Rep. Michael McCaul leaves the Capitol, April 27, 2018. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rep. Michael McCaul wants Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to know he has his back when it comes to Israel’s demand that Iran leaves Syria for good. “If it’s not good enough for Israel, it’s not good enough for me,” said McCaul, the Texas Republican who… Read more »
The kids at the St. Louis camp spend most of their time playing soccer or doing arts and crafts. (Courtesy of St. Louis JCRC)
(JTA) — When he signed up to be a counselor at a Jewish-run summer camp for refugee children, Isaac Eastlund expected to confront trauma. Instead, when he would come up to his campers, a couple months or years removed from fleeing Afghanistan or the Democratic Republic of the Congo,… Read more »
Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his platform would not remove content denying the Holocaust, but that the content would be less likely to show up in someone’s news feed. The Lawfare Project filed takedown notices this week against Facebook posts denying the Holocaust and containing anti-Semitic material,… Read more »
Richard Spencer at a press conference at the University of Florida, in Gainesville, Oct. 19, 2017. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — On Sunday, Aug. 12, Unite the Right, the agglomeration of far-right groups that organized the deadly Charlottesville, Virginia, rally last year, hopes to meet there again on its anniversary. Likely missing from the 2018 rally, if courts allow it to take place: armed individuals and groups, by… Read more »
A column in Teen Vogue unflatteringly compares policing of minority communities in the United States and Israel. (Lily Hong/Flickr)
(JTA) – Once a must-read for young fashonistas, Teen Vogue in 2016 expanded its coverage, shifting the magazine more aggressively into “covering politics, feminism, identity and activism” from an apparently liberal lens. Now, among articles on makeup, celebrities and clothing trends, Teen Vogue would like to give Israel a… Read more »
Steven Skybell, center, as Tevye and ensemble in the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene's Production of "Fiddler on the Roof." (Victor Nechay/ProperPix)
NEW YORK (JTA) — The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s new production of “Fiddler on the Roof” enacts a familiar story in an unfamiliar language. The actors sing about joy and hardship, and argue about the importance of tradition, in the language their characters would have spoken in the Old… Read more »
Orny Adams is headlining the "Ethnic Show" at Montreal's prestigious Just For Laughs festival. (Courtesy of Just For Laughs)
(JTA) — Despite a career of more than two decades kvetching incessantly about life’s absurd little annoyances, comedian and actor Orny Adams insists he’s an optimist who’s always been an early riser, eager to tackle anything that confronts him. “When I wake up,” he says, “I find myself to… Read more »
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the F8 Facebook Developers conference in San Jose, Calif., May 1, 2018. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Mark Zuckerberg says he wants to give everyone in the world a voice. But what happens when some of those wishing a voice are Holocaust deniers? That question was posed to the Facebook founder in an interview Wednesday with Recode, a tech news site, about the social… Read more »
Rabbi Georgette Kennebrae grew up in a military family that moved between Japan and Oklahoma. (Josefin Dolsten)
NEW YORK (JTA) — As a Jew of color, Rabbi Georgette Kennebrae has had her fair share of experiences that have made her feel less than welcome in the Jewish community. People sometimes assume that she is a member of the synagogue janitorial staff rather than the rabbi. Sometimes when… Read more »
Isaac Shapiro, now 87, lives in New York. (Ben Sales)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Growing up in Imperial Japan during World War II, Isaac Shapiro’s best friend was a member of the Hitler Youth. The friend wore the organization’s brown shirt uniform to their international school every day, but not because he wanted to — he was German and Japan… Read more »
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a joint news conference following their summit in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The media, Congress, the international community — just about everybody is reeling after the joint news conference on Monday in Helsinki bringing together President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Among other remarkable declarations, Trump seemed to agree with Putin by doubting the U.S. intelligence… Read more »
Chicago's kosher restaurant scene could be getting a boost. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
This city’s kosher restaurant scene has long lagged behind other metropolises like New York and Los Angeles — but changes might be coming. A bold forthcoming restaurant, an authentic taqueria and reports that two established neighborhood eateries are looking to change hands are raising hope for kosher diners who… Read more »
Draymond Green, right, shown before a playoff game between his Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center in Houston, May 28, 2018. (Bob Levey/Getty Images)
NBA star Draymond Green on his recent visit to Israel got to meet the nation’s president and take some shooting practice — with guns, not basketballs — on a military base. Green’s visit, particularly his jovial use of Israeli military weaponry, prompted criticism from notable figures on the American… Read more »
Richard Siegel worked at the National Foundation for Jewish Culture for 28 years (HUC)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Richard Siegel, an educator who advocated for Jewish culture and arts and co-edited the seminal “Jewish Catalog” series of guides to “do-it-yourself” Judaism, died Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 70 and had been battling cancer for two years, according to a friend and colleague,… Read more »
Sacha Baron Cohen at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Calif., May 23, 2016. (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sacha Baron Cohen is back, and he is taking aim at a strain of “pro-Israel” thought that has both delighted and unsettled many American Jews: the unconditional love engendered by the country among deeply conservative Americans. In “Who is America?,” a show that made its debut… Read more »
Germany has agreed to increase its funding for social welfare services for Holocaust survivors by $88 million. The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany in its announcement Tuesday said the increase brings global allocations by Germany for 2019 to $564 million. The Claims Conference and representatives of the… Read more »
Aug. 16 will mark the 75th anniversary of the commissioning of the USS Intrepid, the World War II-era Essex class aircraft carrier that is now home to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City. To mark the occasion, the museum is putting out a coast-to-coast… Read more »
Brett Kavanaugh at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., the day after he was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, July 10, 2018. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(JTA) — President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, a Republican establishment favorite who has worked in the George W. Bush administration, has triggered reactions from Jewish groups ranging from furious to relieved. Progressive groups raised flags about the pick, saying Kavanaugh’s record shows he would… Read more »
Rachel Freier, center, is the protagonist of "93Queen." (Julieta Cervantes)
(JTA) — Like many heavily Orthodox sections of Brooklyn, Borough Park has been served for decades by an all-male volunteer ambulance corps called Hatzalah. The corps caters to a religious Jewish community with particular needs and customs — including one custom that can increase the tension for patients in already… Read more »
Benjamin Friedenberg, an Israeli filmmaker, interviews Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, July 5, 2018. (Natasha Kuperman)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg described how grateful she was for her Jewish heritage during a screening of a new documentary film about her life and career at the Jerusalem Cinematheque. “The demand for justice, peace and enlightenment runs through Jewish history and tradition,” she… Read more »
