London music festival canceled after UK bars Ye’s entry amid pressure from Jewish groups

London’s Wireless Festival has been canceled after the British government denied entry to Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, following mounting pressure from Jewish groups over his history of antisemitic remarks. The organizers of the popular three-day festival confirmed its cancellation in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, writing that the British […]

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Mordecai Kaplan wanted Jews to choose Judaism. Why they didn’t was the bane of his life. 

Reconstructionist Judaism, wrote the Jewish sociologist Charles Liebman almost 60 years ago, “comes closer than any other movement or school of thought to articulating the meaning of Judaism for American Jews.” By emphasizing belonging over rote observance, personal fulfillment over inherited obligation, and Jewish “civilization” over theology, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan’s brainchild seemed poised to capture […]

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Romania’s secret police trailed a Jewish photographer. Decades later, their files have become a film.

BERLIN — He had wild hair and wore jeans. He was American — and Jewish. He had a camera. That was enough to trigger surveillance by the notorious secret police of communist Romania, the Securitate. Now, 41 years after photojournalist Edward Serotta boldly stepped behind the Iron Curtain, we can see just how obsessed the Romanians […]

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In Broadway’s ‘Giant,’ Roald Dahl is a warped messenger for a vital debate about Israel 

Roald Dahl is a terrible messenger for a serious conversation about Jews and Israel. Which is part of what makes “Giant,” the new Broadway play about the beloved children’s author’s 1983 antisemitic outbursts, so unsettling. The play asks urgent, complicated questions about Israel, Jewish solidarity and Diaspora responsibility — but it puts them in the […]

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