Posts By Lauren Bookwalter

(JTA) — Aboud Dandachi isn’t Jewish. Or Israeli. Or Italian. Or sick with coronavirus. He’s a Muslim from Syria living in Canada. But when he read the Jewish Telegraphic Agency story about an Italian boy whose bar mitzvah was curtailed because of the rapidly spreading virus, Dandachi responded in… Read more »

(JTA) — Three Jewish day schools in New York were closed Tuesday due to coronavirus concerns, including one in New York City, SAR Academy, that said it was due to a “suspected case of coronavirus in our community.” SAR, which is located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx,… Read more »

(JTA) — Draizy Junik is well acquainted with the challenges of living a Jewish life in Vermont, a state that while home to a well-known Jewish Democratic presidential candidate has a total Jewish population of about 20,000 people. As a kid, Junik was homeschooled until the age of 13… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party improved its chances of forming a government after it gained three more seats in parliament than Blue and White at the close of voting in Israel, exit polls showed. Likud took 36 seats, according to the polling by the Kan… Read more »

(JTA) — “Judge Judy” will stop banging her gavel after 25 years on the TV bench — but she won’t stop meting out justice. Judy Sheindlin, the Jewish judge on the popular court television series, told talk show host Ellen DeGeneres in an interview set to be aired Monday… Read more »

MAUTHAUSEN, Austria (JTA) — Under a bright blue sky, with Austria’s snow-capped Alps in the distance, Racheli Kreisberg set foot for the first time in her life inside Mauthausen — the sprawling Nazi concentration camp that held nearly 200,000 prisoners between 1938 and 1945. Fewer than half of the… Read more »

(JTA) — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said the pro-Israel lobby has “a lot of money; they have a lot of power” in a television interview. Sanders was responding to a question on the CBS News program “Face the Nation” from moderator Margaret Brennan, who asked the Vermont senator… Read more »

(JTA) — The Vatican unsealed its secret archive relating to the controversial Holocaust-era Pope Pius XII. Critics accuse Pius of having turned a blind eye to Jewish suffering, and researchers hope the archive will reveal why the pope did not intervene to help the Jews during the Holocaust. The… Read more »

(JTA) — A University of Maryland student was arrested for sending anti-Semitic text messages to a female student “because of her religious beliefs,” university police told local media. The female student began receiving messages on her cellphone in December from a person she did not know while she studied… Read more »

(JTA) — The Auschwitz Memorial and Museum has called on organizers of trips to the historical site to refrain from bringing visitors from countries that have been affected by the coronavirus. In a statement posted last week on its website, the museum said it is “monitoring this issue on… Read more »

(JTA) — At 53, Bill Goldberg is a world championship wrestler again. Goldberg won the World Wrestling Entertainment universal title last week in Saudi Arabia. Hundreds of Saudi Arabian wrestling fans were on their feet cheering as the Jewish grappler defeated Bray Wyatt, also known as “The Fiend,” during… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Thousands of Israelis quarantined due to possible exposure to the coronavirus are voting in special polling places set up to allow them to safely cast their ballots. Sixteen special polling places opened in outdoor tents across the country on Monday. As of 4:30 p.m., more than… Read more »

(JTA) — A second carnival in Spain has referenced the Holocaust with Nazi and concentration camp prisoner uniform costumes. The theme was “the same.” The Holocaust-themed display at the Feb. 23 event in Badajos occurred amid debate on the appropriateness of festive parades apparently making light of the murder… Read more »

Spoiler alert: This chat reveals information about the first half of the first season of “Hunters.” (JTA) — “Hunters” is nothing if not great fodder for armchair debate. Amazon’s new series follows a band of comic book-esque Nazi hunters in late 1970s New York City who attempt to dismantle… Read more »

(JTA) — Hundreds of Jews from across the country have signed a declaration of support for Elizabeth Warren in the latest effort to influence Jewish voters in the Democratic primaries. Among the some 850 signatories to the #JewsforWarren declaration are Joshua Malina, the “Scandal” actor who starred in a… Read more »

(JTA) — More than a year after the Tree of Life attack in Pittsburgh, every classroom in synagogue religious schools, Jewish day schools and preschools in western Pennsylvania will now be equipped with medical and emergency equipment. It’s a project of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, whose Security… Read more »

(JTA) — An association of Italian rabbis has urged congregants to pray for the well-being of the hundreds of people there and beyond infected with the coronavirus. “We wish to express our empathy, and that we share the pain for the victims and pray for the healing of the… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli butter lovers, give your finance minister a pat on the back. Moshe Kahlon signed an order on Wednesday to lift duties and quotas on imported butter in an effort to alleviate a prolonged shortage in Israel, the business daily Globes reported. The order is limited… Read more »

(JTA) — Syrian state media reported that an Israeli drone had attacked a car and killed one person in a Syrian village near the border with Israel. The SANA news agency said the attack on Thursday took place in Hadr, a village in Quneitra province that is located in… Read more »

(JTA) — The owner of a toy shop near Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport infected his wife with the coronavirus, bringing the number of known cases in that country to three. The man, who was not named, spent about 30 hours at the Red Pirate costume shop at the height… Read more »