Maxwell Greenberg The Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center will welcome its first scholar-in-residence, Maxwell Greenberg of the University of California, Los Angeles, later this month. Greenberg, a doctoral candidate in UCLA’s Cesar E. Chavez Department of Chicano/a Studies, will discuss his research in the museum’s final gallery chat for the season,… Read more »
Jill Cooper Udall leads a seder aboard a U.S. military aircraft 30,000 feet over Vietnam, April 19, 2019. (Courtesy of Cooper Udall)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Air National Guard pilot gave Jill Cooper Udall the all-clear: There were storm warnings, but she had 10 turbulence-free minutes to get through her seder. Cooper Udall, who is married to Tom Udall, a Democrat and the senior senator from New Mexico, waved the 25… Read more »
Phish performs on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," Oct. 10, 2016. The band members are, from left: Page McConnell on keyboard, Trey Anastasio on guitar, Jon Fishman (barely pictured) on drums and Mike Gordon on bass. (Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank)
(JTA) — Gary Stein remembers the first time someone played a Phish song for him in high school. It was “Divided Sky,” an intricate 11-minute tune that shows off the group’s diverse jam rock chops. Stein, who’s now a 30-year-old history doctoral student living in Los Angeles, quickly became… Read more »
Debra Katz, left, looks on as Christine Blasey Ford testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sept. 27, 2018. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Fighting for the underdog has been a passion for Debra Katz for as long as she can remember. Years before she would go on to win awards for her work as a civil rights attorney and represent Christine Blasey Ford in one of the nation’s most high-profile… Read more »
CLEVELAND (Cleveland Jewish News via JTA) — Eric Fingerhut is leaving his position as president and CEO of Hillel International to take the same posts at the Jewish Federations of North America. Fingerhut, who served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Ohio in 1993 and 1994,… Read more »
Participants in the March of Dignity gather in Kiev's Maidan Independence Square for ceremonies marking the first anniversary of the Maidan Revolution that led to the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovic, Feb. 22, 2015. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
KIEV, Ukraine (JTA) — Walking on the scorched and scarred sidewalks of this capital city’s main square five years ago, Eduard Dolinsky felt hopeful and proud. A member of Kiev’s large Jewish population and a longtime activist for its communal causes, Dolinsky had hoped that the bloody street fights… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., joined in an appeal to confront a rise in deadly expressions of white nationalism. “As a Muslim American and a Jewish American elected to the United States Congress, we can no longer sit silently as terror strikes our… Read more »
Children play musical instruments during the celebration of Hanukkah at the Kharkiv Choral Synagogue, in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, Dec. 5, 2018. (Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)
KIEV, Ukraine (JTA) — Jews have lived in Ukraine for such a long time that their arrival here predates even the first recorded use of the country’s name. Starting in the ninth century, Jews began settling between Uzhgorod and Lugansk — respectively the westernmost and easternmost cities of what… Read more »
(JTA) — A jogger was arrested for allegedly verbally threatening and spitting on elderly Jews in Florida as they walked home from synagogue. Daniel Valerivich Starikov, 33, of Hollywood, Florida and who is originally from Britain, was arrested on Wednesday on two charges of battery on persons 65 years… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A 65-year-old Israeli man has been indicted for banging on the roof of the car of Polish Ambassador Marek Magierowski and spitting at him. According to the indictment filed Thursday by police with the Tel Aviv Magistrates’ Court, Arik Lederman of Herzliya stood in the middle… Read more »
(JTA) — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his candidacy for president in the 2020 election, calling President Donald Trump a “bully.” De Blasio, the mayor since 2014, made the announcement early Thursday morning in a 3-minute video posted on YouTube and becomes the 23rd candidate for the… Read more »
(JTA) — A St. Louis Jewish teen who writes a daily politics newsletter scooped New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s presidential candidacy announcement. De Blasio officially made the announcement early Thursday morning in a 3-minute video posted on YouTube, and followed it up with an appearance on ABC’s “Good… Read more »
BOSTON (JTA) — A fire outside the suburban Boston home of a rabbi that serves at a Chabad center is being investigated as a possible hate crime. Police in Arlington, Massachusetts, have asked for the public’s help in identifying a person caught on a neighbor’s video camera walking away… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Rest easy, Madonna fans, it’s official: The pop icon will sing at the Eurovision Song Contest finals in Tel Aviv. She signed her contract on Thursday morning, two days before her performance, Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported. Madonna is scheduled to perform two songs on Saturday night. Though… Read more »
(JTA) — A teenager has turned himself in for punching an identifiably Jewish man in the head in Brooklyn. It was one of two attacks on haredi Orthodox men in the largely haredi Williamsburg neighborhood in less than two weeks. Police are withholding the 16-year-old’s name because he is… Read more »
A new site offers mourners a way to have someone say Kaddish for their loved ones. (Screenshot from kaddish.com)
NEW YORK (JTA) — In his most recent novel, “kaddish.com,” Nathan Englander imagines a website that a character — encumbered by Jewish guilt — uses to hire someone to say the traditional mourner’s prayer for his late father. In interviews, the author has said the idea was inspired by the… Read more »
(JTA) — President Donald Trump granted a full pardon to Conrad Black, the former owner and publisher of The Jerusalem Post who had spent three years in prison for stealing $60 million from his own company, Hollinger International. Black was found guilty of fraud and obstruction of justice in… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — NASA released a photo of what it says is the crash site of Israel’s Beresheet lunar lander. The image taken some 56 miles from the surface of the moon by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on April 22, 11 days after the crash, shows a dark smudge… Read more »
(JTA) — Viewers of soccer on Telemundo are likely familiar with the “gooooooooaaaal” call that their announcers helped make famous. Those who’ve watched that American Spanish language network during a World Cup, Olympics or other major soccer tournament have probably heard Sammy Sadovnik call a game. Sadovnik is a… Read more »
R.J. Barrett playing in a game during the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., March 31, 2019. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
(JTA) — On Tuesday night, the NBA held its draft lottery, determining in which order each of its teams would pick players in next month’s draft. It made headlines for a couple of reasons: First, the consensus No. 1 pick, Zion Williamson of Duke, is the most hyped basketball player… Read more »
