Biblical Twins

Twins have long been a source of great fascination for many, as demonstrated by the vast number of studies and stories that have used twins as their subject. Twins, however, do not seem…

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Joe DiMaggio and the Jews

Joe DiMaggio, considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time, was born on November 25, 1914. “Joltin’ Joe,” as he was known, played his entire thirteen-year career, from 1936…

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Toledot 5780-2019

“A Lesson from Jacob and Esau: Understanding and Accepting Differences” (Updated and revised from Toledot 5760-1999)   by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald   In this week’s parasha,…

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Who Was Hagar?

Stating simply that Hagar was the second wife of Abraham and the mother of Ishmael simplifies an incredibly complex character whose emotions and motivations are fleshed out in the Oral…

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World Hello Day

In 1973, Brian and Michael McCormack created World Hello Day as a reaction to the Yom Kippur War. College students at the time, the brothers started a campaign encouraging people to…

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Soles and Souls on the Danube

The Danube River is closely identified with the city through which it runs, Budapest, Hungary. Yet that river was defiled in late 1944. On March 19, 1944, the German army conquered…

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Chaim Weizmann

Many of the greatest names in Israeli history belong to leaders of military battles and to eloquent spokespersons who rallied the Jewish people to fight for a modern homeland. Chaim…

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Yiddishisms

On November 18, 2013, NASA launched an atmospheric probe to Mars, which initiated the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission. Its mission was to gather data to determine why…

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Can’t We Agree on the Blessings over Brit Milah?

Parashat Vayera contains the story of the circumcision of Isaac (Genesis 21:4), the first person to undergo the ritual of circumcision on the eighth day of life. At a Brit Milah, the…

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Operation Magic Carpet

A decade ago, the Wall Street Journal reported on the involvement of the United States’ government in a mission that brought approximately 100 Yemenite Jews to America, a little…

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