Yearly Archives 2015

When it comes to Jewish ties, no GOP candidate trumps Trump
August 10, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Among the expansive field of 2016 Republican presidential candidates on display in the party’s first debates, Donald Trump may be the most closely connected to the Jewish people. Trump is from New York, works in professions saturated with Jews and long has been a vocal supporter of… Read more »

Off the path: Ex-Hasid’s memoirs shine a spotlight on Faigy Mayer’s world

Author Judy Brown explores growing up in a haredi Orthodox community with an autistic brother in her new memoir, "This Is Not a Love Story." (Avi Burstein)
August 10, 2015 / Judy Bolton-Fasman, JTA

(JTA) — In recent years, a spate of memoirs have been written by those who have left haredi Orthodox Judaism. Titles that have had mainstream publishing success include books by Shulem Deen (“All Who Go Do Not Return”), Deborah Feldman (“Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots”) and Leah… Read more »

Actor Jason Segel opens up about childhood as Jewish outsider
August 8, 2015 / Andrew Tobin, JTA
Jason Segel visits "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" in New York City, July 29, 2015. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Actor Jason Segel — best known as the star of  “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “How I Met Your Mother” — opened up on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast this week about growing up with one Jewish parent and as a complete outsider. Segel sat down for the July 27… Read more »

For French Jews, resort town of Deauville doubles as a safe haven

The entrance to the main boardwalk of the Deauville beach, July 24, 2015. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
August 7, 2015 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

DEAUVILLE, France (JTA) – This seaside community situated 125 miles west of Paris boasts windswept beaches, turquoise-water marinas, a grand casino, a race track and an Olympic-size swimming pool. Deauville, spanning 2.2 square miles, also has five kosher restaurants, three main synagogues and more than 20 smaller Jewish congregations.… Read more »

In Jennifer Weiner’s hit novels, it’s a (Jewish) woman’s world
August 7, 2015 / Suzanne Pollak, Washington Jewish Week via JTA

(Washington Jewish Week via JTA) — Jennifer Weiner wasn’t funny during our telephone interview, and she never once asked me about my weight. Could the author of a dozen very popular — pardon the phrase — “chick lit” novels not be the embodiment of the characters in her clearly… Read more »

What it means to be a Jewish family in rural Maine
August 6, 2015 / Courtney Naliboff, Kveller via JTA

(Kveller via JTA) — For many Jewish parents, the challenges they face raising their children include choosing between Jewish and public schools, planning bar and bat mitzvahs, and staying sane while planning big Shabbat dinners. But for parents raising Jewish children in rural areas like me, without a cohesive community… Read more »

The surprising Jewish history of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
August 6, 2015 / Jacob Kaplan, Jewniverse via JTA

(Jewniverse via JTA) — Jews from Denmark first arrived on the white beaches of what is now St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands — a tiny speck off the coast of Puerto Rico — in the mid-17th century. These were descendants of a Jewish population that had fled Spain for… Read more »

In pivot, Egyptians and their leaders are warming to Jews, Israel

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, center, meeting a six-person delegation from the American Jewish Committee, July 2015. (Courtesy of Ken Bandler)
August 5, 2015 / Jacob Wirtschafter, JTA

CAIRO (JTA) — It’s been a particularly challenging summer for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi. Within one week in late June and early July, his attorney general was assassinated in the upscale Cairo suburb of Heliopolis and an Islamic State affiliate launched a two-day siege in the North Sinai town of Sheikh… Read more »

What can Iran hide in 24 days? Answering the questions posed by the nuclear deal

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, left, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee about the Iran nuclear deal, July 29, 2015. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
August 5, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

  WASHINGTON (JTA) – Congress has until mid- to late September to consider whether to reject the nuclear restrictions for the sanctions rollback deal reached by Iran and six major powers on July 14. Some of the debate is over the meaning of certain provisions in the accord. Here’s a breakdown… Read more »

Does Israel give Jewish extremists a pass on violence against Arabs?

Family members of Ali Saad Dawabsheh outside their home in a West Bank Palestinian village after an arson attack that killed the 18-month-old boy, July 31, 2015. Jewish extremists are suspected of setting the fire. (Oren Ziv/Getty Images)
August 5, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

(JTA) – There are some striking similarities between last week’s arson attack on a Palestinian home that killed an 18-month-old boy and last summer’s kidnapping and immolation of a 16-year-old Palestinian, Mohammed Abu Khdeir. Then, as now, Jewish extremists were the prime suspects in the attack. Then, as now, the murder… Read more »

Op-Ed: Israel must confront the fundamentalists within

Israelis participating in a memorial service in Jerusalem for Shira Banki, who was fatally wounded in an attack at Jerusalem’s gay pride parade, Aug. 2, 2015. (Garrett Mills/Flash90)
August 4, 2015 / Aaron Panken, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — This past month, as our attention was focused on watching the developing Iran deal, the situation in Israel has taken a deeply troubling turn. First, a woman wearing a kippah was detained by the police for attempting to worship at the Western Wall. Then David Azoulay,… Read more »

A year after Gaza war, border communities are growing

Children in the southern Israeli kibbutz of Nahal Oz playing near a colorfully painted concrete shelter, July 6, 2015. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
August 4, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Few communities were as battered during last summer’s conflict between Israel and Hamas as Nahal Oz, a kibbutz of some 350 people located just a mile from the Gaza border. At one point in the fighting, 40 missiles landed on the community in a single… Read more »

Blog: White House briefing of AIPAC activists ends in communication breakdown
August 4, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

  (JTA) — Got questions about the Iran nuclear deal? Too bad, if you were an AIPAC activist at a briefing this week with top Obama administration officials. At the briefing Wednesday, Howard Kohr, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s director, stopped the proceedings before his activists could ask questions. The… Read more »

Jerusalem Pride Parade murder sparks calls for change to laws — and pushback, too

Some of the participants mourning at a Jerusalem vigil for Shira Banki, the teenager who died three days after being stabbed at the Jerusalem gay pride parade, Aug. 2, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
August 4, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) — The murder of a 16-year old girl at Jerusalem’s gay pride parade has sparked calls for LGBT-rights legislation — as well as pushback from those who oppose it. Shira Banki died Sunday after being stabbed while marching in the parade on Thursday night. Five others were wounded… Read more »

Get your kosher dogs at Dodger Stadium!
August 3, 2015 / Lisa Keys, JTA

(JTA) — The Los Angeles Dodgers may never achieve the lore of their brethren in Brooklyn, but now at least they’ve brought a bit of Brooklyn to the West Coast — in the form of hot dogs. Earlier this week, Dodger Stadium opened its first kosher hot dog stand,… Read more »

How music and meditation jazzed up Jewish life on N.Y.’s Fire Island
August 3, 2015 / Batya Ungar-Sargon, JTA

(JTA) — It was Friday evening and the cantor, wearing a leopard-print top and gladiator sandals — including one with a with a tambourine affixed to it — greeted the congregants at Shabbat services with a smile. She encouraged them to pick up the percussion instruments left on the… Read more »

After Palestinian baby’s death, Israelis say condemnation not enough

Tali Mizrahi, a member of the anti-racism group Light Tag, visiting the home of a Palestinian baby allegedly killed by Jewish arsonists. (Ben Sales)
August 3, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

DUMA, West Bank (JTA) — The smell of stale smoke wafted from the burnt concrete home now marked by a banner bearing the grinning face of a baby and, in bold red letters, a name: Ali Saad Dawabsha. Some 100 Jewish visitors trudged hesitantly under the banner and into the… Read more »