May 2011
1 post
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That Other Hassidic Group in NYC, Besides Chabad
Interestingly we don’t talk very much about Hassidic Dynasties in NYC other than Chabad. The other major dynasty is that of the Satmar’s. Their populations, in NYC, can be found in Williamsburg and Boro Park.
Quick Facts:
They originated from Hungary (and surrounding areas).
They are Anti-Zionist….believe it or not.
They have been locked in a succession (blood) feud for...
April 2011
2 posts
8 tags
A snapshot of St. Louis' Jewish community
By Patricia Rice, Special to the Beacon
Posted Sun., 4.17.11
ST LOUIS BEACON
At Passover Seder dinners in Jewish homes across the world, the youngest child will ask “Why is this night different from all other nights?”
Then, the story is told of that spring night when, according to the Book of Exodus, God’s angel “passed over” Jewish first-born sons as the Egyptians’ first-born males died in...
9 tags
Stakes huge in partisan duel over U.S. deficit
By Don Lee, Washington Bureau
LA TIMES
April 17, 2011
Reporting from Washington—
The dueling deficit-cutting plans presented by congressional Republicans and President Obama both promise to restore the nation’s fiscal credibility. But if they fail to deliver, the result could be still higher deficits and the potential for another devastating economic crisis. Even if the far-reaching...
August 2010
7 posts
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Fallout from the conversion bill reaches Houston
Aaron HowardJewish Harold Voice Jewish community newspaper serving the Houston and Texas Gulf Coast area since 1908 A bill before the Israeli Knesset that would give full authority for conversions to the Chief Rabbinate is causing a huge controversy in Israel and in the United States.The Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee approved 5-4, on first reading to plenum on July 12, a bill...
13 tags
Jewish Vilnius: A city concealed, a city revealed
By NORMA DAVIDOFF SHULMAN 12/08/2010
Jerusalem Post
This storied city known as Vilna, Wilno, Vilne – however you spell it and say it – was a place of spirituality and learning for Jews. Amost intriguing aspect of Vilnius, Lithuania, is that it’s “first you don’t see it, then you do.” You can walk along the winding streets and past small inviting houses in its Old Town, without realizing you...
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Russia v Chabad: Judge rules against Russia on...
By PETE YOST (Associated Press) – 10 hours ago
WASHINGTON — A federal judge has issued a judgment against the Russian government for its refusal to return a library of historic books and documents to a Jewish group.
Royce Lamberth, the chief judge of U.S. District Court in Washington, ruled that taking the material was discriminatory, not for a public purpose and occurred without just...
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Group sues to stop mosque near NYC's ground zero
JENNIFER PELTZ (Associated Press) – 8 hours ago
NEW YORK — The debate over a planned Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero became a court fight Wednesday, as a conservative advocacy group sued to try to stop a project that has become a fulcrum for balancing religious freedom and the legacy of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The American Center for Law and Justice, founded by the Rev. Pat...
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Assessing Decisionmaking on the NYC Islamic...
Religion, Policy and Politics, Civil Liberties
Melissa Rogers, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Governance Studies
The Brookings Institution
August 4, 2010
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission announced yesterday that it will not designate the building at 45-51 Park Place in lower Manhattan as an historic landmark. The building, which is two blocks north of Ground Zero, does not have...
10 tags
Europe's Jewish problem
Op-ed: EU hostile to Jewish State because Israel’s success flaunts Europe’s failure
YNET NEWS Moshe Dann
Antipathy for Israel among Europeans is increasing and alarming as campaigns of de-legitimization and vilification spread across the world, fueled by Muslim propaganda and money, whetted by the hunger for oil. Even once friendly European countries, those that helped establish the State of...
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Heat, smoke and worry cloak Moscow
By JIM HEINTZ (AP) – 13 hours ago
MOSCOW — As Moscow’s record heatwave began, I threw open all the screenless windows in my apartment, hoping for some breeze — but mostly what I got was visits from bugs and, briefly, an inquisitive crow.
Then, tendrils of the acrid smoke from the peat-bog fires surrounding the city wafted in, bringing nausea and dry-mouth.
The recommendation of...
July 2010
14 posts
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Sweltering Heat in Moscow Breaking All Time Record
Reuters
12 Hours Ago
The summer heat set a new all-time temperature record in Moscow on Thursday, a leading forecaster said, adding that the unprecedentedly long heat wave could be interrupted already on Friday.
Temperatures hit 37.7 degrees Celsius, beating the previous record set Monday, said the Fobos forecasting center, which provides weather data to the country’s top media...
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Scientist Says Hundreds May Die as Smog Blankets...
