A look at the Avocado Rose dish at The Avocado Show. (Courtesy of The Avocado Show)
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Last year, Ron Simpson was still managing talent for a living. But within just a few months Simpson, a 34-year-old Jewish marketing professional and producer from Amsterdam with no experience in running a restaurant, launched an international chain of eateries with a partner. It is so… Read more »
"Three Identical Strangers" is a documentary about triplets separated at birth by a Jewish-affiliated adoption agency in 1961. (Courtesy of NEON)
NEW YORK (JTA) — A critical consensus has formed around the hit documentary film “Three Identical Strangers,” which can be summarized in the title of one of its glowing reviews: “‘Three Identical Strangers’ Is as Unnerving as It Is Thrilling.” This story of three triplets, reunited as teenagers after… Read more »
Simone Zimmerman, a leftist activist, lives in Israel on a work visa. (Courtesy of Zimmerman)
(JTA) — For years, Simone Zimmerman has protested Israel’s actions from the left. She’s led activist groups, organized protests and gone on camera. But she never worried that her activism would get her barred from entering the country — until this week. Zimmerman, who is Jewish and lives in… Read more »
Sarah Jeong's anti-white tweets prompted a debate over the definition of racism and, subsequently, anti-Semitism. (Illustration by Charles Dunst/JTA; photo: Wikimedia Commons)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Are Jews too powerful to be considered “victims” of racism? Some progressives think so and have been downplaying accusations of anti-Semitism in light of a debate over prejudice and power. This week, The New York Times took heat for hiring Sarah Jeong, a technology writer,… Read more »
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appears on "Meet the Press," July 1, 2018. (William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic congressional candidate and rising progressive star, was cheered at an event at a Jewish museum that did not touch on Israel or the Jewish community. Ocasio-Cortez appeared at a conference here hosted by the Immigrant Arts Coalition at the Museum of… Read more »
Kate Bornstein after the opening night of "Straight White Men" in New York City, July 23, 2018. (Walter McBride/WireImage)
(JTA) — The Hayes Theater in New York, currently home to the Broadway show “Straight White Men,” has just opened its doors, and Kate Bornstein is already patrolling the orchestra seating area. There’s an unusual cacophony of rap music and flashing lights in the theater during the preshow. As… Read more »
Dafna Michaelson Jenet says her experiences in BBYO and Hadassah gave her “the underpinnings I needed to be a legislator.” (Sophia Laster)
(JTA) — Dafna Michaelson Jenet traces her political career back to conversations around the Shabbat table as a 14-year-old. She remembers hearing her parents and their friends discuss the challenges facing Cincinnati, where they were living. But the conversations would quickly be forgotten once the day of rest came… Read more »
(Kveller via JTA) – On Nov. 22, 1909, at a massive workers meeting held at Cooper Union, Clara Lemlich Shavelson made herself known. In Yiddish, she declared, “I am tired of listening to speakers who talk in general terms. … I move that we go on a general strike!”… Read more »
Bob Shamansky brought his Jewish sensibility to Congress. (Illustration by Charles Dunst/JTA; photo: Wikimedia Commons)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — There’s a nail-biter in Ohio’s 12th District, if you haven’t noticed. Danny O’Connor, a Democrat, has refused to concede to Republican Troy Balderson following Tuesday’s hair’s-breadth special election for the seat encompassing Columbus and its environs. The winner will succeed longtime Republican incumbent Pat Tiberi, who… Read more »
Evelien Gans was one of the Netherlands’ foremost scholars on anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. (Courtesy of Daniel Staal)
AMSTERDAM (JTA) – On July 19, Evelien Gans, one of the Netherlands’ foremost scholars on anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, jumped to her death from her fourth-story Amsterdam apartment, where she lived alone. Gans, 67, a retired professor at the University of Amsterdam who had struggled with clinical depression for… Read more »
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, President Reuven Rivlin and the head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, at an awards ceremony in Jerusalem to recognize 13 employees of Israel's intelligence agency, Dec. 13, 2017. (Kobi Gideon/Wikimedia Commons)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Aziz Asbar was a leading Syrian rocket scientist, working with Hezbollah and Iran to develop systems that could reach deep inside Israel. Now he’s dead, blown up in a car. The natural inclination in the Middle East and even farther afield is to blame the Mossad,… Read more »
