Louis Keene
L.A. teachers sidestep BDS resolution in decisive union vote
A resolution to support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in the second-largest teachers’ union in the country met a quiet demise Thursday evening, defying a trend among public school boards that accelerated after the Gaza-Israel war last May.
Bless the moon? The case for Yom Kippur’s hardest mitzvah
In kiddush levana we bless God for authoring the cosmos. What does it have to do with Yom Kippur?
An oral history of the most epic Jewish summer camp prank ever
More than a decade after it happened, Ramah campers, counselors and staff look back on a Harry Potter spoiler they’ll never forget.
YU student accuses basketball player of rape, says school investigation fell short
A Yeshiva University student accused a member of its men’s basketball team of raping her and the school of treating her callously in an anonymous piece published Wednesday in the student newspaper, the YU Commentator .
Scandal-plagued Chabad of Poway returns to family control as independent board steps down
The synagogue’s volunteer board sought to create a culture of transparency. Now it’s gone.
Lawsuit: Monsey rabbi sexually assaulted children — and his bosses covered it up
Rabbi Yaakov Klar, a former director at Chai Lifeline and a teacher at Pupa inf Monsey, allegedly abused his students and patients for years.
Scrap the sermon? In the pandemic rabbis decide less is more
It’s the age of the incredibly shrinking sermon.
Twists and turns: How a Jewish gymnastic prodigy became an Olympic diver
Brandon Loschiavo vowed to make the Olympics when he was four. He takes his first 10-meter dive late Thursday night.
As Team Israel takes the field vs. U.S., a random history of the countries’ other rivalries
At 6 a.m. tomorrow, Team Israel will take on the United States in its second game of Olympics baseball. (Israel dropped its first game, 6-5, to South Korea in extra innings.) As you may have read before, Israel’s baseball team is largely made up of American-born players — who had to acquire Israeli citizenship to be Olympics-eligible. With baseball still a fledgling sport in the Middle East, it’s quite possible that most of the team’s fans live in the United States, too.
LA teachers working to quash a union BDS vote say they’re winning
Efforts to take down the resolution include a letter-writing campaign, school board legislation and teachers threatening to leave the union.