Satya Zamudio, 15, urged Oakland's school board to eliminate its police force. (Rucha Chitnis)
(J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — The school board in Oakland, California, has unanimously voted to abolish the district’s police force in the wake of the nationwide protests against police brutality — with some urging by teens at a city synagogue. A large contingent of young people… Read more »
(JTA) — Actress Mayim Bialik will channel the DC Comics character the Flash to turn kids on to science. DC Comics announced Thursday that “Flash Facts,” a collection of stories featuring DC characters such as the Flash, Batman and Superman, will be published in February. The anthology curated by… Read more »
Seo Yoon Yang (Courtesy)
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (JTA) — As a Korean-American teenage immigrant living in a predominantly white city and attending a school with a predominantly white student body, racial slurs and insensitive comments have unfortunately become a normalized part of my life. Before living in Tennessee, I grew up in Palm Beach… Read more »
Omer Yankelevich with three of her five children at the Knesset in Jerusalem, April 30, 2019. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Omer Yankelevich is the new minister of Diaspora affairs in Israel, meaning she’s in charge of managing the Jewish state’s relations with Jewish communities abroad. It has never been an easy task, but tensions in recent years between Israel and the United States, as well as… Read more »
(JTA) — The Georgia legislature approved a hate crimes bill that allows a longer sentence for crimes deemed to be based on a particular bias. The effort was led in part by the Hate Free Georgia Coalition, a group of 35 nonprofit groups organized by the Anti-Defamation League, the… Read more »
As senior vice president at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Gamal Palmer is in charge of professional development for the federation’s staff and does leadership development for its board. (Courtesy of Gamal Palmer)
Gamal Palmer has spent virtually his entire professional career working to advance racial diversity, equity and justice. As a Jew of color in charge of leadership and professional development at the Los Angeles Jewish federation, he’s spent years running diversity workshops and pushing for conversations about race within the… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organization that helps North Americans immigrate to Israel, said it has received the highest number of applications since its founding nearly two decades ago. In the first half of June, over 900 applications have been submitted to the group for making the move… Read more »
(JTA) — Some 28 Jewish gravestones dating from the 17th century were discovered in the foundation of a wall built to protect a castle in Austria. They were discovered during restoration work earlier this year on the Ebenfurth Castle in the state of Lower Austria, according to Jewish Heritage Europe.… Read more »
The ropes course at Camp Modin, which has seen immense interest from parents since announcing last month that it was opening this summer. (Courtesy of Camp Modin)
(JTA) — This week, as he prepares to open Camp Modin and administer coronavirus tests to its hundreds of campers and staff, Howard Salzberg is still fielding 50 calls a day from parents who want to send their kids. That’s because Modin, a small, unaffiliated Jewish camp in Maine,… Read more »
New York Democratic House candidate Jamaal Bowman greets supporters in Yonkers, N.Y., June 23. 2020. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Left-wing candidates appeared to be surging in Democratic congressional primaries in New York, although results were preliminary into Wednesday as mail-in votes necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic were still being counted. Jamaal Bowman, who challenged longtime incumbent Eliot Engel in the 16th District, covering parts of… Read more »
(JTA) — Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese diplomat who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust, will be recognized with a monument at a site in Lisbon that recognizes the country’s greatest figures. The parliament decreed the honor unanimously earlier this month at the National Assembly in Portugal’s… Read more »
(JTA) — The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York is laying off about 40 percent of its staff in order to weather the financial crisis brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. The museum’s president and CEO, Jack Kliger, made the announcement Monday in a call with the staff,… Read more »
Yeshivat Noam, a Modern Orthodox school in Paramus, N.J., organized a graduation float that visited students' homes so that members of the class of 2020 could celebrate safely amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Courtesy of Yeshivat Noam)
As soon as it became clear in March that COVID-19 would force school closures around the country, Jewish day school administrators faced a conundrum that went beyond the question of how to continue educating students. The challenge: how to maintain a sense of community at a time when everyone… Read more »
(JTA) — A new Holocaust memorial will be built in Vienna engraved with the names of 64,000 Austrian Jews killed by the Nazis. A groundbreaking ceremony was held Monday for the The Memorial to the Jewish Children, Women and Men of Austria who were Murdered in the Shoah, will… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Researchers at an Israeli government center say that tests of a coronavirus vaccine have been successful on hamsters and the vaccine could be ready by the end of winter if human trials are allowed in the coming weeks. The country’s Ministry of Health must approve the start… Read more »
Elias Rosenfeld with U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine in front of the U.S.Supreme Court, Nov. 12, 2019, the day oral arguments werepresented in the case on DACA arrivals. (Courtesy of Rosenfeld)
BOSTON (JTA) – Elias Rosenfeld’s phone rang on Thursday morning hours after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked President Donald Trump from moving to deport him and hundreds of thousands of other young immigrants like him. It was Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center, with… Read more »
Marchers in the 48th Annual Juneteenth Day Festival in Milwaukee, Wisc., June 19, 2019. (Dylan Buell/Getty Images for VIBE)
(JTA) — After the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic this spring delayed the launch of the website for TribeHerald, a new media company for Jews of color, founders Yitz Jordan and Rabbi Shais Rishon settled on a perfect alternative: the evening of June 18. After all, it would be… Read more »
Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein and New York City Councilman Kalman Yeger at Brooklyn's Dome Playground, June 16, 2020. (Benjamin Kanter)
(JTA) – Just days after Orthodox lawmakers cut the chains off New York City playgrounds in defiance of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s orders, the mayor announced Thursday morning that playgrounds will reopen in the city starting Monday. The decision comes as the city moves into its second phase of… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Nearly 200 Israelis stranded in several Central American countries because of the coronavirus are going home. A special El Al flight left from Panama City on Thursday morning, the Spanish language Panama Star reported, in the first direct flight ever from Panama to Israel, according to… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Two years after his bill trying to negate all conversions outside of the state’s Chief Rabbinate stalled in the Knesset, Shas party head Aryeh Deri is trying again. Deri, now the interior minister, has asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to float a bill to government coalition… Read more »
