News

‘We’ve lost a part of ourselves’: El Paso’s diverse Jewish community grapples with a mass shooting

From left to right, Rabbis Ben Zeidman and Scott Rosenberg speak at an interfaith vigil with Msgr. Arturo Banuelas following the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, Aug. 4, 2019. (Jordyn Rozensky/ Frontera Studio)

(JTA) — Joseph Charter used to feel safe in El Paso. But after Saturday, when a gunman killed 22 people and injured 26 at a Walmart store in the Texas city, everything changed. “I had to go to Target the following day, and for the first time ever I… Read more »

Palestinian and Israeli discovered a shared past when they met as Washington interns

Mohammed Ahmad, left, and Eran Nissan speak at a New Voices Leadership event on Capitol Hill, July 11, 2019. (Ron Kampeas)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — In its 10 years of placing young Palestinian and Israeli leaders with Congress members, no lawmaker asked New Story Leadership for one of each — until Jamie Raskin did. This summer, Eran Nissan and Mohammed Ahmad have been interning in the office of the Maryland Democrat,… Read more »

Arizona Department of Environmental Quality alert for Tucson

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and Pima County of Environmental Quality are issuing a Health Watch for ozone effective Aug. 7 and 8 in the Tucson area. ADEQ recommends that people limit outdoor activity while the HW is in effect, especially children and adults with respiratory problems. Ground… Read more »

Meet the ‘Anti-Squad’: Rep. Elissa Slotkin and her ‘gang’ offer Democrats a path of moderation

Rep. Elissa Slotkin speaks to Alan Caldwell at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Lansing, Mich., July 30, 2019. (Ron Kampeas)

LANSING, Michigan (JTA) — Tom Dalton could be the poster boy for Elissa Slotkin’s path to a second term and, she would argue, to Democrats keeping the U.S. House of Representatives. The 67-year-old Vietnam navy vet routinely votes Republican — but says he would not hesitate to vote for… Read more »

The El Paso shooting is being investigated as domestic terrorism. Does that matter?

Armed police officers gather next to an FBI armored vehicle at the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, Texas, Aug. 3, 2019. The shooter who killed at least 22 people there is being investigated as a domestic terrorist. (Joel Angel Juarez/AFP/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Before he killed at least 22 people at a Walmart on the southern border, the gunman in El Paso posted a white supremacist manifesto on the fringe social network 8chan denouncing a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” The U.S. Justice Department announced that it would treat the shooting… Read more »

Trump condemns bigotry and white supremacy in response to El Paso and Dayton shootings

President Donald Trump makes remarks about the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton at the White House as Vice President Mike Pence looks on, Aug. 5, 2019. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

(JTA) — President Donald Trump said “hate has no place in America” in an address to the nation following the mass shootings over the weekend in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. Trump pledged additional resources to the FBI to investigate domestic terrorism. He called for strengthening detection of… Read more »

Senators introduce bill to pay for Holocaust education programs in schools

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A bipartisan slate of senators introduced a bill that would fund Holocaust education in schools. The Never Again Education Act would establish the Holocaust Education Assistance Program Fund in the U.S. Treasury. The bill would combine appropriated funds and private donations. A release July 11 from… Read more »

Palestinian gunman crosses Gaza border and injures 3 Israeli soldiers

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Palestinian gunman who crossed the border from southern Gaza into Israel shot and injured three Israeli soldiers. The gunman was killed by other soldiers in the area in the early Thursday morning incident, according to the Israel Defense Forces. The IDF said it also fired… Read more »

The youngest correspondent covering the debates is a 10-year-old Jewish kid

Jefferson Henry Kraft is (probably) the youngest correspondent in the Democratic debate spin room in Detroit on July 20, 2019. (Ron Kampeas)

DETROIT (JTA) — For any reporter, careening in a year from reviewing restaurants to covering the presidential debates would be a pretty fast rise. But then again, Jefferson Henry Kraft is only 10 years old. Kraft is the KidScoop Media correspondent covering the Democratic presidential debates, taking place here… Read more »

Former Peruvian president denied bail in corruption case because officials fear he would flee to Israel

Former President of Peru Alejandro Toledo speaks during a discussion on Venezuela at The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., June 17, 2016. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

SAN FRANCISCO (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — A former Peruvian president living in the Bay Area and facing bribery charges in his home country has been denied bail by a federal judge in San Francisco out of fear he would flee — to Israel.… Read more »

3 participants share what they learned on J Street’s first alternative to Birthright trip

A Palestinian shepherd uses a bucket to get water from a well in the village of Susya south of the West Bank city of Hebron on August 19, 2017. (Hazem Bader/AFP/Getty Images)

(JTA) – Editor’s Note: In March, the the liberal Israel policy group J Street announced that it would be creating a 10-day free trip to Israel, designed to provide students with both Israeli and Palestinian perspectives on the conflict. Many interpreted the announcement as a move to compete with… Read more »

What The New York Times got right and wrong about BDS: An exchange

A New York Times explainer of the movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel; a gathering on the International Day of Quds in Times Square, NYC. (Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) – The Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s editor in chief, Andrew Silow-Carroll, and its opinion editor, Laura E. Adkins, shared their thoughts on a recent New York Times article answering “some of the most difficult questions” about BDS, or the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Andrew… Read more »

North Miami Beach’s Jews cope after another synagogue shooting

The Young Israel of Greater Miami synagogue on the night of the shooting, July 28, 2019. (Screenshot from Local10.com)

(JTA) — When Rabbi Mark Rosenberg’s family played back the footage on their home’s security cameras in North Miami Beach, they could hear the rat-tat-tat of bullets being fired at the synagogue a few blocks away. On Sunday, a man had been shot repeatedly in front of the Young… Read more »

Free short films to launch Green Valley series

The Beth Shalom Temple Center in Green Valley will kick off a monthly film series on Sunday, Aug. 4, with a free screening of two short films at 11 a.m. “A Reuben by Any Other Name” takes a hilarious look at the differences between Orthodox and Reform Judaism in… Read more »

Canada won’t reschedule elections that fall on Jewish holiday

(JTA) — Canada is not changing the date of its national elections, even though they fall on a Jewish holiday. Chief electoral officer Stéphane Perrault announced Monday that he would not recommend changing the date, which coincides with the last days of Sukkot. Last week the country’s federal court ordered him to… Read more »

As Russia cracks down on dissent, Netanyahu campaign ads feature Putin

Banners for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reelection campaign in Tel Aviv show him alongside Vladimir Putin, right, and Donald Trump, July 28, 2019. (Adam Shouldman/Flash90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party has launched a new ad campaign featuring Russian President Vladimir Putin, coinciding with one of the Kremlin’s largest crackdowns on political dissent in years. Large multi-story banners featuring Netanyahu with Putin, as well as others featuring President Donald Trump and… Read more »

In Eastern Europe, Holocaust museums are missing from key historical sites

The House of Fates Holocaust museum, housed in a former railway station that deported Jews to concentration camps, seen in Budapest, Jan. 21, 2019. It has not opened to the public despite having been finished five years ago. (Ferenc Isza/AFP/Getty Images)

(JTA) — In the capital of Lithuania, an institution formerly known as the Museum of Genocide Victims barely mentions the murder of nearly all the country’s Jews by Nazis and locals, focusing instead on the years of abusive Soviet rule. In Kaunas, Lithuania’s second-largest city, another so-called museum hosts… Read more »