National

(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 »

(JTA) — MGM Resorts International said it will change the logo on its security uniforms, yellow shirts with a symbol that looks like a Jewish star. The announcement came after a Jewish woman who attended a show at MGM Northfield Park in suburban Cleveland noticed the logo and was… Read more »

(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 »

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 »

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 »

(JTA) — A campaign on a Jewish crowdfunding website raised more than $2 million in five days to provide a “miracle drug” to help a 2-year-old Florida girl. Eliana Cohen, daughter of Ariel and Shani Cohen of Aventura, was diagnosed with an extremely rare disease called spinal muscular atrophy… Read more »

(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 »

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 »

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 »

NEW YORK (JTA) — President Donald Trump’s comments on Sunday calling for some Democratic congresswomen to “go back” to their countries of origin have been widely condemned as racist. “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” the… Read more »

(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 »

(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 »

SAN FRANCISCO (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — A bill to ensure the right of Californians bill to hang mezuzahs on their door frames is moving through the state legislature, and is on its way to the desk of Governor Gavin Newsom. SB 652 bars landlords and… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a point of reminding a conference of Christian Zionists that Israel permits conversions to Christianity, just weeks after his department reported on the difficulties converts face there. Pompeo, speaking Monday to the annual Washington summit of Christians United For Israel,… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A Republican running for the Virginia state legislature removed from his Facebook campaign page a meme that mocked comparisons of migrant camps to concentration camps. Paul Milde, running to be a delegate in Virginia’s 28th district, encompassing the town of Fredericksburg about halfway between Washington, D.C.,… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Thirty-six protesters from a new Jewish group were arrested at a demonstration in front of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The arrests Sunday afternoon followed a protest outside the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility organized by a group called Never… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., was alone among the 10 Democratic presidential candidates at the first debate not to commit to rejoining the Iran nuclear deal. Moderators at the debate Wednesday evening in Miami asked the candidates whether they would rejoin the deal President Donald Trump abandoned… Read more »

(JTA) — The manager of a popular restaurant in Pittsburgh was fired after he shared an anti-Semitic post on Facebook. Yokoso Japanese Steakhouse owner Jeff Kim apologized in a Facebook post for the action of his employee, calling it “inexcusable.” He also wrote: “Please know that his comments and… Read more »

(JTA) — Nineteen percent of Americans think small business owners should be allowed to refuse service to Jews if doing so would violate their religious beliefs, a new poll shows. That is an increase from 2014, when 12 percent of respondents agreed with the statement, according to survey results published… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jason Greenblatt, President Trump’s top Middle East negotiator, led Jewish prayer services at a synagogue in Bahrain this week, during the conference there that rolled out the economic portion of the Trump administration’s peace plan. Greenblatt mustered an Orthodox minyan — a quorum of 10 adult… Read more »