President Donald Trump, right, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appear to have different views on Iran. (Illustration by Charles Dunst/JTA; credit: Maxpixel, Wikimedia Commons)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump says he’s ready to meet Iran’s leadership without preconditions. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seems to have preconditions. The disconnect of recent weeks was sharpened Monday when the White House announced the reimposition of sanctions on Iran, the first to be reintroduced since… Read more »
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee speaks at a ceremony welcoming a new neighborhood in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, Aug. 1, 2018. (Sam Sokol)
EFRAT, West Bank (JTA) — Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee laid bricks in a new neighborhood in this settlement in a ceremony Aug. 1 that took its language and cues from Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” rhetoric. During the ceremony in Efrat’s Tamar neighborhood, organizers distributed red caps bearing… Read more »
Jacob Wohl describes himself as a conservative, a Zionist and one of President Trump’s most loyal supporters. (Screenshot from YouTube)
NEW YORK (JTA) — If you scroll down the Twitter feed of Jacob Wohl, former teenage hedge fund manager and current pro-Donald Trump provocateur, you’ll see a stream of insults directed at Robert Mueller, liberals and a proposed plastic straw ban. And that was just Friday morning. To his… Read more »
A Palestinian man walks by Israeli troops standing guard in the West Bank city of Hebron, April 13, 2017. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
(JTA) – When Samuel Green talks about Israel’s West bank security barrier with the Birthright groups he guides, he first explains the Israeli view that the barrier was built to prevent Palestinian terrorists from breaching Israeli territory and that Israelis generally feel it has saved lives. But then he’ll… Read more »
Cantor Philip Sherman has appeared in more than a dozen roles in commercials, TV series and movies, mostly playing a religious Jew.(Courtesy of Sherman)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Cantor Philip Sherman gives me a call after having finished two circumcisions before noon on Tuesday. That’s a light day, he explains. On Thursday, he will be performing circumcisions for four baby boys; on Friday, he’ll do five. Sherman, 62, is a mohel (in… Read more »
Tom Furstenberg, right, and a fellow congregant carry the Torah ark out of the Great Synagogue of Deventer, July 30, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
DEVENTER, Netherlands (JTA) — Four years ago, Tom Furstenberg proudly carried into his synagogue its first Torah scroll since the Holocaust, when local Nazis destroyed the building’s interior. The scroll’s introduction in 2014 was an important moment for the Beth Shoshana Masorti community that Furstenberg helped establish in 2010… Read more »
Rep. David Kustoff, a Jewish Republican, is running for re-election in Tennessee’s 8th Congressional District. (Ron Kampeas)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — David Kustoff, running for re-election in Tennessee’s 8th Congressional District, had three things in his favor: incumbency, a solid Republican district and President Donald Trump’s endorsement. Kustoff was not taking anything for granted, though: In the Republican primary on Thursday, he faced a challenger, George Flinn,… Read more »
David Reinert holds up a large "Q" sign representing QAnon, a conspiracy group, while waiting in line to see President Donald Trump at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Aug. 2, 2018. (Rick Loomis/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — “We are Q.” Those wearing shirts and holding signs bearing the idiom and similar Q-related expressions appeared prominently at President Donald Trump’s campaign rally Tuesday in Tampa, Florida, for a Republican congressman, Ron Desantis, prompting confused and concerned reactions from across the political spectrum. What is… Read more »
(Illustration by Charles Dunst/JTA)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Over and over, across decades and cities throughout the United States, sociologist Steven M. Cohen painted a picture of American Jews using a consistent set of questions. How much do Jews love Israel? How many Jewish friends do they have? Do they attend a synagogue?… Read more »
