As Albany scrambles to pass a New York State budget before the holiday, one State Senator is using his unusual influence to demand that religious yeshivas be exempt from state education standards. The Daily News reported Friday that the demand by Senator Simcha Felder, who is key to the Republican’s control of the chamber, could…
A dance group in Uganda has made a video video for Israel’s Eurovision song contest entry, “Toy,” is going viral, the Jewish Chronicle reported. The group, called Spoon Youth, dances in the Namuwongo slum of Kampala, Uganda, and chose the Israeli singer Netta’s growing hit song after Israeli volunteers recommended it. “The guys heard the…
Amid rising anti-Semitism across Europe, Germany’s far-right party is lashing out at the famous “stumbling stones” Holocaust memorials, CNN reported. The Stolperstein — small cobble stones with a brass plaque commemorating a victim of the Holocaust — can be found in cities across Europe. Their creator, the sculptor Gunter Demnig, dubbed them stumbling stones because…
(JTA) — Scarlett Johansson is in final negotiations to star in a film where she would portray a German mother who is hiding a Jewish girl in her home from the Nazis during the Holocaust. Variety reported Thursday that Fox Searchlight’s film titled “Jojo Rabbit” is a follow-up to the action comedy “Thor: Ragnarok,” and centers on…
(JTA) — A Palestinian man reportedly was killed by Israeli tank fire in the southern Gaza Strip amid tensions over a march co-organized by Hamas to the border with Israel. The man, who was identified by Palestinian health ministry officials as Omar Wahid Sammour, 27, was killed Friday hours after a senior Israel Defense Forces officer warned Palestinians…
PARIS (JTA) — A French court upheld the Holocaust denial conviction of the far-left activist Jean-Marie Le Pen while another tribunal acquitted the hate incitement charges against another racist. The Paris-based Court of Cassation’s ruling Tuesday against Le Pen, founder of the far-right National Front party and the owner of multiple convictions for incitement to…
Comedian Roseanne Barr on Thursday said it was “pretty exciting” to receive a congratulatory phone call from President Donald Trump after the return of her hit 1990s TV comedy “Roseanne,” about a working-class American family, drew huge ratings. Barr said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” show that she hopes the ABC series will help people…
(JTA) — A Democratic congressional delegation that met this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the release of African asylum seekers being held in an Israeli prison. In a letter Tuesday that originated in the office of House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, 11 Democrats said they met with representatives of asylum seekers who…
BOSTON (JTA) — Campus police at a Massachusetts college are investigating an incident of harassment against a Jewish student. The incident took place last week at Hampshire College, a small liberal arts school in Amherst, about 90 miles west of Boston. The college’s president, Jonathan Lash, condemned the incident, but no further details have been…
PARIS (JTA) – Perhaps the most significant attendee at a memorial service for a Holocaust survivor murdered in her Paris apartment was a young African Muslim man who unceremoniously entered the synagogue and sat in the back row. Within minutes, all eyes were on the man — Lassana Bathily, a 27-year-old from Mali whom many…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israel Justice Ministry official told Israeli media that the government is considering taking criminal action against Sephardic chief rabbi for likening a black child born to white parents to a “monkey” in explaining a point of ritual. Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef made the comparison earlier this month during a Saturday evening lecture,…
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