Walter Feiger
As a boy in Poland, Walter Feiger cherished a book about Buffalo Bill; when he first visited Tucson in 1970, he said, “That’s buffalo country!” Feiger, who survived a ghetto and several concentration camps, has been telling his story to local school and law enforcement groups since the 1980s.… Read more »
Annique Dveirin lights a candle with her granddaughter, Haley Dveirin, at the Tucson Jewish community Yom HaShoah commemoration in 2017.
(Keith Dveirin)
Never Again, Annique Dveirin. A signature. A statement. And all because she wants hate to cease to exist in this world. Even though she was only 4 years old when she was hidden with a Christian family in Poland, Dveirin was made painfully aware of the terrors of the… Read more »
A homeless man pleaded guilty to burning down a historic Minnesota synagogue earlier this month. Prosecutors have indicated that they intend to ask for probation for Matthew James Amiot, 36, The Associated Press reported. He could have faced a maximum of three years in prison. Amiot pleaded guilty to… Read more »
The first Arab to visit the International Space Station launched there on Wednesday with the daughter of an Israeli father. Hazzaa al-Mansoori, 35, of the United Arab Emirates and Jessica Meir, an American, took off on the historic trip from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on a Soyuz rocket. They will remain… Read more »
PARIS - MARCH 11: French President Jacques Chirac attends a media conference for Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei (not shown) in the courtyard of the Elysee Palace March 11, 2004 in Paris, France. Prime Minister Qurei is on an official visit to Paris. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
VIENNA, Austria (JTA) — Jacques Chirac, the former French president who died on September 26 at age 86, had only been in office two months when, on July 16, 1995, he delivered a speech that began a vital reckoning with one of the darkest aspects of France’s recent history.… Read more »
Simcha shakshuka (Adam DeTour)
This story originally appeared on The Nosher. For nearly a decade, chef Avi Shemtov has been a pioneer on Boston’s food scene. In 2010, he rolled out The Chubby Chickpea, one of the first food trucks in the city, serving up Israeli-style street food from falafel and chicken shwarma… Read more »
Israel’s public security minister presented a report at a conference in Brussels on Wednesday that includes 80 examples of what he called anti-Semitism by key European promoters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. In one example from April, Jenny Tonge, a lawmaker in the upper chamber… Read more »
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson lectured frequently on the intersection of climate, politics and the divine. (Getty Images/JTA Montage)
PENN YAN, N.Y. (JTA) – With refineries recently ablaze in Saudi Arabia, you might be forgiven if you forget that in the Amazon and Indonesia, forests are ablaze as well. Yet these two conflagrations are not unconnected. As ever, ecological crises and geopolitical crises are deeply intertwined – and… Read more »
Amar'e Stoudemire is leading an initiative to connect Jewish and African-American students at Florida International University. (Courtesy of FIU Hillel)
(JTA) — Despite his serious thoughts about an NBA comeback, Amar’e Stoudemire is taking a little break from basketball to go to school. The former six-time NBA All-Star, who had never attended college, started this fall as a freshman at Florida International University in Miami. Though the semester just… Read more »
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg participates in a discussion during the Library of Congress National Book Festival at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Aug. 31, 2019. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — It was a blunt statement in the midst of a cordial conversation: “I’m wondering why you’re here.” That was Nina Totenberg, the NPR legal affairs correspondent, to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Sept. 18 Moment magazine awards dinner, where the justice had… Read more »
Abraham Sutzkever, right, before World War II in Vilnius, Lithuania. (Courtesy photo)
MINSK, Belarus (JTA) — When Yiddish poet Avraham Sutzkever said that poetry saved his life, he meant it more literally than many of his listeners realized. In 1944, Sutzkever and his wife, Freydke, needed to walk through a minefield to reach the plane that would take them to freedom.… Read more »
(JTA) — Just a teaspoon of the green stuff was enough to make her feel like she was having a heart attack. A 60-year old Israeli woman checked herself into the Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba after a night of “unexpected chest pressure that spread to her arms… Read more »
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin presents Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, with the mandate to form a new government, at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, Sept. 25, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
(JTA) — As votes were counted following last week’s election in Israel, many saw the results as a loss for longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. After all, Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party won fewer seats than the Blue and White party of his main competitor Benny Gantz. So it came… Read more »
Editor’s note: The author is an active prosecutor in a major U.S. city. Due to the nature of their work, they must write anonymously. The court officer calls out the calendar number and reads the docket into the record. The defendant, accompanied by his attorney, enters the well. The… Read more »
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, Aug. 31, 2019. (Chris Jung/NurPhoto/Getty Images/JTA Photo Service)
NEW YORK (JTA) — The prime minister of Malaysia defended his past anti-Semitic statements and questioned the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust in a speech at Columbia University. “I am exercising my right to free speech. Why is it that I can’t say something against the Jews,… Read more »
A 16th-century painting of a money lender by Dutch artist Quentin Massys (Francis G. Mayer/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images/JTA Photo Service)
(JTA) – “Jew down” seems to be making a comeback — or maybe it never left the lexicon. In April, a City Council member uttered the term at a meeting in Jeffersonville, Indiana. This month, council members in two New Jersey cities — Paterson and Trenton — used it in… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will get his second try this year to form Israel’s government after talks aimed at creating a unity government broke down. President Reuven Rivlin tasked Netanyahu with forming a government on Wednesday evening even though his Likud party did not finish first… Read more »
Thelma Frankel, 94, died Sept. 4, 2019. Mrs. Frankel was born in New York City to Fanny and Joseph Prince. A graduate of Adelphi College and Columbia University, she married Frank Berlin in 1948. They had three children. She later married Julius Frankel. Retiring from a career as a… Read more »
Annette Kolodny, Ph.D., 78, died Sept. 11, 2019. Dr. Kolodny was an internationally recognized scholar in interdisciplinary American studies and a pioneer of women’s studies and feminist literary criticism. Born in New York City, Dr. Kolodny attended Brooklyn College, graduating in 1962 magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and… Read more »
Mildred Lachman Chapin, 97, died Aug. 26, 2019. Mrs. Chapin was born to Hannah Segal and Henry Rosenstreik Pollack in Philadelphia, one of eight siblings. She was a dancer from an early age. She received a full scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied economics and met… Read more »