By Gleb Bryanski
Reuter
NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia
A prominent scientist said hundreds of people could die as smog from peat fires blanketed a sweltering Moscow for a second day on Tuesday.
Moscow region chief Boris Gromov asked Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to allocate 25 billion roubles ($827 million) to fight the fires smoldering in the forests around Moscow.
Alexei Yablokov, an...
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Who Is a Jew? A Struggle Over Religious Identity
NY TIMES
To the Editor:
Alana Newhouse’s compelling Op-Ed article, “The Diaspora Need Not Apply” (July 16), addresses issues arising from proposed legislation regarding conversion in the State of Israel.
The impetus behind this bill, it must be stressed, was humanitarian — to facilitate the conversion of tens of thousands of Israelis, most of them immigrants from the former Soviet Union or...
5 tags
The Diaspora Need Not Apply
By ALANA NEWHOUSE
NYTimes
WHO is a Jew? It’s an age-old inquiry, one that has for decades (if not centuries) provoked debate, discussion and too many punch lines to count — all inspired by what many assumed was the question’s essential unanswerability. But if developments this week are any indication, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, might soon offer an official, surprising answer: almost...
5 tags
$50,000 offered to Jewish families to move to...
Joe O’Connor
National Post
Stephanie Butler had not seen Reggie Wilson in almost a decade and then there he was, standing beside her, at a grocery store in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Reggie was new in town, so Ms. Butler invited her old college pal over to watch what every other University of Alabama alumnus watches in early September: Alabama’s season-opening football game.
On game day, in...
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Israel's Vibrant Jewish Ethnic Mix
Just because Israel is a Jewish country doesn’t mean all Jews are the same.
By Aviya Kushner
Israel’s mandate as an ingatherer of the Jewish exiles from all four corners of the earth has made it one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. This article covers the variety of Jewish ethnic groups found in Israel and the history of how these different Jewish communities...
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You’re Jewish – prove it
What should have been the happiest time of Sagit’s life turned into a nightmare. According to their documents, her mother and grandmother are Jewish and her parents were married by a Chabad rabbi, but even so, she’s being asked to convert in order to marry. The new regulations provide that this can happen to you too!
Rivkah Lubitch Ynet News
Sagit (not her real name) and her fiancé are ...
5 tags
Mel Gibson in New Racial Scandal
By Bob Tourtellotte, REUTERS
LOS ANGELES - Oscar-winning director and actor Mel Gibson, who caused a media storm four years ago over an anti-semitic statement, is again making headlines for using an apparent racial slur in an argument with his ex-girlfriend.
Celebrity news website Radaronline.com Thursday published excerpts of an audiotape of Gibson telling Oksana Grigorieva, whom...
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Israel's Sephardic - Ashkenazi Rift: The Shas...
Huffington Post David Shasha Director, Center for Sephardic Heritage July 1, 2010
In the wake of an Israeli court ruling confirming anti-Sephardi bias in the case of the Beis Yaakov girls’ school in Immanuel, many have scrutinized the Shas party leadership’s bizarre response of defending the Ashkenazim.
The Shas party is the most prominent political representative of ...
13 tags
A Math Problem Solver Declines a $1 Million Prize:...
New York Times
By Dennis Overbye
The reclusive Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman, aka Grisha, gained worldwide fame by claiming to have solved one of the world’s most intractable mathematical problems, the Poincaré conjecture, and then disappearing in St. Petersburg. On Thursday he said he had rejected a $1 million prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute in Cambridge, Mass., for...
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Bukharian Jewish Community Demystified
The Queen’s Chronicle by Nicole Levy, Chronicle Contributor07/01/2010
There may be no way to overlook the thriving, insular community of 50,000 Bukharian Jews from Central Asia now settled in Forest Hills and Rego Park, but there is a way to look in. Last Tuesday, journalist Sergey Kadinsky of Forest Hills presented an eyeful in his lecture on Bukharian history and culture at the...
June 2010
10 posts
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A Bukharian Forum in Forest Hills, Queens with...
A traditional Bukharian teacher instructs students. Photo courtesy of Central Queens YM & YWHA
YourNabe.com
By Anna Gustafson Monday, June 28, 2010 1:13 PM
Forest Hills and Rego Park are home to one of the largest populations of Bukharian Jews in the world, but not many of their neighbors know much about the religious group that hails mainly from Central Asia — something Forest...
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NY suspect dubbed femme fatale of Russian spy case
By TOM HAYS and CRISTIAN SALAZAR (AP) – 1 hour ago
NEW YORK — Anna Chapman has been called the femme fatale of a spy case with Cold War-style intrigue — a striking redhead and self-styled entrepreneur who dabbled in real estate and mused on her Facebook page, “if you can dream, you can become it.”
