At a Hanukkah party Sunday evening, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sang a festive song in Ladino, a language associated with the Sephardic Jewish community, derived from Spanish. Ocasio-Cortez gave an impassioned speech at the menorah lighting, hosted by the Jews For Racial and Economic Justice in New York, sharing that her family has Jewish heritage. She…
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fired off a few tweets Monday morning about her statements at a Hanukkah party that her family has Jewish heritage. She noted that many in Puerto Rico are descended from a mix of different ethnicities, including Spanish colonizers, African slaves and indigenous peoples. “We are all of these things and something else…
BERLIN (JTA) — Israel is pressuring Germany to end funding for dozens of political, cultural and religious organizations that it accuses of anti-Israel agitation both abroad and at home — including the Jewish Museum Berlin — according to an unofficial letter obtained by a German left-wing daily newspaper. The Tageszeitung, or Taz, obtained a copy…
(JTA) — Anti-Semitic fliers were found in Squirrel Hill, the Pittsburgh neighborhood where 11 worshippers were killed in an attack on a synagogue building. The fliers also were dropped in other surrounding neighborhoods, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Sunday. “The Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police are aware of and are…
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the newly elected firebrand congresswoman, has revealed for the first time that she has Sephardic Jewish heritage. The 28-year-old Democrat said her distant ancestors fled the Spanish Inquisition to emigrate to Puerto Rico, where her immediate family roots lived until they moved to New York. “Generations and generations ago, my family consisted of…
New York University’s student government has passed a resolution calling on the school to divest from companies with Israel ties. The university said it opposes the resolution and would not be moving ahead with it. In a secret ballot Thursday, the measure passed with 35 votes in favor and 14 against, along with 14 abstentions….
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan on Friday asked a judge to sentence Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, to a “substantial term of imprisonment” for paying an adult film star hush money on Trump’s behalf and evading taxes. Cohen, who has been cooperating with U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible collusion…
Fox Business apologized Thursday following Rep. Louie Gohmert’s comments about Jewish billionaire George Soros during a segment about Google and China, The Daily Beast reported. The Texas congressman did the opposite and doubled down. “You mention Orwell, it also reminds me of another George—George Soros,” Gohmert said, following a discussion on China and the idea…
An Orthodox group voiced support for a bipartisan prison reform bill which would ease prison sentencing, and tied the criminal justice reform effort to its ongoing advocacy for former Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. “As the White House seeks to improve the lives of so many through the advancement of comprehensive and compassionate criminal justice legislation,…
There have been numerous fights between Bukharian Jews and other students at a New York high school, with one teenager in the hospital, the Queens Chronicle reported Thursday. A 16-year-old Bukharian Jewish boy and yeshiva student was beaten by a groups of teenagers, allegedly Forest Hills High School students, on November 29 and is still…
President Trump and First Lady Melanie Trump hosted their second annual White House Hanukkah party on Thursday, for a total of more than 600 guests, Jewish Insider reported. It was split into two: one in the afternoon and one in the evening. U.S. Army Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Rabbi Shmuel Felzenberg and Rabbi Avraham Friedman of…
