A view of a street in the Golders Green neighborhood of London, June 19, 2015. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
LONDON (JTA) — Like many European Jews, Stephen Lever has mostly stopped wearing his yarmulke on the street in recent years. A Londoner, Lever said he fears joining the hundreds of Jews accosted annually in his native United Kingdom, often by Muslim or Arab extremists seeking to exact retribution… Read more »
Josh Levs
(Kveller via JTA) — I was home, caring for my 4-pound preemie daughter, sick wife and two sons when I got the crushing message from work. Time Warner, parent company of CNN, was refusing me the 10 paid weeks of caregiving leave that others got. I knew immediately how… Read more »
Muslim and Jewish participants in a new interfaith initiative during its launch at the Jewish Museum in the London Borough of Camden, June 9, 2015. (Yakir Zur)
(JTA) — Good deeds can be contagious. Just ask Laura Marks, a British Jew who is widely credited with creating one of her community’s most widely celebrated new traditions: an annual Mitzvah Day, now in its 11th consecutive year, in which thousands of British Jews perform charity work in retirement homes,… Read more »
UMM EL-KHEIR, West Bank (JTA) — They dig their fingers into the dirt, their knees bearing into the ground as they embed sprigs of thyme in identical rows. The sun beats down on the small plot, and the work can be tedious, but these volunteers — most of them… Read more »
Michael Douglas speaking at the announcement of the Genesis Generation Challenge winners at the Bloomberg Philanthropies headquarters in New York City, April 28, 2015. (Flickr)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Michael Douglas hadn’t heard of the Genesis Prize when he found out that he’d won it. In fact, the Oscar-winning actor was surprised to discover he was even in the running for an award designed for those who inspire fellow Jews. His father, actor Kirk Douglas,… Read more »
Jeffrey Vinik says his Lightning has "really resonated" in the Tampa-area community, noting "great fans" and soaring television ratings. (Scott Iskowitz/TBL)
(JTA) — Jeffrey Vinik, the owner of the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning, is experiencing a first: his team playing in the Stanley Cup Finals, which opened June 3 in Florida against the Chicago Blackhawks. (Under previous owners, the Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2004.) Tampa… Read more »
Dr. Ruth Westheimer attends the opening night of "Wiesenthal: A New Play' in New York City, Nov. 5, 2014. (Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Wiesenthal)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the octogenarian therapist and TV host, is famous for her frank and open talk about sex. But she’s being called out for her recent comments about sexual consent — and using the Talmud to back up her controversial point of view. With her new book, “The… Read more »
Pope Francis greeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as the pope leaves St. Peter's Square at the end of a canonization ceremony in Vatican City, May 17, 2015. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – When considering the Vatican’s creep toward recognition of Palestinian statehood, think “Israel-Vatican” and not “Jewish-Catholic,” say Jewish officials involved in dialogue with the church. A May 13 announcement on an agreement regarding the functioning of the church in areas under Palestinian control raised eyebrows in its reference… Read more »
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — On Shavuot, we are reminded that the Torah is a tree of life to which we are to hold fast. But what happens when that hold slips from your grasp? It’s a question I found myself asking six weeks before Shavuot, late in the Torah service… Read more »
Israel's national soccer team training in Tel Aviv, Sept. 4, 2013. (Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israel’s diplomatic battles have spread to the soccer field. On May 29, the body that governs world soccer, FIFA, will vote on whether to suspend Israel from international play. FIFA’s 209-member countries will vote on a motion introduced by the Palestinian Football Association, which is… Read more »
Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez is in Yeshivat Maharat's 2018 class. (Uriel Heilman)
NEW YORK (JTA) – When Yeshivat Maharat ordains six women next month, the New York institution will more than double the number of Orthodox clergywomen in the field. For the past couple of years, the clergywomen have been establishing themselves in Orthodox communities while serving as synagogue interns, delivering… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) – The Pew Research Center’s newly released 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study offers a trove of data on American Jews based on interviews with 35,071 American adults, 847 of whom identified their faith as Jewish. Here are some of the more interesting findings about the Jews. … Read more »
Brandeis Asian Club: A project of the Brandeis Asian American Student Association aims to raise awareness about sterotyping at Brandeis. (Uriel Heilman)
WALTHAM, Mass. (JTA) – When Jeff Wang was applying to U.S. colleges more than two years ago from his home near Shanghai, Brandeis University was a top choice. Like many Chinese students now at Brandeis, he had discovered the university on Chinese Internet forums that touted the school’s academic rankings and its… Read more »
(JTA) — Shira Goldberg stepped across the stage at East Henderson High School in western North Carolina and presented a yellowed letter to Shani Lourie. The letter’s writer, a German woman seeking help in escaping the Nazis from an American man she believed was a relative, was Shira’s distant… Read more »
Dara Rosenblatt, Jewish sudent life program coordinator at the College of Charleston, at an Israel fest celebration on campus, April 23, 2015. (Ruth Ellen Gruber)
CHARLESTON, S.C. (JTA) – Renowned for its gracious architecture and signature Southern charm, Charleston is increasingly celebrated as a foodie heaven. The trouble is, in a city whose culinary specialties embrace (and glorify) oysters, she-crab soup, and shrimp and grits, the burgeoning restaurant scene is nearly off limits to… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — A half-century ago this year, the Catholic Church issued a landmark document that decried anti-Semitism and asserted that Jews could not be blamed for killing Jesus. The effect: Long-fraught relations between Catholics and Jews were dramatically improved. To mark 50 years since the detente, New… Read more »
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism legislative assistants at a rally May 1 in Baltimore. (Courtesy of Religious Action Center)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – From roundtable discussions to protests and prayers to candid talk with law enforcement officials, American Jewish communities are joining in the debate about community policing in the wake of several high-profile deaths of unarmed black men while in police custody. Officials were short on specifics, but… Read more »
JQY Exective Director Mordechai Levowitz, center, in white shirt holding sign, coordinated the conference at Columbia University. (Courtesy of JQY)
NEW YORK (JTA) – A group of modern Orthodox rabbis have done what advocates for Orthodox gays and lesbians say would have been unthinkable as recently as five years ago: They spoke at a conference on the treatment of gay, lesbian and transgender people in Orthodox communities. Four prominent… Read more »
Newly ordained rabbis Ilanit Goldberg, left, and Nicholas Renner drape a tallit over Malka Packer during her ordination ceremony at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College's 2014 commencement. (Courtesy of RRC/Jewish Reconstructionist Communities)
NEW YORK (JTA) — The Reconstructionist movement is on the cusp of making a historic decision about whether to drop its longstanding ban against intermarried rabbinical school students. If the policy change passes, as most expect, Reconstructionism would become the first of America’s four major Jewish religious denominations to ordain intermarried rabbis.… Read more »
In its first three days, the crowdsourced fundraising campaign for the Kosher Switch nearly met its $50,000 goal. (Kisger Switch video)
NEW YORK (JTA) — It promises a revolutionary innovation that could transform Jewish Sabbath observance. By changing the way a light switch works, the patented Kosher Switch offers a novel — and, its backers say, kosher — way to turn light switches (and, perhaps, other electrical appliances) on and off during Shabbat,… Read more »