Chapman’s American dream, U.S. authorities say, was a ruse.
The 28-year-old...
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N.Y. to host ‘Jewish World Cup’
NEW YORK (JTA) — Jews from more than 15 countries will compete in a “Jewish World Cup” in New York on June 27.
The soccer tournament, hosted by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, will take place on Randall’s Island, between Manhattan and the Bronx. The tournament is for adults; soccer clinics are planned for children.
The tournament is part of JCRC’s...
10 tags
Jewish dance group stoned in Hanover, Germany
German police are investigating the stoning of a Jewish dance group trying to perform on the street in the city of Hanover.
Youths reportedly shouted “Juden Raus” (Jews Out) as they attacked the dancers of the Chaverim (“Friends” in Hebrew) dance troupe last weekend.
Police said several Muslim immigrant youths were among the attackers and two youths were being...
16 tags
Jew vs. Jew: The Religious Conflict Tearing at...
Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews protested in Jerusalem, Israel against a court order to desegregate a religious school and force Jewish girls of European and Middle Eastern descent to study together
Thursday, Jun. 17, 2010
By Matthew Kalman / Jerusalem
TIME
Israel’s domestic culture war between religious communities and the secular courts took to the streets on Thursday as...
11 tags
Kyrgyzstan leader visits Osh after violence
Kyrgyzstan interim leader Roza Otunbayeva has arrived in Osh in the south of the country after the worst ethnic violence in two decades.
BBC NEWS
At least 191 people were killed in fighting between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks around Osh and Jalalabad.
About 400,000 people have been displaced by the unrest, with many Uzbeks fleeing into Uzbekistan.
The Red Cross (ICRC) has described the...
14 tags
Israel ministers want Poland 'agent' sent home
AFP
JERUSALEM — An Israeli man arrested in Poland who is believed to be a Mossad agent linked to the January killing of a Hamas chief in Dubai must be brought home and not extradited to Germany, ministers said on Sunday.
According to German weekly Der Spiegel, which broke the story on its website on Saturday, Uri Brodsky was arrested at Warsaw airport on June 4 on suspicion of obtaining a...
15 tags
Russia's Jewish Autonomous Region
Jewish Autonomous Region or Birobidzhan , autonomous region (1995 pop. 211,900), c.13,800 sq mi (35,700 sq km), Khabarovsk Territory, Russian Far East, in the basins of the Biro and Bidzhan rivers, tributaries of the Amur. The capital is Birobidzhan. The region is bounded on the south by China (Heilongjinag prov.) and on the north by the Bureya and Hinggan (Khingan) mts., which yield ...
21 tags
Israel PM: Clash Was Planned
By Associated Press Sunday, June 6, 2010 - Added 3h ago
JERUSALEM - Israel’s prime minister claimed yesterday that the Turkish activists who battled Israeli naval commandos in a deadly clash last week prepared for the fight ahead of time, before boarding the ship in a different city from the other passengers.
Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet “dozens of thugs” from “an extremist,...
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Israel seeks internal inquiry of deadly flotilla...
Israeli youths wave national flags during a rally in Ashkelon to show solidarity with the country’s military. A group of top Israeli naval reserves officers said it was wrong to blame flotilla organizers for the deadly raid, which they characterized as a “failure.” (Amir Cohen, Reuters / June 7, 2010)
Facing pressure from the United Nations and others, Cabinet leaders are...
May 2010
8 posts
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Russian Jewish Nobel Prize Winner
Simon Kuznets was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on April 30, 1901; he moved to the United States with his father in 1922. He attended Columbia University and received his B.Sc. in 1923, M.A. in 1924, and Ph.D. in 1926. From 1925 to 1926, Kuznets spent time studying economic patterns in prices as the Research Fellow at the Social Science Research Council. It was this work that led to his...
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Foreman preps for Yankee Stadium bout
The rabbinical student/boxer will balance faith and fighting on June 5 in the Bronx
By Wallace Matthews ESPNNewYork.com
NEW YORK — Yuri Foreman will spend all the daylight hours of June 5 in a state of quiet and restful contemplation.
There will be no telephone calls made or received in his midtown hotel room. The television will be unplugged, the computer will be shut down. The...
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Sharansky initiates Nobel-style prize for Jews
Jewish Agency chairman institutes $1 million prize for distinguished achievement to be granted to Jew for ‘contributing to humanity.’ Prize money funded by Genesis fund, led by Jewish oligarch Mikhail Friedman
Itamar Eichner
Published: 05.16.10, 15:14 / Israel Jewish Scene
Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky is promoting a program that will grant a Nobel-style prize, worth...
