When Mozambique's President Daniel Chapo attended the 100th anniversary celebration of the country's only synagogue this past June, he was honoring an institution that had been shuttered under his own party's rule.

Chapo belongs to Frelimo, the party that has governed Mozambique since independence in 1975. Under its Marxist leadership, religious practice was restricted, the synagogue ceased functioning and the building became a Red Cross warehouse.

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On August 14, 1776, the South Carolina and American General Gazette in Charleston published two remarkable items on the same page.

One was the Declaration of Independence. The other was an account of the death of Francis Salvador, a 29-year-old Jewish patriot who had been killed fighting for the American cause just two weeks earlier.

Born in London in 1747, Salvador belonged to one of England's most prominent Sephardi Jewish families. His ancestors had fled religious persecution in Portugal, settling first in Holland before establishing themselves in Britain.

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Barack Obama has apparently discovered a new historical crime: the Jewish people stole their own homeland.

That, at least, is the impression left by his latest attempt to rewrite Middle Eastern history.

Speaking in Belfast on October 13, the former American president managed to turn the Jewish people's return to the Land of Israel into a story of persecuted European Jews who sought refuge, took Palestinian land, and provoked an understandable demand to get it back.

Never mind 3,000 years of Jewish history, two Temples in Jerusalem, or centuries of Jewish longing for Zion. In Obama's telling, the Jews somehow became interlopers in the very land where their national story began.

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This week's Parsha begins with Hashem's command to Avraham: "Lech Lecha - go forth from your land, from your birthplace and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you" (Genesis 12:1).

But there is something unusual about the words "Lech Lecha."

Why doesn't the Torah simply say "Lech," meaning "go"? What does the additional word "Lecha" teach us?

Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, 1040-1105) explains that the words mean "for your benefit and for your good." Although Avraham was being asked to make an enormous sacrifice, Hashem was assuring him that the journey would ultimately be to his advantage.

Yet there is a difficulty with this explanation.

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On July 4, 1776, just hours after declaring independence from Great Britain, the Continental Congress turned its attention to another important task: designing an official seal for the new nation.

A committee was appointed to come up with a suitable emblem. Its three members were Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, some of the most prominent figures in the American Revolution.

Franklin wanted the seal to depict Moses standing at the Red Sea, raising his staff as the waters parted and Pharaoh's army was swallowed by the waves.

Jefferson suggested an image of the Israelites wandering through the wilderness, guided by a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night.

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