News

(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 »

A Chabad center being built in Flagstaff was broken into and vandalized sometime between late afternoon on Friday, March 22 and 7 a.m. on Monday, March 25. Crude swastikas were drawn in black paint on the windows and carved into the walls of the Molly Blank Jewish Community Center, which… 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 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 »

The body of Israeli soldier Zachary Baumel, an immigrant from the United States who went missing in Lebanon some 37 years ago, recently was returned to Israel. Baumel disappeared on June 10, 1982, in a battle at the beginning of the Lebanon War along with two other Israeli soldiers,… 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 »

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) — A New York suburb with a large haredi Orthodox population has declared a state of emergency over a serious measles outbreak. Rockland County will prohibit unvaccinated minors under the age of 18 from going to public places, including school, shopping centers, business and synagogues. The prohibition, which… Read more »

Ayala, 11, a student with a cognitive disability, communicates via a computer screen with her teacher, Rivka Dimant, in a school at Aleh Negev, a campus for Israelis with disabilities, Oct. 25, 2018. (Ben Sales)

OFAKIM, Israel (JTA) — Ayala’s eyes darted around the screen, choosing words and pictures as her teacher asked her rapid-fire questions. Ayala, 11, has a cognitive disability that prevents her from speaking. But she can communicate thanks to a screen that reads her eye movements and transmits answers to… 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 »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu’s week had been carefully scripted: Less than one month away from Israeli elections, the prime minister was traveling to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Donald Trump. A friendly photo op would become even friendlier when Trump announced that he wanted to recognize Israeli… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — More than 60 rockets were launched overnight into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip even as Hamas said it had accepted a cease-fire agreement. Egypt brokered the cease-fire, which was to take effect at 10 p.m. Monday, but rockets targeting civilian areas continued to fall until after… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli spacecraft Beresheet has sent home a video of a sunrise from the spacecraft’s point of view before it enters the moon’s orbit. The Beresheet camera also caught some selfie images with earth from 81,400 miles and nearly 165,000 miles away. It also sent back… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli army began attacking Hamas terror targets in Gaza in the wake of a rocket attack by the terrorist group that leveled a house in central Israel and injured 7. The Israel Defense Forces also sent two additional brigades to the Gaza border area –… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A long-range rocket fired from Gaza scored a direct hit on a home in central Israel, injuring seven, including two infants. Following the early Monday morning attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also serves as defense minister, announced that he would cut short his visit… Read more »

BERLIN (JTA) — One of Germany’s wealthiest families said it will make amends for its company’s Nazi past. In a spectacular announcement, the Reimann family, worth about $37 billion and the second richest in Germany, announced that new research had shown that the company’s Nazi-era directors, Albert Reimann and… Read more »

This year’s “Thunder and Lightning Over Arizona,” at Davis-Monthan U.S. Air Force Base, March 23-24, brought a hometown pilot soaring into town for the performance. Maj. Jason Markzon, flying the #8 slot, is the only Jewish pilot in the Thunderbirds Air Combat Command unit. The advance squadron’s advance pilot,… Read more »