Tagged FRONT

Even Israel doesn’t do ethnic profiling the way Donald Trump thinks it does

Members of the New York City Police Department stand guard in Manhattan's Herald Square, near where a bomb was set off the previous evening, Sept. 18, 2016. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Donald Trump wants to profile likely terrorists the way Israel does it. The problem is, Israel and the United States already profile in similar ways – and neither in the way Trump prefers. The Republican presidential nominee’s proposal to blanket-profile entire communities would be unwieldy and… Read more »

10 awesome books for the Days of Awe (and after)

(JTA) — Here we are in September/Elul, preparing to welcome a new Jewish year and a new fall season of Jewishy books, including the first novel since 5766 (by now almost 40-year-old) wunderkind Jonathan Safran Foer — perhaps you’ve heard the buzz. Presented below is JSF’s latest, plus nine… Read more »

Iran becomes an issue in New Jersey race — although both candidates opposed the deal

Rep. Scott Garrett, left, and his challenger in November, Josh Gottheimer (Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Common Sense Media)

(JTA) — The congressional race in New Jersey’s 5th District is a bitter one, pitting a rarity — a hard-line conservative Republican congressman from the Northeast, Scott Garrett — against Josh Gottheimer, a lawyer who was a speechwriter for former President Bill Clinton and an executive at Microsoft. Now the Iran nuclear… Read more »

Burkini debate in France exposes a divide in its Jewish community

A Tunisian Muslim woman, right, wearing a burkini swimsuit wading in the water on a beach near Tunis, Aug. 16, 2016. (Fethi Belaid/ AFP/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Like their constituents, the mainstream representatives of French Jewry are not known for passing up opportunities to express their opinion on subjects of national debate. And Jewish institutions in France, like those in the United States, regularly comment on a host of issues, including divisive ones that lie… Read more »

New Ken Burns film spotlights little-known Holocaust rescuers

Martha and Watistill Sharp departing New York Harbor for Prague in 1939. (Courtesy of Sharp Family Archives)

(JTA) — In 1940, as he was being transported to safety in the lower deck of a ship, the Jewish author Lion Feuchtwanger asked Waitstill Sharp why the American Unitarian minister had bothered to rescue him from the Nazis. Sharp and his wife, Martha, had spent much of the previous… Read more »

Lacking status in Israel, Jews in Uganda see new synagogue as ‘our Jerusalem’

In anticipation of the construction of a new synagogue in Nabagoye, Uganda, the women and children there were given the honor of transferring the Torahs from the old synagogue to a temporary home. (Courtesy of Be’chol Lashon)

  (JTA) — When there was no more space in the synagogue in Nabagoye, Uganda, congregants would go outside, gathering under trees. But the branches weren’t enough to shield them from the rain during the East African country’s wet seasons, which last about half the year. A new 7,000-square-foot… Read more »

From Woody Allen to Sarah Jessica Parker, 8 ‘Jewish’ shows to watch this fall

From left: Sarah Jessica Parker, Woody Allen, Rachel Bloom and Jeffrey Tambor all star in fall premieres that Jewish viewers should watch. (Lior Zaltzman)

  (JTA) — Fall is here, and with it comes cooler weather, earlier sunsets and an end to whatever magical spell or temporary insanity that possessed us to spend our free time outdoors rather than in front of our screens. But now it’s time to bring out those snuggies, brew… Read more »

Indian-American student becomes pro-Israel symbol for trying to stay neutral

Milan Chatterjee said the UCLA administration was working in collusion with activists of the BDS movement. (Courtesy of Chatterjee)

  (JTA) — When Milan Chatterjee arrived at UCLA’s law school in 2014, Middle East politics wasn’t one of his core interests. He describes himself as an Indian American interested in corporate law who has strong connections to his South Asian and Hindu heritage. He has played the Indian tabla drums on… Read more »

How all sides view Netanyahu’s ‘ethnic cleansing’ remarks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arriving at the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Sept. 11, 2016. (Marc Israel Sellem/Pool/Flash90) áéáé

