Opinion

On Sunday, Jan. 5, a huge crowd responded to the call from UJA-Federation of New York to march against anti-Semitism. The sense of threat is so pervasive at this moment that Jewish Federations and other organizations bused thousands from other states and locales to march in solidarity with the Jews of New York, who have experienced an unprecedented wave of violent anti-Semitic attacks, most recently in Monsey on… Read more »

The fresh feeling of possibilities at the dawn of a new secular year (and decade) will no doubt be accompanied by business as usual in the political arena — loud bickering, mud-slinging and more regarding presidential candidates — not only in the House and Senate but in the homes… Read more »

I have sent the following email to President Trump, Senators McSally and Sinema, and Representative O’Halleran: My name is Jeffrey N. Penfil, DMD. I am both a business owner and a community volunteer, currently serving as President of the Dove Mountain Rotary Club. As an American citizen, a citizen… Read more »

LONDON (JTA) — The last two festivals to be added to the Jewish calendar prior to modern times — Purim and Hanukkah — are both about anti-Semitism. There is one obvious difference between them: Haman, of the Purim story, wanted to kill Jews. Antiochus, of the Hanukkah story, wanted… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — While a shooter was firing rounds of ammunition into two Jews in Jersey City, New Jersey, a kosher market worker and a police officer simply for who they are and where they were, I was halfway around the world, in Paris. More specifically, I was hurrying… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Another Jewish community has sustained a bloody attack that left Jews everywhere reeling. On Tuesday, a small enclave of Hasidic Jews in Jersey City, New Jersey had their worlds shaken and disrupted during a frightening siege. Schools were on lockdown, four people were murdered and people… Read more »

Critics have long called out “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” co-creator Amy Sherman-Palladino for the lack of diversity in her shows about pushy, fast-talking white ladies. This outcry probably motivated Sherman-Palladino to set “Maisel” in the 1950s, when its sheer whiteness could be blamed on historical accuracy.… Read more »

BEIT EL, West Bank (JTA) — I watched the news of the terrible Jersey City shooting last week with both horror and a sense of deja vu. Sadly, violent attacks against Jews, wherever we live, have become all too common. We can no longer assume our communal spaces and houses… Read more »

Soon it will be 2020. For some, the thrill of a New Year starting is tempered by concerns for what may be: an increase in hate incidents and/or crimes and an increase in hate speech both online and on the streets.  Since the start of 2019, ADL Arizona has… Read more »

Those who care about Jewish college students should be celebrating a landmark legal victory in the fight against campus anti-Semitism. The victory stems from a civil rights complaint filed against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by our organization, the Zionist Organization of America. Triggered by the… Read more »

When I spoke to the reporter for the profile about me (“At 95, Tucsonan Bill Kugelman still charming, vigorous,” AJP 10/11/19), I misspoke in stating that others didn’t feel the boot of the Nazis during World War II. Anyone of the Jewish faith that lived under the Nazis, their… Read more »

As someone who grew up in Tucson and remembers the joy of seeing the “mousecars” as a kid, the story of Truly Nolen (“From ‘Antcars’ to ‘Mousecars,’ Tucson’s Truly Nolen delivers smiles worldwide,” AJP, 10/25/19) indeed brought a smile. But it might help readers to clarify a point of… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Here we go again: Just this week, two more cases of the abuse of Holocaust imagery have surfaced and created an international stir. In November, Russian figure skater Anton Shulepov wore an Auschwitz-themed costume during his free skating performance at the Grand Prix of Figure… Read more »

CALDWELL, N.J. (JTA) — Figure skating costumes have a long and sometimes ridiculous history. Until about the 1930s, women were expected to compete in ponderous and weighty skirts, making it hard to move freely, let alone tackle a triple lutz. That all started to change largely for two reasons. The… Read more »

LONDON, England (JTA) — I am a secular Jew and a lifelong British Labour Party voter — two allegiances that once intersected very comfortably. As so many of us do, I inherited my politics. Every time Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher was reelected, my mother and her friends held a… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — The following is Sacha Baron Cohen’s keynote address at Anti-Defamation League’s 2019 Never Is Now Summit on Anti-Semitism and Hate, held in New York City on Nov. 21, 2019. It is reprinted here with permission from the ADL.  Thank you, , for… Read more »

My heart jumped when I saw the phone number of my oldest son’s school on the screen. “Hello?” “Is this Dr. Skinazi?” “Yes.” “Don’t worry, Lucas is fine. Only — I just wanted to let you know that there was a little anti-Semitic incident at school today.” Breathe in,… Read more »

(JTA) —  She was 16 years old and alone in a refugee camp in a foreign country when we met her. Sobbing, she told us how she hoped that her brother might be somewhere in this camp, “camp number 18.”  She had heard that he might be alive — if… Read more »

Next week, on Nov. 4, Israel will mark 24 years since the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin, a leader, politician, and army commander, was killed by a Jewish assassin as he was walking down the stairs from the stage at what is now called Rabin Square… Read more »

COLOGNE, Germany (JTA) — When the breaking news from Halle started to pour in on Oct. 9, the Jewish community around the world was still in the midst of commemorating the holiest day of the year in Judaism, Yom Kippur. Equipped with a rifle, ammunition and other military gear, the… Read more »