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Synagogue, Developer At Odds Over Casino

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Amid Brouhaha Over IRS, Z Street Gets Its Day in Court

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ADL Regional Head to Retire at Year’s End

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Official Advice to J Streeters: Careful What You Say

By:

Bryan Schwartzman

Israel's consul general in Philadelphia has told local J Street supporters that as engaged Diaspora Jews, they have a right to voice criticism of Israeli policies -- but be careful what you say and how you say it. "Jews around the world not only have the right to express opinions on Jewish and Israeli matters" but "Israel has the duty...

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After 40 Years, Some New Lessons

By:

Rabbi Steve Stroiman

When a couple dozen former students and staff of the Jewish Educational Workshop convened recently for the 40th anniversary reunion of this innovative program for teens in the early 1970s, the words "profound influence" resonated throughout the room. What was it about this program, we asked ourselves as we reminisced and viewed slides of those years, that made such an...

Israel

Israel's Gay Outlook Gets a Hearing

By:

Deborah Hirsch

Israel has "never had 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' and we never will," Michael Oren, the country's ambassador to the United States, told a sold-out crowd of 500 people at an Equality Forum dinner at the National Museum of American Jewish History on Saturday. He went on to describe how the state intervened to make sure a gay pride parade would...

Local

Do the Jewish Streams Have a Future?

By:

Bryan Schwartzman

When more than 60 local rabbis from different streams got together last week to talk about the future of denominations, the result was less a discussion about the alphabet soup of organizations than about how to meet the spiritual needs of Jews. Titled "How Relevant are Denominations to 21st Century American Jews?" the Center City program illustrated the extent to...

Local

Washington Wrote Here

By:

Bryan Schwartzman

One of the most important documents in American Jewish history hasn't been seen by the public in a decade but will soon be displayed at the National Museum of American Jewish History. The Philadelphia museum is set, for a limited time, to feature the original, handwritten 1790 letter that President George Washington wrote -- or at least signed -- to...