09 3:37 PM CST
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Bernard Madoff’s alleged mega-fraud and the large number of Jewish investors he apparently snookered is stoking anti-Semitic feeling in tony Palm Beach, ABC News reports. “It is a terrible thing to say, but some of the WASPs are delighted, they take great pleasure in this,” said an author who has written critically about the socially stratified Florida enclave.
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Hardliner rejected Vatican reforms for being too tolerant of other faiths
Times (UK) Jan 23, 09 4:08 AM CST
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Pope Benedict XVI is planning to welcome four rebel bishops excommunicated by his predecessor back to the Catholic Church, reports the Times of London. The ultra-conservative bishops reject the liberal reforms of the Second Vatican Council. One of them, Richard Williamson, openly endorses the anti-semitic tract Protocols of the Elders of Zion and believes the Holocaust never happened. The bishops were excommunicated for defying church authority.
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But for some, religious awakening looks a lot like exit strategy
Wall Street Journal Jan 14, 09 8:25 AM CST
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Cuba's Jewish community is growing for the first time in decades, the Wall Street Journal reports. The country's Jewish population dwindled to 1,000 by the late 1980s but has now hit 1,500. Hundreds of other Cuban Jews have recently emigrated, landing in Israel, Canada, and the US. Many are rediscovering long-hidden Jewish roots, but the lure for some converts is a ticket off the island.
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OPINION
Thank Bernie for reminding us that Jews shouldn't be WASPs
Newsweek Jan 13, 09 11:42 AM CST
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Bernie Madoff, the professionally dishonest, gelt-grubbing financier, seems to conform to some of the worst stereotypes about Jews and money, writes Joseph Epstein in Newsweek . While Madoff appears to have made a particular specialty of swindling fellow Jews, he is actually less anti-Semite than "truly equal-opportunity son of a bitch." But for Epstein, the Madoff affair may have an ironic upside: a deceleration of "the WASP-ification of well-to-do Jews in America."
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Practitioners of all stripes distill religious teaching for on-the-go Americans
Los Angeles Times Jan 7, 09 2:45 PM CST
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Overscheduled Americans are fueling a boom in devotional books and media that mete out bite-sized doses of faith, the Los Angeles Times reports. An editor at a Christian book house calls its One Minute Bible “a ready-made, quick little devotion they can do every day.” But it’s not a substitute for real study: “It’s meant to whet your appetite.”
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'Crying' son marked
2nd birthday yesterday
New York Daily News Nov 30, 08 11:50 AM CST
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The Brooklyn-raised rabbi and his wife who were murdered in the Mumbai attacks will be buried in the Holy Land, the Daily News reports. Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, had wrapped the bodies of slain hostages in prayer shawls before being shot himself. The couple’s orphaned son marked his second birthday yesterday with his grandparents. “He had been crying. He is too small, and all this must be affecting him so much,” said a Jewish community leader.
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OPINION
Unscrupulous scholars fake history to make a buck
Los Angeles Times Nov 29, 08 6:06 PM CST
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Fraudulent biblical artifacts come a dime a dozen, but reputable archaeologists are turning out to be far less common, Nina Burleigh writes in the Los Angeles Times . The latest example involves an Israeli collector who claimed to have relics from the time of Christ. Declaring the items forgeries, authorities prosecuted the man, but a judge’s doubt could undermine the case and threaten the integrity of the antiquities market.
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Jews set upon Arab for driving his car, igniting violence
Haaretz (Israel) Oct 9, 08 4:16 PM CDT
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The Israeli city of Acre descended into rioting today after a group of Jewish youths attacked an Arab man who was driving on Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. The young men allegedly shouted anti-Muslim epithets at the driver before several younger Arabs came to his defense. As news spread of the altercation, Jewish and Arab gangs took to the streets and destroyed dozens of cars and shops, Haaretz reports.
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Jewish new year coincides with Muslim month of Ramadan in city special to both
New York Times Sep 29, 08 11:42 AM CDT
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This year’s intersection of Jewish new-year holidays and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan—a rarity due to Islam’s changing calendar—is felt particularly keenly in Jerusalem, a sacred city for both religions, Ethan Bronner notes in the New York Times . Night has become “a kind of monotheistic traffic jam,” with devout Jews praying at the Western Wall while Muslims break their fast.
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Nuptials spark anti-Semitic debate
Guardian (UK) Sep 11, 08 8:55 AM CDT
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Jean Sarkozy, the 22-year-old son of France's president, married his childhood sweetheart last night in a ceremony so under wraps that guests were informed via text message. A possible reason for the secrecy? His bride, the heiress to a huge electronics company, is Jewish—and the marriage has set off a wave of soul-searching in the French press about the country's legacy of anti-Semitism.
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Washington Post Aug 30, 08 7:29 PM CDT
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A divorce ruling in Israel has thrown thousands of Jewish conversions into question and sparked a debate over who is really Jewish, the Washington Post reports. Ultra-Orthodox rabbis, who frame one side of the dispute, refused to let a Jewish convert divorce last year, saying she was never married because she did not observe Jewish law. "I was in shock," she said. "I couldn't believe it."
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Can a man disinherit his offspring for marrying outside faith?
Chicago Tribune Aug 25, 08 1:31 PM CDT
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A Chicago courtroom is the site of a nasty tangle over a Jewish patriarch’s wishes for his family, the Chicago Tribune reports. A wealthy dentist, upset to discover that a grandson was taking a gentile to the junior prom, left a provision in his will disowning any of his offspring who marries outside the faith. Of five grandchildren, four did exactly that. Now they're suing their parents for honoring the request.
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Dem wants to be guarded against 'pride and despair'
Associated Press Jul 25, 08 3:10 PM CDT
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The prayer Barack Obama put in Jerusalem’s Western Wall yesterday was removed by a Jewish seminary student and published in a local newspaper, the AP reports. It read, “Lord—Protect my family and me. Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will.”
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