20 tags
A Site for Russian Events in NYC →
We found an event guide online made for Russians living in NYC (mostly Jews). We’ve posted some of the events they have below.
RUSSIAN MIX
For more featured Russian culture events in NYC visit Russian Mix
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A Legendary Russian Jew: Golda Meir (Golda...
Known as Golda Meyerson from 1917–56) was the fourth prime minister of the State of Israel.
Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel on 17 March 1969, after serving as Minister of Labour and Foreign Minister. Israel’s first and the world’s third female to hold such an office, she was described as the “Iron Lady” of Israeli politics years before the epithet became...
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Movie Review: The Infidel
A Muslim Who Just May Be Jewish
By NEIL GENZLINGER
Published: May 5, 2010
NY Times
Sometimes the best way to approach an inflammatory or scary subject — death, for instance, or corporate malfeasance — is through humor. That is what “The Infidel,” an amusing little film from Britain, does with one of the touchiest subjects of them all, the animosity between Jews and Muslims.
Omid...
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Impact of proposed Israeli conversion law under...
Uriel Hellman
NEW YORK (JTA) – If Knesset member David Rotem has his way, Israel will enact a new law to make it easier for non-Jewish Israelis to convert to Judaism.
This will have the effect of better integrating tens of thousands of Israelis of Russian extraction, if not hundreds of thousands, into Israeli Jewish society, according to Rotem and Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny...
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Ukraine's other crisis: Weak currency, cheap...
In a country hit hard by economic downturn, the industry is expected to double to $1.5 billion this year
By James Marson, Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor / June 13, 2009
Kyiv, Ukraine
When Tonya came to Kyiv (Kiev) from her small hometown in western Ukraine to study, it was a route out of the dreary provincial life she had grown to hate. She struggled to make ends meet. Her...
April 2010
11 posts
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Who are the world's richest Jews?
By Ronit Dumka and Dafna Maor, TheMarker
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Businessman Sheldon Adelson, Russian mogul Roman Abramovich and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg rank among the world’s richest Jews, according a new survey published by TheMarker. The financial newspaper on Wednesday published an analysis of the world’s richest Jews, ranking them by sector and industry and...
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Books: Assessing Jewish Identity of Author Killed...
The author Irène Némirovsky, 15, with her mother.
By PATRICIA COHEN
Published: April 25, 2010
NEW YORK TIMES
The first novel of Irène Némirovsky’s that most people read was the last one she wrote. Némirovsky, the Russian Jewish author, died at Auschwitz in 1942 at 39 after completing two parts of a five-part novel titled “Suite Française.” Secreted away in a trunk carried by Némirovsky’s...
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Shocking Research in Jewish Genetics →
USE THIS LINK TO SEE THIS SITE
Summary
Jewish Genetics: Abstracts and Summaries
A collection of abstracts and reviews of books, articles, and genetic studies
This site may be the most comprehensive summary of Jewish genetic data. In recent years, advances in genetic technology and the broadening in scope of genetic studies to encompass more ethnic groups have allowed scientists to come to...
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Russian Music Alive and Well in New York City
Anyone who goes to Europe, Asia or Africa will find that American pop music has traveled around the world. Due to marketing, it is likely that whatever is in the top 40 in New York or Chicago is a mega hit in Rome and Berlin as well.
Music is big business. It is not just a matter of transmitting cultural values. I have heard people sing songs in English without an accent who don’t speak a word...
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Ousted president quits Kyrgyzstan
By Tolkun Namatbayeva (AFP)
2 hours ago.
BISHKEK — Ousted Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev on Thursday resigned and left for neighbouring Kazakhstan, in a surprise move coordinated by Russia and the United States to ease flaring tensions, officials said.
Bakiyev made the dramatic exit by plane from his stronghold of Jalalabad in south Kyrgyzstan, the first time he had quit the country...
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Russian Radio 87.7 FM NYC Back On - Confirmed
Several members have reported that Russian Radio 87.7 FM NYC is back on the air.
So if you live in NYC tune in again, or try it for the first time.
Big thank you to Eric!
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Poland’s tragedy is our tragedy
By David A. Harris · April 12, 2010
NEW YORK (JTA) – When the plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and dozens of other officials crashed in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk, Russia on Saturday, this immense disaster was also a personal tragedy.
I lost friends in the crash that killed key leaders from the Polish government, economy, and military.
These friends represented...
10 tags
Russian Fashion Week
oneporktaco:
(images via from russia with fashion)
although the designer’s last name is somewhat in question (some have it spelled ‘rybalchenko’), we now have more pictures of the f/w 2010 collection to add to the one previously seen.
anyway, maria is a young designer and was able to participate in the shows with the help of a company called tissura, which as far as i can tell,...