Kids in the Chabad-run preschool in Burlington, Vermont, play in the yard. (Courtesy of Draizy Junik)
(JTA) — Draizy Junik is well acquainted with the challenges of living a Jewish life in Vermont, a state that while home to a well-known Jewish Democratic presidential candidate has a total Jewish population of about 20,000 people. As a kid, Junik was homeschooled until the age of 13… Read more »
(JTA) — “Judge Judy” will stop banging her gavel after 25 years on the TV bench — but she won’t stop meting out justice. Judy Sheindlin, the Jewish judge on the popular court television series, told talk show host Ellen DeGeneres in an interview set to be aired Monday… Read more »
(JTA) — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said the pro-Israel lobby has “a lot of money; they have a lot of power” in a television interview. Sanders was responding to a question on the CBS News program “Face the Nation” from moderator Margaret Brennan, who asked the Vermont senator… Read more »
(JTA) — A University of Maryland student was arrested for sending anti-Semitic text messages to a female student “because of her religious beliefs,” university police told local media. The female student began receiving messages on her cellphone in December from a person she did not know while she studied… Read more »
(JTA) — At 53, Bill Goldberg is a world championship wrestler again. Goldberg won the World Wrestling Entertainment universal title last week in Saudi Arabia. Hundreds of Saudi Arabian wrestling fans were on their feet cheering as the Jewish grappler defeated Bray Wyatt, also known as “The Fiend,” during… Read more »
(JTA) — Hundreds of Jews from across the country have signed a declaration of support for Elizabeth Warren in the latest effort to influence Jewish voters in the Democratic primaries. Among the some 850 signatories to the #JewsforWarren declaration are Joshua Malina, the “Scandal” actor who starred in a… Read more »
(JTA) — More than a year after the Tree of Life attack in Pittsburgh, every classroom in synagogue religious schools, Jewish day schools and preschools in western Pennsylvania will now be equipped with medical and emergency equipment. It’s a project of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, whose Security… Read more »
(JTA) — No matter who is running on the Democratic presidential ticket in 2020, he or she is likely to get the Jewish vote by a wide margin, according to a new survey. The survey, released Friday by the Jewish Electorate Institute, found that two-thirds of Jewish voters said… Read more »
(JTA) — A Jewish firefighter from New York has sued his ex-boss allegedly for using anti-Semitic language against him in the work environment. Jonathan Cummings alleges that in 2017, Assistant Chief Fire Marshal Michael Durkin of the Bureau of Fire Investigation sent a text message to someone in the… Read more »
(JTA) — Charter school supporters in Los Angeles are targeting a Jewish school board member with attack mailers that some critics have called anti-Semitic. The mailers portray Scott Schmerelson as greedy, corrupt and determined to score fast cash by exposing children to deadly vaping and McDonald’s French fries, the… Read more »
(JTA) — A bill that would allow the Bible to be taught as an elective in West Virginia public schools passed in the state legislature over the objections of a Jewish third-grader who testified that the measure was a “bad idea.” The measure would allow social studies courses on… Read more »
(JTA) — Democratic presidential candidates Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg said they will not attend AIPAC’s annual conference because it overlaps with Super Tuesday. Their absence leaves former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg as the only Democratic candidate to confirm that he will speak at the prominent Israel lobby’s… Read more »
(JTA) — Domestic extremists in the United States — most them from the far-right — killed 435 people in the decade that ended this past December. According to a new study by the Anti-Defamation League, half of those murders were committed to further the killer’s ideology. The other half… Read more »
Sarah Julia Seldin, left, and Shani Mink are founders of the Jewish Farmers Network. (Ben Harris)
REISTERSTOWN, Md. (JTA) — When Sarah Julia Seldin arrived at the main national gathering of Jewish foodies in 2016, she was disappointed to find no programming aimed specifically at people like her. There were sessions on kosher cooking, Jewish food ethics and the realities of kosher animal slaughter. But… Read more »
Some of JC Kosher's shelves are fully stocked with staples in its new location two blocks from the original store. (Ben Sales)
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (JTA) — Two months after his wife was murdered in the attack on this city’s only kosher grocery store, owner Moshe Ferencz was back behind the counter this week. The store, which has partially reopened in a new location, still doesn’t have regular hours. But the reopening… Read more »
(JTA) — The most seriously injured victim of the stabbing attack at a rabbi’s home in Monsey opened his eyes after 59 days in a coma. Josef Neumann, 72, has been on a respirator since the Dec. 28 attack during a Hanukkah party. He was one of five people… Read more »
(JTA) — Two volleyball players from Brooklyn College took a knee during the playing of “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem, before a match at Yeshiva University. The controversial protest gesture by Omar Rezika and Hunnan Butt was captured on video and posted on social media. “Brooklyn College strongly condemns all… Read more »
BOSTON (JTA) – Stephan Ross, a prominent Boston-area Holocaust survivor who founded the New England Holocaust Memorial, has died. Ross died Monday at the age of 88, though the destruction by the Nazis of documents in his native Poland makes it impossible to determine the exact year of his… Read more »
(JTA) — A Jewish student in Texas was kicked off his high school’s robotics team after he made an anti-Semitic joke at his own expense. The student filed a federal lawsuit against Anderson High School in Austin, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. According to the lawsuit, the student found… Read more »
(JTA) — Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg will speak at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, the first U.S. presidential candidate to be confirmed as a speaker. Bloomberg’s participation in the conference, being held March 1-3 in Washington, D.C., was announced by AIPAC on Tuesday evening, just… Read more »
