Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

(JTA) — The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on hate crimes and the rise of white nationalist groups in America. The hearing scheduled for Tuesday also will look at how social media can rein in white nationalist propaganda and hate speech online. “Social media platforms have served… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The final polls before Israel’s national election on Tuesday show Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party running either neck and neck or up to five seats behind upstart challenger Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party. The last polls allowed by law were published Friday. Exit polling… Read more »

(The Nosher via JTA) – I love rainbow cookies. Love. And they are a serious obsession for my entire family. So when I made this recipe Passover-friendly last year, it was a wonderful, delicious game-changer for our Passover celebrations. Simply replace the regular flour with 1/2 cup matzah cake… Read more »

Rokhl Kafrissen (Courtesy of Kafrissen)

(JTA) — The high-profile allegations of sexual harassment against Michael Steinhardt are an opportunity for us to deconstruct how money, power and sexism have warped the nonprofit world in the shape of its largest donors. Take, for example, the case of Sheila Katz, a vice president at Hillel International who… Read more »

(JTA) — A Jewish man was in the right place at the right time when an elderly man attempted to jump off a New York bridge. Tuli Abraham, 30, told the Gifter in Gotham news website that he and his wife were driving over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which connects the boroughs… Read more »

This article originally appeared on The Nosher. Braised short ribs are a decadent and delicious alternative to brisket for Passover, or anytime you want to serve up a very special meal. They are so tender from cooking low and slow, they literally fall off the bone. Adding dried fruit to… Read more »

(JTA) — President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil said that Nazism was a leftist movement following his visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. The far-right leader was asked on Tuesday during his visit to Israel if he agreed with a recent claim by his foreign minister, Ernesto Araujo,… Read more »

(JTA) — Uber dropped a driver in London who allegedly said he would not take Jews. Two men who were wearing kippahs said the driver, identified as “Ahmed,” refused to pick them up after they were matched with him on the Uber app, the Jewish Chronicle reported. The driver… Read more »

(JTA) — Police have a suspect in a spree of anti-Semitic and racist graffiti in Oklahoma City and the neighboring city of Norman. A woman was caught on surveillance video painting white supremacist, racist and anti-Semitic graffiti on the Oklahoma Democratic Party headquarters in Oklahoma City. She is the… Read more »

(JTA) — French police say a man suspected of planning a thwarted attack on a nursery school was inspired by Islamist radical Mohammed Merah, who killed three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012. The man arrested last week in the Seine-et-Marne region near… Read more »

(JTA) — As the United Kingdom’s political establishment continues its tailspin over Brexit, little can be said with certainty about either’s future. All bets are off as Prime Minister Theresa May, whose own survivability in office seems increasingly doubtful, continues a desperate balancing act meant to satisfy her own coalition’s many… Read more »

This article originally appeared on Alma. My name is Rokhl and I’m a Yiddishist. I’ve been a Yiddishist my entire adult life, pretty much since I took my first Yiddish class in college. Being visibly (or audibly) Yiddish in public means I’ve heard every possible comment about my linguistic… Read more »

This article originally appeared on Kveller. Joyce Fienberg was a connector. Bringing people together for a holiday meal was incredibly important to her, and not just her family: She invited people she met on world travels, her students from the University of Pittsburgh, colleagues. She loved connecting people of… Read more »

(JTA) — At the age of 20, Kali Spitzer left her home in Victoria, British Columbia, to travel north and immerse herself in the culture of her father, who is a member of the Kaska Dena, a First Nations people native to Canada. For around seven months, she lived… Read more »

(JTA) — At first glance, Bram Presser looks more like a punk rocker than a sensitive novelist. He has two big lip piercings, a few scraggly dreadlocks and a quirky beard only under his chin line. And, yes, Presser, 43, was the lead singer and songwriter of Yidcore, an… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — In a city where new eateries open and older ones close with the frequency of the waves lapping at the nearby seashore, this city’s Levinsky Market stands as a place where people have anchored their food businesses for decades. Chef Haim Rafael, for instance, still… Read more »

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (JTA) – I believe in the Jewish people’s right to live in our homeland. That profound belief has no bearing on the rights of others to live here as well. There are Palestinians who live and work in the land of Israel, and while I may… Read more »

(JTA) — The Passover seder can be boring for kids. A new Haggadah is trying to change that. Published by Kveller, a Jewish parenting site, the Kveller Haggadah is “for curious kids — and their grown-ups.” The Haggadah’s co-creators are Elissa Strauss, a columnist on parenthood for CNN, and… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Rabbi Achiad Ettinger died a hero — the family of a woman he helped save is keeping the rabbi’s name alive. The newborn grandson of the woman was named for Ettinger, who died of injuries suffered in a West Bank shooting by a 19-year-old Palestinian. Ettinger, a… Read more »

(JTA) — The American Jewish Committee has partnered with the New Zealand Jewish Council to provide financial support for the victims of attacks on two mosques in New Zealand and for the Muslim community. “We are moved as Jews, as human beings, to respond with heartfelt compassion for the… Read more »