Posts By Lauren Bookwalter

BOSTON (JTA) – Stephan Ross, a prominent Boston-area Holocaust survivor who founded the New England Holocaust Memorial, has died. Ross died Monday at the age of 88, though the destruction by the Nazis of documents in his native Poland makes it impossible to determine the exact year of his… Read more »

(JTA) — A drunken man broke into a synagogue in western Ukraine and assaulted a congregant after shouting about “beating up the kikes.” The incident occurred Tuesday in Vinnytsia, according to a Facebook post by Eduard Dolinsky, the director of Ukraine’s Jewish Committee. The man, who was identified by… Read more »

(JTA) — A Jewish student in Texas was kicked off his high school’s robotics team after he made an anti-Semitic joke at his own expense. The student filed a federal lawsuit against Anderson High School in Austin, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. According to the lawsuit, the student found… Read more »

(JTA) — Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg will speak at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, the first U.S. presidential candidate to be confirmed as a speaker. Bloomberg’s participation in the conference, being held March 1-3 in Washington, D.C., was announced by AIPAC on Tuesday evening, just… Read more »

PARIS (JTA) – A secret network of Jews influences global political and economic affairs. That’s the feeling among a fifth of the 16,000 respondents to a survey among Europeans from 16 countries. The same number also agreed with the statement that “Jews exploit Holocaust victimhood for their own needs.”… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Election rallies for the Arab parties in Israel rarely garner much attention or excitement. But recent policy proposals engineered thousands of miles away may have re-energized a once stagnant and unreliable voting bloc. The peaceful Arab village of Bartaa, home to about 4,500 residents, is located in… Read more »

(JTA) — Full disclosure: This is the third time in the past year that we have published this article. With only minor changes. That’s because on Monday, March 2, for the third time in the past 12 months, Israelis will be voting in a national election. The first election,… Read more »

(JTA) — University of Alabama wide receiver Jerry Jeudy, a top NFL prospect, wore an interesting accessory to a news conference at the league’s scouting combine: a Star of David necklace. Jeudy, 20, told reporters that he was wearing the Jewish star because his last name is Jeudy and… Read more »

PARIS (JTA) — The French municipality of Marseille described Tel Aviv as part of “former Palestine” in an official letter to a resident who was born in the Israeli city. Mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin signed the letter, which was sent on Feb. 5 informing the resident that he was registered… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — On Sunday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders announced via tweet that he would not be attending the upcoming AIPAC policy conference in Washington, D.C., accusing the pro-Israel lobby of being a platform for “bigotry.” His statement came one week after his campaign released a video about… Read more »

(JTA) — At a carnival procession in Spain, participants dressed like Nazis and Jewish concentration camp prisoners while dancing next to a float evoking crematoria. The Israeli Embassy in Madrid on Tuesday protested the display this weekend at the annual carnival procession in Campo de Criptana, a town situated… Read more »

(JTA) — MSNBC host Chris Matthews apologized for comparing Sen. Bernie Sanders’ victory in the Nevada caucuses to Nazi Germany’s invasion of France. On Monday, Matthews addressed his remarks on his show. “I was wrong to refer to an event from the last days, or actually the first days,… Read more »

(JTA) — Mike Pence will again appear as a speaker at the Israel lobby AIPAC’s annual conference, as he has every year since he became vice president in 2017. Pence’s appearance was announced on Monday, hours after the American Israel Public Affairs Committee announced the participation of multiple Democratic… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — More than 40 new immigrants arrived in Israel on Tuesday from Ethiopia, less than a week before national elections. The new immigrants are from nine families and are being reunited with relatives who live in Israel. They are part of the Falash Mura community, which claim… Read more »

(JTA) — A Montreal-area home contains a clause in its deed preventing its sale to a Jewish person. It is the second home near that Canadian city in Quebec discovered to contain such a “servitude clause” barring sale to anyone of Jewish origin, CTV News reported. In January, it… Read more »

(JTA) — The former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett pleaded not guilty to a second round of charges for lying to police about being the target of a racist and homophobic attack. Smollett was indicted by a special prosecutor on restored charges two weeks ago. He is charged with six felony… Read more »

(JTA) — The American Israel Public Affairs Committee wants the world to know that American Jews and lawmakers from across the political spectrum support it, even if Bernie Sanders does not. A day after Sanders, a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, announced on Twitter that he would… Read more »

(JTA) — Ben Schwartz fits in well in the world of neurotic Jewish comedians. He was so anxious to get the word out about his new movie, “Standing Up, Falling Down” — a delightful indie dramatic comedy co-starring Billy Crystal in which Schwartz plays a struggling stand-up comedian who… Read more »

(JTA) — Employees of the Dutch national railways sang for train passengers a soccer song about Jews that the state-owned company said was “wholly inappropriate.” Nederlandse Spoorwegen, or NS, apologized on Sunday for the incident, which happened just after midnight aboard a train heading from a parade in the… Read more »

(JTA) — Seventy-four Jewish groups have expressed solidarity with Chinese Americans amid the coronavirus outbreak, saying in a letter that they are “concerned about rising xenophobia aimed at Chinese people in this country and abroad.” On Friday, the groups sent the letter with those sentiments in English and simplified… Read more »