Philissa Cramer
By Philissa Cramer
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Fast Forward Karen Lewis, Jewish union chief who made Chicago’s teachers into a national force, is dead at 67
(JTA) — Karen Lewis, the firebrand former president of Chicago’s teachers union, has died at 67 after a long battle with brain cancer. Lewis, a convert to Judaism who said she was attracted to the religion’s embrace of questions, ran the Chicago Teachers Union from 2010 to 2018. Under her leadership, the union became a…
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Fast Forward Jewish man leaves $2M to French mountain town that hid him from Nazis
(JTA) — A man who died in December reportedly left a significant gift for the French town that shielded his family and thousands of others from the Nazis during World War II. Eric Schwam, who died at 90 on Christmas Day, willed his estate to Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, the mountain town where his Jewish family hid…
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News TikTok’s comic ‘Jew Who Loves Trees’ wants you to take Tu b’Shvat very, very seriously
(JTA) — Tobin Mitnick may be a comic actor, but his interest in trees is no joke. Mitnick has been documenting his love affair with trees since September on TikTok, the viral video app, where he goes by the mantle “A Jew Who Loves Trees.” He’s racked up more than 110,000 followers there by posting…
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Fast Forward Jon Ossoff had a totem of his American Jewish heritage in his pocket when he joined the Senate
(JTA) — New Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff already had one artifact from American Jewish history on display when he was sworn into the Senate: the book of scripture on which he took his oath of office. But the 33-year-old said on Twitter Wednesday night that he had been carrying another item that reflected his American…
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Fast Forward Massachusetts Republican official says he caught COVID-19 at White House Hanukkah party
The vice chair of Massachusetts’ Republican Party — and of its Republican Jewish group — says he’s pretty sure he contracted COVID-19 at the White House Hanukkah party. Tom Mountain, who has been hospitalized twice in recent weeks, told the Boston Globe on Saturday he regrets attending the Dec. 9 event, over the objections of…
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Fast Forward Assault reported at Chabad of the Bluegrass menorah-lighting in Lexington, Kentucky
(JTA) — A Chabad center in Lexington, Kentucky, will see increased police presence for the rest of Hanukkah after an assault during one of the community’s public menorah lightings. A driver directed anti-Semitic language at people lighting the menorah outside Chabad of the Bluegrass, police told the local TV station. When someone from the community…
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Fast Forward Quebec to allow gatherings during Christmas, but not Hanukkah, frustrating province’s Jews
(JTA) — Jewish groups in Quebec are expressing dismay after the province announced a plan to allow small gatherings at Christmas but said gatherings during Hanukkah would remain prohibited. The plan would permit Quebecers to have gatherings of up to 10 people per day for four days in late December, in a concession to the…
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Fast Forward A week after Election Day, networks call Alaska’s Senate race against Al Gross
(JTA) — Al Gross, the bear-killing Jewish doctor whose Senate bid drew a groundswell of support from across the United States, will not represent Alaska in Congress. Multiple news organizations called the race for the incumbent Republican, Dan Sullivan, on Wednesday morning. That was more than a week after polls closed and a day after…
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Opinion A Reichstag fire is blazing in Trump’s America and we know exactly who is fanning the flames
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Culture Is Netflix’s new show the most Jewish cartoon ever?
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Fast Forward Minneapolis school shooting suspect had Tree of Life shooter’s name and antisemitic messages on his guns, videos show
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Opinion Trump’s attacks on the Smithsonian come straight from the Nazi playbook
In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish ווי ייִדישע קינדער־ליטעראַטור האָט געזאָלט העלפֿן קינדער פֿאַרשטיין די וועלטHow Yiddish children’s literature aimed to help kids make sense of the world
די אַמאָליקע קינדערביכער האָבן אָפּגעשפּיגלט כּלערליי פּאָליטישע וויזיעס און אויך אַ נײַעם פֿאַרשטאַנד פֿון קינדער און משפּחה־לעבן.
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Fast Forward Reversing course, Philadelphia Jewish museum says it will rehang Israeli flag that was vandalized
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Fast Forward CDC chaos leaves Orthodox Jewish communities more vulnerable to vaccine misinformation
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Yiddish טשיקאַוועסן: נײַע אַמעריקאַנער פּאָסטמאַרקע באַערט אלי וויזעלTidbits: New US Postal Service stamp honors Elie Wiesel
וויזעל איז דער 18טער מענטש צו פֿיגורירן אינעם פּאָסטדינסטס רשימה פֿון חשובֿע אַמעריקאַנער פֿיגורן.
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