National

The El Paso shooting is being investigated as domestic terrorism. Does that matter?

Armed police officers gather next to an FBI armored vehicle at the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, Texas, Aug. 3, 2019. The shooter who killed at least 22 people there is being investigated as a domestic terrorist. (Joel Angel Juarez/AFP/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Before he killed at least 22 people at a Walmart on the southern border, the gunman in El Paso posted a white supremacist manifesto on the fringe social network 8chan denouncing a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” The U.S. Justice Department announced that it would treat the shooting… Read more »

Trump condemns bigotry and white supremacy in response to El Paso and Dayton shootings

President Donald Trump makes remarks about the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton at the White House as Vice President Mike Pence looks on, Aug. 5, 2019. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

(JTA) — President Donald Trump said “hate has no place in America” in an address to the nation following the mass shootings over the weekend in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. Trump pledged additional resources to the FBI to investigate domestic terrorism. He called for strengthening detection of… Read more »

Senators introduce bill to pay for Holocaust education programs in schools

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A bipartisan slate of senators introduced a bill that would fund Holocaust education in schools. The Never Again Education Act would establish the Holocaust Education Assistance Program Fund in the U.S. Treasury. The bill would combine appropriated funds and private donations. A release July 11 from… Read more »

The youngest correspondent covering the debates is a 10-year-old Jewish kid

Jefferson Henry Kraft is (probably) the youngest correspondent in the Democratic debate spin room in Detroit on July 20, 2019. (Ron Kampeas)

DETROIT (JTA) — For any reporter, careening in a year from reviewing restaurants to covering the presidential debates would be a pretty fast rise. But then again, Jefferson Henry Kraft is only 10 years old. Kraft is the KidScoop Media correspondent covering the Democratic presidential debates, taking place here… Read more »

North Miami Beach’s Jews cope after another synagogue shooting

The Young Israel of Greater Miami synagogue on the night of the shooting, July 28, 2019. (Screenshot from Local10.com)

(JTA) — When Rabbi Mark Rosenberg’s family played back the footage on their home’s security cameras in North Miami Beach, they could hear the rat-tat-tat of bullets being fired at the synagogue a few blocks away. On Sunday, a man had been shot repeatedly in front of the Young… Read more »

Elijah Cummings’ district, which Trump derided as ‘disgusting,’ has a significant Jewish population

Committee Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., listens to an aide during a meeting of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., June 12, 2019. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Jewish leaders in Baltimore have come to the defense of Rep. Elijah Cummings, the African-American Democrat who has come under withering attack from President Donald Trump. After spending a week berating the group of four Democratic freshman known as “The Squad” — all women of color —… Read more »

Over 1,400 Jewish clergy sign letter supporting asylum seekers

(JTA) — More than 1,400 Jewish clergy from across the United States have signed a letter that calls on government officials to protect the legal right to seek asylum in the United States. HIAS, an immigrant advocacy and aid group formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, organized the… Read more »

CNN photo editor quits after anti-Semitic tweets surface

(JTA) — A CNN photo editor resigned after some anti-Semitic tweets he made in 2011 were discovered. Mohammed Elshamy, a 25-year-old former photojournalist with the Anadolu news agency, quit Thursday night after an employee of Israel’s Government Press Office flagged on Twitter some of the anti-Semitic statements by Elshamy,… Read more »

John Lewis backs the right to boycott — even though he opposes BDS

Rep. John Lewis listens as speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks about the Voting Rights Enhancement Act, H.R. 4, on Capitol Hill, Feb. 26, 2019. (Joshua Roberts/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., explained why he backed a resolution upholding the right to boycott “at home and abroad” — even though he also voted to condemn the boycott, divestment and sanction movement aimed at Israel Lewis was a cosponsor of a House… Read more »

Six stunning finds from the Met’s exhibit on medieval Jewish treasure

At left, a gold coin of Louis of Hungary, 1342-53; at right, a jeweled silver brooch, second quarter of 14th century, both from the Colmar Treasure. (Musée de Cluny – Musée national du Moyen Âge, RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY via Metropolitan Museum of Art)

NEW YORK (JTA) — There are few remnants of the once flourishing Jewish community of the town of Colmar, in France. Jews were blamed for the outbreak of the Black Death plague there in 1348-49, and many were burned to death. A Roman emperor who then controlled the area… Read more »

Six years on, the parents of a Jewish Army veteran who committed suicide are still fighting for change

Howard and Jean Somers testify about their son Daniel's suicide before a U.S. House Committee hearing about the Veterans Affairs' mental health care procedures, July 10, 2014. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

(JTA) — In 2007, Sgt. Daniel Somers returned home after two tours in Iraq, where he worked in intelligence and special operations. For years he struggled to get on with his life, but his Army service had left him with deep scars, including post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury… Read more »

The Jews getting arrested at ICE centers are just getting started

NEW YORK (JTA) — If you’re going to physically block an entrance to an ICE detention center, the handbook says, don’t act nice about it. Do chant in Yiddish. Do sing Hebrew prayers. “Defiant, angry, urgent, Jewish,” reads the #NeverAgainIsNow Action Toolkit, a six-page Google Doc meant for Jews… Read more »

Anti-Semitic fliers in Massachusetts declare Holocaust ‘fake news’

BOSTON (JTA) — Two anti-Semitic fliers that deny the Holocaust were posted at a Massachusetts synagogue, with reports of similar incidents at synagogues in two other states. Police are investigating what the Anti-Defamation League described as a coordinated campaign by a national online white supremacist group. The fliers at… Read more »

Rhoda Smolow becomes Hadassah president

(JTA) — Rhoda Smolow was officially elected as national president of Hadassah. The new president, the organization’s 27th in its 107 years, will lead over 300,000 members, associates and supporters claimed by the world’s largest women’s Zionist organization, Hadassah announced Tuesday. The announcement camed during Hadassah’s convention at the… Read more »

Cartoonist disinvited from White House defends image widely labeled as anti-Semitic

Ben Garrison drew this cartoon in 2017. It shows George Soros being manipulated by a hand of the Rothschilds, and Soros in turn manipulating Trump’s former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and retired Gen. David Petraeus. (Courtesy of Garrison)

(JTA) — The artist behind a political cartoon that showed U.S. government officials as puppets of George Soros and the Rothschilds has defended his work and accused the Anti-Defamation League of libeling him. On Wednesday, Politico reported that Ben Garrison would no longer be attending a White House social… Read more »