National

Eric Cantor almost became first Jewish speaker, Boehner aide reveals

Rep. Eric Cantor, then-House majority leader, delivers an address at the Virginia Military Institute, Feb. 17, 2014. (Courtesy of House Majority Leader)
October 3, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

(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 »

Sanders to hold rally in Tucson
October 3, 2015 /
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 »

Hillary Clinton talks to Lena Dunham about feminism, college years
October 1, 2015 / Gabe Friedman, JTA

(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 »

Ivanka Trump is pregnant with her third child
October 1, 2015 / Gabe Friedman, JTA

(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 »

Surging Trump, Carson have Republican Jews worried

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)
September 25, 2015 / Ron Kampas, JTA

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 »

A bump in the road turned into a Ride to Conquer Cancer
September 20, 2015 / Christine DeSouza

(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 »

Yeshiva University President Richard Joel to step down
September 20, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA
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 »

Washington scandal reveals politics behind European Jewish memorials

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)
September 20, 2015 / Ron Kampeas

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 »

Freundel apologizes for mikvah-peeping, but must Jews forgive?

Rabbi Barry Freundel exits the courthouse after entering his guilty plea, Feb. 19, 2015. (Dmitriy Shapiro)
September 20, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Writing from his jail cell last week, just days before the Jewish New Year, Rabbi Barry Freundel said he was sorry. It was the rabbi’s first public statement since his arrest almost a year ago and his subsequent sentencing to 6-and-1/2 years behind bars for secretly filming women undressing in… Read more »

Arab Americans look to Jews for help on Syrian refugees

Migrants and refugees with temporary documents board a ferry to take them to Athens at the port of the Greek island of Kos on August 14, 2015. (Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)
September 17, 2015 / Jacob Wirtschafter and Ron Kampeas, JTA

ANAHEIM, Calif. (JTA) — Arab Americans advocating on behalf of Syrian refugees have found some unlikely allies in their effort to resettle families from the war-torn nation: influential Jewish groups.   Over the last few days, HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, launched a petition drive calling on President… Read more »

At end of life, Oliver Sacks craved gefilte fish, and Judaism

Dr. Oliver Sacks speaks at Columbia University in New York City, June 3, 2009. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
September 17, 2015 / Brian Schaefer, JTA

(JTA) — On Aug. 30, at age 82, noted neurologist and author Dr. Oliver Sacks succumbed to a cancer that first plagued him nearly a decade ago, paused, and recently reappeared. One of his last essays, published posthumously, appears in the Sept. 14 issue of The New Yorker and… Read more »

Nuclear deal will let Americans buy Iranian caviar, not stocks

Iranians walk through Tehran's old main bazaar, March 18, 2014. (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Images)
September 10, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – If you’re an American who likes Iranian caviar and pistachios, you’re in for a treat. Once the nuclear deal with Iran is implemented, the U.S. sanctions that until now have blocked the export of those Iranian foodstuffs into the United States will be lifted. Bon appetit.… Read more »

Hillary Clinton email trove shows concern with Netanyahu’s psyche

Hillary Clinton, then U.S. secretary of state, meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Jerusalem office, Nov. 20, 2012. (Avi Ohayon/GPO via Getty Images)
September 4, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – As U.S. secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton spent plenty of time in daunting foreign territory. No, I’m not talking about Myanmar here. I’m speaking of the mind of Benjamin Netanyahu. A batch of emails released this week as part of the trove related to the… Read more »

J Street U’s new Muslim president says she’s ‘culturally Jewish’

Amna Farooqi, with megaphone, says she comes to the leadership of J Street U "because I care deeply about the people in Israel and the people in Palestine." (Courtesy of J Street)
September 4, 2015 / Melissa Apter, Washington Jewish Week via JTA, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, Zionist, Zionism

POTOMAC, Md. (Washington Jewish Week via JTA) — J Street U’s new president Amna Farooqi has made no secret of being a “Pakistani American Muslim.” That’s how she described herself in a keynote speech this spring at J Street’s national convention in Washington, D.C., when she was a board member.… Read more »

NHL lawyer excels for league and family – can she make history?
September 4, 2015 / Hillel Kuttler, JTA

(JTA) – Several years ago, Jessica Berman and her husband, Brad, bumped into her high school boyfriend. “If you aren’t working as a lawyer in hockey, I’d be amazed,” Berman recalled him saying. The ex had her pegged. Berman, 37, has been employed by the National Hockey League for… Read more »

What America will offer Israel after the nuclear deal

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, left, shaking hands with his Israeli counterpart, Moshe Yaalon, before boarding a military aircraft at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, July 21, 2015. (Carolyn Kaster/Pool/AP Images)
September 2, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

  WASHINGTON (JTA) – The moment the Iran nuclear deal becomes law, as seems increasingly likely given growing congressional support for the agreement, the focus of the U.S.-Israel conversation will shift to the question of what’s next. What more will Washington do to mitigate the Iranian threat and reassure… Read more »

Is U.S. taxpayer money subsidizing Jewish terrorism against Arabs?

Yigal Amir, who assassinated former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, appearing before the Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem, Sept. 8, 2004. Amir allegedly has received funds from Honenu, an Israeli nonprofit with tax-exempt status in the United States. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
August 25, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) – Taxpayer dollars in the United States and Israel are subsidizing Jewish terrorism against Arabs, a complaint filed with the New York state Attorney General’s Office alleges. The accusations follow a recent expose by Israel’s Channel 10 about the work of the 13-year-old Israeli nonprofit Honenu, which provides financial support to… Read more »

After Freundel scandal, Washington Jewish women reclaim mikvah with mural

After months of work, the mivkeh was dedicated at Orthodox synagogue Oveh Sholom on Aug. 16, in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Suzanne Pollak)
August 21, 2015 / Suzanne Pollak, Washington Jewish Week via JTA

WASHINGTON (Washington Jewish Week via JTA) – When prominent Washington rabbi Barry Freundel was arrested last year for secretly videotaping dozens of women using the mikvah adjacent to his Orthodox synagogue, the sense of sacredness of the ritual of mikvah immersion was shattered for some local Jewish women. Local artist Rena Fruchter recently… Read more »