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Repeat Offender?

It cannot be said often enough: one of the many good things about Israel is its robust law enforcement system. Nobody is above the law here. Those convicted in years past include a former prime minister, a former president and several cabinet…
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Why No Elections Now?

The machinations of some of the leading politicians in Israel are sufficiently transparent to make it possible to draw one’s own conclusions irrespective of what they tell us. Thus, for example, Avigdor Lieberman’s decision to resign as…
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The Evet Effect

No sooner did Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision to agree on a ceasefire with Hamas become public - allegedly it was made out of fear that a full-scale war with the inevitable casualties would cost him many votes in the next general election…
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Jerusalem, Gaza – And Netanyahu

We had a second round of elections for mayor of Jerusalem. In the first round, none of the four candidates got the required minimum, so the two top contenders, Ofer Berkovitch and Moshe Lion, had to go for a second round. I voted for Berkovitch…
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Netanyahu, Submarines and Elections

Moshe Ya’alon, a former chief of staff who has also been Israel’s minister of defense, described it as “the largest, most serious corruption scandal in the history of the state.” He was referring to the intention of the police to indict…
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Municipal Elections in Israel: The Aftermath

Bad news for Netanyahu: Ze’ev Elkin, a member of the current Netanyahu government with special responsibilities for Jerusalem lost his bid to be the next mayor of the capital. His election posters showed him always with the prime minister.…
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Israeli Democracy Challenged

“Wie es sich christelt, so judelt es sich.” This phrase can perhaps best be paraphrased as, “the Christian effect on Jewish life,” which is also the title of an important work by Rabbi Dr. Michael Hilton of London. But the idea is much…
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The Pittsburgh Massacre

Jews all over the world are in shock: eleven worshippers in a Pittsburgh Conservative synagogue praising, thanking and petitioning God at a Shabbat morning service, were gunned down by an intruder with an anti-Semitic record who stated loudly…
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Non-Orthodox Religious Judaism on the Rise in Israel

In the closing decades of the last century, whenever Israeli politicians came to visit Reform congregations I served, we would quiz them about equal rights for non-Orthodox Jews in the Jewish state. The same would happen when groups of Reform…
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Elections in the Air

Elections are in the air in Israel. Though there’s as yet no date for when the country as a whole will go to the polls, municipal elections will be held at the end of this month. Their results won’t tell us too much about how the national…

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Founded in 1856, Holy Blossom Temple is Toronto’s first synagogue with a rich history of tradition and modernity in our religious and spiritual expression.

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