Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

This story originally appeared on The Nosher. It is rare that I do anything these days without a podcast for company: cooking, walking the dog and, yes, falling asleep. They are, I suppose, the millennial equivalent of having the radio murmuring softly in the background. And just like radio,… Read more »

(JTA) — Early Tuesday, a man wielding a large knife approached the secretary of the Jewish community of Helsingborg, Sweden, from the back and delivered near-fatal stab wounds to her upper body. The victim, a woman in her 60s whose family asked not be named in the media, was… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — An American administration is issuing dire warnings about a Persian Gulf nation, there’s talk of war and questions about the quality of intelligence. And those who back confronting Iran and those who don’t are citing Israel as a factor. If the Iran war talk sounds familiar,… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — On April 16, Dzanc Books announced its latest release, “The Siege of Tel Aviv,” a novel that imagines an Iran-led attack on Israel that leaves the country decimated. Author Hesh Kestin, a former journalist who had already published two novels with the small independent press,… Read more »

(JTA) — The gunman who killed a woman and wounded three others at the Chabad of Poway told a 911 dispatcher he had done it because “the Jewish people are destroying the white race.” Prosecutors described the call Thursday in announcing 109 hate crime and other charges against John T.… Read more »

(JTA) — Judging by all the media attention, the world loves short Jewish women named Ruth. One of them, Ruth Westheimer — better known as the renowned sex therapist Dr. Ruth — is on the phone to talk about her life and a new documentary about it. But first… Read more »

(JTA) —It’s glitzy. It’s kitschy. It’s like a musical Olympics or “American Idol” on steroids. Welcome to the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual pageant in which all of Europe (and some of its neighbors) send national representatives to  compete for the best forgettable pop song and most unforgettable outfits.… Read more »

(JTA) — A Jewish couple in Pittsburgh named their baby girl after Lori Gilbert-Kaye, who was killed in the attack on the Chabad of Poway synagogue. Judah and Chaya Cowen welcomed Noa Lea — Gilbert-Kaye’s Hebrew name was Leah — on May 3. She is the couple’s fifth child.… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — When Israel won the right to host this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, the event was anticipated as a golden opportunity to showcase a side of the nation rarely seen in global coverage of the “conflict.” Then the rockets began to fall. Over the weekend, Hamas… Read more »

POWAY, Calif. (JTA) — “Those who are standing can remain standing,” Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein joked, a nod to the standing-room-only crowd that had packed Chabad of Poway for Friday night services. For many of those who filled the sanctuary, showing up was an act of faith, of solidarity, of… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Performers scheduled to take the stage next week at the Eurovision Song Contest have begun rehearsing the contest’s venue in Tel Aviv despite the threat of rockets. Among the countries whose performers have held rehearsals onstage at the Tel Aviv Expo on Saturday and Sunday are… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) –In the wake of a deadly attack on a Chabad synagogue in California, the movement will press for a mandatory moment of silence in American schools, a measure that it claims will reduce violence. In a release Sunday, the Washington-based American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) said chapters… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Trump administration is deploying air and sea strike forces to the Middle East in response to what it described as “troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” from Iran. It’s not clear what Iranian escalations National Security Adviser John Bolton was referring to Sunday evening in… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — An American citizen killed while running for cover from a Hamas rocket was laid to rest in Jerusalem on Sunday evening. Hundreds turned out to bury Pinchas Menachem Prezuazman, a 21-year old American-Israeli from Ashdod. A member of the Ger Hasidic sect, he leaves behind a wife and… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Despite Monday morning’s ceasefire, which ended two days of intense fighting between Israel and Hamas, the “campaign is not over,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “Over the last two days we struck Hamas and Islamic Jihad with great force,” Netanyahu said. “We hit… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A 21-year-old man became the fourth Israeli civilian to be killed by Gaza rocket fire, after a rocket struck an apartment building in the southern coastal city of Ashdod. The man was in the stairwell of the building when it was struck by a rocket late… Read more »

POWAY, Calif. (JTA)— With hundreds gathered to show support for the victims of a shooting inside his synagogue, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein recounted the moment when he came face to face with the gunman and what happened next: He described watching a congregant’s husband, a doctor, faint as he attempted… Read more »

(JTA) — For critics of how the largest social media platforms have handled anti-Semitic and racist rhetoric, it has been a long time coming: David Duke, Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones, and their ilk are no longer welcome on Facebook. A statement from a Facebook spokesperson confirmed that several bigoted… Read more »

(JTA) — Woody Allen can’t get a book deal. In the latest step of his precipitous fall from grace, the prolific director has been unable to find a publisher for a memoir he’s shopping around. This comes after Netflix canceled a multi-movie deal and some of his former stars… Read more »

(JTA) — One night years ago, when a Jewish man was driving to his parents’ house in Caracas, Venezuela, two cars blocked off the street he was on and held him up at gunpoint. He got into their car and began answering questions: who he was, where he lived,… Read more »