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Sundown: 15 Years of Jordan Peace

Plus a rabbi’s odd crime, Ivanka’s wedding tchotchkes, and more

by
Hadara Graubart
October 27, 2009

• Yesterday, President Barack Obama celebrated the 15-year anniversary of peace between Israel and Jordan; Jordanians, on the other hand, seem to have lost the “spirit of cooperation” for which he praised their leader: protesters there “called for the treaty to be annulled, while newspapers across Jordan described the peace as ‘frigid.’” [JTA]
• The case of a London Jewish school that refused to admit a boy whose mother had a non-Orthodox conversion has gone to that country’s Supreme Court and raised questions of religion versus ethnicity that may affect other faith schools. [BBC]
• In a strange case reported by website Vos iz Neais, an Israeli journalist has accused the chief rabbi of Turkey of desecrating ancient cemeteries in Istanbul. Maybe he’s greedy for the souls of his heroes: “In some cases gravestones of halacha giants have vanished inexplicably,” says VIN. [VIN]
• Among the less-than-thrilling details of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s Jewish wedding, according to the New York Post: “Gifts for guests included a book in Hebrew and a pair of small white flip-flops with the tag: ‘Ivanka and Jared—what a pair.’” [NYP]
• Tablet Magazine columnist Etgar Keret will be talking to This American Life’s Ira Glass live at the New York Public Library tomorrow; it’s sure to be weird and insightful. [NYPL]

Hadara Graubart was formerly a writer and editor for Tablet Magazine.