JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Airbnb executive visited the West Bank and met with Jewish settlement leaders amid criticism of its decision to remove Jewish-owned properties in the disputed territories from its short-term rental listings. Chris Lehane, head of global policy and public affairs for the company, met Tuesday with senior… Read more »
News
Ruth Bader Ginsburg swears in new immigrants, wows them with her story
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The ceremony was cozy formal: Yes there was a color guard and a military band, but the Supreme Court justice brought along her personal trainer, and one of the speakers introduced Ruth Bader Ginsburg as “The Notorious RBG.” The Department of Homeland Security randomly selected 31… Read more »
Academy Awards turns its back on latest Israeli film
LOS ANGELES (JTA)– Israel’s more than half-century courtship to win an Oscar for best foreign-language film will continue past 2019. Since submitting its first entry — and winning its first nomination — for “Sallah” in 1964, Israel has made the short list of top nominees 10 times, without ever… Read more »
Netanyahu’s upcoming visit to Brazil marks the end of an era of strained ties
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Following years of diplomatic tensions, Israel and Brazil appear set to place their relationship on a new footing with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming visit, the first for a sitting prime minister. Netanyahu was invited to attend incoming President Jair Bolsonaro’s inauguration on Jan. 1.… Read more »
Israel arrests 100 Palestinians in crackdown after week of violence
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli forces arrested over 100 Palestinians over the past weekend as part of an anti-terror crackdown launched in the wake of last week’s uptick in terror activity in the West Bank.“There were 100 arrests over the weekend, and another 36 yesterday,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced… Read more »
A new Jewish Christmas tradition: Watching ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ at your local movie theater
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Sick of eating Chinese food and taking in another modern blockbuster on Christmas, while your Christian friends party together with sweets and eggnog? Thanks to the imagination of Greg Laemmle, co-owner of a chain of eight art house cinemas bearing his family name in greater… Read more »
Alice Walker endorses anti-Semitic tract in a New York Times feature
(JTA) — Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Alice Walker has come under intense criticism after endorsing a book by anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist David Icke. In an interview with The New York Times Book Review, Walker — who is best known for her book “The Color Purple,” detailing the hardships of African-American women in… Read more »
In a first, Reform rabbinical school won’t be led by a rabbi
NEW YORK (JTA) —The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion has appointed Andrew Rehfeld, a political science professor who has led the Jewish Federation of St. Louis since 2012, to serve as its 13th president. On Tuesday, the Reform movement’s flagship seminary said Rehfeld would lead its four campuses in… Read more »
Pink Floyd tribute band backs down — and its shows are back on — after cancelling gigs in Israel
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Pink Floyd cover band announced on Tuesday that its upcoming Israel tour is back on after cancelling due to pressure from BDS advocate Roger Waters, co-founder of the original Pink Floyd. On Sunday UK Pink Floyd Experience cancelled its shows in Tel Aviv, Haifa and… Read more »
Report says fallout of Khashoggi killing could harm unofficial Saudi ties with Israel
(JTA) — The internal political fallout over the murder of dissident Jamal Khashoggi may damage Saudi Arabia’s budding unofficial ties with Israel, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The newspaper cited the dismissal of two senior advisers to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who were intimately involved in forging ties between… Read more »
Jewish studies conference celebrates 50 years of explosive growth in the field
BOSTON (JTA) — Diversity and inclusion were among the hot topics at the 50th annual convention of the Association of Jewish Studies, where some 1,200 Jewish studies scholars gathered for a three-day conference that began here Sunday. Fifty years to the month after a handful of scholars in the… Read more »
Noah Klieger, Holocaust survivor and storied journalist, is dead at 92
(JTA) — Noah Klieger, who survived Auschwitz by pretending to be a boxer and went on to a storied career in journalism, died Thursday in Israel. He was 92. As a prisoner in Auschwitz, Klieger was selected for the gas chamber but managed to talk himself out of the… Read more »
American Federations of Teachers building defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The American Federation of Teachers said vandals defaced its headquarters in Washington D.C. with anti-Semitic graffiti. A number of areas around the building, including a wall, were yellow spray-painted on Tuesday and Wednesday with “I want Jexit!” an apparent anti-Semitic play on “Brexit,” Britain’s planned pullout… Read more »
Trump is looking at Jared Kushner as chief of staff, report says
(JTA) — Jared Kushner is being considered for White House chief of staff, according to a CBS News report. Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, would replace John Kelly, who is set to leave the post at the beginning of next year. A real estate developer who had… Read more »
Kirk Douglas honored on his 102nd birthday by NY town where he grew up
(JTA) — The latest honor for Jewish actor Kirk Douglas came in the upstate New York town where he was raised on his 102nd birthday. Friend and relatives gathered in Amsterdam on Sunday to unveil a historic marker for a sign that will say that Douglas, 102, “Rose From Poverty To… Read more »
Israel has a bobsled team, and it wants to compete in the Olympics
NEW YORK (JTA) — In the span of just a couple days, Chaim Raice went from never having been on a bobsled to being a contender to represent Israel in the 2022 Winter Olympics. And it all started with a Facebook post. Raice, a house builder based in Pomona,… Read more »
Baby born prematurely to mother shot in West Bank attack dies in hospital
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A baby born prematurely after his mother was shot during a drive-by terror attack in the West Bank died on Wednesday. The statement from Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Hospital announcing the boy’s passing said the parents met their son earlier Wednesday morning. The baby had been delivered… Read more »
Anti-Semitic video, fliers posted in wake of Hitler prom salute photo in Wisconsin city
(JTA) — An anti-Semitic video was posted on social media and anti-Semitic fliers posted both, related to the Wisconsin high school students who made what appears to be a Nazi salute in a junior prom photo have appeared around the Baraboo community. A seven-minute video was posted on Sunday to the… Read more »
2 Israelis killed in West Bank shooting
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Two Israelis were killed and two seriously injured in a second shooting attack near a bus stop in the West Bank. The attack on Thursday morning occurred at a bus stop outside of the Givat Asaf settlement, about a mile down the same road from the… Read more »
Netanyahu vows settlers will stay, build more homes in wake of drive-by shooting
JERUSALEM (JTA) — No Jewish settlers will be forced to leave and they will build more homes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday in the wake of a drive-by shooting in the West Bank that left seven injured. “As long as I am prime minister, not even one Jew… Read more »