National

NEW YORK (JTA) — This may be hard to remember, but three years ago it was a big deal when Bernie Sanders criticized Israel in public. During a debate in New York City with Hillary Clinton, Sanders generated headlines when he said the United States should care about Palestinian… Read more »

(JTA) — Bernie Sanders officially launched his second campaign for president. The Vermont senator’s 2020 campaign launched on Tuesday morning with an email to supporters and a tweet that included a nearly 2-minute video and a request for support. “I’m running for president. I am asking you to join me… Read more »

JTA — A YouTube personality was shot outside of a synagogue and Jewish school in Los Angeles by a security guard who said the shot was meant to be a warning. Zhoie Perez, 45, a transgender free speech activist with a following in the thousands, was shot Thursday outside… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump called on Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., to resign from Congress for what he said was her anti-Semitism. “It’s terrible what she said and I think she should either resign from Congress, or she should certainly resign from the House Foreign Affairs Committee,” Trump… Read more »

(JTA) — Vice President Mike Pence will visit Auschwitz, his first visit to the Nazi death camp in Poland. Pence will visit the site on Friday with Polish President Andrzej Duda, The Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing a senior White House official. The vice president will be in Warsaw… Read more »

(JTA) — “I was the hairy Jewish monkey in a sea of blond kids.” That’s not Seth Rogen or Jonah Hill — it’s Sarah Silverman talking about her upbringing in Bedford, New Hampshire, on an upcoming episode of  “Finding Your Roots,” the celebrity genealogy show on PBS. Bedford, the… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar started a firestorm by saying on Twitter that AIPAC pays lawmakers to support Israel. Both Democrats and Republicans have offered sharp rebukes, accusing the Minnesota Democrat of insinuating that Jews use money to get what they want. (On Monday afternoon, she said… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rep. Ilhan Omar apologized for saying that AIPAC buys politicians’ support of Israel after the Democratic leadership called for an apology. “Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes,” the freshman… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Days after a series of apologies for an old tweet seen as echoing anti-Semitic themes, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said the American Israel Public Affairs Committee paid politicians to be pro-Israel, a falsehood that drew immediate rebukes. On Sunday Omar responded on Twitter to a threat two… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. Senate approved in a 77-23 vote a bill that codifies $38 billion in defense assistance to Israel and which provides legal cover to states that target the boycott Israel movement. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., had… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Elan Carr’s career until now has been equal parts prosecutor, policy wonk, politico and performance artist. That makes him perfect for his new job as the State Department’s special envoy to monitor anti-Semitism, according to people most familiar with his appointment, which was made public on… Read more »

(JTA) — The United States will buy at least two batteries of the Iron Dome short-range missile defense systems from Israel. Israel’s Defense Ministry announced Wednesday that the U.S. military will purchase the system from its developer, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., under an agreement between the ministry and the U.S.… Read more »

(JTA) – Police in Rochester, New York, arrested four young men last month before they could commit a terror attack against the small Muslim town of Islamberg. The men were armed with dozens of guns and several explosives. Preventing the assault, however, hardly alleviated the fears of residents, who have… Read more »

This article originally appeared on Alma. A typical Friday night for me used to consist of cooking myself a nicer than usual dinner and lighting the Shabbat candles alone before proceeding on as if it were any other night. Maybe I would relax by re-watching “Broad City” or going out… Read more »

(JTA) — To the many colleagues and supporters of Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, who died Wednesday at the age of 67, he was a man of vision whose enormous drive to succeed both facilitated and complicated his relentless efforts on behalf of the Jewish people. As head of the International Fellowship… Read more »

(JTA) — Swastikas were spray-painted on the inside and outside of a suburban Atlanta public high school. The blue swastikas were painted on the outside of the Centennial High in Roswell, Georgia, the Atlanta Jewish Times and other local publications reported. School employees discovered the vandalism when they arrived… Read more »

(JTA) — A yeshiva in upstate New York was set on fire and swastikas were spray painted on the building. The incident at the Yeshiva Deah Yoreh, located on a former farm in White Sulphur Springs, occurred on Jan. 28 but was first reported by the Rockland/Westchester Journal News… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The race for the Democratic presidential nomination is starting to look like a CNN panel — more people fit than you think possible. Up next is Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. She’s committed to bipartisanship, close to Republicans like her late Senate colleague John McCain from Arizona… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A bipartisan slate of House members introduced a bill that would grant money to Holocaust education in schools. The Never Again Education Act would establish the Holocaust Education Assistance Program Fund in the U.S. Treasury. The bill would combine appropriated funds and private donations. A release… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump linked his actions on Iran to the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, pivoting during his State of the Union address from his decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal to a declaration that anti-Semitism must be confronted “anywhere and everywhere it occurs.” Trump… Read more »