Candidate Spotlight: Pete Buttigieg

This is a scenario some are now looking at, as Pete Buttigieg, even younger and less experienced than Obama was at the time, is having his moment. The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana is surging in Iowa, the first state to vote in February. He is now polling at 25 percent, leaving Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in a tight three-way race for second place.

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More Five Books

Moment received an overwhelming response to our Big Question, in which we asked a group of rabbis, scholars, educators, authors and artists: What are five must-read books to be an educated Jew? We have been flooded with so many requests for more that we decided to continue the project. Every week, Moment will bring you a new set of recommendations, each from a unique perspective.

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The Role of Orthodox Jews in Republican Politics

Orthodox Jews are Trump’s strongest—and only—reliable support base within the Jewish community. Polling shows that more than half of those identifying as Orthodox voted for Trump in 2016. The president also enjoys strong approval ratings within the Orthodox community since taking office. This unlikely political alliance, between a segment of the population focused on family values and religious insularity and the flamboyant New York businessman-turned-politician, has many explanations:

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Aid to Israel: Has J Street Changed the Game?

J Street, the left-leaning pro-Israel lobby, wrapped up its three-day conference in Washington, DC last week. In an email to supporters summing up the meeting (and making a pitch for donations), the group’s president Jeremy Ben-Ami announced, “We’ve changed the conversation” about Israel, noting that the conference brought the issue of Israel to the Democratic presidential race agenda and that candidates have discussed, among other issues, their plans to “employ U.S. leverage to combat settlement expansion.” Or, in other words, J Street made using American foreign aid to Israel into an issue Democrats are willing to fight for.

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Beshert | ‘April Fool’s!’—The Prank That Made Them Partners

We settled on his idea to prank mobile users into thinking they were getting a call from Ashton Kutcher himself. And for the next week or so, the two of us “partnered” on a project that would go on to garner media attention from national publications large and small; an April Fools’ Day prank that did, in fact, fool millions of people over the course of one, silly day that spring.

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