National

Nevada Jewish vote in question due to Shabbat date, caucus confusion

Volunteers working the phones at a suburban Las Vegas office of the Hillary Clinton campaign while watching a debate between Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, Feb. 11, 2016. (Ron Kampeas)
February 17, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

LAS VEGAS (JTA) – Jewish voters in Nevada suffer the same affliction as anyone else ahead of caucuses in the presidential race: No one is quite sure how the damn system works. “A big part of what we do is to educate people about what a caucus is,” said… Read more »

Jewish leaders remember the unforgettable Justice Antonin Scalia

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia speaks at Agudath Israel's annual dinner at the New York Hilton, June 1, 2008. (Menachem Adelman)
February 16, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Justice Antonin Scalia was a larger-than-life presence on the Supreme Court, where he championed a conservative judicial approach for three decades. He was found dead on Saturday at a resort in West Texas at the age of 79. Scalia‘s outsize personality left an impression off the bench,… Read more »

Here’s a look at Justice Scalia’s Jewy moments

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia addresses the Legal Services Corp.'s 40th anniversary conference luncheon in Washington, D.C., Sept. 15, 2014. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
February 16, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — It’s a matter of dispute as to whether Antonin Scalia, who died Saturday, was the Supreme Court’s most conservative jurist. Some think Clarence Thomas deserves the title, while others say Samuel Alito may soon claim it. Scalia was, however, the conservative jurist likeliest to stir passions… Read more »

How Justice Scalia’s death impacts 6 cases that matter to Jews

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia waits to be introduced to speak at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., Oct. 2, 2012. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
February 16, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

(JTA) — With the sudden passing this weekend of Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court is now split 4-4 between liberals and conservatives, throwing into doubt how the court will rule on a raft of cases — including several watched by Jewish organizations. Scalia, who was 79, is being… Read more »

REMEMBRANCE The Supreme Court’s Jewish gentile: My memories of Justice Scalia

From left, Nathan Lewin, Sima Soumekhian, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Marc Zweben at the Char Bar in Washington, D.C., the kosher restaurant owned by Soumekhian and Zweben, May 2015. (Alyza Lewin)
February 16, 2016 / Nathan Lewin, JTA

  WASHINGTON (JTA) – “When there was no Jewish justice on the Supreme Court,” Antonin “Nino”Scalia told me, “I considered myself the Jewish justice.” After Abe Fortas resigned in May 1969, there would be no Jewish justice on the court for nearly a quarter of a century, until President… Read more »

Why Bernie Sanders’ historic victory is no big deal to Jews – or America

Bernie Sanders making his victory speech in Concord after winning the New Hampshire Democratic primary, Feb. 9, 2016. (Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)
February 10, 2016 / Daniel Treiman, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Bernie Sanders is having a month of historic firsts. In New Hampshire on Tuesday night, he handily won the Democratic Party contest, becoming the first Jew to win a presidential primary. In Iowa, he became the first Jewish presidential candidate — the first non-Christian, even… Read more »

Bernie Sanders wins New Hampshire primary, makes Jewish history

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., speaking at a Get Out the Vote rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, Feb. 8, 2016. (Meredith Dake-O'Connor/CQ Roll Call)
February 10, 2016 / JTA

(JTA) – Bernie Sanders made history Tuesday night when he became the first Jewish candidate in U.S. history to win a presidential primary election. With the vote results in New Hampshire still trickling in, the Independent senator from Vermont was projected to handily defeat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in… Read more »

Did Bernie Sanders just steal Joe Lieberman’s Jewish crown?

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., waving on election day in Concord, New Hampshire, Feb. 9, 2016. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
February 10, 2016 / Ami Eden, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Maybe now that Bernie Sanders has become the first Jewish candidate to win a presidential primary he’ll start getting the Joe Lieberman treatment. Back in 2000, Al Gore’s decision to tap Lieberman as his running mate set off what felt like a months-long national bar mitzvah… Read more »

50 years on, Bernie Sanders still champions values of his Israeli kibbutz

A photo of Kibbutz Shaar Haamakim as it was in 1963, when Bernie Sanders volunteered there for several months. (Ben Sales)
February 9, 2016 / Ben Sales, JTA

SHAAR HAAMAKIM, Israel (JTA) — Every morning, Bernie Sanders would wake up at 4:10 a.m. to pick apples and pears. Leaving the cabin he shared with a few other American college student volunteers, Sanders would have a quick bite of bread before heading out to the orchard. After 2… Read more »

