Bob Shamansky brought his Jewish sensibility to Congress. (Illustration by Charles Dunst/JTA; photo: Wikimedia Commons)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — There’s a nail-biter in Ohio’s 12th District, if you haven’t noticed. Danny O’Connor, a Democrat, has refused to concede to Republican Troy Balderson following Tuesday’s hair’s-breadth special election for the seat encompassing Columbus and its environs. The winner will succeed longtime Republican incumbent Pat Tiberi, who… Read more »
Evelien Gans was one of the Netherlands’ foremost scholars on anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. (Courtesy of Daniel Staal)
AMSTERDAM (JTA) – On July 19, Evelien Gans, one of the Netherlands’ foremost scholars on anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, jumped to her death from her fourth-story Amsterdam apartment, where she lived alone. Gans, 67, a retired professor at the University of Amsterdam who had struggled with clinical depression for… Read more »
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, President Reuven Rivlin and the head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, at an awards ceremony in Jerusalem to recognize 13 employees of Israel's intelligence agency, Dec. 13, 2017. (Kobi Gideon/Wikimedia Commons)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Aziz Asbar was a leading Syrian rocket scientist, working with Hezbollah and Iran to develop systems that could reach deep inside Israel. Now he’s dead, blown up in a car. The natural inclination in the Middle East and even farther afield is to blame the Mossad,… Read more »
President Donald Trump, right, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appear to have different views on Iran. (Illustration by Charles Dunst/JTA; credit: Maxpixel, Wikimedia Commons)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump says he’s ready to meet Iran’s leadership without preconditions. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seems to have preconditions. The disconnect of recent weeks was sharpened Monday when the White House announced the reimposition of sanctions on Iran, the first to be reintroduced since… Read more »
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee speaks at a ceremony welcoming a new neighborhood in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, Aug. 1, 2018. (Sam Sokol)
EFRAT, West Bank (JTA) — Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee laid bricks in a new neighborhood in this settlement in a ceremony Aug. 1 that took its language and cues from Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” rhetoric. During the ceremony in Efrat’s Tamar neighborhood, organizers distributed red caps bearing… Read more »
Jacob Wohl describes himself as a conservative, a Zionist and one of President Trump’s most loyal supporters. (Screenshot from YouTube)
NEW YORK (JTA) — If you scroll down the Twitter feed of Jacob Wohl, former teenage hedge fund manager and current pro-Donald Trump provocateur, you’ll see a stream of insults directed at Robert Mueller, liberals and a proposed plastic straw ban. And that was just Friday morning. To his… Read more »
A Palestinian man walks by Israeli troops standing guard in the West Bank city of Hebron, April 13, 2017. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
(JTA) – When Samuel Green talks about Israel’s West bank security barrier with the Birthright groups he guides, he first explains the Israeli view that the barrier was built to prevent Palestinian terrorists from breaching Israeli territory and that Israelis generally feel it has saved lives. But then he’ll… Read more »
Cantor Philip Sherman has appeared in more than a dozen roles in commercials, TV series and movies, mostly playing a religious Jew.(Courtesy of Sherman)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Cantor Philip Sherman gives me a call after having finished two circumcisions before noon on Tuesday. That’s a light day, he explains. On Thursday, he will be performing circumcisions for four baby boys; on Friday, he’ll do five. Sherman, 62, is a mohel (in… Read more »
Tom Furstenberg, right, and a fellow congregant carry the Torah ark out of the Great Synagogue of Deventer, July 30, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
DEVENTER, Netherlands (JTA) — Four years ago, Tom Furstenberg proudly carried into his synagogue its first Torah scroll since the Holocaust, when local Nazis destroyed the building’s interior. The scroll’s introduction in 2014 was an important moment for the Beth Shoshana Masorti community that Furstenberg helped establish in 2010… Read more »
Rep. David Kustoff, a Jewish Republican, is running for re-election in Tennessee’s 8th Congressional District. (Ron Kampeas)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — David Kustoff, running for re-election in Tennessee’s 8th Congressional District, had three things in his favor: incumbency, a solid Republican district and President Donald Trump’s endorsement. Kustoff was not taking anything for granted, though: In the Republican primary on Thursday, he faced a challenger, George Flinn,… Read more »
