News

After Poway shooting, local Chabad event puts love before hate

Ariella Lee, a University of Arizona student who is member of Chabad of Poway, speaks at Chabad Tucson May 1. (Photo by Martha Lochert)

People forget what you said, people forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” With these famous words from poet Maya Angelou, University of Arizona student and Chabad of Poway member Ariella Lee summed up the philosophy of Lori Gilbert-Kaye, a close family… Read more »

U.S. synagogues need what Europeans have — armed guards

Whether it’s a white supremacist targeting praying Jews, blacks, or Muslims, or an Islamic radical committed to killing Christians on Easter Sunday, it has become very trendy to attack houses of worship. In Europe, synagogues, unfortunately, have been targeted by terrorists for quite some time, including deadly attacks at… Read more »

The son of Holocaust hero Chiune Sugihara is setting the record straight about his father’s story

Nobuki Sugihara, second from left with Limmud FSU founder Chaim Chesler and villagers from Mir, Belarus on May 2, 2019. (Boris Brumin)

(JTA) — After decades of relative obscurity, the tale of the Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara has become one of the best-known Holocaust rescue stories, rivaling those of Oskar Schindler and Irena Sendler. The late Sugihara, who issued thousands of life-saving visas to Jewish refugees in Lithuania in defiance of… Read more »

Hundreds of haredi Orthodox attend symposium with leaders of anti-vaccine movement

Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the first clinician to suggest a link between autism in children and the triple vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella, in London, Jan. 28, 2010. He spoke at a rally in Monsey, N.Y., May 13, 2019. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Jews are being persecuted as disease carriers amid the outbreak of measles, a New York haredi Orthodox rabbi said at a symposium with leaders of the anti-vaccination movement attended by hundreds of haredim. “We Hasidim have been chosen as the target,” said Rabbi Hillel Handler, a Holocaust… Read more »

5 years after the Ukrainian revolution, Jews there say it was a mixed blessing

Participants in the March of Dignity gather in Kiev's Maidan Independence Square for ceremonies marking the first anniversary of the Maidan Revolution that led to the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovic, Feb. 22, 2015. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

KIEV, Ukraine (JTA) — Walking on the scorched and scarred sidewalks of this capital city’s main square five years ago, Eduard Dolinsky felt hopeful and proud. A member of Kiev’s large Jewish population and a longtime activist for its communal causes, Dolinsky had hoped that the bloody street fights… Read more »

Who are the Jews of Ukraine?

Children play musical instruments during the celebration of Hanukkah at the Kharkiv Choral Synagogue, in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, Dec. 5, 2018. (Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

KIEV, Ukraine (JTA) — Jews have lived in Ukraine for such a long time that their arrival here predates even the first recorded use of the country’s name. Starting in the ninth century, Jews began settling between Uzhgorod and Lugansk — respectively the westernmost and easternmost cities of what… Read more »

Israeli man, 65, indicted for spitting on Polish ambassador

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A 65-year-old Israeli man has been indicted for banging on the roof of the car of Polish Ambassador Marek Magierowski and spitting at him. According to the indictment filed Thursday by police with the Tel Aviv Magistrates’ Court, Arik Lederman of Herzliya stood in the middle… Read more »

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announces 2020 White House bid

(JTA) — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his candidacy for president in the 2020 election, calling President Donald Trump a “bully.” De Blasio, the mayor since 2014, made the announcement early Thursday morning in a 3-minute video posted on YouTube and becomes the 23rd candidate for the… Read more »

Madonna confirms she’ll sing at Eurovision finale

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Rest easy, Madonna fans, it’s official: The pop icon will sing at the Eurovision Song Contest finals in Tel Aviv. She signed her contract on Thursday morning, two days before her performance, Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported. Madonna is scheduled to perform two songs on Saturday night. Though… Read more »

Teen turns himself in for attack on Jewish man in Brooklyn

(JTA) — A teenager has turned himself in for punching an identifiably Jewish man in the head in Brooklyn. It was one of two attacks on haredi Orthodox men in the largely haredi Williamsburg neighborhood in less than two weeks. Police are withholding the 16-year-old’s name because he is… Read more »

Trump grants full pardon to former Jerusalem Post owner Conrad Black

(JTA) — President Donald Trump granted a full pardon to Conrad Black, the former owner and publisher of The Jerusalem Post who had spent three years in prison for stealing $60 million from his own company, Hollinger International. Black was found guilty of fraud and obstruction of justice in… Read more »

NASA releases photo of Israeli moonshot’s crash site

JERUSALEM (JTA) — NASA released a photo of what it says is the crash site of Israel’s Beresheet lunar lander. The image taken some 56 miles from the surface of the moon by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on April 22, 11 days after the crash, shows a dark smudge… Read more »

R.J. Barrett’s dad is a former star in the Israeli basketball league

R.J. Barrett playing in a game during the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., March 31, 2019. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

(JTA) — On Tuesday night, the NBA held its draft lottery, determining in which order each of its teams would pick players in next month’s draft. It made headlines for a couple of reasons: First, the consensus No. 1 pick, Zion Williamson of Duke, is the most hyped basketball player… Read more »