Tagged President-elect Donald J. Trump

Obama won the Jewish vote without winning over the pro-Israel mainstream

Adas Israel Congregation's Rabbi Gil Steinlauf greets President Obama, May 22, 2015. (Ron Sachs)
January 18, 2017 / Ron Kampeas. JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Fraught record on issues of race and anti-Semitism? Check. Much-hyped meeting to get Benjamin Netanyahu’s hechsher? Check. Stirring speech at AIPAC to quiet the naysayers? Check. Jewish validators galore? Check. Administration top-loaded with Jewish staffers? Check. Welcome to Inauguration Day 2009. President-elect Barack Obama walked into… Read more »

In the Trump era, imams and rabbis struggle to come up with a strategy to counter anti-Muslim hostility

Abdul Rashid Abdullah of the National American Muslim Association on Scouting speak at a Muslim-Jewish gathering in Washington, D.C., while Rabbi David Shneyer of Kehila Chadasha looks on, Dec. 11, 2016. (Ron Kampeas)
December 16, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – A year ago, when several dozen Washington-area Jewish and Muslim religious and lay leaders jostled for spots in a group picture, the mood was convivial. The most novel item on the agenda for that November 2015 confab was bringing in non-Middle Eastern Muslims into the Jewish-Muslim… Read more »

Protesting Trump and Jewish organizations, IfNotNow brings young left-wing Jews to the streets

IfNotNow activists march to demand that President-elect Donald Trump fire Stephen Bannon, Philadelphia, Nov. 22, 2016. (Courtesy of IfNotNow)
December 14, 2016 / Ben Sales, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — “This Jew says no to white nationalism,” one sign read. “Silence is akin to consent,” another said, quoting the Talmud. A third displayed a lyric from a Yiddish song: “We will outlive them.” The signs, along with chants like “Donald Trump, it’s your fault; Stephen… Read more »

Betsy DeVos, Trump pick for education, pleases Orthodox, spooks church-state separationists

Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence outside the clubhouse at Trump International Golf Club in Bedminster Township, N.J., Nov. 19, 2016. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
December 5, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Add sweeping school reforms – and with them, funding for private schools that Orthodox groups embrace and secular Jewish groups fear — to the campaign promises that Donald Trump plans to fulfill. Last week, just before Thanksgiving, the president-elect named Betsy DeVos, a billionaire education reform activist… Read more »

John Kerry: There are ‘things we can do’ to preserve two-state solution

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivers remarks at the Women's Foreign Policy Group Conference in Washington, D.C., Nov. 29, 2016. (State Department)
December 5, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry signaled in a speech that the Obama administration was still considering action on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in its final days, although it might fall short of a direct intervention on the issue. There’s no way to “force-feed” peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Kerry said… Read more »

Does Trump want to scrap the Iran deal? If so, this is how he does it.

President-elect Donald Trump delivers his acceptance speech as Vice President-elect Mike Pence looks on at the New York Hilton Midtown in Manhattan, Nov. 9. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
November 17, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

  WASHINGTON (JTA) – Enforce the Iran deal. Violate the Iran deal. Leave it to Congress. Do nothing. President-elect Donald Trump has an array of options before him when he assumes the presidency on Jan. 21, according to supporters and opponents of the deal. Reached last year between Iran and six major powers led by the… Read more »

‘Worst fears, best hopes’ for the Trump presidency
November 15, 2016 /

(JTA) — The upset victory by Donald Trump in the 2016 elections stunned a Jewish activist and leadership class that is at times as divided as the electorate at large. JTA asked some of those leaders to describe their concerns and expectations in a series of brief essays titled… Read more »