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Cross-Post, February 13th 2012, 6:00 am This is a cross post from Devil's Avocado Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (one of only three accomplishments that the great Enlightenment figure wished engraved on his epitaph), wrote in hisNotes on the State of Virginia the following limpid statement of an elementary principle: "Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors?

The Haredi Stance By Avi Shafran After Amsterdam's chief rabbi was suspended for claiming that homosexuality is ‘treatable,' Agudath Israel's Avi Shafran explains ultra-Orthodoxy's hard line on homosexual contact. By Nathan Guttman A recent meeting between American Jewry's main umbrella group, the Presidents Conference, and a controversial European Jewish union is causing a row on two continents.

Alan Gross, the American Jewish contractor jailed in Cuba, has maintained for more than two years that he was guilty of nothing more than naiveté when he smuggled contraband electronic equipment into the communist nation.

February 2, 2012 10:55 AM ET A candlelight vigil in Minneapolis for the victims of gay bullying. © Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Minneapolis Star Tribune/ZUMApress.com Every morning, Brittany Geldert stepped off the bus and bolted through the double doors of Fred Moore Middle School, her nerves already on high alert, bracing for the inevitable.

Gene, February 15th 2012, 3:54 pm First there were the botched attacks in New Delhi, Tbilisi and Bangkok. Now this photo has emerged from a pro-Iranian regime demonstration in Tehran: The state sponsored slogan is Ayatollah Khomeini's famous saying "America can not do a damn thing" but on the 33rd anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, the slogan is translated as ‘America Can Do No Wrong' The local Baseej must have used Google translator.

From time to time I like to dig into my past on the Internet, as many of us do. Sometimes I go digging for details from my old yeshiva in Baltimore, which is difficult, because it doesn't have much of what you might call a web presence.

The top award of the highly coveted Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature 2012 has gone to Gal Beckerman, the Forward's opinion editor and author of the universally acclaimed "When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry."

While dozens of demonstrators from Sunday's demo still detained in police cells and more than 30 town halls and local government buildings are occupied by protesters, desperation continues. 2 workers of the Organisation for Council Estates (OEK), are at the moment on the roof of the Organisation's building and are threatening to jump on the ground.

Henrique Cymerman, a veteran Middle East correspondent and television interviewer, whose objectivity and journalistic skill enable him to report the news in a way that presents a positive image of Israel and Jews to audiences around the world, was honored today with the Anti-Defamation Leagues (ADL) prestigious ADL Daniel Pearl Award.

According to a new research study by the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College, the people who are most satisfied with their jobs are older employees – those age 50 and up. The most dissatisfied? Those between the ages of 30 and 39. ...

Kind of Bloop is available for digital download in high-quality MP3 and FLAC format for $5.00, cheap. Read more about the project on Waxy.org or contact me with your questions or problems.

Several years ago, Sheldon Adelson-the gaming megabillionaire who has on occasion introduced himself as "the richest Jew in the world," and who adores Israel-decided that he wanted to oust the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and install Bibi Netanyahu in his place.

This is the third in a series of excerpts from Robert Walser's Berlin Stories, which have been translated into English for the first time by Susan Bernofsky, and just published in a new edition by New York Review Classics. The other pieces in the series can be found here and here.

(JTA) -- The owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times has resigned and is seeking a buyer in the wake of a column he wrote speculating that Israel would consider assassinating President Obama.

The other day, when I was listing some positive things about Mitt Romney, I forgot to include an important one: through his candidacy and his background at Bain Capital, he has helped to stimulate a growing debate about equity, inequality, and who gets what in today's economy.

Our apologies to visitors who wanted to read our blog on the London teenager who was evicted from home, but the man's partner has requested that the piece be removed. While anonymity has been fully respected it was agreed that the potential interest in this very sad situation might not be helpful to a resolution of the personal issues involved.