NEW YORK (JTA) — Fliers blaming Jews for the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh appeared in seeming random locations around the country last week. “Every time some Anti-White, Anti-American, Anti-freedom event takes place, you look at it, and it’s Jews behind it,” the fliers read. They showed an image of the… Read more »
National
A Venezuelan-American chef wants to show the rich culinary tradition of Latino Jews
(JTA) — Food has always been a way for Deborah Benaim’s family to connect to its roots. A typical Shabbat dinner featured dishes such as traditional Ashkenazi braided challah bread, Moroccan-style whitefish with red pepper paste and a Venezuelan hearts of palm salad. “I think it’s in my… Read more »
Democrats push back after NY Times says the party is drifting on Israel
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Robert Menendez hardly needs to establish his pro-Israel bona fides: He is guaranteed a standing ovation every time he appears at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and pro-Israel political donors are lining up to back him in an unexpectedly close… Read more »
On Sunday, the rabbi moved to Florida’s Panhandle. On Wednesday, Hurricane Michael hit.
(JTA) — When he and his wife moved to Pensacola, Florida, on Sunday afternoon, Rabbi Mendel Danow expected to spend the following couple of weeks settling in and buying supplies for their new home. Instead, two days after getting off the plane, Danow found himself driving to a Walmart… Read more »
Five Jewish candidates are running for Senate in the 2018 congressional elections
WASHINGTON (JTA) — There are 56 candidates for Congress who identify as Jewish. Among them are 41 Democrats: five are running for the Senate — three incumbents and two challengers. Among the 36 in the U.S. House of Representatives, 18 are incumbents and 18 are challengers. (Three incumbent Jewish… Read more »
A protest to support pro-Israel students at Columbia University didn’t involve many students
NEW YORK (JTA) – The organizers of a rally to support pro-Israel students at Columbia University didn’t want the Jewish Defense League to show up. And yet there they were, a few demonstrators wearing the extremist right-wing group’s insignia, a clenched fist punching into a yellow Jewish star. The… Read more »
An exhibit on Jewish life during World War I energizes a Midwestern community
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The scribbled, shorthand note is faded, but the formal origins of the first modern Jewish state are clear: “H(is) M(ajesty’s) G(overnment) accepts the principle that P(alestine) shld. reconstitute as the Natl. Home of the J(ewish) P(eople) …” Jotted on stationery from London’s Imperial Hotel, the memo… Read more »
There are no other Jews where we live. Do we leave?
Oh, if I could count the many discussions my husband and I have had on this topic — multiple times a day on some days. Pros, cons; the list begins. Our house fit us well enough and served its purpose well enough when we bought it 12 years ago.… Read more »
Taking it to the polls — make your vote count for women’s health equity
It’s thrilling to be part of a historical moment when women are stepping into the political arena in record-breaking numbers. They’re tossing their hats into the ring — left, right and center — in national, statewide and local races. It’s an auspicious lead-in for next year’s 100th anniversary of… Read more »
The ‘best football player who grew up in Israel’ seeks a spot at US college
TEL AVIV (JTA) – In the summer of 2011, Yuval Fenta saw two guys tossing a football on the beach in Herzliya. He asked to participate. “You’re too small,” they responded. A dejected Fenta retreated, but not before hearing them mention an American football league that played in Israel.… Read more »
NJ store to close after a century of suiting up bar mitzvah boys — and the occasional mobster
WHIPPANY, N.J. (New Jersey Jewish News via JTA) — When Clifford Kulwin celebrated his 13th anniversary as rabbi at Temple B’nai Abraham in Livingston, New Jersey, he knew he had to mention another local institution. “I understand there are some present who do not consider this a ‘real’ bar… Read more »
How a Chinese fruit became a Sukkot symbol
NEW YORK (JTA) — The holiday of Sukkot isn’t is complete without a lulav and an etrog, the four species that Jews are commanded to wave on the harvest holiday. But according to a new book, it wasn’t until the Second Temple period that Jews started using the lemon-like… Read more »
Why Stephen Miller’s childhood rabbi singled him out in his Rosh Hashanah sermon
(JTA) — Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels didn’t mince words when he criticized Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump and a former congregant of his Southern California synagogue, in his Rosh Hashanah sermon. “Honestly, Mr. Miller, you’ve set back the Jewish contribution to making the world spiritually whole… Read more »
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan says she had ‘a very strange Jewish upbringing’
NEW YORK (JTA) — Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, appearing at a Jewish day school in Brooklyn, spoke about her Jewish background and how her family jumped from synagogue to synagogue. “I had a very strange Jewish upbringing actually,” Kagan, 58, told journalist Dahlia Lithwick, who moderated the Wednesday… Read more »
How a Herman Wouk novel shaped the debate over removing an unfit president
WASHINGTON (JTA) — It’s hard to follow the news these last weeks without running into a reference to the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provides for the removal from office of a president unfit to serve. Questions about Donald Trump’s capacity to govern arise in “Fear,” Bob… Read more »
Trump administration to close PLO office in Washington
The Trump administration ordered the closure of the Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington D.C. “We have permitted the PLO office to conduct operations that support the objective of achieving a lasting, comprehensive peace between Israelis and the Palestinians since the expiration of a previous waiver in November 2017,”… Read more »
SodaStream is behind this 20-foot Statue of Liberty replica drowning in plastic bottles
By Josefin Dolsten NEW YORK (JTA) — Tourists and locals wandering around Flatiron Plaza in downtown Manhattan were met with an unusual sight: a 20-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty standing in a steel cage filled with empty plastic bottles and metal cans. On the other side of… Read more »
Education Department reopens probe of anti-Semitism allegations at Rutgers
NEW YORK (JTA) — An investigation into an allegedly anti-Semitic incident at Rutgers University is being reopened by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Kenneth Marcus, the department’s new assistant secretary for civil rights, wrote in a letter last week that a pro-Palestinian event at the… Read more »
Rahm Emanuel will leave a city — and Jewish community — divided about his legacy as mayor
(JTA) — As Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel prepares to exit City Hall after eight years in office, his Jewish supporters tout his commitment to helping people and his record of economic development in the city. His Jewish detractors, meanwhile, call out his closing of dozens of Chicago public schools… Read more »
Sen. John McCain remembered as war hero, strong supporter of human rights and Israel
Six-term Arizona Republican Sen. John Sydney McCain III, 81, died at the family ranch in Sedona, Arizona, Aug. 26, one day after declining further treatment for brain cancer. Today, he lies in state in the U.S. Capitol, where a formal ceremony will take place in the Capitol Rotunda at… Read more »