Mazel tov to CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper, who turned 50 on Tuesday. The silver fox covers some of the world’s biggest stories. He’s charming, a bit snarky and unabashedly intense when it comes to gathering the truth. Let’s celebrate with some of his highlights from the last year, starting with the…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — All entrances and exits to the Temple Mount were closed by Israel Police after a firebomb was thrown at a police outpost at the site. The police said in a statement Tuesday afternoon following the attack that one of the suspects was identified and detained. Dozens of police officers reportedly entered the…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prosecutors in the corruption cases against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be able to get their hands on the investigation files until after the country’s election over fears of leaks to the media. The Justice Ministry made the announcement on Monday evening, responding to a request from Netanyahu’s attorneys. The…
Details on the charges against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled with much fanfare late last month will not be released until after the April parliamentary elections. Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit agreed on Monday not to turn over evidence in the case until after the elections, the Associated Press reported. “After weighing their positions,…
NEW YORK (JTA) — Since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez burst onto the national scene, Jewish leaders have talked about her and what she means for Israel and Jewish concerns. But Elad Nehorai, a 34-year-old former Hasid in Brooklyn, managed to talk to her about Israel and anti-Semitism — through Twitter, of course. Ocasio-Cortez, the most talked about…
(JTA) — President Donald Trump, saying the “Democrats hate Jewish people,” said he could not understand how any Jewish person could vote for a Democrat these days. Trump also told a room filled with Republican National Committee donors that if he could run for prime minister of Israel, he would be polling at 98 percent, Axios reported Sunday….
Call it the revenge of the Hollywood stars. This weekend, two of Israel’s most famous faces — supermodel-turned-superstar actress Gal Gadot, and TV star Rotem Sela — took on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a high-profile social media spat. It started after Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, appeared on…
(JTA) — I initially had some sympathy for the creators of an anti-Semitic carnival float in Belgium. Studying their CVs and past creations for the annual carnival of Aalst, I saw that they were a group of some 20 upstanding citizens — a fireman, a technician, an Education Ministry official and a police department employee,…
Brooklyn is re-naming a building after Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in honor of her 86th birthday, the Daily News reported. “This is definitely a 50 Cent ‘It’s your birthday’ moment,” Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams said. “[Ginsburg] has reached an iconic status equivalent to Serena Williams and Beyoncé’s fame.” Ginsburg, who was born…
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s financial disclosure forms from 2017 have gone eight months without approval from top White House ethics watchdogs, according to a report from the Center for Public Integrity. While the Treasury’s ethics office has approved the forms, the Administrations top ethics officers, at the Office of Government Ethics, has not. The…
A banner attacking Reform Jews, hung near a shopping mall in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan, is sparking fear in Israel and legal threats from a liberal Jewish group in the U.S. The banner, hung on Wednesday, reads, “A Reform grandfather = an assimilated father = a goy grandson,” according to a report in…
