
Ron Kampeas is the former Washington bureau chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Ron Kampeas is the former Washington bureau chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President George W. Bush’s first act as president, on Jan. 29, 2001, was to open an office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Church-state separations that had hindered such partnerships, he said in a statement, were “inherently unfair.” Jewish groups, civil libertarians and Democrats immediately raised concerns, and the Bush administration soon dispatched…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Trump administration sided with the Palestine Liberation Organization in a terrorism lawsuit the Supreme Court may soon consider, drawing an angry rebuke from conservatives, including one of its most steadfast Jewish community defenders, the Zionist Organization of America. In 2015, a federal jury in Manhattan ruled in favor of victims injured…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The White House will convene a meeting next week of “stakeholders” to improve life in the Gaza Strip, said the top Trump administration Middle East peace negotiator. “In response to the burgeoning humanitarian situation in Gaza, key countries and stakeholders are preparing to act: There was a meeting in Cairo on Thursday,…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jared Kushner has had better weeks. Kushner, who along with being the son-in-law of President Donald Trump carries the titles of assistant to the president, senior adviser to the president and director of the Office of American Innovation, had his security clearance downgraded. John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, made…
(JTA) — The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual policy conference is coming up, running Sunday through Tuesday. AIPAC’s byword is bipartisanship and, as we reported this week, that’s a hard sell in the increasingly polarized Trump era. Still, AIPAC remains the preeminent pro-Israel lobby and its conferences have been a reliable weathervane of where…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Billy Graham, the giant of American evangelism who was exalted by Jews for his championing of Israel at its hour of need and then condemned when a nasty anti-Semitic streak was revealed, has died. Graham, 99, died at his home in Montreat, North Carolina, media reported. He was a counselor to presidents…
ARLINGTON, Va. (JTA) — Jews don’t serve in the military. Jews shouldn’t serve in the military. Forget about being Jewish — the mission comes first. Like a lot of other Jewish dilemmas, what’s old for Jews who serve in the U.S. military is new again, and the organization established in 1896 to dismantle myths and…
(JTA) — Sam and Matthew Zeif are both students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Matthew’s a freshman; Sam’s a senior. The Jewish brothers were in different rooms when Nikolas Cruz, a 17-year-old who had been expelled from the school, raided its grounds on Wednesday, firing an automatic weapon. Scariest part of…
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