Repair the World volunteers assist with food preparation at Masbia Soup Kitchen in Brooklyn. (Alli Lesovoy)
NEW YORK (JTA) — As a college student, Jake Max assumed he would work in banking or consulting after graduation. That was the path favored by many of his classmates. But after experiencing the 2016 presidential campaign his senior year at Emory University, Max was spurred to action and… Read more »
Donald Trump speaks with journalists at a rally against the Iran nuclear deal at the U.S. Capitol, Sept. 9, 2015. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Campaigning last year for the presidency, Donald Trump said the Iran nuclear agreement was the “worst deal” he had ever seen. It was never exactly clear, however, what he intended to do about it: Appearing at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s policy conference in… Read more »
Jared Kushner speaks at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House, June 19, 2017. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — If Jared Kushner is the only person who can deliver Middle East peace — as his father-in-law Donald Trump said — he comes off as a reluctant savior. In a speech delivered Monday to a group of congressional interns and leaked to the media, Kushner expounded… Read more »
Ramadan Abu-Ragila receives a doctoral degree at Ben-Gurion University (Ran Dahan/TPS)
Among the graduates receiving their doctoral degrees at Ben Gurion University of the Negev on June 28, one stood out above the rest. Ramadan Abu-Ragila, 34, has muscular dystrophy, a disease that causes progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass, is wheelchair bound and relies on an oxygen machine… Read more »
Gary Wasserman, left, strolls through a corridor on the Georgetown campus in Qatar with his students in 2012. (Georgetown University-Qatar)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Near the end of his first year teaching American studies at the Georgetown University campus in Qatar, Gary Wasserman introduced a dozen Israelis to a dozen undergraduates from across the Middle East. Then he left the room so the students could have an unfiltered discussion.… Read more »
Children wave Israeli and American flags at the Celebrate Israel parade in New York City, June 4, 2017. (Perry Bindelglass)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Six years ago, the Israeli government released a series of controversial ads to show its expatriates that they would never feel at home in the United States. But last year, Israeli Cabinet members lined up to address a Washington, D.C., conference celebrating Israeli-American identity.… Read more »
Gershom Sizomu, religious leader of the Abayudaya, in 2003. (Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
(JTA) — Uganda’s 2,000 Jews have long maintained a modest existence. They live in the east of the country in a hilly, rural area that lacks paved roads, consistent electricity and freely running water. But this year, the situation for Uganda’s Jewish community, called the Abayudaya, has worsened. Twenty million people… Read more »
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party supporters demonstrate for voting rights outside the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, N.J. Some hold signs with portraits of slain civil rights workers Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. (Warren K. Leffler/Wikimedia Commons)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner are about the closest American Jews have to secular saints. The two Jewish civil rights workers traveled south for the Freedom Summer campaign of 1964, joining the African-American activist James Chaney in canvassing black churches. All three were kidnapped and murdered by… Read more »
Rona Matlow served in the Navy for 22 years before leaving to become what she calls "the only nuclear-qualified, transgender rabbi." (Photos courtesy of Maslow)
WASHINGTON, D.C. (JTA) — On Wednesday, in our offices near this city’s Dupont Circle, the staff at Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. were opening the mail when a request came in from a veteran asking that we change her first name on our records from Jaron to Rona. “I… Read more »
(JTA) — Muslim rioters threw rocks at police officers near Jerusalem’s Lions’ Gate, breaking the relative calm of a day that followed 10 days of unrest over security at the Temple Mount. Police fired stun grenades into the hostile crowds, Ynet reported Friday, as Israel deployed a huge security… Read more »
Talleen Abu Hana visited Washington, D.C., to speak about her experience being a transgender woman in Israel. (Ron Kampeas)
WASHINGTON, D.C. (JTA) — Last month, the Israeli Embassy marked LGBT Pride Month with a reception for Jewish and Israeli activists and leaders. About 100 people attended the event, which featured an address by Talleen Abu Hana, an Arab Christian from Nazareth who won the first Miss Trans Israel… Read more »
Muslims at a prayer service celebrating Eid-al-Fitr in Stamford, Conn., June 25, 2017. (John Moore/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Since it came out in 2013, the “Pew study” — a landmark survey of American Jewish demographics, beliefs and practices — has been at the center of American Jewish scrutiny and handwringing. Now it’s American Muslims’ turn. On Wednesday, the Pew Research Center released a… Read more »
The Anati brothers, from left, Emmanuel, Andrea and Bubi. (Tamar Tal Anati)
(JTA) — Renting a house in the Italian countryside and eating loads of pasta is about as blissful a vacation as they come. For the three Anati brothers, however, such a trip is a reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust. Yet the brothers — Bubi, 77; Andrea,… Read more »
A hotel can be seen behind the abandoned Dar Bishi synagogue in Tripoli, Libya, Sept. 28, 2011. (Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Gina Waldman was forced to flee her native Libya in 1967 as anti-Jewish mobs took to the streets of Tripoli, burning down her father’s warehouse. Waldman, like thousands of other Libyan Jews who left the country amid public and state-sponsored anti-Semitism in the 20th century, was… Read more »
Maoz Yaakov, center, leads a session at the Shiva Festival. (Courtesy of the Shiva Festival)
TEL AVIV (JTA) – In a grove in northern Israel, several dozen sweaty, shirtless Israeli men circle one another other on all fours, growling like bears. They are acting out the occasionally surly stage of the menstrual cycle, just before menstruation begins. The bear is one of four… Read more »
Demonstrators outside the offices of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo protesting his executive order calling for New York companies to divest from organizations that support the BDS movement, June 9, 2016. (Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty Images)
BERKELEY, Calif. (JTA) — A bill being weighed in Congress that would target boycotts of Israel and its settlements is sparking widespread outrage, especially after investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald claimed it “criminalizes free speech.” The post relied on a letter from the ACLU expressing First Amendment concerns over the Israel Anti-Boycott Act.… Read more »
A poster in the Dutch city of Rotterdam encouraging free choice of romantic partners, May 25, 2017. (Courtesy of Femme for Freedom)
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — In a country where sex toys are displayed in shop windows and television commercials often feature nudity, a picture of a clothed, heterosexual couple kissing may not seem like the stuff of scandal. But precisely such an image — part of a poster campaign celebrating… Read more »
Mosei Yunayev speaking at the International Islamic Mission Forum in Makhachkala, Russia, March 22, 2017. (Courtesy of the International Islamic Mission)
(JTA) — While Russia’s mainstream Jewish leaders in Moscow firmly backed Israel’s actions in clashes this week with Palestinians at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the small Jewish community of Chechnya broke ranks with them and boldly condemned the Jewish state’s “provocations” against Muslims in the holy city. At least that was… Read more »
The Tucson Jewish Community Center (the Tucson J) will be the host of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization ceremony on Wednesday, July 26 at 10 a.m. in the Tucson J’s Ballroom. One hundred new U.S. citizens will participate in the naturalization ceremony and originate from the… Read more »
Aerial footage of the Dead Sea (Kobi Richter)
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators announced a far-reaching agreement July 13 to provide the Palestinian Authority with 33 million cubic meters of water a year, as part of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal project. At a press conference hosted by United States Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt, Israel’s… Read more »
