Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

A former lawmaker hopes HBO’s ‘Chernobyl’ spurs change in Israel

A new HBO series portrays the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and aftermath. This image shows a building at the Chernobyl exclusion zone in the abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine. (Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
June 25, 2019 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

(JTA) — The HBO historical drama “Chernobyl,” which dramatizes the events surrounding the 1986 nuclear explosion in the now-Ukrainian city, has generated plenty of buzz around the world. In addition to garnering critical acclaim, the series has renewed conversation about the incident and even spiked tourism to the area of… Read more »

White House unveils economic portion of Middle East peace plan

A picture shows the new West Bank Palestinian town of Rawabi, described as the largest privately-funded development project in Palestinian history, just north of Ramallah, on September 29, 2017. (ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/Getty Images)
June 24, 2019 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Days ahead of a workshop where Jared Kushner will seek tens of billions of dollars for his Middle East peace plan, the White House unveiled an outline of its economic portion, including proposals, like a Gaza-West Bank travel corridor, that are sure to rattle Israel’s government.… Read more »

Harvard dropped a Jewish pro-gun Parkland student over past racist comments. Was it justifed?

Kyle Kashuv attends Politicon 2018 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Oct. 20, 2018. (Michael S. Schwartz/Getty Images)
June 18, 2019 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Kyle Kashuv rose to prominence after having survived the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. While some of his classmates went on to become gun reform activists on the left, Kashuv took a different course. A self-described political conservative, the… Read more »

The Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez concentration camp debate, explained

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is interviewed at the SXSW Conference and Festival at the Austin Convention Center in Texas, March 9, 2019. (Jim Bennett/WireImage/Getty Images)
June 18, 2019 / JTA Staff

NEW YORK (JTA) — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raised a ruckus when she said detention centers holding undocumented immigrants on the southern border are “concentration camps.” “The U.S. is running concentration camps on our southern border, and that is exactly what they are,” the freshman New York Democrat said Monday… Read more »

Rocket fired from Gaza strikes school building in southern Israel
June 13, 2019 / Marcy Oster, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A rocket fired from Gaza hit a school building in the southern Israeli city of Sderot on Thursday evening. The building, identified as a Jewish religious school, was damaged but no injuries were reported. It was reported to be empty at the time of impact and… Read more »

Hundreds mark 90th birthday of Anne Frank in her birth city of Frankfurt
June 13, 2019 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — Several hundred people gathered at a church in Frankfurt, the city of Anne Frank’s birth, on the occasion of the teenage diarist’s 90th birthday. The event, organized Wednesday at the iconic St. Paul’s Church by the municipality of the German city and the Basel-based Anne Frank Foundation,… Read more »

A famed French-Jewish philosopher is afraid to leave his home

Pessimistic questions have become a trademark of Alain Finkielkraut's writing. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
June 12, 2019 /

PARIS (JTA) — As a French celebrity philosopher, Alain Finkielkraut belongs to a tiny group of VIPs who get to lead normal, paparazzi-free lives despite having film star-like recognizability here. Unlike most countries, France makes celebrities out of intellectual heroes. They’re revered, quoted and featured regularly on primetime television… Read more »

For these Israeli startups, design is just as important as technology

At the Jerusalem-based Lightricks, a producer of image and video editing apps, the company has integrated design elements at all levels of product development, with a tech lead and a design lead working on every product the company makes. (Courtesy of Lightricks)
June 12, 2019 / Ben Harris

Last year, a group of students at Jerusalem’s renowned Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design set to work imagining the future. Their specific goal was to envision the next generation of wearable devices for the blind. Working in collaboration with the technology company Orcam, a Jerusalem-based producer of devices… Read more »

David Friedman gave Netanyahu half a nod for West Bank annexation. What happens next?

U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman speaks at the AIPAC policy conference in Washington, D.C., March 26, 2019. (Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
June 12, 2019 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said Israel “has the right to retain” some of the West Bank. Palestinians fumed, Jewish settlers rejoiced, and the punditocracy predicted gloom and doom. What was it exactly that Friedman said in a New York Times interview. And what… Read more »

When young Israelis move to Germany or Austria, it’s a hard pill for their families to swallow

Dan Peled, center, with his father, Gidi, and grandmother Lea. Peled is a main subject of "Back to the Fatherland," a documentary on Israelis moving back to Germany and Austria. (First Run Features)
June 12, 2019 / Curt Schleier, JTA

(JTA) — On the surface, Gil Levanon and Kat Rohrer seem unlikely friends. Levanon is an Israeli, the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. Rohrer, an Austrian, is the granddaughter of an avowed Nazi officer. If their friendship seems a little odd, their collaboration on the documentary “Back to the… Read more »

Jewish comedian Jeff Ross defends Netflix roast of Anne Frank
June 12, 2019 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Jewish comedian Jeff Ross defended an episode of a new Netflix series that mocked Anne Frank. Ross drew criticism last month for targeting the teen Holocaust diarist on “Historical Roasts,” where comedians make fun of historical figures. He defended the choice in an interview with the… Read more »

Boston museum pays $500K for rare Torah ornaments
June 12, 2019 / Penny Schwartz, JTA

BOSTON (JTA) — The Museum of Fine Arts bought two pairs of rare Torah finials, bidding $500,000 for the 17th-century German silver set. The set is considered among the earliest surviving examples of the ritual Torah ornaments. The final sale price exceeded the pre-auction estimate of between $300,000 and $400,000.… Read more »

Officials alarmed by anti-Semitic assaults in Argentina
June 12, 2019 / JTA Staff

BUENOS AIRES (JTA) — Argentinean and international Jewish organizations are demanding action from local and regional authorities amid recent violent anti-Semitic attacks in the country. The Argentinean Jewish political umbrella DAIA labeled Sunday’s attack on Rabbi Shlomo Tawil in Rosario as “brutal anti-Semitic aggression” and demanded an investigation into the… Read more »