By Josh Nathan-Kazis
A challenge to the tax-exempt status of Jewish National Fund’s American arm introduces a new wrinkle into an ongoing debate over how the Internal Revenue Service should treat charities whose foreign operations run counter to public policy of the United States. A coalition of anti-Zionist groups has claimed in its challenge that JNF ethnically discriminates by refusing to sell or lease its land in Israel to non-Jews.
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By Nathan Guttman and Josh Nathan-Kazis
For those who know him, it was no surprise when freshman Rep. Michael Grimm broke ranks with his party and became the first House Republican to call for the release of Jonathan Pollard.
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By Gabrielle Birkner
Passover Seders are a longstanding tradition at Brigham Young University, a Mormon institution in Provo Utah. But attendees will have to do without the four glasses of wine.
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By Gal Beckerman
On a recent Wednesday night in New York City, Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, an organization that critics label anti-Israel, made the case for her group’s main protest tactic: a targeted campaign of boycott, divestment and sanction — or BDS, as it has become known — against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.Read More
By Nathan Guttman
Facing tensions that have erupted over community funded artistic expression relating to Israel, the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington is carving out a middle road that it hopes will please all sides. Despite being urged by some community members to stop funding plays critical of Israel in the local Jewish Community Center, the federation’s board of directors decided instead to draw its red line at programs that promote boycott, divestment or sanctions against Israel (BDS.) The board decided against issuing formal guidelines for community funded programming, as was done by the Jewish federation in San Francisco last year.Read More
By Nathan Guttman
It is a classic good news-bad news story. The Palestinian economy is booming and for the first time is being acknowledged as strong enough to support an independent state. That is the good part.
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By Elana Sztokman
Overcoming unique barriers of language, religion and gender, Naama Shafrir — an Orthodox Jewish woman from the Galilee — led the University of Toledo to victory in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament, and was crowned MVP.
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By Michael Hirsch
Scattered among 16 cemeteries around New York they came to rest, the 146 people whose lives were violently cut short 100 years ago in one of the nation’s worst industrial disasters — the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.
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By Joy Resmovits
U. S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said she did not hesitate a minute when she was asked last year to be a keynote speaker at today’s 100th anniversary commemoration of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.Read More
By Josh Nathan-Kazis
The rabbi chosen to head the largest Jewish religious organization in North America has not always toed the party line. As the spiritual leader of a large, wealthy suburban congregation, Richard Jacobs is every part the modern Reform rabbi. A tall and well-spoken former dancer, he wears a green Save Darfur bracelet and a small blue yarmulke, and is active in social justice causes.
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Cleveland Kidnapping, Elizabeth Smart and Us
Tracing the Jewish Origins of the Holy Ghost
Ethical Kosher Seal Stalls Amid Orthodox Opposition
Baby Boomers’ Rocky Road to Jewish Love
Rama Burshtein Offers Rare Glimpse of Orthodox World
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