WASHINGTON (JTA) — The United States is ready to pull out of the U.N. Human Rights Council unless it institutes reforms, including removing Israel as a permanent item on its agenda, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told an Israeli American audience. “The Human Rights Council will either adopt these reforms, or the United States will leave,”…
A white nationalist group led by the self-styled “alt-right” figurehead Richard Spencer was barred from holding its annual conference in a federal office building because of security concerns raised by the building’s management company, the New York Times reported. The decision comes as schools and towns are grappling with the question of when and how…
Larry David will be introducing Miley Cyrus as the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend — but it’s not the first time the comedian has collaborated with the actress/singer/activist/daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus/grown woman who made some dubious career choices but seems to now be reckoning with them. David had a cameo on…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A U.S. House of Representatives committee advanced a bill that would enhance penalties for threats on religious institutions, sparked by a wave of threats on Jewish community centers and other Jewish institutions earlier this year. “This bill clarifies that federal law prohibits threats toward religious institutions, and that the protection extends beyond…
BUDVA, Montenegro (JTA) — For the first time in over a century, the Jewish community of this small Balkan country has its own resident rabbi, its leaders said. Ari Edelkopf, a Los Angeles-born Chabad rabbi, settled in the capital Podgorica several weeks ago with his wife, Chana, and seven children. He said he is officiating…
(JTA) — Turns out you don’t actually have to be a guest on Henry Louis Gates’ PBS show “Finding Your Roots” to, well, find your roots. Gili Rozenfeld, 29, a video editor who lives in Tel Aviv, caught a glimpse of the episode that ran Tuesday on Israeli TV showing actress Scarlett Johansson tearing up…
(JTA) — A synagogue in Madrid plans to present what it is calling the country’s first egalitarian Torah scroll because women participated in its writing. The scroll is slated to be unveiled Saturday at Congregation Bet El in the Spanish capital. Gustavo Surazski, an Argentina-born rabbi and sofer, or Torah scribe, began writing the scroll…
Ivanka Trump has been spotted several times since the early summer sporting a thin red thread tied around her wrist. Set against the backdrop of her meticulously styled “looks,” complete with Ivanka Trump-brand jewelry, dresses and shoes, the red threat might seem out of place — even off-brand. But the bracelet has special significance to…
(JTA) — The hometown in Belarus of the late artist Marc Chagall saw its first opening of a synagogue in over a century. The Jewish community of Vitebsk, which is located 155 miles northeast of the Belarusian capital of Minsk, last month celebrated the inauguration of the new synagogue. Vitebsk’s rabbi, Malkiel Gorgodze, affixed a…
A 93-year-old Holocaust survivor was saved by the quick actions of good Samaritans after he was pulled from his car seconds before a train collided with it on Tuesday, Fox News reported. Henry Flescher had become stuck on train tracks in Miami-Dade County after taking a curve too fast. He then realized there was a…
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Fifty years since the Six-Day War, 100 years since the Balfour Declaration, 150 years since Mark Twain first visited Palestine. This has been a year of big Israel-related anniversaries. To the Jewish state’s most diehard Christian supporters, the barrage of milestones is not mere coincidence but rather a harbinger of prophecies being…
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