  JERUSALEM (JTA) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued earlier this month that the Palestinian leadership is supporting “ethnic cleansing” by refusing to accept Israeli settlers in its future state. “Yet the Palestinian leadership actually demands a Palestinian state with one precondition: No Jews. There’s a phrase for that: It’s called ethnic… Read more »

Obama’s $38B aid package to Israel comes with caveats: It’s generous, but on his terms

Jacob Nagel, left, Israel's acting national security adviser, signing a Memorandum of Understanding for $38 billion of U.S. defense assistance over 10 years with Undersecretary of State Tom Shannon, Sept. 14, 2016. (Embassy of Israel)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – President Barack Obama’s near parting gift to Israel, a guarantee of $38 billion in defense assistance over a decade, distills into a single document what he’s been saying throughout eight fraught years: I have your back, but on my terms. The agreement signed Wednesday in the State Department’s… Read more »

Poll shows Hillary Clinton trouncing Donald Trump among Jewish voters

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton walks to her plane at Quad Cities International Airport in Moline, Ill., Sept. 5, 2016. (Brendan SmialowskiAFP/Getty Images)

  WASHINGTON (JTA) — Hillary Clinton trounces Donald Trump among Jewish voters, but underperforms compared to her Democratic predecessors, according to an American Jewish Committee poll that depicts a Jewish community disenchanted with politics and anxious about the country’s future. The poll released Tuesday shows Clinton defeating Trump, 61… Read more »

OP-ED Campus Zionists don’t need safe spaces, they need self-confidence.

Anti-Israel students at Columbia University erected a mock "apartheid wall" in front of the iconic Low Library steps during Israel Apartheid Week, March 3, 2016. (Uriel Heilman)

NEW YORK (JTA) — They’re all true, all those stories you’ve heard. The Jewish student questioned about whether her Judaism and involvement in the Jewish community would disqualify her from serving in student government. The Israel bashers who besieged a movie night put on by a pro-Israel group, forcing… Read more »

HIGH HOLIDAYS FEATURE 5776: The year in review

Aly Raisman posing after winning a silver medal in the women's individual all-around competition at the Rio Olympics, Aug. 11, 2016. (Getty Images)

(JTA) — A stabbing and car-ramming epidemic in Israel that some called a third intifada was among the most dominant Jewish stories of the past year. But 5776 was also notable for the release of spy Jonathan Pollard after 30 years in prison, the communal fallout from the Iran nuclear deal, a historic… Read more »

OP-ED As an African Israeli, I find claims of state racism against Falash Mura outrageous

New Jewish immigrant children at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport after arriving on a flight from Ethiopia, Oct. 29, 2012. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — “We are committed to helping ensure that the State of Israel welcomes Jews of all colors.” “We say, we have black lives that matter in Africa.” “In America, race has been a central area of Jewish concern historically.” These are all statements that have been… Read more »

Exploration of justice kicks off Jewish History Museum chats

Cantor Avraham Alpert at the Holocaust History Center at the Jewish History Museum Sept. 2 (David J. Del Grande/AJP)

Driving one of Tucson’s new Israeli teen emissaries, Leah Avuno, from a lunch and learn on the University of Arizona campus to her next destination, Cantor Avraham Alpert found his talking point. Avuno, originally from Ethiopia, told him Ethiopian Jews would never have made it to Israel if it… Read more »

JFSA Women’s Philanthropy welcome on tap

Leah Avuno

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Women’s Philanthropy will hold its annual welcome, “Making Our Mark in Tucson, Israel and around the World” on Wednesday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. at Hacienda del Sol Guest Ranch Resort. The guest speakers will be Leah Avuno, one of two Israeli teens… Read more »

Poll: Israeli Jews favor Hillary, but say Trump is better for Israel ‘policy’

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton celebrating their respective victories in the New York primaries in New York City, April 19, 2016. (Spencer Platt and John Moore/Getty Images)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Most Israeli Jews would prefer Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump as the next president of the United States — even though more of them think Trump would be better for the “Israeli government’s policy.” According to a poll released Wednesday, 43 percent of Israeli Jews prefer Clinton as president, compared to 34 percent who… Read more »