National

This is a developing story.  (JTA) — Nearly all Reform Jewish summer camps, and at least one Conservative camp, will remain closed for the 2020 summer due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency has learned. The landmark decision, made Thursday afternoon, will affect 15 Reform overnight… Read more »

(JTA) — The financially strapped National Museum of American Jewish History has furloughed about two-thirds of its staff without pay. The Philadelphia museum, which is affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, closed on March 13 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The staff had already taken pay cuts in an effort… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — New York State paid $69 million to an Israeli-American entrepreneur for ventilators he never delivered. Last month, the state paid Yaron Oren-Pines $47,656 per ventilator for 1,450 ventilators, three times the normal asking price, BuzzFeed reported Wednesday. The state suspended its usual checks of contractors as… Read more »

(JTA) – The change was clear as soon as New York City’s stay-at-home order went into effect: Calls to the domestic violence department at the city’s leading Jewish poverty nonprofit departed from their regular pattern. Women used to call during the day while at work or while their abusers… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Secure Community Network, the security consultancy for U.S. Jewish organizations, has set up a task force to prepare Jewish institutions to face the threats that might come when the coronavirus pandemic recedes and doors reopen. “Individuals and groups have been identified that are seeking to exploit… Read more »

(JTA) – Two days after New York City’s mayor called out “the Jewish community” when vowing to crack down on gatherings, city police intervened in another funeral in a Jewish neighborhood, resulting in a tense scene and at least one arrest. A video shared on Whatsapp showed a chaotic… Read more »

More than 45,000 women and children spend each Mother’s Day in domestic violence shelters. At this unprecedented time in the U.S., many women who have escaped abuse for the safety of shelters now find themselves stuck in place, unable to move forward with rebuilding their lives. Jewish Women International’s Flower… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Rabbi Jennie Rosenn has spent most of her career working on Jewish social justice causes. Until recently, however, there was one issue that didn’t resonate as strong. “The environment was something that I knew was important, but I wasn’t passionate in my kishkes about… Read more »

(JTA) — Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust imagery continue to be mainstays at anti-lockdown protests against governors and in state capitols. A placard at an anti-lockdown protest held Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, in front of the state capitol bore the image of the body of a rat standing on… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The worldwide population of Jews stands at 14.7 million, still falling short of the pre-World War II numbers, according to a report by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics. The figures, which are similar to the population of world Jewry in 1925, were released ahead of Yom… Read more »

(JTA) — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis became emotional during a news briefing about the coronavirus crisis in his state when a reporter said that the public has compared his stay-at-home order to Nazism. “As a Jewish American who lost family in the Holocaust, I’m offended by any comparison to… Read more »

(JTA) — The Sacramento Bee apologized for running a two-page ad that the Californian daily said contained anti-Semitic language. The ad appeared on April 10 and 12, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and featured a poem signed by a person named Robert Forest, the Jewish News of Northern California… Read more »

(JTA) — Israeli author and historian Yuval Noah Harari has pledged $1 million to the World Health Organization, or WHO, to mitigate the suspension of U.S. funding. “Unfortunately, the US president has chosen this moment to halt funding to the WHO,” Harari and Itzik Yahav, his husband, wrote in… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Just a few weeks ago, most Americans were not familiar with the concept of Zoombombing. But as the COVID-19 pandemic forced many business, community and even social meetings online, Zoom increasingly became the platform of choice for videoconferencing. The rapid growth in its use came with… Read more »

(JTA) — I wasn’t expecting HBO’s “The Plot Against America,” David Simon’s miniseries adaptation of the Philip Roth novel, to scar me the way it has. I work with news about the rise of anti-Semitism and hate crimes around the world on a daily basis. As an editor focused… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish institutions and organizations that hope to keep paying their staffs through the coronavirus pandemic are again in limbo with the federal government having exhausted the $350 billion set aside for payroll relief. The Paycheck Protection Program, which is administered through the Small Business Administration, doled… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The nominating committee of U.S. Jewry’s foreign policy umbrella has tapped as its next chair the immediate past chairwoman of the lead Jewish immigration advocacy group — one that has clashed repeatedly with the Trump administration. Dianne Lob of HIAS is the pick of the Conference… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Joe Biden welcomed the endorsement of J Street, the liberal pro-Israel lobby, on Friday. While it might seem like a small news item today, the moment represents something much larger: a consolidation of the group’s influence among mainstream Democrats. “I’m honored to have earned J Street’s first-ever… Read more »

BOSTON (JTA) – Thirty-two residents at two Jewish senior living facilities that are part of the same nonprofit network have died from COVID-19, and scores of other residents and staff have tested positive for the virus. Eleven residents of Chelsea Jewish Life Care, across its three Boston-area locations, and… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Jewish community’s expression of solidarity with Chinese Americans during the coronavirus pandemic has yielded an unexpected return: scads of personal protective equipment for Jewish organizations. David Bernstein, the president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Jewish public policy umbrella that initiated the solidarity… Read more »