Yearly Archives 2019

(JTA) — Ryan Braun now holds the record for most home runs by a Jewish baseball player. The 35-year-old outfielder passed Hank Greenberg on Friday when he hit his 332nd career homer in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Braun, who has spent his entire career with the Milwaukee… Read more »

BOSTON (JTA) — The Museum of Fine Arts bought two pairs of rare Torah finials, bidding $500,000 for the 17th-century German silver set. The set is considered among the earliest surviving examples of the ritual Torah ornaments. The final sale price exceeded the pre-auction estimate of between $300,000 and $400,000.… Read more »

BUENOS AIRES (JTA) — Argentinean and international Jewish organizations are demanding action from local and regional authorities amid recent violent anti-Semitic attacks in the country. The Argentinean Jewish political umbrella DAIA labeled Sunday’s attack on Rabbi Shlomo Tawil in Rosario as “brutal anti-Semitic aggression” and demanded an investigation into the… Read more »

(JTA) — A Jewish candidate for Seattle City Council has been subjected to anti-Semitic threats on the online message board 8Chan and on social media. Ari Hoffman, a married father of three, is one of nearly 50 candidates for seven of the nine council seats. The primary is scheduled… Read more »

(JTA) — Thousands of Polish soccer fans attending a match in Warsaw between their national team and Israel’s applauded during the playing of the Jewish state’s anthem. “Hatikvah” was played just before “Mazurek Dąbrowskiego” on Tuesday ahead of the match, which ended with Poland winning 4-0. When some fans… Read more »

PHUM THOM, Cambodia (JTA) — Arun Sothea is a slight, soft-spoken man. He speaks both casually and simply when discussing the horrors of his past — as well the triumphs of his present — both of which have taken place in his childhood home of Phum Thom. The Khmer… Read more »

(JTA) — “Hadestown,” a musical about the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and the underworld, won best new musical at the Tony Awards, and a coveted prize for its Jewish director. Rachel Chavkin won the Tony Award for best director of a musical for “Hadestown,” the tenth woman… Read more »

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — A rabbi in Rosario, the third most populous city in Argentina, was verbally and physically attacked in violence that has been characterized as anti-Semitic. Rabbi Shlomo Tawil, of the local Chabad-Lubavitch organization, was attacked Sunday night by three men in the city center of… Read more »

(JTA) — A white nationalist was photographed appearing to urinate on an Israeli flag at a Pride parade in Detroit. Some 40,000 attended the Motor City Pride event Saturday in downtown Detroit. During the event, members of the National Socialist Movement marched on the parade in protest of the… Read more »

(JTA) — Is an LGBTQ parade banning flags with Jewish stars? Yes. Not really. Kind of. The D.C. Dyke March, a social justice-focused parade for, in its words, “queer liberation” happening Friday, announced that it is not welcoming any “nationalist symbols.” That includes Israeli flags and American flags, the… Read more »

(JTA) — An Italian couple whose ancestors were forced to hide their faith got married atop the ruins of an ancient synagogue, giving the site its first Jewish wedding in centuries. Roque Pugliese and Ivana Pezzoli tied the knot earlier this week in the presence of about 100 guests,… Read more »

(JTA) — The Organization of American States will adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of anti-Semitism, the group’s head said. OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro’s announcement June 4 in Washington makes him the first Latin American leader to do so. He also called Hezbollah “a terrorist organization”… Read more »

(JTA) — Ultranationalists in Ukraine protested outside a Jewish community building with smoke grenades. Men from the National Corps group, a namesake of a unit of the Azov Battalion militia set up in 2014 by the Ukrainian government, set off the grenades Monday in front of the building in… Read more »

(JTA) — YouTube is going to remove more hate speech and supremacist content from its video sharing service. “Today, we’re taking another step in our hate speech policy by specifically prohibiting videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on qualities… Read more »

(JTA) — The American Jewish Committee has elected its first female president. Harriet Schleifer, a longtime lay leader, was elected president of the New York-based advocacy group on Monday during its annual Global Forum conference in Washington. She succeeds John Shapiro. AJC was founded in 1906. Schleifer, who lives… Read more »

BERLIN (JTA) — German historian Marie Sophie Hingst has been stripped of a “Golden Blogger” award following revelations that she faked a family history of suffering in the Holocaust. According to Der Spiegel magazine, which broke the story this week, Hingst — who lives in Dublin and is in… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — So just who is Avigdor Liberman, the man who single-handedly forced Israelis to go to the polls for an unprecedented second time in a year? And is he really the champion of secular right-wing Zionism that he would have voters believe? Last month, less than two… Read more »

(JTA) — There aren’t any Jewish players that we know of at this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup, which runs from June 7 to July 7 in France. The top-ranked U.S. team is looking to win its second Cup in a row and fourth all time. But there are… Read more »

For her final project in a course on the history of medicine, first-year medical student Raeesa Hossain joined with four fellow students from New York Medical College to interview a Holocaust survivor deported to Auschwitz as a child. The survivor told the students how his experience during the war… Read more »

This story originally appeared on Alma. Contrary to popular belief, summer is not only for the lighter things in life. It can be the best time for luxurious nostalgia and dark rumination. Like Lana Del Rey, I’ve often got that Summertime Sadness. This may be the reason why, without… Read more »