With a nod to Silicon Valley, new ADL chief courts digital natives

Jonathan Greenblatt, left, with the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, at the U.S. Embassy in Israel, October 2015. (Courtesy of the Anti-Defamation League)
February 9, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Framed by a slide of two young guys in jeans and tees playing ping-pong on the Facebook campus, Jonathan Greenblatt described an event hosted by the social media behemoth in Palo Alto, California, the week before. “Some of the stuff we’ve done has been really exciting, like… Read more »

ANALYSIS Five questions Jews might be asking after Iowa
February 4, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

  (JTA) — The Iowa caucuses are over – and the first real test of the presidential candidates’ viability gave us more questions than answers. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, won the Republican caucus on Monday night, relegating Donald Trump, the real estate billionaire, to second place. Both Trump and Cruz ran… Read more »

Iowa federation chief, among youngest in country, navigates politics of battleground state

David Adelman, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines, introducing Hillary Clinton before a speech at federation headquarters, Jan. 25, 2016. (Josh Tapper)
January 31, 2016 / Josh Tapper, JTA

DES MOINES, Iowa (JTA) – Ten minutes into her speech at the Jewish Federation of Des Moines on Monday, Hillary Rodham Clinton had a coughing fit. She popped a lozenge, but that didn’t help. After a few long seconds and still gasping for air, Clinton turned to federation president… Read more »

Clinton makes her power to persuade Israel a selling point

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton participating in a town hall forum at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, Jan. 25, 2016. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
January 31, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

(JTA) — Hillary Rodham Clinton made her ability to talk Israel’s leadership down from military action a centerpiece of her foreign policy credentials. Clinton, appearing Monday evening at a town hall-style event at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, was asked to outline her foreign policy philosophy. Two of… Read more »

For Orlando vacations, kosher food easy to find at Disney

Restaurants at Disney World in Orlando serve kosher meals by special request, but 48-hour advance notice is required. (Uriel Heilman)
January 29, 2016 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

ORLANDO, Fla. (JTA) – As any religiously observant Jew knows, going on vacation can take a lot of work. Aside from the customary preparations, there are the added complications of organizing kosher food and Shabbat logistics. Many kosher tourists spend days before trips precooking meals to freeze and bring… Read more »

Bernie Sanders surging in the polls, but are Jews feeling ‘the Bern’?

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders deliverS a speech on financial reform in New York, Jan. 5, 2016. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
January 17, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Talk of a Bernie Sanders presidency has suddenly become a lot more serious. Recent polling shows the independent Vermont senator and Democratic presidential hopeful dramatically improving his prospects in the first two primary states against front-runner Hillary Clinton. Two polls out last week — by the Des… Read more »

Barry Freundel’s former DC synagogue trying to move past mikvah trauma

Rabbi Avidan Milevsky, gesturing, leads a Sunday morning Talmud class after services at Kesher Israel in Washington, D.C., Dec. 20, 2015. (Uriel Heilman)
January 3, 2016 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Though it’s been more than a year since Rabbi Barry Freundel was hauled away in handcuffs for installing secret cameras at his synagogue’s mikvah, his crime still casts a shadow over his longtime Orthodox congregation, Kesher Israel. Three civil lawsuits are pending against Kesher by women… Read more »

Alan Gross opens up about surviving Cuban prison, selfies

Alan Gross opens up about surviving Cuban prison, selfies Alan Gross displaying his Cuban cigars at his apartment in Washington, D.C., Dec. 23, 2015. (Suzanne Pollak/Washington Jewish Week)
January 3, 2016 / Suzanne Pollak, Washington Jewish Week via JTA

(Washington Jewish Week via JTA) – Since being imprisoned in Cuba six years ago, Alan Gross says his life has been “surreal.” He feels disassociated from the causes of his five-year incarceration and from the resulting fame. He was locked up largely because of U.S.-Cuba relations, he says, and… Read more »

Jewish foundation seeks to convert gentiles, saying ‘We all want Judaism to grow’

Ellen Gerecht, executive director of the National Center to Encourage Judaism, at her office in Silver Spring, Maryland, Dec. 29, 2015. (Suzanne Pollak/Washington Jewish Week)
January 3, 2016 / Suzanne Pollak, Washington Jewish Week via JTA

(Washington Jewish Week via JTA) — Maybe it’s the centuries of living under Christian and Muslim rule. Maybe it’s the history of forced conversion. Maybe it’s that there’s no religion requirement for the Jewish afterlife. Whatever the reasons, Jews have traditionally been uncomfortable proselytizing. But a Maryland foundation is flouting… Read more »