Ben Sales
By Ben Sales
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Fast Forward Did Donald Trump And The Jews Have A Good Week?
(JTA) — Was this, at last, a good week for the Jews and President Donald Trump? Compared to the Trump administration’s initial few weeks, maybe. The president’s first month saw the White House omit Jews from a statement commemorating the Holocaust, then rebuke Jewish groups that criticized the statement and stay silent as waves of…
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News Intermarried Jews Form Their Own Communities — Outside Synagogues
NEW YORK (JTA) — Leading up to their wedding in 2012, Julianne and Jason Kanter hadn’t really discussed how they would incorporate their respective religions into their home. Julianne was raised by Catholic and Presbyterian parents, while Jason grew up culturally Jewish. At first, it was simple to mark their different backgrounds. In December, the…
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Fast Forward Reform Movement Faces Challenge of Resisting Trump — and Staying Open to All
NEW YORK (JTA) — Reform Jewish leaders largely oppose President Donald Trump’s policies — and they haven’t been shy about saying so since his election. They’ve marched in the streets by the thousands. They’ve protested at airports. And this week, some were arrested in front of a Trump hotel here. “If there are areas where…
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Fast Forward Online Talmud Library Seeks To Make Sages Accessible to All
NEW YORK (JTA) — For centuries, studying a page of the Talmud has come with a bevy of barriers to entry. Written mostly in Aramaic, the Talmud in its most commonly printed form also lacks punctuation or vowels, let alone translation. And that’s not to mention the Talmud’s size and cost: 37 full volumes, called…
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Fast Forward 18 Rabbis Arrested in Protest of Muslim Ban at Trump Hotel
NEW YORK (JTA) — Eighteen rabbis were arrested at a protest of President Donald Trump’s refugee ban in front of the Trump International Hotel in New York City. The rabbis, who had gathered as part of a conference hosted by T’ruah, the rabbis’ human rights group, were arrested for obstructing traffic in front of the…
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Fast Forward Was That an Israeli Checkpoint in Expedia’s Super Bowl Ad?
(JTA) — The Israel Defense Forces may have made a brief appearance during Super Bowl LI. A 30-second ad by Expedia, the travel website, shows a montage of a woman traveling the world as she appears to age from a young girl to a middle-aged woman. At various stages of her life, she climbs a fence, rides a…
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Fast Forward Orthodox Women Clergy Will Continue Ministry After O.U. Ban
NEW YORK (JTA) — Rabba Ramie Smith of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, an Orthodox congregation, says she doesn’t have time to protest the Orthodox Union decision banning its synagogues from hiring women clergy like herself. This weekend, she’s busy organizing a Shabbat conference with Yachad, a group supporting Jews with disabilities. Then she has classes…
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Fast Forward Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Recon Movements Denounce ‘Muslim Ban’
(JTA) — Two large groups representing Orthodox Jews responded to President Donald Trump’s executive order barring migrants from seven mostly Muslim countries and refugees from around the world by warning against policies that would place any limits on immigration based on religion. With the combined statement by the Orthodox Union and Rabbinical Council of America, all…
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