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The bill would make it a crime, punishable by prison and a steep fine, to offend religious feelings.
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Police detained 10 women for donning prayer shawls at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Monday. They are part of the group Women of the Wall, which is fighting to worship in the same manner as men do at Judaism's holiest site.
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For two decades, Italian musicologist Francesco Lotoro has searched for and resurrected works of music written in World War II concentration, labor and POW camps. He wants to fill the hole the Holocaust left in Europe's musical history and document the triumph of creativity over brutality.
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The former Soviet citizens who flooded into Israel two decades ago have changed the country's demographics, helped strengthen the economy and played a significant role in the general rightward shift of the Israeli electorate.
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This past week, Google and the Israel Antiquities Authority posted thousands of high-resolution images of the Dead Sea Scrolls online. Now, anyone can get up-close and personal with the ancient biblical texts — rewrites and all.
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At the Cain and Abel School for Prophets, students learn to interpret dreams and divination. Rabbi Shmuel Fortman Hapartzi, the Tel Aviv school's founder, says everyone in his class, himself included, is in the beginning stages of reaching enlightenment. But critics say Fortman is trying to profit from the prophet business.
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Raised as Christians, they say their ancestors were Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain more than 500 years ago; they now practice Orthodox Judaism. Similar cases have turned up in other countries in recent years.
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The country's ultra-Orthodox Jews control kosher certification, but some restaurants are raising objections and forming their own rival certification association. The dispute is part of a wider debate over how Israel should manage the relationship between church and state.
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At one synagogue in Moscow, Hasidic Jews have been working for years to rebuild their numbers. For some, including the rabbi, it has largely been a self-guided journey.
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For decades, the Palestinians have urged foreign Muslims to boycott one of the holiest sites in Islam, the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. But now, Palestinian religious figures are encouraging such visits, saying they could highlight Palestinian claims in their feud with Israel.