(Michelle Shapiro)
Philip Roth, a literary giant, passed away May 22 at age 85. As Charles McGrath wrote in his obituary in The New York Times, “he was drawn again and again to writing about themes of Jewish identity, anti-Semitism and the Jewish experience in America.” But what Roth provided, of… Read more »
Author Steve North and Elaine Holstein, whose son Jeffrey Miller was killed in the 1970 Kent State shootings, seen in 2016. (Courtesy Steve North)
(JTA)– For nearly half a century, Elaine Holstein was periodically confronted with one of the most haunting images in modern American history: the bone-chilling picture of Kent State University student Jeffrey Miller lying on the pavement seconds after being fatally shot in the mouth by an Ohio National Guardsman… Read more »
A view of the NYU Medical Center on First Avenue in New York City in 2014. (Kenneth Wilsey/Wikimedia Commons)
NEW YORK (JTA) — One of this city’s largest hospitals has accused a Hasidic group that visits sick patients of lying about the hospital’s policy to limit access by volunteers to patient floors and rooms. Dr. Andrew Brotman, senior vice president and vice dean for clinical affairs at… Read more »
A view of the Ronald O. Perelman Emergency Center at NYU Langone hospital in 2014. (Governor Andrew Cuomo/Flickr)
NEW YORK (JTA) — For years, volunteers from the Satmar hasidic movement have fanned out daily across the city, boarding private buses and carrying bags full of kosher food cooked each morning (except Saturday) at the organization’s commercial kitchen in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Members of the Satmar Bikur Cholim go to a… Read more »
Jamila Humphries, left, and Emily Schorr Lesnick are an interfaith couple that is taking part in an aufruf ceremony in a Conservative synagogue. (Courtesy of Humphries and Schorr Lesnick)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Emily Schorr Lesnick and Jamila Humphrie always knew that Judaism would play a part in the life they wanted to build together. But experiences with Conservative Jewish institutions had made the couple feel less than welcome. Schorr Lesnick, 28, remembers encountering homophobia at her Jewish… Read more »
Philip Roth at the National Humanities Medal ceremony at the White House, March 2, 2011. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Philip Roth, whose notorious novels about the sex drives of American men gave way to some of the most probing examinations of the American Jewish condition in the 20th and 21st centuries, has died. He was 85. His death was confirmed to The New York Times by… Read more »
Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, at a Capitol Hill hearing on moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, Nov. 8, 2017. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Last year, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations updated its secret rules to ban “insults, ad hominem attacks, and name-calling” among member organizations and instituted a special committee to consider complaints in strictest confidence. On May 2, the committee met, in strictest confidence,… Read more »
(Pxhere)
The #MeToo movement has empowered women to speak up against harassment and abuse. It is heartening to see many men standing as allies and organizations beginning to hold themselves accountable for establishing policies, procedures and transparency and for changing the workplace culture. For those of us working in youth-serving… Read more »
Patrick Little was kicked out of the California GOP convention on May 5. He was captured on video outside the convention stomping and spitting on an Israeli flag. (Courtesy of Little)
SAN FRANCISCO (J. the Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — Patrick Little is more than an hour into an anti-Jewish tirade that doubles as the centerpiece of his campaign to unseat U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein when he issues a blunt warning. “The longer the Jews try to… Read more »
President Donald Trump displays a signed presidential memorandum at the White House after announcing that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, May 8, 2018. (Xinhua/Ting Shen via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Donald Trump may have expected fanfares when he announced the U.S. would be leaving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and certainly Israel, Saudi Arabia, a number of Jewish groups and some foreign policy hawks exulted. But some of that support was tempered by Republicans and Democrats… Read more »
Sen. Ben Cardin speaks at a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., introducing the Iran Policy Oversight Act of 2015, Oct. 1, 2015. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the Iran nuclear deal, is bad policy and calls into question America’s international credibility. Mr. Trump has now set the international community on a slippery slope, imperiling the national security… Read more »
President Donald Trump announces his decision to leave the Iran nuclear deal in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, May 8, 2018. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When President Donald Trump teased and then announced he would be pulling the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal, the next obvious question was, what next? What was Plan B? “Congress has heard nothing about an alternative,” Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the chairman of the… Read more »
Rabbi Aaron Panken teaching a Talmud class to Hebrew Union College students. (Courtesy of HUC)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Rabbi Andrea Weiss, an associate professor of Bible at the New York campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and its incoming provost, remembered the joy that Rabbi Aaron Panken brought to his work. Weiss recalled how Panken would pop into his colleagues’ offices asking if… Read more »
A Turkish demonstrator holding a banner with a Nazi swastika and Star of David in Istanbul, Jan. 2, 2009. (Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) — In recent years we have witnessed anti-Israel demonstrations that have turned overtly anti-Semitic and even violent, but police ignored initially as only political activity. We have seen prosecutors and judges rule that an arson attack on a synagogue is not anti-Semitic because the perpetrator was motivated by… Read more »
Rod Rosenstein speaking at the Anti-Defamation League's annual conference in Washington, D.C., May 6, 2018. (Ron Kampeas)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rod Rosenstein came to the annual conference of the Anti-Defamation League with plaudits for Donald Trump despite being at the center of the president’s contentious relationship with his Justice Department. He extolled Trump’s call for unity in the wake of the Charlottesville white supremacist rally in… Read more »
Ellen Hershkin A national call to action for National Women’s Health Week (May 13–19) Women’s health is on life support. Inequities in insurance premiums, gender bias, treatment and care must end. Women’s health doesn’t advance itself, so it’s up to women to be their own healthcare advocates. Women have always been… Read more »
A view of a Starbucks shop in Washington, D.C., April 17, 2018. The company announced that it will close more than 8,000 U.S. stores on May 29 to conduct "racial-bias education" following the arrest of two black men in one of its cafes. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) NEW YORK (JTA) — Starbucks denied that it demoted the Anti-Defamation League from a lead role in its anti-bias training, saying it continues to view the Jewish group as a valuable partner in future training. Reggie Borges, a spokesman for the coffee giant, spoke to JTA on Wednesday following… Read more »
High School Students are invited to compete in The Norman Alexander Award for Excellence in Jewish Student Writing by submitting a 500-word essay on: Jewish Contributions to American Music. Examples are: Paula Abdul, Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Shlomo Carlebach, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, Billy Joel,… Read more »
Everything Bagel Bourekas (Chaya Rappoport)
(The Nosher via JTA) — These bourekas are a mix of New York Jewish and Middle Eastern Israeli food cultures. It sounds a little crazy, but it’s incredibly good: The flavorful seasoning blend, slightly sweet from the dried onion and garlic, balances out the salty, briny feta interior, and… Read more »
The "Americans and the Holocaust" exhibition is on display at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When Holocaust historians ask what Americans knew at the time, the focus often is on the politicians and lawmakers whose votes and initiatives may have mitigated the Nazi genocide against the Jews. An exhibit opening this month at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum here asks the… Read more »
