National

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 »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Bernie Sanders joined his old friend Joe Biden in a live webcast to endorse him on Monday, and the two candidates left standing in the Democratic primaries emphasized that they agree on more than what they disagree on. “Today I am asking all Americans, I am… Read more »

(JTA) — When Bernie Sanders announced on Wednesday that he was suspending his presidential campaign, he closed the door on the last sliver of possibility that America would elect its first Jewish president in 2020. That leaves Jewish White House history to be made. Here are 10 people who… Read more »

(JTA) — The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of a Jewish death row inmate in Texas who says his judge was anti-Semitic. Randy Halprin, 42, had been scheduled to be executed on Oct. 10, 2019 but was granted a stay of execution by the Texas Court of… Read more »

In the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s Passover will be like no other in living memory. With families kept apart by lockdown orders and millions struggling with uncertain financial futures, the needs are great and the logistics of coordinating Passover aid are daunting. Across America, Jewish federations… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Four heavily Orthodox neighborhoods in Brooklyn have especially high rates of the novel coronavirus, according to data released by this city’s Department of Health. The record of positive COVID-19 tests in the five boroughs shows that Borough Park, Crown Heights, Williamsburg and Midwood all have… Read more »

(JTA) — Few people have any great solutions for this difficult moment in human history, but Sudeep Agarwala is one of them. As a yeast scientist, Agarwala spends much of his time thinking about the single-celled fungi that allow bread to rise. So when he learned that home bakers… Read more »

(JTA) — Two residents of Montefiore, a Jewish nursing home in suburban Cleveland, tested positive for coronavirus. The facility in Beachwood, Ohio, made the announcement in a statement on Saturday, the Cleveland Jewish News reported. Both of the residents are now hospitalized. More than two weeks ago the facility… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — FBI Director Christopher Wray said the agency would continue to seek answers about the fate of Robert Levinson, the Jewish former FBI agent who went missing 13 years ago in Iran and whose family now believes to be dead. “We’re going to keep working doggedly to… Read more »

(JTA) — Among the mysteries of the coronavirus is that some patients suffer and ultimately die from the disease while others experience the symptoms as akin to a mild cold. Rabbi Daniel Nevins is in the latter category. The dean of the rabbinical school at the Jewish Theological Seminary,… Read more »