The Jewish Week | National News

An Obama campaign worker at the newly opened headquarters in Boca Raton.
Obama’s Florida Supporters
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 | Stewart Ain | Staff Writer

Boca Raton, Fla. — Amid the political drubbing of President Barack Obama in the Republican presidential candidates’ debates and in campaign television commercials here, the local Obama For America campaign headquarters opened in this Broward County city Saturday evening with balloons, pizzas and assorted desserts.

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Arkansas Federation To Honor President Clinton
Tuesday, January 31, 2012

NEW YORK (JTA) – President Bill Clinton will receive the Tikkun Olam Lifetime Achievement Award of the Jewish Federation of Arkansas.

The federation made the announcement Monday and will bestow the honor at a Feb. 4 ceremony in Little Rock marking its 100th anniversary celebration dinner.

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Arkansas Federation To Honor President Clinton
Tuesday, January 31, 2012

NEW YORK (JTA) – President Bill Clinton will receive the Tikkun Olam Lifetime Achievement Award of the Jewish Federation of Arkansas.

The federation made the announcement Monday and will bestow the honor at a Feb. 4 ceremony in Little Rock marking its 100th anniversary celebration dinner.

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Mitt Romney, left, and Newt Gingrich at recent debate. getty images
Gingrich ‘Baggage’ Loaded For Florida GOP Jews
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 | Stewart Ain | Staff Writer

Delray Beach, Fla. — In the heart of Jewish South Florida — Boca Raton — on the eve of the crucial Florida primary, Audrey Atlas was channeling Republican voters everywhere.

A former Democrat who admits she has become more conservative in recent years, Atlas, 70, is so fed up with President Barack Obama (“he’s too left wing”) that she switched her party affiliation in December in order to vote in Tuesday’s Republican-only primary.

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Alleged N.J. Synagogue Attacker Facing New Charges
Monday, January 30, 2012

(JTA) -- The 19-year-old man charged in attacks on two northern New Jersey synagogues allegedly planned to attack another nearby synagogue.

Anthony Graziano of Lodi, N.J., who has pleaded not guilty to the two attacks, allegedly hid Molotov cocktails and a bicycle in the woods near the Jewish Community Center of Paramus with plans for an attack on Jan. 7.

The Bergen County prosecutor on Jan. 27 added charges of aggravated arson and bias intimidation for the planned attack.

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Synagogue Solicits Mel Gibson
Monday, January 30, 2012

(JTA) -- A California synagogue asked movie star Mel Gibson for a donation, suggesting it would remedy his reputation regarding Jews.

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Orthodox Groups Protest Federal Decision On Contraception
Friday, January 27, 2012

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Two Orthodox groups protested the Obama administration’s decision to require some religiously affiliated institutions to cover contraception as part of their employee health plans.

The Orthodox Union on Tuesday and Agudath Israel of America on Wednesday released statements criticizing the Jan. 20 announcement by the secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius.

Under the Affordable Care Act, employer-provided health insurance plans are required to include contraception and related “preventive” services for employees.

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Obama A Clear And Present Danger?
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 | Uriel Heilman / JTA

When news outlets began reporting last Friday that the owner of the Atlanta Jewish Times had published an opinion column seemingly suggesting that Israel might be wise to assassinate President Barack Obama, condemnations rained from every corner of the organized Jewish community, and by Monday, the publisher announced that he was resigning his position and putting up his newspaper for sale.

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Mitt Romney, left, and Newt Gingrich at recent debate. getty images
Florida GOP Jews Seen Up In Air As Gingrich Surges
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 | Stewart Ain | Staff Writer

More than 500 Jewish Republicans have signed up to hear Newt Gingrich Friday in Delray Beach, Fla., as they seek to make up their minds ahead of Tuesday’s Florida Republican presidential primary.

“This is our coming out,” said Sid Dinerstein, chairman of the West Palm Beach Republican Party. “We’ve never had 500 of us in the same place. We are getting noisy and don’t care so much anymore that the liberals won’t be our friends unless we sell out our grandchildren and Israel.”

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A counseling session. JTS rabbinical students will now have 400 hours of such fieldwork.
Pastoral Education Edges Into Mainstream
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 | Doug Chandler | Jewish Week Correspondent

Rabbi Mychal Springer, director of the Center for Pastoral Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, recalls the days 20 years ago when she first began studying the field. Her first two clinical supervisors were both nuns, she says, reflecting the field’s roots in Christian theology.

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