Cities of Light: Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain

Michelle Goldberg Explains Why Jews “Recoil from the GOP” | NJDC Blog. Newsweek’s Michelle Goldberg published an article today in Tablet detailing why today’s Republican Party repels a majority of American Jews. In the article, Goldberg explained that the Republican Party’s coziness with radical Christian factions makes Jews uneasy. She criticized Republican claims that Jews are leaving the Democratic Party as one of the “perennial canards of American political commentary.” Using historical facts about Jewish voting patterns, she emphasized that the majority of Jewish voters are unlikely to vote Republican because many in the GOP define America as a Christian…

Hebrew Is the Focus of a Brooklyn Charter School – NYTimes.com. Every so often, Aalim Moody, 5, and his twin sister, Aalima, break into a kind of secret code, chatting in a language their father does not understand.  Walking along Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, they make out the lettering on kosher food shops and yeshiva buses, showing off all they learn at the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School in Midwood, where they both attend kindergarten.  …  Aalim and Aalima are not Jewish. They worship at a mosque affiliated with the Nation of Islam. But at the Hebrew Language Academy, they…