Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

Joe Biden: ‘Absolutely outrageous’ to use Israel aid as leverage
November 3, 2019 / JTA Staff

(JTA) — Presidential candidate Joe Biden says it would be a “gigantic mistake” to condition aid to Israel on stopping settlement expansion. The former vice president told a Wall Street Journal reporter it would be “absolutely outrageous” for the United States to take that approach — a position that… Read more »

University of Oregon accused of not reporting anti-Semitic incidents
November 3, 2019 / JTA Staff

(JTA) — An employee and a student of the University of Oregon have filed a federal complaint alleging that the school failed to report anti-Semitic hate crimes. According to the complaint filed in September, which was shared with the Register-Guard daily, the university listed only one hate crime in… Read more »

A Chabad couple in New Jersey built an immersive village for kids with autism

LifeTown Shoppes features 15 storefronts where visitors can practice doing everyday errands. (Josefin Dolsten)
November 3, 2019 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

LIVINGSTON, N.J. (JTA) — A new 11,000-square-foot shopping center here is home to 15 storefronts, including a bank, pet shop and clothing store. There’s a health center with a dentist and doctor’s office and a ShopRite supermarket. A traffic guard monitors the crosswalk, which is bisected by a plant… Read more »

UK’s Labour Party has an opportunity in upcoming elections. The anti-Semitism controversy is holding it back.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn makes a campaign speech in Battersea, England, Oct. 31, 2019. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
November 3, 2019 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) – After nearly a decade in power, Britain’s Conservative Party is in tatters. Years of failing to negotiate a deal with the European Union to follow through with Brexit have led to internal party discord and roiled public frustration. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s controversial push to leave the… Read more »

What exactly is Elizabeth Warren’s Israel policy?

Sen. Elizabeth Warren campaigns in Florence, S.C., Oct. 26, 2019. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
November 3, 2019 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — When it comes to pressuring Israel, Elizabeth Warren doesn’t have a specific plan. The senator from Massachusetts, who has caught up in polling with front-runners for the Democratic presidential nomination, now faces intensified scrutiny as a newly viable contender. And what has emerged is that Warren… Read more »

Meet University of Arizona Arthritis Center researchers
October 29, 2019 /

“Conquering Arthritis … Meet the University of Arizona Arthritis Center Researchers” will be presented Wednesday, Nov. 6, 6-7:15 p.m., at the Health Sciences Innovation Building on the UA Health Science campus, 1670 E. Drachman St., Tucson. This event features a look into the future of care, prevention, and ultimately… Read more »

Presidential hopeful Michael Bennet: I think about my family’s experience during the Holocaust every day

Michael Bennet speaks at the annual J Street National Conference at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., Oct. 28, 2019. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
October 29, 2019 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

(JTA) — Since announcing his presidential run in May, Michael Bennet has been polling between zero and 1 percent. He didn’t qualify for the latest Democratic debate and he’s a long shot to make the next one. The Colorado senator raised only $2.1 million in the third quarter of… Read more »

Shlicha’s view: After 24 years, Israel still grappling with Rabin assassination

‘Yitzhak Rabin: Forged Identity’ by Martha L. Dunham was donated to the Sculpture Garden at the Tucson Jewish Community Center in 2011 by Jill and Herschel Rosenzweig. (Courtesy Weintraub Israel Center)
October 25, 2019 / Inbal Shtivi, Weintraub Israel Center

Next week, on Nov. 4, Israel will mark 24 years since the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin, a leader, politician, and army commander, was killed by a Jewish assassin as he was walking down the stairs from the stage at what is now called Rabin Square… Read more »

As an Israeli journalist in Germany, I wasn’t surprised by the Halle synagogue shooting

A man views a makeshift memorial at the entrance to the synagogue in Halle, Germany, Oct. 10, 2019. (Jens Schlueter/Getty Images/JTA Photo Service)
October 25, 2019 / Dana Regev, JTA

COLOGNE, Germany (JTA) — When the breaking news from Halle started to pour in on Oct. 9, the Jewish community around the world was still in the midst of commemorating the holiest day of the year in Judaism, Yom Kippur. Equipped with a rifle, ammunition and other military gear, the… Read more »

This medical school is putting a uniquely Jewish spin on doctor training

Founded in 1860, New York Medical College was an affiliate of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese from 1971 until Touro, a Jewish-run university, took over in 2011. (Courtesy of NYMC/JTA Photo Service)
October 25, 2019 / Ben Harris

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 »

There’s a long history of Jews playing Nazis on screen

(Kveller)
October 24, 2019 / Lior Zaltzman

This story originally appeared on Kveller. Taika Waititi’s satirical film “Jojo Rabbit” is finally out! It is set in Nazi Germany,  and the Jewish MaoLior Zaltzmanri director famously plays Adolf Hitler. “What better way to insult Hitler than having him played by a Polynesian Jew,” Waititi himself tweeted. When… Read more »

A new book takes readers on a journey through Jewish Latin America

Ilan Stavans and his new book, "Seventh Heaven" (Courtesy of Stavans/JTA Montage)
October 24, 2019 / Alan Grabinsky, JTA

MEXICO CITY (JTA) —More than 10 years ago, Ilan Stavans scandalized language purists of the Spanish-speaking world by translating a chapter of “Don Quixote” — into Spanglish. Since then, the so-called czar of Latino culture has become one of the most important interlocutors for Hispanics in the United States. In… Read more »

A year after disaster, Pittsburgh is so much more than a site of tragedy

A group of volunteers takes to the streets to beautify Pittsburgh. (Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh)
October 24, 2019 / Jeffrey Finkelstein, JTA

PITTSBURGH (JTA) —As we approach the one year since the worst anti-Semitic attack in American history, I am grateful for the outpouring of support for the Pittsburgh Jewish community. Over the last year, people across the world have stood shoulder to shoulder with all of us in the 412.… Read more »

Squeezed for burial space, Jerusalem prepares to open an underground city of the dead

At capacity, a new tunnel network will hold some 23,000 bodies and is expected to be filled within a decade. (Sam Sokol)
October 24, 2019 / Sam Sokol, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Carved into the rock on the side of a mountain directly under the Har HaMenuchot cemetery here lies the entrance to Jerusalem’s newest necropolis, a city of the dead that its designers hope will relieve a shortage of burial space in the capital. A local engineering… Read more »