News

(JTA) — Several hundred people gathered at a church in Frankfurt, the city of Anne Frank’s birth, on the occasion of the teenage diarist’s 90th birthday. The event, organized Wednesday at the iconic St. Paul’s Church by the municipality of the German city and the Basel-based Anne Frank Foundation,… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The U.S. Embassy branch office in Tel Aviv decorated its building with rainbow flag banners for the city’s Pride parade, ignoring a Trump administration ban on flying the Pride flag at diplomatic missions. A photo of the building decked out in two rainbow banners and rainbow… Read more »

PARIS (JTA) — As a French celebrity philosopher, Alain Finkielkraut belongs to a tiny group of VIPs who get to lead normal, paparazzi-free lives despite having film star-like recognizability here. Unlike most countries, France makes celebrities out of intellectual heroes. They’re revered, quoted and featured regularly on primetime television… Read more »

On May 29, community volunteers from Truly Nolen Pest & Termite Control packed 240 bags of food to supplement nutrition for students at Homer Davis Elementary School over the summer break, when kids can’t get meals at school. The food program is part of the Jewish Federation of Southern… Read more »

Some 60 community members gathered on Tuesday, June 4, at the Mexican Consulate to hear Joaquin Ruiz, Ph.D., dean of the College of Science at the University of Arizona, speak about his life and work, highlighting Tucson’s geology, diversity, and extensive natural wonders. Ruiz is a member of both… Read more »

Last year, a group of students at Jerusalem’s renowned Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design set to work imagining the future. Their specific goal was to envision the next generation of wearable devices for the blind. Working in collaboration with the technology company Orcam, a Jerusalem-based producer of devices… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said Israel “has the right to retain” some of the West Bank. Palestinians fumed, Jewish settlers rejoiced, and the punditocracy predicted gloom and doom. What was it exactly that Friedman said in a New York Times interview. And what… Read more »

(JTA) — On the surface, Gil Levanon and Kat Rohrer seem unlikely friends. Levanon is an Israeli, the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. Rohrer, an Austrian, is the granddaughter of an avowed Nazi officer. If their friendship seems a little odd, their collaboration on the documentary “Back to the… Read more »

(JTA) — Andrew Anglin, the founder of neo-Nazi site the Daily Stormer, was ordered to pay $4.1 million in damages for having defamed a Muslim-American comedian. On Wednesday, a federal judge in Ohio ordered Anglin to compensate Dean Obeidallah for falsely accusing him of being behind a terrorist attack… Read more »

(JTA) — A large Orthodox synagogue in Atlanta is breaking away from the Young Israel synagogue movement. The exit comes months after its rabbi protested the movement’s right-wing political positions. In a statement provided Wednesday afternoon to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the Young Israel of Toco Hills announced that… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The United States and Argentina convened a two-day regional summit in Buenos Aires about the persistent Hezbollah threat in the Western Hemisphere. The summit Tuesday and Wednesday was held a month ahead of the 25th anniversary of the terrorist bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in… Read more »

BUENOS AIRES (JTA) — Argentinean and international Jewish organizations are demanding action from local and regional authorities amid recent violent anti-Semitic attacks in the country. The Argentinean Jewish political umbrella DAIA labeled Sunday’s attack on Rabbi Shlomo Tawil in Rosario as “brutal anti-Semitic aggression” and demanded an investigation into the… Read more »

(JTA) — A Jewish candidate for Seattle City Council has been subjected to anti-Semitic threats on the online message board 8Chan and on social media. Ari Hoffman, a married father of three, is one of nearly 50 candidates for seven of the nine council seats. The primary is scheduled… Read more »

(JTA) — Thousands of Polish soccer fans attending a match in Warsaw between their national team and Israel’s applauded during the playing of the Jewish state’s anthem. “Hatikvah” was played just before “Mazurek Dąbrowskiego” on Tuesday ahead of the match, which ended with Poland winning 4-0. When some fans… Read more »

PHUM THOM, Cambodia (JTA) — Arun Sothea is a slight, soft-spoken man. He speaks both casually and simply when discussing the horrors of his past — as well the triumphs of his present — both of which have taken place in his childhood home of Phum Thom. The Khmer… Read more »

(JTA) — “Hadestown,” a musical about the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and the underworld, won best new musical at the Tony Awards, and a coveted prize for its Jewish director. Rachel Chavkin won the Tony Award for best director of a musical for “Hadestown,” the tenth woman… Read more »

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — A rabbi in Rosario, the third most populous city in Argentina, was verbally and physically attacked in violence that has been characterized as anti-Semitic. Rabbi Shlomo Tawil, of the local Chabad-Lubavitch organization, was attacked Sunday night by three men in the city center of… Read more »

(JTA) — A white nationalist was photographed appearing to urinate on an Israeli flag at a Pride parade in Detroit. Some 40,000 attended the Motor City Pride event Saturday in downtown Detroit. During the event, members of the National Socialist Movement marched on the parade in protest of the… Read more »

(JTA) — Is an LGBTQ parade banning flags with Jewish stars? Yes. Not really. Kind of. The D.C. Dyke March, a social justice-focused parade for, in its words, “queer liberation” happening Friday, announced that it is not welcoming any “nationalist symbols.” That includes Israeli flags and American flags, the… Read more »

(JTA) — An Italian couple whose ancestors were forced to hide their faith got married atop the ruins of an ancient synagogue, giving the site its first Jewish wedding in centuries. Roque Pugliese and Ivana Pezzoli tied the knot earlier this week in the presence of about 100 guests,… Read more »