Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the decision to reach a cease-fire with Gaza terror groups during his address at a state memorial ceremony for David Ben-Gurion, the country’s first prime minister. “In normal times, a leader must be attentive to the hearts of the people,… Read more »

  AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Nothing about the appearance of object MB02280 at this city’s Jewish Historical Museum suggests it is the capital’s priciest Hanukkah menorah, worth more than the average local price of a duplex home. Shaped like the body of a violin, it is only 16 inches tall.… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — After a mass shooting in a heavily Jewish area shocked the nation, Rabbi Yakov Saacks felt like his Long Island congregation was at risk. So the rabbi installed 17 cameras on the synagogue’s exterior that can zoom in to read numbers on license plates, as… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Palestinian terror groups in Gaza reportedly have agreed to commit to a cease-fire of hostilities that have seen more than 400 rockets bombard southern Israel and Israeli retaliation in a 25-hour period. Four mediators — Egypt, the United Nations, Norway and Switzerland — helped achieve the… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — One person was killed and two seriously injured after a rocket fired from Gaza landed on an apartment building in southern Israel as the country remained under siege from rocket fire for a second day. The rocket hit the upper floors of a four-story apartment in… Read more »

(JTA) — The death toll and damage continue to rise in California in the wildfires ravaging the state. More than 6,400 homes have been damaged and at least 31 people have been killed, according to CNN. Like other Californians, Jewish residents are evacuating their homes and dealing with the… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — More than 200 rockets and mortars fired from Gaza rained down Monday evening on southern Israel, including one that hit a bus, seriously injuring a young man. The Israel Defense Forces responded by launching attacks on Hamas sites in Gaza. The man, 19, was on the… Read more »

From Wikipedia, eyewitness accounts and reports from Holocaust survivors While the initial purpose of Kristallnacht was the need of financing for the Nazi Party, there were underlying racial and social hatred. That hatred was expanded to include Gypsies, homosexuals and members/leaders of other religions. The international Evian Conference on… Read more »

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Growing up, Jaap Soesan would count the days until his parents would take him to Waterloo Square, a central area that many people here call the Jewish market. “It was a treat to go there,” recalled Soesan, a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor from the Amsterdam suburb of… Read more »

(The Nosher via JTA) – When I go to a kosher bakery anywhere in the world, I look for poppy seed rolls. I love them for their delicate and shiny pastry and for their sweet, inky, fruity and slightly bitter poppy seed filling. I especially love poppy seed rolls in the morning with a strong cup of coffee… Read more »

(The Nosher via JTA) – Egyptian Jews comprise one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. There have been waves of Jewish immigration to Egypt over centuries: Sephardic Jews arrived during the Spanish inquisition, Ashkenazi Jews fled there from Eastern Europe during the pogroms of the 19th century, and Jewish… Read more »

(Kveller via JTA) – “I’m so scared for your synagogue,” my (non-Jewish) mother said to me as we were driving the other day. We were talking about my daughter’s schedule — religious school was on the agenda for that afternoon — and she had asked me about our synagogue’s security… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — In the wake of the deadly shooting Oct. 27 at a Pittsburgh synagogue, Israeli lawmakers gathered for a special meeting for a discussion of anti-Semitism in America. It was dialogue that at times grew heated: Politicians yelled at each other and argued about the definition of… Read more »

BERLIN (JTA) — Israeli author Eldad Beck regards Angela Merkel‘s engagement with Israel and Judaism as “spectacular.” Germany’s chancellor has “developed a very personal connection to the State of Israel and the Jewish people, one of the rare German politicians who – when speaking about lessons learned from the past – really knows what… Read more »

Jacky Rosen is interviewed after rallying supporters at a get-out-the-vote event at a Nevada state Democratic Party field office in Las Vegas, Nov. 4, 2018. Rosen won her Senate race. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Tuesday night’s midterm elections were hailed as a victory for gender parity, as an unprecedented number of women won bids to serve in Congress. More than 100 women were elected to serve in the House of Representatives and the Senate, according to final vote tallies and projections. It’s a… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The outpouring of grief over last month’s massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue has sparked a degree of counterintuitive hope. Just maybe, the eternal optimists among us believe, this will prove to be the watershed event that sends all the craven anti-Semites crawling back into… Read more »

KALININGRAD, Russia (JTA) — Walking to school and back, Michael Wieck twice a day would pass by one of Europe’s largest and most spectacular Jewish places of worship: Koenigsberg’s New Synagogue. The mammoth shul was built in 1896 in the Aesopian style in the bustling port city that is… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) – For decades as an adult, Lore Mayerfeld kept a doll on a chair in an off-limits bedroom or high on a shelf. Her children – and later her grandchildren and great-grandchildren – knew not to play with the toy for fear of breaking it. Dressed in… Read more »

(JTA) — On the phone last week, just before the revival of his play “The Waverly Gallery” opened on Broadway, Kenneth Lonergan sounded harried. There had been some set malfunctions earlier in the week, just as critics were getting ready to start their reviews. He acknowledged the play is… Read more »

Kim Schrier won her race in the 8th District of Washington state. (Screenshot from YouTube)

(JTA) — In the final weeks of the midterm election campaign, Republicans in six states targeted their Democratic opponents with attacks many saw as echoing anti-Semitic tropes. The attacks — mostly involving pictures of Jewish candidates clutching money — were denounced and debated. But were they effective? Answer: Yes… Read more »