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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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Israeli Grads of RRC Hope to Take Ideas Back Home

By:

Bryan Schwartzman

Is it more difficult to find work as a Reconstructionist rabbi in Israel than the United States? Sitting in a Mount Airy cafe, just days away from graduation, 32-year-old Ela Merom pauses in disbelief. Then, for good measure, she rolls her eyes a bit. "Of course," she answers at last. While the movement founded in the 1960s by the disciples...

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Toomey, in Israel, Sees Security Needs Up Close

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu less than two weeks after the premier -- and many in the pro-Israel community -- vociferously objected to President Barack Obama's call to base Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on the 1967 borders, with mutually agreed upon land swaps. But speaking with reporters last week, a day after returning from Israel,...

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Group Plans Fundraiser to Try to Rescue Stiffel

By:

Bryan Schwartzman

The Stiffel Senior Center in South Philadelphia may be slated to close, but that's not stopping a group calling itself Save Our Stiffel from trying to raise enough money to keep the place open. "Everybody thinks it's a done deal," lamented Laurel Katz, the South Philadelphia resident organizing the group of about 30 volunteers and supporters of the center. But...

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Championship Wrestler Speaks of Abiding Love for the Sport

By:

Deborah Hirsch

Standing with his arms crossed, Zion Bakshi gazed at a collage of photos and clippings harkening back to his life as a wrestling champion. Back then, more than 50 years ago, wrestling in Israel didn't pay the bills, so he traded in his beloved sport to study engineering in Philadelphia. But the 75-year-old Center City resident still mulls over his...

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Israel Advocacy Group Outlines Objectives

The first meeting of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia's Israel Action Coalition passed without a hitch, bringing together activists from across the political spectrum. Some 120 local activists came to the June 7 meeting, representing a true cross-section of the community that included rabbis of different streams as well as members of both J Street and the Zionist Organization...