David Reinert holds up a large "Q" sign representing QAnon, a conspiracy group, while waiting in line to see President Donald Trump at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Aug. 2, 2018. (Rick Loomis/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — “We are Q.” Those wearing shirts and holding signs bearing the idiom and similar Q-related expressions appeared prominently at President Donald Trump’s campaign rally Tuesday in Tampa, Florida, for a Republican congressman, Ron Desantis, prompting confused and concerned reactions from across the political spectrum. What is… Read more »
(Illustration by Charles Dunst/JTA)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Over and over, across decades and cities throughout the United States, sociologist Steven M. Cohen painted a picture of American Jews using a consistent set of questions. How much do Jews love Israel? How many Jewish friends do they have? Do they attend a synagogue?… Read more »
Tim Kalkhof plays a German man who falls in love with a married Israeli man in "The Cakemaker." (Strand Releasing)
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — “The Cakemaker” has been one of the more successful indie films on the international festival circuit over the past year. Its recipe: a secret gay Israeli-German love affair, a tragic death and another secret affair — between a straight woman and a gay man. The… Read more »
Imran Khan at the "Rule of Law: The Case of Pakistan” conference in Berlin, Germany, Nov. 26, 2009. (Stephan Röhl/Flickr)
(JTA) — The election of former cricket star Imran Khan as Pakistan’s new prime minister has raised eyebrows across the globe. He has promised a “new Pakistan,” running on a light-on-policy nationalistic anti-corruption platform. Khan, 65, “is known for running a team of one, making impulsive decisions, contradicting himself and then… Read more »
Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi is welcomed by relatives and supporters after her release from an Israeli prison, July 29, 2018. (Flash90)
(JTA) — When Ahed Tamimi left an Israeli prison on Sunday after eight months, she returned home to jubilation from friends and family in her West Bank hometown of Nabi Saleh. The 17-year-old Palestinian activist also was celebrated as a hero around the world for what some see as… Read more »
Campaigners from the Campaign Against Antisemitism demonstrate outside the Labour Party headquarters in London, April 8, 2018. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
(JTA) — It’s been nearly three years since Jeremy Corbyn became the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, and he has riled British Jews more than any other politician in recent history. Last week, Great Britain’s three leading Jewish newspapers united in publishing a front-page editorial warning that a… Read more »
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg preparing to administer the Oath of Allegiance to candidates for U.S. citizenship at the New-York Historical Society in New York City, April 10, 2018. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she hopes to remain on the court for another five years. “I’m now 85,” Ginsburg said, according to CNN. “My senior colleague, Justice John Paul Stevens, he stepped down when he was 90, so think I have about at least five… Read more »
The Impossible Burger is served at Shelly's Cafe in Teaneck, N.J., with cheddar, avocado, tomato, lettuce, sriracha mayonnaise and a side of homemade potato chips. (Josefin Dolsten)
TEANECK, N.J. (JTA) — For many Americans, no hamburger is complete without cheese. Whether a slice of no-fuss American or something fancier, the cheese melds the beef patty with the bun into umami-laden perfection. Until now, the cheeseburger was the stuff of daydreams for Jews observing kosher dietary laws that… Read more »
Rep. Michael McCaul leaves the Capitol, April 27, 2018. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rep. Michael McCaul wants Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to know he has his back when it comes to Israel’s demand that Iran leaves Syria for good. “If it’s not good enough for Israel, it’s not good enough for me,” said McCaul, the Texas Republican who… Read more »
A crane works to remove a large chunk of stone dislodged from the Western Wall in Jerusalem at the mixed-gender prayer section, July 25, 2018. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The heavy stone that fell out of the Western Wall and came crashing down on a platform set aside for egalitarian prayer has been removed for examination and restoration, but the conversation about the reason for its sudden sky dive — including hints of divine intervention… Read more »
