(JTA) – In the past few months, UJA-Federation of New York has awarded millions of dollars in emergency grants to help organizations survive the COVID-19 pandemic. Now it’s joining the ranks of organizations having to let go of its own staff members as it anticipates declining donations. And its… Read more »
News
Orthodox women are using Instagram to fight racism, on and offline
(JTA) – Shevi Samet started her Instagram livestream by letting out a long, deep breath. “How are you?” she asked her co-presenter and fellow Instagrammer Shoshana Greenwald. “So, so nervous,” Greenwald replied. “So nervous, so nervous,” Samet echoed. “I just want to address that briefly: Shoshana and I are… Read more »
800 rabbis and cantors sign statement supporting peaceful protest against racism
(JTA) — More than 800 rabbis and cantors, including the leaders of three major denominations, signed a statement in support of peaceful protest against racism and in memory of George Floyd. The statement invoked Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, an iconic Jewish civil rights activist who marched with the Rev.… Read more »
Patty Vallance, extraordinary community volunteer, dies at 62
The Southern Arizona Jewish community lost one of its most energetic and beloved volunteers when Patty Vallance, 62, died June 3, 2020. “We lost a one-of-a-kind force for good,” Stuart Mellan, former president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, wrote on Facebook. “She wore her Jewish… Read more »
Nearly half the Jewish sites in Syria have been ruined. The fate of most Iraqi sites is unknown.
(JTA) — Nearly half the Jewish sites in Syria and a quarter of the sites in Iraq have been destroyed, according to a research project. In Iraq, at least 68 out of 297 Jewish heritage sites have deteriorated to the point that they are beyond repair, the London-based Jewish… Read more »
The first female chancellor of JTS shares her plans for the seminary – and getting through the pandemic
(JTA) – Shuly Rubin Schwartz’s appointment as the Jewish Theological Seminary’s eighth chancellor comes just in time for the historian to guide the institution through a period of unprecedented crisis management. The flagship university of Judaism’s Conservative movement recently completed a major renovation project of its Morningside Heights campus… Read more »
For Orthodox Jews, George Floyd protests stir complicated feelings
(JTA) – On Sunday night, Rabbi Richard Altabe marched arm in arm with two black politicians protesting police brutality at a demonstration in Far Rockaway. The next morning, Orthodox Jews in the same New York neighborhood showed up at the local police precinct to drop off pastries for the… Read more »
‘We have to be there’: 5 Jews on taking part in the George Floyd protests
(JTA) — It has been a trying week and a half for Beejhy Barhany. Her Israeli-Ethiopian fusion restaurant, Tsion Cafe, had already been struggling to make ends meet after months of closure due to the pandemic. Then the protests over the death of George Floyd swept through the city,… Read more »
Veterans Affairs department to reverse course and replace tombstones that have swastikas
(JTA) — The Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it will begin the process of replacing three gravestones bearing swastikas in cemeteries in Texas and Utah, less than a month after saying they would be preserved as “historic resources.” The VA told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last month that… Read more »
Slow down annexation process, Jared Kushner and other US officials tell Netanyahu
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a conference call with Jared Kushner and other top White House officials to discuss slowing down West Bank annexation plans, an Israeli TV station reported. Channel 13 in its report Monday cited an unnamed senior Israeli source that the Trump… Read more »
130 Jewish groups, ‘outraged’ by George Floyd killing, pledge to fight systemic racism
(JTA) — Dozens of American Jewish groups have pledged to work to end systemic racism in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis. In a statement Tuesday, 130 organizations said they were “outraged” by the killing of Floyd, a black man who died in police custody last… Read more »
Hundreds of Israelis, angry with police violence at home, protest the George Floyd killing in Tel Aviv
TEL AVIV (JTA) — As Kielahtiel Barton stood across from the former American embassy here, on a sidewalk next to a downtown beach, a large crowd around her chanted slogans calling for racial equality. “Why am I here? I’m black as hell and my skin color is the first… Read more »
Shuly Rubin Schwartz tapped as first woman chancellor at Jewish Theological Seminary
(JTA) — Shuly Rubin Schwartz, an expert on Jewish American history and longtime professor, will be the first woman chancellor in the 134-year history of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Schwartz, who served as provost — also the first woman in that position — will be eighth chancellor in the… Read more »
Thousands of students in dozens of Israeli schools sent home to isolation over COVID-19 outbreaks
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Thousands of students in Jerusalem and other cities across the country were sent home Monday to isolation after staff and students were found to have COVID-19. Schools in Israel began opening more than two weeks ago after isolating for nearly two months due to the coronavirus.… Read more »
Jewish activists in Minneapolis shift from working on several issues to one: Responding to the George Floyd protests
(JTA) – Jewish Community Action, the leading Jewish social justice organization in Minneapolis, was supposed to be closed last Friday for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Instead, its staff started organizing individually as protests broke out all over the city in response to the killing of George Floyd in… Read more »
Rabbis can be military chaplains in Germany for the first time since the 1930s
BERLIN (JTA) — Rabbis can be military chaplains again in the German military for the first time since they were kicked out by the Nazis in the 1930s, nearly a century ago. The German Bundestag, or parliament, unanimously approved the move in a vote on Thursday. “The first clergymen… Read more »
Breaking China: A rupture looms between Israel and the United States
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel’s announcement last week that an Israeli consortium would build Sorek 2, the world’s largest desalination plant, surprised many who had been watching the deal: The contract had been expected to go to a Hong Kong-based company. But that was before the Trump administration ramped up… Read more »
‘I’m not angry at all’: Owner of looted Chicago photo shop vows to rebuild
(JTA) — Don Flesch managed to grab just one item from his downtown Chicago camera shop as it went up in flames Saturday night: the antique Kodak that was the first camera his grandfather sold after he opened the store in 1899. But Flesch said he harbored no ill… Read more »
‘Believe us’: Black Jews respond to the George Floyd protests, in their own words
(JTA) — As Enzi Tanner participated in an online havdalah ceremony marking the end of Shabbat Saturday night, his city — Minneapolis — was being torn apart during a fifth night of unrest following the death of George Floyd, a black man, in police custody there last week. Tanner,… Read more »
Partnerships help Jewish History Museum thrive in digital space
Tucson’s Jewish History Museum closed its doors this spring to maintain physical distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, but the staff has been busy forging new partnerships to help it grow its offerings and its audience in the digital world. “In a time of constricted resources, the Jewish History Museum is… Read more »