Asher Susser Professor Asher Susser, Ph.D., will return to the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies to give the first lecture of the 2017-18 season, “Fifty Years Since the Six Day War — How the Middle East Has Changed,” on Tuesday, Sept. 5. The Six Day War of June 1967 was a… Read more »
Students from San Francisco’s Jewish Community High School perform their original play “Alice and the Black Hole Blues.” (Brian Dean Photography)
Fifteen thespians from San Francisco’s Jewish high school have taken their original play to the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The students arrived in the United Kingdom earlier this month to perform the show, “Alice and the Black Hole Blues,” at the world’s largest arts festival four times during a… Read more »
Binyamin Wood-Isenberg
The train was packed. It was rush hour on a Thursday evening traveling back from work in Manhattan. Most people had in their ear phones, some had out books, and a few people stared blankly into space. As I sat there with the Hebrew text of Toras Menachem on… Read more »
Gay rights activists organizing against state-sponsored anti-gay pogroms in the Russian republic of Chechnya are detained by police in St. Petersburg, Russia, May 1, 2017. (David Frenkel)
A new exhibit, “Invisibility & Resistance: Violence Against LGBTQIA+ People” will occupy the Contemporary Human Rights space of the Holocaust History Center on the campus of the Jewish History Museum when the museum opens for a new season Sept. 1. The exhibit, which will be on display through May… Read more »
Rabbi Shai Held, a co-founder of Mechon Hadar, a traditional egalitarian yeshiva, has just released a book of Torah commentaries. (Courtesy of Mechon Hadar)
NEW YORK (JTA) — After the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, voices abounded calling the demonstration an affront to American values. Rabbi Shai Held called it an attack on God. “One of the most fundamental claims Judaism makes about the world is that every human being on the face… Read more »
Husam Zomlot, the PLO envoy to Washington, speaks to reporters in Washington, D.C., Aug. 17, 2017. (Ron Kampeas)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Palestinian Authority expects the Trump administration to commit to a peace deal endgame before the close of this month and prefers it would be the two-state solution. “We need them to tell us where the hell they are going,” Husam Zomlot, the Palestine Liberation Organization… Read more »
Destruction after the great fire in Salonica, Greece, Sept. 4, 1917. (Photo 12/ UIG via Getty Images)
(JTA) — Exactly a century ago, on Aug. 18, 1917, a massive fire roared through the Mediterranean port city of Salonica, Greece, then home to the largest and most dynamic Ladino-speaking Sephardi Jewish community in the world. According to local legend, the fire erupted one Sabbath afternoon amid World… Read more »
The Paradise Apartments hotel in Arosa, near Zurich, Switzerland. (Courtesy of Paradise Apartments hotel)
(JTA) — A chuckle tickled my throat as Ruth Thomann, a Swiss hotelier who posted signs urging her “Jewish guests” to shower before entering the pool, assured me that she has “nothing against Jews.” To be clear, I don’t find racism particularly amusing, especially not these days. But there… Read more »
A synagogue in Airmont, N.Y., a town that has seen its haredi population boom in recent months as families seek larger houses at a more affordable price. (Ben Sales)
AIRMONT, N.Y. (JTA) — When Moshe Pinkasovits walks with his kids down the street on Saturdays in his new town, he has to watch out for drivers shouting anti-Semitic slurs. The Pinkasovits family didn’t face this problem in the neighboring town of Monsey, a heavily haredi Orthodox enclave in… Read more »
Police officers patrol Las Ramblas avenue in Barcelona a day after the car-ramming terrorist attack in the Spanish city, Aug. 18, 2017. (Carl Court/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Commenting on deadly attacks in Catalonia, the chief rabbi of that region in Spain said his community is doomed, partly because of radical Islam and the alleged reluctance of authorities to confront it. Rabbi Meir Bar-Hen has been encouraging his congregants to leave Spain, which he called… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — The mayors of America’s largest cities are launching a partnership with the Anti-Defamation League to combat hate and bigotry. Nearly 200 mayors have joined the agreement, which was announced Friday, since it was first circulated Tuesday night among the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The mayors… Read more »
This is a developing story. (JTA) — Stephen Bannon is leaving his position as White House chief strategist. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Friday was Bannon’s last day in the role. “White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today… Read more »
(JTA) — President Donald Trump has decided to remove White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon. Two administration officials told The New York Times on Friday about Trump’s decision. However, they cautioned that the president might not act on his decision for “some time.” A source close to Bannon told… Read more »
The scene at the entrance to Emancipation Park during the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12, 2017. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(JTA) — I was in Charlottesville on Saturday. I felt called to go because white supremacy is a hateful ideology that has murdered millions throughout history and continues to kill. I went because my family and ancestors suffered at the hands of anti-Semites throughout history, because I bear their… Read more »
President Donald Trump speaking to the media at Trump Tower in New York City, Aug. 15, 2017. Looking on, from left, are Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council; Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin; Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao; and Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — There was a moment in his “neo-Nazi, neo-Shmazi” news conference where you might have found yourself thinking, maybe President Trump is right. On the narrow question of who was responsible for the violence in Charlottesville, a prosecutor might note that punches were thrown by white… Read more »
From left: Rabbi Shalom Stembler, head of Chabad Poland; Polish actor and director Artur Hofman; Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of Poland's Law and Justice party; Jonny Daniels, head of From the Depths; and Rabbi Eliezer Gurary, head of Chabad Krakow, following their meeting in Warsaw, Aug. 16, 2017. (Courtesy of From the Depths)
(JTA) — The president of Poland’s largest Jewish group accused other Jewish leaders of exaggerating the country’s anti-Semitism problem as part of a “political war” on the right-wing ruling party. Artur Hofman, who heads the TSKZ cultural organization of Polish Jews, defended the government Wednesday during an interview with… Read more »
Protesters and counterprotesters clashing at Emancipation Park in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12, 2017. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Is it OK to punch a Nazi in the face? That’s the question animating much of the discussion of Saturday’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which quickly devolved into a brawl between rally-goers and a contingent of anti-fascist counterprotesters known as antifa. Following the clashes, a… Read more »
White supremacists rally in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12, 2017. (Ron Kampeas)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (JTA) — The white supremacists, for all their vaunted purpose, appeared to be disoriented. Some 500 had gathered at a park here Saturday to protest this southern Virginia city’s plans to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from the park. Pressured by the American… Read more »
White supremacists spar with counterprotesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Emancipation Park in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12, 2017. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(JTA) — They believe the “white race” is in danger. They believe the United States was built by and for white people and must now embrace fascism. They believe minorities are taking over the country. And they believe an international Jewish conspiracy is behind the threat. These are the… Read more »
Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer speaking on "Meet the Press," Aug. 14, 2017. (Screenshot from YouTube)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (JTA) — Michael Signer, the Jewish mayor of Charlottesville, has one thing in common with the white supremacists who descended on his southern Virginia city over the weekend: He also opposed the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Of course, Signer’s reasons for… Read more »
