More than 90,000 people packed MetLife Stadium in New Jersey for the Siyum HaShas, celebrating the completion of the Daf Yomi page-a-day Talmud study cycle, Aug. 1, 2012. (Yisroel Golding/Siyumphotos) EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (JTA) – As a light drizzle tapered off over MetLife Stadium, more than 90,000 Jews packed into the home of the NFL’s Jets and Giants for an event quite unlike any the popular sports and concert venue had ever seen. They came dressed in black and… Read more »
Some Jewish leaders accused Rep. Michele Bachman, left, for launching a "witch hunt" following her allegations that Huma Abedin had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. (Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons) WASHINGTON (JTA) – Rep. Michele Bachmann has incurred the wrath of leading Jewish groups and some Republican leaders, even though she may be one of Israel’s staunchest defenders in Congress and one of its best-known Republicans. The reaction was spurred by the Minnesota congresswoman’s call for an inquiry into… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) – It was a weekend of Israel love politically that highlighted two approaches to showing affection for the Jewish state: Go to Israel, as Mitt Romney did, or go pro-Israel, as the Obama administration did. The pictures told the story, or as it were, stories: Romney in… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, meets with Mitt Romney in Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem,July 29, 2012. (Marc Israel Sellem/GPO/FLASH90/JTA) JERUSALEM (JTA) – Mitt Romney’s policy speech in Israel covered plenty of bases: The presumptive Republican presidential candidate spoke about the status of Jerusalem, the threat of a nuclear Iran, the “tumult” of the Arab Spring and the “enduring shared values” that bedrock the U.S.-Israel relationship. But there was… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When President Bill Clinton chose in January 2001 to unveil his Clinton Parameters for Arab-Israel peacemaking, he chose an Israel Policy Forum gala to do it. Four years later, then-Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sought the same audience to announce then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s willingness… Read more »
Ze'ev Jabotinsky (Courtesy Rafael Medoff) The popular image of the Jews who took part in battles for black civil rights is of liberal activists and idealistic college students. Yet several important early civil rights efforts in the United States and South Africa were undertaken by—of all people—officers of the Irgun Zvai Leumi, the Jewish… Read more »
Former Penn State University President Graham Spanier was forced to resign following criticism of his response to the sexual abuse scandal at the school. (via Creative Commons) NEW YORK (JTA) — One unlikely venue for fallout from the Penn State University sex abuse scandal is the campus Hillel, for which now ousted university president Graham Spanier — the school’s first Jewish leader — was a fundraiser and vocal supporter. On Monday, the Penn State community was… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, left, shaking hands with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, with U.S. President Bill Clinton in the center at the Oslo Accords signing ceremony, Sept. 13, 1993. (Vince Musi / The White House) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Conflicting voices for and against renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks came to Capitol Hill as leading pro- and anti-voices gathered to recall the nearly 20 years since the dramatic signing of the Oslo Accords. The Oslo document, signed in Washington on Sept. 13, 1993, began the most… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When Rep. Shelley Berkley pitched her bid for the U.S. Senate to pro-Israel donors, the Nevada Democrat reportedly told them it came down to math. In the U.S. House of Representatives, the leading pro-Israel lawmaker said, she was one of 435. In the Senate she’d be… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) – For the past four years, Jewish conservatives have been working hard to paint President Obama as too willing to press Israel on Palestinian issues. But the latest Washington buzz could throw a wrench in that line of attack — if, as some Washington insiders are suggesting… Read more »
President Obama, flanked by Nathan Diament, left, and Dr. Simcha Katz of the Orthodox Union, displays the framed reproduction of President George Washington’s letter to the Jewish community of Newport, R.I., that he was given at the conclusion of his Oval Office meeting with Orthodox Jewish leaders.(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Nathan Diament learned two things 22 years ago while watching Barack Obama play pickup basketball at the Harvard Law School gym. “He was a generous passer,” he said of the school’s Law Review editor and the future U.S. president. “He was competitive, but at an appropriate… Read more »
Sheldon Adelson, right, seen here with then-President George W. Bush and Israeli President Shimon Peres at a Jerusalem conference in May 2008, is at the center of controversy over contributions earmarked for Republican candidates. (Nati Shohat /FLASH90/JTA) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sheldon Adelson, whose cash and rhetoric has hit candidates hard this election cycle, just got swiped himself. The National Jewish Democratic Council wants Republicans, including presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney, to stop taking “dirty money” from Adelson because of allegations surrounding his lucrative casino properties in… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Call it the age of “playlist Judaism.” That’s how Rabbi Kerry Olitzky describes engagement in Jewish life for the seemingly ever-increasing group showing up as “other” or “just Jewish” on recent American Jewish identity surveys. “I no longer have to buy the entire package in order… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Proponents of using economic pressure to force Israel out of the West Bank may have lost a key battle this week — by a hair’s breadth — but they have no intention of giving up. That’s the message from backers of a divestment motion at the… Read more »
Chief Justice John Roberts, an appointee of President George W. Bush, surprised many in voting to uphold President Obama's Affordable Care Act. (United States Supreme Court) WASHINGTON (JTA) — American Jewish groups — with the notable exception of the Republican Jewish Coalition — were largely satisfied with the U.S. Supreme Court’s vote to uphold President Obama’s landmark Affordable Care Act in a 5-4 vote. Nancy Kaufman, CEO of the National Council for Jewish Women, was “thrilled”… Read more »
A helicopter drops water on the U.S. Air Force Academy as firefighters battle the blaze in Colorado Springs, June 27, 2012. (U.S. Department of Agriculture) (JTA) — The Sidmans are among the lucky ones: Their Colorado Springs home is still standing, nearly untouched by the flames that left many of their neighbors’ houses in ashes. “I was just sobbing uncontrollably, even though my house was perfect,” Renee Sidman told the Colorado Springs Gazette. For… Read more »
Ankie Spitzer, right, with David Kirschtel, CEO of JCC Rockland, in front of the JCC's recently installed memorial sculpture dedicated to the 11 Israelis who died at the 1972 Munich Olympics. (Marla Cohen) WEST NYACK, N.Y. (JTA) — The room was splashed in blood, the walls riddled with bullet holes. Ankie Spitzer stood amid the chaos and made a vow. “If this is the place where Andrei spent the last hours of his life, he and his friends, I am not going… Read more »
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, January 13, 2011. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO/JTA) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Mitt Romney’s announced trip to Israel, at the height of his campaign to wrest the presidency from Barack Obama, could be a twofer, drawing closer two critical constituencies: evangelicals and foreign policy hawks. A Romney campaign official confirmed to JTA a New York Times story this… Read more »
The Conservative movement — affirming that same-sex marriages have “the same sense of holiness and joy as that expressed in heterosexual marriages” — last month established rituals for same-sex wedding ceremonies. The landmark vote by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly follows… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Most Jewish groups who have weighed in on Arizona’s controversial immigration law saw progress in the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to repeal three of the law’s four parts, but had concerns that law enforcement officials would still be allowed to check the legal immigration status of… Read more »
