News

  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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

(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 »

(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 »

  (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 »

(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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

(JTA) — When he signed up to be a counselor at a Jewish-run summer camp for refugee children, Isaac Eastlund expected to confront trauma. Instead, when he would come up to his campers, a couple months or years removed from fleeing Afghanistan or the Democratic Republic of the Congo,… Read more »

(JTA) – On July 19, Israel’s right-wing coalition government passed, by a narrow 62-55 margin, its controversial nation-state law, which declared Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people.” Scores of liberal critics denounced the measure as an unnecessary and racist provocation, while defenders called it a statement of… Read more »

Pitch for Hope competition calls on youth in UK, US, and Israel to propose creative ideas for curbing racism and anti-Semitism in sports   NEW YORK — Chelsea Football Club and The World Jewish Congress on July 9 launched the international Pitch for Hope competition, the first stage of a three-pronged joint… Read more »

From an inspiring family reunion to a jaw-dropping “shanda,” the documentary “Three Identical Strangers” offers plot twists and emotional turns that top anything Hollywood has to offer this summer. The New York-area triplets, who discovered by chance in 1980 that they had been placed for adoption with three different… Read more »

Last week, Facebook CEO  Mark Zuckerberg said his platform would not remove content denying the Holocaust, but that the content would be less likely to show up in someone’s news feed. The Lawfare Project filed takedown notices this week against Facebook posts denying the Holocaust and containing anti-Semitic material,… Read more »

(JTA) — While American politicians and pundits fumed at President Donald Trump’s performance at his much-anticipated meeting last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, lost in the clamor was one small but crucial moment: Israel emerged from Helsinki a winner. Trump said that he and Putin had reached a “really good conclusion” for… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — On Sunday, Aug. 12, Unite the Right, the agglomeration of far-right groups that organized the deadly Charlottesville, Virginia, rally last year, hopes to meet there again on its anniversary. Likely missing from the 2018 rally, if courts allow it to take place: armed individuals and groups, by… Read more »