Posts By David Del Grande

(JTA) — Joe Lieberman is in South Florida doing the shul and seniors circuit for a Clinton, and he’s relishing the gig. “How does it feel? It feels like I’m home again,” Lieberman said Thursday in a phone interview, his voice relaxing into a remarkable confession for the former… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Hillary Clinton’s plan to meet the Israeli prime minister in her first month as president is listed high in an internal campaign memo outlining the priorities of her first 100 days — a sign of how important it is to repair U.S.-Israel tensions. The campaign’s determination to… Read more »

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — In the Dutch capital’s main American comedy club, two middle-aged Jewish men wrestle while wearing blond wigs until one of them pretends to rip out his opponent’s still-beating heart. This violent portrayal of a Hillary Clinton victory over Donald Trump is the closing scene of a… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — When I moved from the U.S. to Israel, I expected to feel closer to my Jewish roots. But I didn’t expect to feel closer to my mother. This is not a place I associate with her — at least it wasn’t until I had a chance… Read more »

(JTA) — Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump did not shake hands, and then they did. The Republican nominee called his rival the devil and said he would jail her. Clinton said that three minutes of a 2005 video in which Trump bragged about committing what constitutes sexual assault “represents exactly… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Vice President Joe Biden said Shimon Peres’ legacy should be one of tolerance at a time of rising bigotry. “At a time when the currents of bigotry and anger and isolationism are on the rise, when too many are quick to cast blame on the outsider,… Read more »

(JTA) — Building up to Sukkot, with its temporary, shaky sukkah, it’s easy to forget that the holiday comes with something more substantial: its own book, Ecclesiastes — Kohelet in Hebrew — which is read during the festival and gives us a solid sampling of earthly wisdom. “A season… Read more »

(JTA) — If you’re a Yiddish-speaking woman, Sandy Fox wants you on her podcast. Fox is the millennial “balaboosta,” or host, of Vaybertaytsh, a new feminist, Yiddish-language podcast that aired its first episode on Tuesday. She hopes to interview women and feature their music, writing and other creative work… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israeli and world leaders gathered atop Mount Herzl on Friday to say goodbye to Shimon Peres, Israel’s last founding father. In addition to fond personal recollections, many of those who took the stage alongside Peres’ Israeli-flag-draped coffin offered their visions of the peace that eluded the… Read more »

BOSTON (JTA) — A new study, touted as the first-ever state-by-state, county-by-county Jewish population estimate, shows how the Jewish vote could play a crucial role in key battleground states. The study, released Thursday and conducted by the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University in suburban Boston, found that in Bucks County, Pennsylvania — one of the areas… Read more »

(JTA) — A Jewish educator who works on behalf of the Jewish people every single day recently received a letter that began with harsh words about her support for the anti-occupation group Breaking the Silence. Before long it took a startling turn. “I regretfully must express my utmost hope,” the author wrote,… Read more »

(JTA) — If you’re a rock fan, no matter your age, you’ve probably heard of bands like the Doors, the Ramones and the Stooges. But chances are you haven’t heard of Danny Fields. Fields, a Jewish guy from Forest Hills, Queens, deftly made the punk scene happen. He helped… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — “I heard the explosion, then I went to the deli.” In the hours after the bombings Saturday in New York and on the Jersey Shore, the phrase became an instant slogan for New Yorkers’ purported coolness under fire. Attributed to a witness of the bombing that… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Aymen Odeh has a tough job. He is the first person to represent all of Israel’s Arab political parties in the Knesset, or parliament. The parties, whose members range from secular communists to pious Muslims, came together as the Joint List to run in the 2015… Read more »

(JTA) — The congressional race in New Jersey’s 5th District is a bitter one, pitting a rarity — a hard-line conservative Republican congressman from the Northeast, Scott Garrett — against Josh Gottheimer, a lawyer who was a speechwriter for former President Bill Clinton and an executive at Microsoft. Now the Iran nuclear… Read more »

(JTA) — Like their constituents, the mainstream representatives of French Jewry are not known for passing up opportunities to express their opinion on subjects of national debate. And Jewish institutions in France, like those in the United States, regularly comment on a host of issues, including divisive ones that lie… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — They’re all true, all those stories you’ve heard. The Jewish student questioned about whether her Judaism and involvement in the Jewish community would disqualify her from serving in student government. The Israel bashers who besieged a movie night put on by a pro-Israel group, forcing… Read more »

(JTA) — A stabbing and car-ramming epidemic in Israel that some called a third intifada was among the most dominant Jewish stories of the past year. But 5776 was also notable for the release of spy Jonathan Pollard after 30 years in prison, the communal fallout from the Iran nuclear deal, a historic… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — “We are committed to helping ensure that the State of Israel welcomes Jews of all colors.” “We say, we have black lives that matter in Africa.” “In America, race has been a central area of Jewish concern historically.” These are all statements that have been… Read more »

(JTA) — When lowering my shoulder, planting my feet and pushing hard to make something happen, I love to reflect on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s exhortation to act with “the fierce urgency of now.” My feelings in those moments are usually not very MLK-like — self-righteousness, self-satisfaction… Read more »