Simone Zimmerman (Facebook)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Bernie Sanders’ campaign suspended its new Jewish outreach director over the tone of her past criticism of Israel. “She has been suspended while we investigate the matter further,” Michael Briggs, a campaign spokesman, said Thursday, referring to Simone Zimmerman. Zimmerman, a former J Street student activist,… Read more »
Brooklyn resident Charles Lenchner, left, and Rabbi Iris Richman, a founder of Rabbis for Bernie, were among those at a Jewish Sanders campaign event in Manhattan, April 10, 2016. (Uriel Heilman)
NEW YORK (JTA) – Phil Aroneanu is a second-generation American Jew whose parents came to America as immigrants seeking refuge from an oppressive Communist regime in Eastern Europe. Aroneanu himself was born in New York City and later moved to Vermont. It’s a biography that to some extent mirrors… Read more »
Simone Zimmerman says her fellow millennials "are angry" about what is happening in Israel. (Courtesy of J Street)
NEW YORK (JTA) – Simone Zimmerman, the Bernie Sanders campaign’s newly hired national Jewish outreach coordinator, is quite familiar with the American Jewish establishment. She is used to fighting against it. During the 2014 Gaza war, Zimmerman was one of the leaders of a group of young Jews that held… Read more »
Ted Cruz at the Jewish Center of Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, N.Y., April 7, 2016. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS (JTA) – Ted Cruz came here to woo Republican Jews over the weekend, and in the absence of his opponents for the GOP presidential nomination came away with qualified support based not on who he is but who he is not — Donald Trump. Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich skipped… Read more »
Phil Aroneanu, New York state director of the Sanders campaign, speaks at a Jews for Bernie event in Manhattan, April 10, 2016. (Uriel Heilman)
NEW YORK (JTA) – It might have been the last place you’d expect anger to erupt against the Bernie Sanders campaign. But at a Jews for Bernie brunch in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood on Sunday, the frustration seemed to boil over when some silver-haired Jewish supporters of Sanders began deriding… Read more »
Rapper Action Bronson, left, chowing down on some Frankel's fare with the Frankel brothers, Zach, right, and Alex. (Screenshot from Instagram)
NEW YORK (JTA) — The scene could easily have been mistaken for a rock concert at one of Brooklyn’s countless music halls.Smartly dressed 20- and 30-somethings crammed into a small corner building. The overflow crowd, clad in skinny jeans and black beanies, spilled onto the sidewalk, where they drank coffee… Read more »
Bob and Helene Fine meeting President Bill Clinton at the White House in December 2000, a few months after hosting first lady Hillary Clinton and daughter Chelsea for Passover seder. (Courtesy of Bob Fine)
NEW YORK (JTA) – How was Helene and Bob Fine’s family seder in 2000 different from every other Passover night? First lady Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea came. (President Bill Clinton would have joined, too, if not for Yasser Arafat, but we’ll get to that.) This was no… Read more »
Campaigning in New York, clockwise from left: Donald Trump greeting the crowd in Bethpage, Long Island, April 6, 2016 (Washington Post via Getty Images); a sign at a Bernie Sanders event in Brooklyn, March 31, 2016 (D Dipasupil/WireImage/Getty Images); Ted Cruz signing an autograph in the Bronx, April 6, 2016 (Bryan Thomas/Getty Images); Hillary Clinton swiping a MetroCard at a Bronx subway, April 7, 2016 (Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images).
