News

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — The United States is investigating an Israeli-Argentine businessman for allegedly helping to hide the secret fortune of embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Diego Adolfo Marynberg, 44, also known as Zev Marynberg, based in New York and Buenos Aires, reportedly is under the spotlight of… Read more »

(JTA) — Women served as combat soldiers during Israel’s War of Independence, when the fledgling country needed all the fighters it could get. But following the 1948 war, it took half a century before they were allowed back in combat. Since the late 1990s, when some units started allowing… Read more »

(JTA) — Most of the year, Marty Rosenbluth lives alone in a small house in Lumpkin, a Georgia town with 2,000 residents and one restaurant. It’s 500 miles away from his wife and community in North Carolina. Then he drives two miles down the road to a place even… Read more »

(JTA) — Robert Bernstein, a founder of Human Rights Watch who later distanced himself from the group over its criticism of Israel, has died. Bernstein also headed Random House for nearly 25 years, emerging as a leading figure in the publishing world. Among many top authors of the day,… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli military said it uncovered the “longest” and “most significant” Hezbollah attack tunnel on the border with Lebanon. The discovery of the nearly milelong tunnel was made in the winter during Operation Northern Shield, which aimed to expose and neutralize cross-border attack tunnels, but was… Read more »

(JTA) — The national security advisers of the United States, Israel and Russia will meet in Jerusalem in June, the White House said Wednesday. The announcement said that John Bolton of the United States, Meir Ben-Shabbat of Israel and Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council, would convene… Read more »

(JTA) — Israel held a national election seven weeks ago. It will hold another one in September. If that sounds weird to you, you’re right: Israel has a famously raucous political system, but it’s never held national elections twice in one year. Until now. Just to be clear, no… Read more »

(JTA) — For the first time in its history, Israel will hold a second national election in one year, five months after the last election in April. The Israeli Knesset voted at midnight Thursday to dissolve itself, triggering elections on Sept. 17. The unprecedented vote happened after Prime Minister… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A gay rabbinical student denied ordination by a liberal seminary in New York was welcomed into the rabbinate in Jerusalem, breaking a longstanding taboo against homosexuality in the Orthodox community. Daniel Landes, a prominent American-Israeli rabbi, granted semichah, Hebrew for ordination, to Daniel Atwood alongside a… Read more »

BERLIN (JTA) – It is dangerous to identify publicly as Jewish in Germany, including wearing a kippah, Germany’s commissioner on anti-Semitism said. In a wide-ranging interview, Felix Klein told the Berliner Morgenpost on May 24 that he could not recommend that Jews wear a kippah everywhere and any time… Read more »

(JTA) — Harvey Weinstein and his former studio’s board members have reached a tentative settlement deal for $44 million with women who accuse him of sexual misconduct, The Wall Street Journal reported. The disgraced film producer, who is Jewish, has denied sexually harassing or abusing over 75 women. He… Read more »

(JTA) — Nearly one-fifth of Ukraine parliament members co-signed a draft resolution urging their new president to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the embassy there. Of the 450 members of the Verkhovna Rada, 86 signed on as co-authors of a bill submitted for a vote on Friday,… Read more »

(JTA) — British Jews thanked Prime Minister Theresa May for being a “true friend” to their community following her announcement Friday that she is stepping down. May said she will step down as Conservative Party leader on June 7 after failing to convince lawmakers to support her Brexit deal.… Read more »

(JTA) — A French-Jewish taxi driver was mugged and beaten in what he said was an anti-Semitic crime by perpetrators who targeted him because of his Jewish-sounding name. The driver, a 33-year-old man from the Paris region whose first name is Israel Hai, said he accepted a ride in… Read more »

CHICAGO (JTA) — High school administrators in two Chicago suburbs are halting distribution of yearbooks after students were alleged to include anti-Semitic, Nazi and white supremacist elements. Highland Park High School, located 15 miles north of Chicago, is a leafy suburb with a sizable Jewish population. Students there are… Read more »

(JTA) — The Chabad of Poway synagogue dedicated a new Torah scroll in honor of Lori Gilbert-Kaye, who was killed in a shooting attack last month at the San Diego-area synagogue. The ceremony took place Wednesday night marking the end of the sloshim, or first 30-day mourning period, and… Read more »

(JTA) — The director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Dayton called on the Jewish public to avoid a KKK rally set for Saturday in the Ohio city. Rabbi Ari Ballaban said in a statement issued earlier this week that a counter rally scheduled to take place right… Read more »

(JTA) — Early on Friday mornings, Diane Weil leaves her house in Montgomery, Alabama, with an umbrella. The 64-year-old registered nurse doesn’t need it to shield her from the rain. Instead she uses it to block patients from protesters who come to the health clinic where she has been… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel is on red alert over outbreaks of fires across the country, some on a massive scale, amid a massive heat wave. At least one community, founded by the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, has been burned to the ground. Fires on Thursday were out of control… Read more »

Updated with new date, July 14, on June 5, 2019. The Tucson Jewish Community Center will hold its “One Day Adult Summer Camp — Color War Edition” on Sunday, July 14, building off last year’s successful event. The camp, which will begin at 9:30 a.m. with check-in and a… Read more »