Muslims at a prayer service celebrating Eid-al-Fitr in Stamford, Conn., June 25, 2017. (John Moore/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Since it came out in 2013, the “Pew study” — a landmark survey of American Jewish demographics, beliefs and practices — has been at the center of American Jewish scrutiny and handwringing. Now it’s American Muslims’ turn. On Wednesday, the Pew Research Center released a… Read more »
Chef Michael Gershkovich uses the skills and flavor knowledge he gleaned from years of study in the non-kosher world to infuse the kosher cuisine at his New York restaurant, Mike's Bistro. (Courtesy of Gershkovich)
NEW YORK – Tuna poke nachos marinated Hawaiian style. Lightly smoked duck breasts with quinoa and turnips. Hormone- and antibiotic-free USDA prime angus steaks. The kosher restaurant scene today has come a long way from the pastrami sandwiches and matzah ball soups of old (though you can still get… Read more »
A hotel can be seen behind the abandoned Dar Bishi synagogue in Tripoli, Libya, Sept. 28, 2011. (Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Gina Waldman was forced to flee her native Libya in 1967 as anti-Jewish mobs took to the streets of Tripoli, burning down her father’s warehouse. Waldman, like thousands of other Libyan Jews who left the country amid public and state-sponsored anti-Semitism in the 20th century, was… Read more »
Maoz Yaakov, center, leads a session at the Shiva Festival. (Courtesy of the Shiva Festival)
TEL AVIV (JTA) – In a grove in northern Israel, several dozen sweaty, shirtless Israeli men circle one another other on all fours, growling like bears. They are acting out the occasionally surly stage of the menstrual cycle, just before menstruation begins. The bear is one of four… Read more »
Demonstrators outside the offices of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo protesting his executive order calling for New York companies to divest from organizations that support the BDS movement, June 9, 2016. (Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty Images)
BERKELEY, Calif. (JTA) — A bill being weighed in Congress that would target boycotts of Israel and its settlements is sparking widespread outrage, especially after investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald claimed it “criminalizes free speech.” The post relied on a letter from the ACLU expressing First Amendment concerns over the Israel Anti-Boycott Act.… Read more »
Participants at a Wednesday night event hosted by Meor Manhattan. (Josefin Dolsten)
NEW YORK (JTA) — The scene inside the brick-walled locale minutes from Union Square has the typical trappings of a New York hangout. On a recent Wednesday, 20-somethings in jeans and button-downs crowd around tables, raising their voices to be heard over the loud pop music. The bar is… Read more »
A poster in the Dutch city of Rotterdam encouraging free choice of romantic partners, May 25, 2017. (Courtesy of Femme for Freedom)
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — In a country where sex toys are displayed in shop windows and television commercials often feature nudity, a picture of a clothed, heterosexual couple kissing may not seem like the stuff of scandal. But precisely such an image — part of a poster campaign celebrating… Read more »
Mosei Yunayev speaking at the International Islamic Mission Forum in Makhachkala, Russia, March 22, 2017. (Courtesy of the International Islamic Mission)
(JTA) — While Russia’s mainstream Jewish leaders in Moscow firmly backed Israel’s actions in clashes this week with Palestinians at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the small Jewish community of Chechnya broke ranks with them and boldly condemned the Jewish state’s “provocations” against Muslims in the holy city. At least that was… Read more »
Pastor John Hagee, left, founder of Christians United for Israel, shakes hands with Vice President Mike Pence at CUFI's annual conference, July 17, 2017. (Kasim Hafeez/CUFI)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Barack Obama is gone and the relief among the Christian Zionists and their Jewish friends who peopled certain corners of Washington, D.C., this week was palpable. Gary Bauer, the veteran evangelical activist, laid it out at the opening session of Christians United for Israel’s annual conference on… Read more »
Gretchen Rachel Hammond first reported that three Jewish women carrying rainbow flags emblazoned with Jewish stars were kicked out of the June 24 march. (Courtesy of Hammond)
NEW YORK (JTA) — The journalist who first reported the ejection of three Jewish women from Chicago’s Dyke March tweeted that she was removed from her reporting job because of that article. In a tweet Monday, Gretchen Rachel Hammond wrote to Dyke March’s Twitter account that “You attacked, humiliated… Read more »
