Religion & Jewish Life

For Orthodox groups, the Supreme Court’s ruling on aid to religious schools is a big win

The U.S. Supreme Court handed proponents of school vouchers a victory in the Ezpinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue case. (Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images)
June 30, 2020 / Shira Hanau, JTA

(JTA) – For Orthodox Jewish advocacy groups, the last day of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 session brought a big win. On Tuesday, the high court handed school voucher proponents a victory in ruling that a state-run scholarship program funded by tax-deductible gifts could not exclude religious schools. The… Read more »

For this Black Jewish leader, George Floyd protest movement shows some Americans finally get it

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)
June 25, 2020 / Alix Wall, JTA

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 »

Here’s how Jewish schools found creative ways to maintain community during COVID lockdown

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)
June 23, 2020 / Sara Ivry JTA

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 »

Austria breaks ground for Holocaust memorial in Vienna
June 23, 2020 / Marcy Oster JTA

(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 »

Pride Month isn’t the focus for LGBTQ Jews this year

From left to right, Lesléa Newman, Michael Twitty, Joy Ladin, Daniel Atwood and Yelena Goltsman reflect on celebrating Pride in 2020. (Header image design by Grace Yagel)
June 22, 2020 / Josefin Dolsten JTA

(JTA) — Rick Landman still remembers how nervous he felt. Just 18, he had traveled to downtown Manhattan from his parents’ home in Queens for a march to mark the one-year anniversary of the violent police raid on the Stonewall Inn gay bar — an event that had kicked… Read more »

Auschwitz memorial and museum will reopen to visitors on July 1
June 17, 2020 / Marcy Oster JTA

(JTA) — The Auschwitz Memorial and the site of the former Nazi camp will reopen to visitors on July 1. The memorial and museum said it will open for guided tours and individual entry beginning on that date. Reservations must be made online. It closed to visitors in mid-March… Read more »

Some New York City yeshivas are operating in the shadows

Orthodox children watch as protesters march through Brooklyn, June 3, 2020. Some yeshivas have provided instructions for parents to bring their children back to yeshiva three months after schools closed due to the pandemic. (Angela Weiss/Getty Images)
June 17, 2020 / Shira Hanau JTA

(JTA) – As Orthodox lawmakers were brazenly cutting the locks off a New York City playground on Tuesday morning, Orthodox children were settling in for a school day just nine blocks away. The classes at Yeshiva K’tana Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn were the first held in the school building… Read more »

The first female chancellor of JTS shares her plans for the seminary – and getting through the pandemic

Shuly Rubin Schwartz was named the eighth chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in its 134-year history. (Ellen Dubin Photography)
June 5, 2020 / Shira Hanau JTA

(JTA) – Shuly Rubin Schwartz’s appointment as the Jewish Theological Seminary’s eighth chancellor comes just in time for the historian to guide the institution through a period of unprecedented crisis management. The flagship university of Judaism’s Conservative movement recently completed a major renovation project of its Morningside Heights campus… Read more »

For Orthodox Jews, George Floyd protests stir complicated feelings

Members of the Orthodox Jewish community watch as protesters walk through the Brooklyn borough on June 3, 2020. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
June 5, 2020 / Shira Hanau JTA

(JTA) – On Sunday night, Rabbi Richard Altabe marched arm in arm with two black politicians protesting police brutality at a demonstration in Far Rockaway. The next morning, Orthodox Jews in the same New York neighborhood showed up at the local police precinct to drop off pastries for the… Read more »

‘We have to be there’: 5 Jews on taking part in the George Floyd protests

Rachel Sumekh, right, marches in Los Angeles with David Bocarsly, June 3, 2020. (Courtesy of Sumekh)
June 5, 2020 / Josefin Dolsten JTA

(JTA) — It has been a trying week and a half for Beejhy Barhany. Her Israeli-Ethiopian fusion restaurant, Tsion Cafe, had already been struggling to make ends meet after months of closure due to the pandemic. Then the protests over the death of George Floyd swept through the city,… Read more »

Jewish activists in Minneapolis shift from working on several issues to one: Responding to the George Floyd protests

Members of Jewish Community Action attend a rally Sunday in Saint Paul, Minnesota. (Courtesy of Carin Mrotz)
June 2, 2020 / Shira Hanau JTA

(JTA) – Jewish Community Action, the leading Jewish social justice organization in Minneapolis, was supposed to be closed last Friday for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Instead, its staff started organizing individually as protests broke out all over the city in response to the killing of George Floyd in… Read more »

Amid pandemic, Jewish groups get creative for Shavuot festivities

Health care staff at Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital participate in the Days of Gratitude project, holding up signs in Hebrew and Arabic reading "Thank you for taking care of yourself," "Thank you for coming to work" and Thank you for your dedication." (Courtesy of M2)
May 27, 2020 / Larry Luxner, JTA

When Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg’s husband, Dave Goldberg, died suddenly during a 2015 vacation to Mexico, Sandberg found solace in Jewish tradition. “One of the ways you find strength is to remember what is still good in your life,” Sandberg said. During the coronavirus crisis, actress, scientist and author… Read more »