National

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 »

Randy Altschuler, right, a Republican candidate in the race for New York's first congressional district, campaigning with Rep. Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader and the only Republican Jewish lawmaker in Congress, during Altshuler's losing 2010 race against Rep. Tim Bishop. (Courtesy Randy Altschuler for Congress)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish Republicans nationwide are hoping that a heated congressional race rematch in the New York suburbs puts a second Jewish Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives. Following a narrow 593-vote defeat two years ago to Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.), Jewish businessman Randy Altschuler again is… Read more »

Ron Barber, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, won her seat in a special election. Barber, who decided to run after Giffords resigned her seat earlier this year to recover from a shooting in January 2011, defeated Jesse Kelly, a Republican who suffered a narrow defeat to… Read more »

Mitt Romney speaks to supporters at a rally in Tempe, Ariz., April 20, 2012. (Gage Skidmore via CC)

Mitt Romney’s Lacrosse moment awaits him. The Democratic convention in Los Angeles was where Joe Lieberman made history as the first Jewish candidate on a major ticket on Aug. 17, 2000. But two days later, history came to life in Lacrosse, Wis., the little college town where he walked… Read more »

The Butwin family of Tempe, Ariz., shown in a photo from May 2009 (Yafit Butwin's Facebook page)

The Phoenix-area Jewish community is grieving after hearing of the suspected murder-suicide of a local Jewish family that was active in Jewish life. The Butwin family of Tempe was found burned to death in the family’s SUV on June 2. Police believe that James Butwin died of a gunshot… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Albert Einstein stepped forward several times in the 1930s and 1940s to help raise money for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Now, more than half a century later, the international Jewish news service known these days as JTA is hoping the father of relativity can come… Read more »

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) speaks at the Jewish Museum of Florida in Miami in 2008. (Courtesy Debbie Wasserman Schultz for Congress)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – When does a bimah turn into a political soapbox? The controversy last month over a Miami temple’s invitation and then disinvitation to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) — which prompted the resignation of an influential congregant who also is a Republican activist — has revived with… Read more »

Cincinnati (N.Y. Jewish Week) — Out here in the America between the coasts, in what may be the most prized electoral catch of all come November, Sam Samet is President Barack Obama’s worst nightmare. And Michael Heines is Mitt Romney’s. Sipping a cup of coffee after the morning minyan at suburban Adath Israel… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Obama is spreading the word, one Jewish constituency at a time: He has Israel’s back. Obama defended his record on Israel and on religious freedoms on Tuesday during a White House meeting with Orthodox leaders. Challenged by one of those leaders on the efficacy of his… Read more »

The White House expressed its regrets about President Obama’s use of the term “Polish death camp.” In a statement Wednesday morning, Tommy Vietor, the spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, said the president “misspoke” during his presentation of a posthumous Medal of Freedom a day earlier to Jan… Read more »

Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black was among the justices who agreed with the decision on the 1962 Engel v. Vitale case, which banned prayer in public schools. (Photo courtesy United States Library of Congress)

When President Obama publicly endorsed same-sex marriage last month, most secular Jewish leaders applauded while some religious ones disagreed — the latter group joining their Catholic counterparts. In doing so, these representatives echoed sentiments thrust into the public sphere five decades earlier, ones that simultaneously symbolized a new Jewish… Read more »

Pressure is growing on the Brooklyn district attorney and the country’s major haredi Orthodox umbrella organization to change the ways they handle allegations of sexual abuse and molestation in the Orthodox community. A series of recent reports by The New York Jewish Week, the Forward and The New York… Read more »