WASHINGTON (JTA) – For the first time in decades New York, politically, is about to live up to its “make it here, make it anywhere” promise. The vast state and its huge Jewish community –nearly 2 million, or just under 10 percent of the population — have not figured… Read more »
Participants in the San Francisco Pride Parade showing their Jewish and Israeli pride, too, June 30, 2014. (Wikimedia Commons)
NEW YORK (JTA) – Here’s a riddle: If a transgender Jew shows up at an Orthodox synagogue, on which side of the mechitzah barrier separating the sexes should the person be seated? That’s an easy one compared to more complex Jewish legal questions raised by people who don’t identify… Read more »
Seymour Rosenbloom ELKINS PARK, Pa. (JTA) — The Conservative movement’s leadership must drop its ban on Conservative rabbis officiating at interfaith weddings — before it’s too late. The Rabbinical Assembly’s unequivocal rule is that a Conservative rabbi may not officiate at an intermarriage. But after 42 years as an active rabbi, during which… Read more »
Clockwise, starting from top left, Benjamin Netanyahu, HAIM, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and Lena Dunham. (Getty Images)
(JTA) — Ten years ago this week, Twitter was born. Never ones to miss a good conversation, Jews quickly adopted the social network, and they haven’t stopped kibitzing since. To celebrate the birth of this post-modern Talmud, we’ve updated JTA’s 2009 list of the “100 Most Influential Jewish Twitterers” (which helped a young woman… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — It might appear churlish to criticize the teaching of Islamic studies in America. After all, “Between Sharia and Democracy: Islamic Education in North America,” a just-released study by Impact-SE, finds that the most widely used Islamic textbooks published in the United States are generally free of imagery and… Read more »
Lillian Pinkus, AIPAC's first female president in a decade, speaking at the organization's conference in Washington, D.C., March 21, 2016. (Screenshot from YouTube)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Hear out Donald Trump. Ignore Donald Trump. There were two distinct approaches to the Trump moment this week at AIPAC’s annual conference here, and there were mutual warnings that one or the other side would get burned. The burn came fast, and it came to those… Read more »
AIPAC's annual Policy Conference, held March 20-22, 2016, sprawled
across Washington's downtown convention center, above, and its nearby
basketball arena. (JTA)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — I am trying to imagine a conversation between Donald Trump’s people and a delegation of Reform rabbis and lay leaders. Rabbi Jonah Pesner, the Reform movement’s man in Washington, told me that Trump’s people have agreed to a “staff-to-staff” meeting to discuss Jewish concerns about Trump’s… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) – AIPAC’S smartphone app, downloadable for the expected 18,000 participants at its conference this week, has a nifty little feature for lobbying day, the conference finale on Tuesday when thousands of pro-Israel activists ascend to Capitol Hill. Activists comfortably seated in a Congress member’s office can use the app to call… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Here are five things to watch for at this year’s annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is taking place here March 19-22: It’s Yoooooooooge. Organizers are expecting 18,000 activists, 3,000 more than last year, the largest number ever. So large, for… Read more »
Judge Merrick Garland at the White House listening to President Barack Obama announce his nomination to the Supreme Court, March 16, 2016. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
(JTA) – Americans have heard a lot about Merrick Garland since President Barack Obama nominated him to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court. But there’s a lot we still don’t know. What are his views on abortion? Will the Republican leadership give him a hearing in the Senate? What… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Citing his campaign schedule, Bernie Sanders said he would not address AIPAC’s conference next week, making him the only presidential candidate that will not attend the large annual pro-Israel gathering this year. “I would very much have enjoyed speaking at the AIPAC conference,” Sanders said in a… Read more »
Donald Trump speaking in West Palm Beach, Florida, March 15, 2016. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Walk in wearing stickers. Stay out bearing placards. Get up and walk out when Trump walks in. Just don’t go. Go but don’t clap. Blame AIPAC. Don’t blame AIPAC. And whatever you do, hit the Jewish texts. Donald Trump’s scheduled appearance on Monday at the American Israel Public… Read more »
Donald Trump speaking at a primary night news conference in Palm Beach, Fla., March 15, 2016. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
By WASHINGTON (JTA) — Has Donald Trump’s time come, and will Jewish political conservatives embrace him? Trump, the real estate magnate and front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, rolled closer to victory on Tuesday with wins in at least three primary states. His strong showing, earning 161 delegates or more depending on… Read more »
