A group of American Birthright Israel participants visiting the Dead Sea, July 10, 2015. (Matt Hechter/Flash90)
(JTA) — Jewish leaders have long warned of the bleak Jewish futures in store for children of intermarriage. But these prognostications were based largely on information from more than a decade ago, when intermarriage was far less common and far less accepted by American Jews than it is today.… Read more »
The Bandura Games co-founders: Justin Hefter, Ammoun Dissi, and Etay Furman (Courtesy Bandura Games)
SAN FRANCISCO (Tazpit) – Bandura Games, a computer gaming company based in San Francisco, California, is set to launch a new mobile game app that would bridge gaps, build connections and create empathy between people from different sides of conflict zones. Initially interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Justin Hefter,… Read more »
Daniel Lubetzky, CEO and founder of Kind Snacks, with members of his team at the company's New York City headquarters. (Poon Watchara-Amhaiwan)
NEW YORK (JTA) — In many respects, the Manhattan headquarters of Kind Snacks — the purveyors of the omnipresent fruit and nut bars found everywhere from health-food stores to office-supply emporiums — are pretty much what you’d expect: Scads of casually dressed millennials mill about sleek, brightly colored rooms adorned… Read more »
Seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders greets an estimated crowd of 11,000 at Reid Park in Tucson on Oct. 9. Supporters on stage behind him hold signs reading ‘Viva Bernie.’ (Michael Miklofsky)
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont spoke Oct. 9 to an estimated crowd of 11,000 at the Demeester Outdoor Performance Center at Reid Park. The rally marked the first large-scale event in Tucson by a national Jewish candidate and brought Sanders his first congressional endorsement. Former Connecticut… Read more »
Ivanka Trump speaking at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C., Oct. 14, 2015. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Fortune/Time Inc)
(JTA) — Ivanka is to Donald Trump as Lisa is to Homer Simpson: brainy, composed and unflinchingly loyal to her outrageous and unpredictable father. At least that’s the portrait painted in a Politico article published Thursday. The article explores the relationship between the Republican presidential front-runner and the daughter who… Read more »
Ilsa and Lisa Klinghoffer tell their story at the Center for Jewish History in New York City, Oct. 8, 2015. (American Jewish Historical Society at the Center for Jewish History)
NEW YORK (JTA) – I first met Leon Klinghoffer’s daughters in 2004, shortly after my father and stepmother were murdered in a robbery. Back then I was a TMI machine, telling my story not only to friends but also to anyone in my line of vision. One Shabbat, after going to the… Read more »
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders speaking at a campaign fundraising reception at the Avalon Hollywood nightclub in Los Angeles, Oct. 14, 2015. (David McNew/Getty Images)
MANCHESTER CENTER, Vt. (JTA) – Bernie Sanders reads from the Passover Haggadah in Hebrew and jokes with his seder hosts about finding hametz, traces of leavening, after they have thoroughly cleaned the house in preparation for the holiday. The presidential candidate, a socialist competing for the Democratic nomination, also follows… Read more »
Rabbi Bob Alper The Pope has a new comedic advisor… and he’s a rabbi. Rabbi Robert Alper, who prefers to go by Bob, is 70 years old and lives with his wife in the rural town East Dorset, Vermont. “It used to be Alpert, but we dropped the T at a party… Read more »
WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 22: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) (L) speaks while flanked by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) during a news conference at GOP headquarters on Capitol Hill July 22, 2015 in Washington, DC. The GOP leaders spoke on various topics before Congress. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – “Do I know this person?” has been a common refrain in the Washington offices of national Jewish organizations since Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, resigned as House speaker last month and his chosen successor, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the majority leader, flamed out last week. Every day sees a new… Read more »
Steve Gutow, right, with Michele Jawando, vice president of legal process at the Center for American Progress, and her husband, Will Jawando, a Democratic candidate for Congress. Michele Jawando took part in an Oct. 12 discussion about race relations organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis. (Jewish Council for Public Affairs)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – For the past 10 years, Rabbi Steve Gutow has been trying to get American Jews to be more civil to each other, especially in debates about political issues. But a decade on, as he prepares to step down from the helm of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the community seems… Read more »
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaking at an event at the University of Chicago, Sept. 28, 2015. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
(JTA) — I interviewed Bernie Sanders a couple years ago when word first circulated that the Vermont senator might seek the presidency. Though he knew about JTA going in — and must have known questions about his Jewish background were coming — he didn’t want to get into it. I wrote at… Read more »
WASHINGTON (Washington Jewish Week via JTA) — From murderers to sex offenders, some of the least desirable citizens of Maryland’s Montgomery County have walked through the doors of attorney Barry Helfand’s office. But it took a quiet teenager to make Helfand question his responsibility as a lawyer. Sitting in Helfand’s… Read more »
Rep. Eric Cantor, then-House majority leader, delivers an address at the Virginia Military Institute, Feb. 17, 2014. (Courtesy of House Majority Leader)
(JTA) — Former Rep. Eric Cantor apparently just missed becoming the first Jewish speaker — second in line to the presidency after the vice president. An aide to Boehner, the Republican House of Representatives speaker who is quitting, dropped the bombshell last Friday: Boehner had wanted to step down last year,… Read more »
Bernie Sanders Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for president in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, will hold a rally in Tucson on Oct. 9. The Vermont senator will speak at 7 p.m. at the Reid Park DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center, 920 South Concert Place. Gates will open… Read more »
(JTA) — In the wake of the never-ending email scandal and Bernie Sanders’ rise in the polls, Hillary Clinton is feeling some serious heat in the 2016 presidential race. In an attempt to connect with younger voters, the Democratic front-runner agreed to be interviewed by Lena Dunham, the Jewish… Read more »
(JTA) — If you can’t get enough Trump, good news: Another one is on the way! Ivanka Trump, who converted to Judaism in 2009, announced across her social media platforms that she is expecting her third child with husband Jared Kushner, a real estate mogul who owns the New… Read more »
Donald Trump and Ben Carson at the second Republican presidential debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California on Sept. 16, 2015. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – The Republican Jewish establishment is watching the surge of political outsiders — like Donald Trump and Ben Carson — in the presidential primaries with dismay. “It’s like we have a conference call every morning, and we ask, ‘What can we do to screw ourselves up today?’”… Read more »
(Heritage Florida Jewish News via JTA) – It all started with a little bump on his neck. Now Jason Mendelsohn is on a mission to conquer cancer and spread the word about human papilloma virus-related cancer, or HPV. In April 2014, Mendelsohn was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, which… Read more »
Richard Joel NEW YORK (JTA) — Richard Joel, the president of Yeshiva University, announced that he will step down by the end of his current term. Joel, 65, made the announcement Sept. 10 in an email sent to Y.U. staff, students and alumni, and obtained by JTA. His term is set… Read more »
WEIMAR, GERMANY - APRIL 12: The figural group by Fritz Cremer and the belltower at the memorial for the victims of the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald are seen during the marking the 70th anniversary of the camp's liberation which takes place at the Buchenwald memorial on April 12, 2015 near Weimar, Germany. The Nazis began incarcerating mostly political prisoners at the camp in 1937, and later added Jews and prisoners-of-war in an operation that provided slave labor for factories in the region. An estimated 56,000 prisoners died at Buchenwald before its liberation by U.S. troops on April 11, 1945 following an uprising by prisoners. (Photo by Jens Schlueter/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – A small government agency for preserving European historical sites has been accused of criminal malfeasance, roiling Jewish community officials who say the agency has played a critical role in memorializing Europe’s Jewish past. The controversy surrounding the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad offers a… Read more »