The honorees from the first generation of Conservative women rabbis pose for a photo at the 2015 Conservative Rabbinical Assembly celebration of 30 years of women in the rabbinate. (Yossi Hoffman)
NEW YORK (JTA) – The Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s so-called “blacklist” of Diaspora rabbis runs the denominational gamut. The rabbis on the list, whose letters confirming the Jewish identities of immigrants were rejected by the Chief Rabbinate in 2016, are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform — and even from the smaller… Read more »
Nedal Sader sits on his United Hatzalah motor scooter in the Old City of Jerusalem, July 14, 2017. (Andrew Tobin)
JERUSALEM (JTA) – When Nedal Sader first heard the crackle of automatic weapon fire Friday morning, he couldn’t believe it was coming from the Temple Mount. As a Muslim, he regarded the complex just outside his apartment as a sacred and peaceful place. He prayed there nearly every week. But… Read more »
Emmanuel Macron speaks at a ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Vel d'Hiv Holocaust roundup in Paris, July 16, 2017. (Kamil ZihnIoglu/AFP/Getty Images)
PARIS (JTA) — It wasn’t the first time that a French president acknowledged his nation’s Holocaust-era guilt, but Emmanuel Macron’s speech Sunday was nonetheless groundbreaking in format, content and style. Delivered during a ceremony at the Vel d’Hiv Holocaust memorial monument exactly 75 years after French police officers rounded up 13,152… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leading a Likud party meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, July 10, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Facing mounting scandals, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the “fake news” media and “leftists” of trying to take him down with a campaign of lies. In a hastily organized meeting with political allies Thursday, Netanyahu denied any wrongdoing in two erupting controversies involving his associates, the… Read more »
Morris Allen, the rabbi of the Conservative Beth Jacob Congregation in Minnesota, believes he was included on the list because of his opposition to the Chief Rabbinate. (Courtesy of the Masorti Foundation)
NEW YORK (JTA) — In 2012, Rabbi Jason Herman wrote a letter to Israel’s Chief Rabbinate certifying that a friend of his who wished to get married was Jewish and single. The letter was declared invalid. But several months later Herman, spiritual leader of the Orthodox West Side Jewish… Read more »
Avi Gabbay attending a press conference after winning the Labor Party primary in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 11, 2017. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — He’s charismatic. He’s an outsider. And he’s a political centrist. Some have hailed Avi Gabbay, the telecom exec who was elected Monday to lead the center-left Labor Party, as Israel’s version of French President Emmanuel Macron, the banker who recently swept to power with an… Read more »
David Lau, Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, speaking to children about the Kristallnacht pogroms at the Or Avner Jewish school in Berlin, Nov. 8, 2013. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
(JTA) — The Israeli Chief Rabbinate says that its list of foreign rabbis has been misconstrued, and that the list does not imply that those rabbis cannot be trusted to vouch for the Jewish identities of their followers. On Saturday, JTA reported on a list of some 160 rabbis… Read more »
Haredi Orthodox men praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Jan. 12, 2017. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — American Orthodox leaders have a message for their non-Orthodox friends: Take a deep breath. When Israel’s cabinet voted twice to further empower the country’s haredi Orthodox religious establishment last month, Reform, Conservative and non-Orthodox Zionist leaders were outraged. They cancelled meetings with Israel’s prime minister.… Read more »
A group of Jewish worshippers visiting the Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2016. (Sebi Berens/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Liberal American Jews are feeling thwarted in their years-long campaign for the right to pray as they wish at the Western Wall. Long frustrated that the plaza in front of the wall is run as an Orthodox synagogue, they were doubly incensed when Israel’s political establishment scrapped an… Read more »
(Idit Wagner)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Over the weekend, JTA and others reported on a “blacklist of rabbis” maintained by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate. The list contains the names of more than 160 rabbis whom the rabbinate does not trust to confirm the Jewish identity of immigrants to Israel. The list, obtained by… Read more »
