Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

How Bernie Sanders became a favorite among Muslim Americans

Muslim women attend a Bernie Sanders campaign rally at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium in Riverside, Calif., May 24, 2016. (David McNew/AFP/Getty Images)
October 24, 2019 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

(JTA) — Bernie Sanders was one of only two Democratic presidential candidates to address the Islamic Society of North America Convention in August, the largest annual gathering of Muslim Americans in the country. Organizers invited the 10 highest-polling contenders at the time to the Houston event, but the Vermont… Read more »

A Rosh Hashanah ritual — in space

Daniel Shorr, far right, and other members of Stanford’s Student Space Initiative escort a rocket he built. (Courtesy of Shorr)
October 24, 2019 / David A.M. Wilensky, JTA

SAN FRANCISCO (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — Typically, Jews gather after Rosh Hashanah services to recite a brief prayer and then symbolically cast away their sins by tossing breadcrumbs into a body of water. The ritual, called tashlich, isn’t mandated by Jewish law — it’s just… Read more »

Nearly 9 in 10 American Jews say anti-Semitism is a problem in U.S.

Members of the Jewish community and their allies protest anti-Semitism and a National Students for Justice in Palestine conference at the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, Nov. 6, 2018. (Ronen Tivony/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
October 24, 2019 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — More than eight in 10 American Jews say that anti-Semitism has spiked in recent years and even more believe it is a problem in the United States, according to an American Jewish Committee survey. More than three-quarters of respondents see the extreme political right as more… Read more »

5 female Jewish superheroes everyone should know

(Collage by Alma)
October 24, 2019 / Cali Halperin

This story originally appeared on Alma. Over the past decade, comic books and superheroes have become a staple for mainstream pop culture. But did you know that they are super Jewish? The industry was created by Jews who were prevented from working at American newspapers in the 1930s by… Read more »

JFSA invites all to “Pause with Pittsburgh” on Oct. 27
October 23, 2019 /

On Oct. 27, 2018, in was the most brutal anti-Semitic attack in the history of the United States, a gunman opened fire in the Tree of Life building in Pittsburgh, taking the lives of 11 innocent people from three congregations: Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life *… Read more »

Thousands march in Berlin against anti-Semitism
October 15, 2019 / Marcy Oster, JTA

(JTA) — More than 10,000 people marched in Berlin against anti-Semitism and in a show of support for the victims of anti-Semitic violence in the city of Halle. The march on Sunday left from Bebelplatz, significant as a site of Nazi book-burning, to the New Synagogue in central Berlin.… Read more »

This 10-year-old Jewish reporter at the Democratic debate has some tough questions ready for Bernie Sanders

Shawn Fairbairn, Kids Scoop News reporter, reporting from the Democratic debate in Westerville, Ohio, Oct. 15, 2019. (Ron Kampeas)
October 15, 2019 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WESTERVILLE, Ohio (JTA) — Give 10-year-old Shawn Fairbairn this: He’s a political reporter who cuts to the quick. He thinks that Marianne Williamson, the self-help guru seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, should stick to writing books. His first question for a top surrogate for Bernie Sanders was whether the… Read more »

5,000-year-old metropolis discovered in northern Israel
October 8, 2019 / Marcy Oster, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Archaeological excavations in northern Israel in preparation to build a highway off-ramp uncovered a 5,000-year-old city that was home to as many as 6,000 residents. It is one of the first and largest early Bronze Age settlements excavated in Israel, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority,… Read more »

Anti-Semitic hate crimes in NYC have risen significantly in 2019

A Hasidic man walks by a police car in a Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
October 8, 2019 / Ben Sales, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — The number of hate crimes against Jews in New York City has risen significantly over the first nine months of this year, part of a citywide rise in such offenses. The New York Police Department has reported 311 total hate crimes through September, as opposed… Read more »

How Pittsburgh changed the way American Jews think about security

A security camera hangs across the street from the Park East Synagogue in New York City, March 3, 2017. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
October 8, 2019 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Here’s the sad paradox of the shooting nearly one year ago at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue: The killing of 11 worshippers, the worst attack on Jews in U.S. history, hit a community that was one of the best prepared to handle such an assault. In… Read more »

Reliving the massacre every minute: How Pittsburgh survivors are struggling a year later

The doors of the Tree of Life synagogue feature memorials surrounding the building nearly a year after the attack there that killed 11 worshippers. (Grace Yagel)
October 5, 2019 / Ben Sales, JTA

PITTSBURGH (JTA) — As this city’s Jewish community celebrated Rosh Hashanah this week, the Tree of Life synagogue stood closed, its doors blocked by a chain-link fence. A brown, wilted wreath hung on a tree near the synagogue, where a gunman killed 11 worshippers last year in the worst… Read more »