Ron Kampeas is the former Washington bureau chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Ron Kampeas
By Ron Kampeas
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Opinion ‘Pope’s Rabbi’ Wants New Argentina Terror Probe
Rabbi Abraham Skorka chats with Pope Francis during their visit to Holy Land last year. /Getty Images (JTA) — Rabbi Abraham Skorka traveled from Buenos Aires to Washington to wax lyrical about his passion – interfaith dialogue – and intimate about his well-known pal, Pope Francis. Also to plug his movement, the Masorti movement, and its…
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News Reform Action Center’s Jonah Pesner Faces Tough Task in Polarized Capital
(JTA) — With a liberal agenda, the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center has not had an easy time of it in an increasingly polarized Washington. But Rabbi Jonah Pesner, the center’s incoming leader, may have an even tougher row to hoe as conservative Republicans tightened their grip on Congress. Just two years ago, Pesner briefly…
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News Will ‘White Supremacist’ Speech Hurt GOP With Jews?
(JTA) — A recent revelation that a top Republican addressed a white supremacist group is reviving an age-old Washington debate: How important are false steps from the past in evaluating a party today? Not very, say Republicans, in the case of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the majority whip in the U.S. House of Representatives sworn in…
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News How Mario Cuomo Won Over Both Orthodox and Secular Jews
(JTA) — Mario Cuomo, the three-term New York governor who died Thursday, was the rare politician who appealed to the Jewish tent’s opposite poles. A strident liberal with a nuanced understanding of the sense of vulnerability among the deeply religious in a secular society, Cuomo died of heart failure just hours after his son Andrew…
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The Schmooze When Jesus Crashes the Hanukkah Party
(JTA) — Sure, his birthday usually falls around the same time as Hanukkah, but Jesus and the Jewish holiday generally don’t mix. This year, however, two Jesus-Hanukkah juxtapositions have been getting a lot of social media attention. First, there’s Bud Williams, the Springfield, Mass., city counselor who said “Jesus is the reason for the season” —…
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News Alan Gross Release — and Diplomatic Thaw — May Mean World to Cuba Jews
(JTA) — Alan Gross was imprisoned while trying to connect Cuba’s isolated Jewish community to the wider world. The deal that got him released five years later may do just that and much more. Gross’ flight home to suburban Washington on Wednesday with his wife, Judy, was part of a historic deal that overturns over five…
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News Jewish Campus Groups Grapple With Rape Controversy
(JTA) — Jewish campus groups were ready for the painful national dialogue that took place in the wake of murky rape allegations at the University of Virginia. That’s because organizations like Hillel and historically Jewish Greek houses such as Alpha Epsilon Pi, Zeta Beta Tau and Sigma Delta Tau had been having the conversations for…
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Israel News Ashton Carter Brings Record of Friendship With Israel to Pentagon
(JTA) — Ashton Carter has championed the sale to Israel of state-of-the-art combat aircraft, has aligned himself with Iran hawks and was observed becoming misty-eyed when serenaded by Israeli soldiers. Carter, 60, President Obama’s secretary of defense nominee, has been depicted in the media as the un-Chuck Hagel. He’s assertive and a bureaucratic in-fighter where…
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