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JTA
EST 1917

Culture

One of the most famous Shabbat prayers–Nishmat Kol Chai (literally, “the soul of all that lives”)–might have actually been written by an apostle of Jesus. The oldest extant Ashkenazic siddur, the Mahzor Vitry, attributes Nishmat to “Simon Peter, the error of Rome,” who “established this prayer…when he was on the rock.” Puzzling? In his new book Why We Pray What We […]

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“There aren’t a lot of Jewish cowboys,” says 52-year-old Scott Gerber. In the 1940s, his uncle Sol moved from Chicago to California, and worked along with other family members as a chicken rancher. They were progressives and workers’-rights activists…and they were cowboys. Today, Scott keeps up the tradition. He sings Yiddish songs and plays country guitar. And he tends […]

Starting in 1975, Debbie Peagler was prostituted, controlled, and repeatedly beaten by Oliver Wilson. Eight years later, she finally managed to escape from him, by convincing two gang members to kill him. In 1984, nine-year-old Joshua Safran witnessed his mother horribly beaten by her husband. Eighteen years later, in 2002, Safran– an Orthodox Jew and a lawyer–agrees to represent Peagler. […]

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