JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Palestinians’ chief peace negotiator, Saeb Erekat, is in Washington, D.C. waiting for a lung transplant. Erekat, 62, who also is secretary-general of the PLO executive committee, has pulmonary fibrosis, a serious lung disease. He requires oxygen and can no longer walk. On Palestinian national television on Thursday Erekat delivered a message…
(JTA) — Jews should not fear the strong election showing by the right-wing Alternative for Germany, a party leader said. “There is nothing in our party, in our program, that could disturb the Jewish people who live here in Germany,” co-party head Alexander Gauland told reporters Monday, a day after the party garnered more than…
Presidential senior adviser/son-in-law Jared Kushner has been using a private account to correspond with other White House officials about official business, Politico reported. The account was reportedly set up in December, during the presidential transition. Politico reported that Kushner had verified around two dozen emails from that private account about issues like media planning and…
A children’s entertainer who performed at Jewish community centers, camps and synagogues for more than two decades was charged last week with receiving and distributing child pornography. Eric Komar, a 46-year-old music teacher and singer-songwriter from New Jersey, allegedly used file sharing software to acquire and disseminate photos of young children, including some being sexually…
A woman blew shofar at Old York Road Temple-Beth Am in suburban Philadelphia for the first time in her congregation’s 70-year history — and she broke that barrier using the ram’s horn belonging to her late husband, who had long volunteered for that position. Sara Partiyeli Bloom took up the sacred instrument after the sudden…
(JTA) — A Vermont substitute teacher was fired after she was accused of teaching children how to make the Nazi salute. Ned Kirsch, the school superintendent of the Georgia Elementary School in Georgia, Vermont, said in an email to parents Thursday that the school took immediate action after the teacher admitted to teaching the students…
A former member of parliament in Belgium who was convicted of Holocaust denial has been ordered to visit concentration camps and write about his experiences as part of his punishment. Laurent Louis, who has been expelled from numerous political parties, was also fined $20,000 for his comments questioning the number of Jews killed in gas…
(JTA) — Sen. Bernie Sanders said the United States is “complicit” in Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. “But that is not to say … that Israel is the only party at fault,” Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, said in an interview with The Intercept news website published on Friday evening. Sanders…
(JTA) — The FBI has been called in to investigate threats against minority students at California State University, Long Beach, including Latino and Jewish students. Campus President Jane Close Conoley on Wednesday in an email sent to students and university employees confirmed the threats and the investigation. The threats were made over the internet and…
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Jewish Congress on Sunday expressed alarm at the far-right Alternative for Germany’s success in Germany’s parliamentary election and urged other parties not to form an alliance with the AfD. Early projections gave the AfD 13.5 percent of the vote, allow it to enter the Bundestag for the first time, as…
BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel won a fourth term in office on Sunday but will have to build an uneasy coalition to form a German government after her conservatives hemorrhaged support in the face of a surge by the far-right. The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) stunned the establishment by winning 13.1 percent of…
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