(JTA) — In a rare criticism of Belarusian authorities, leaders of the Jewish community of that country said they were “concerned” over plans to build apartments atop what used to be a Jewish cemetery in Gomel. The statement given earlier this week to JTA by the Union of Public Associations and Jewish Communities in Belarus…
A federal watchdog is reviewing the circumstances surrounding a controversial flight taken by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his wife to Kentucky, where he spoke to business leaders and viewed the solar eclipse, according to The Washington Post. A counsel for the Treasury’s Office of Inspector General told the Post in a statement late on…
Dinesh D’Souza, the far-right commentator and convicted felon, tweeted this morning that it would be “interesting” if billionaire George Soros were “tried for his complicity in Nazi atrocities against Jews.” Soros, who is Jewish, was a child during the Nazi occupation of his native Hungary. A major donor to progressive causes worldwide, Soros has long…
(JTA) — The body of a haredi Jewish mother from Monsey who had been reported missing was discovered in the Hudson River, near Bear Mountain Bridge in Upstate New York. The body was discovered Wednesday and positively identified Thursday as that of Malky Lebowitz, nee Einhorn, the news site Crownheights Info reported. Lebowitz was married and…
NEW YORK (JTA) — Asher Lopatin, the president of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, a liberal Orthodox rabbinical school in New York City, announced that he will be leaving his post at the end of the academic year. In an unexpected move, Rabbi Lopatin shared the news in a Tuesday email to the Yeshivat Chovevei Torah community….
Conan O’Brien is consuming the good stuff. Or is it consuming him? Over the course of a week-long trip to Israel, where he’s shooting a travel special called “Conan Without Borders,” the flame-haired comedian has visited such hot Tel Aviv eateries as Taizu and Topolopombo in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and dined with…
HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) – Eighty years after he missed the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony, 93-year-old Holocaust survivor Shalom Shtamberg celebrated his bar mitzvah on Thursday with his family and friends in the northern Israeli city of Haifa. Shtamberg was born in Warsaw, Poland, and should have celebrated his bar mitzvah when he turned 13, but instead…
Pope Francis once underwent psychoanalysis with a Jewish analyst, according to a new book-length interview of the pontiff conducted by a French academic. Francis said that he saw the psychoanalyst weekly for about six months when he was 42 years old. It’s unclear why the pope specified the analyst’s religion. The full English-language text of…
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin refused to commit to the Obama administration’s plan to put African-American abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill when interviewed by CNBC Thursday. “Ultimately we will be looking at this issue,” he said. “It’s not something I’m focused on at the moment.” When pressed, he reiterated that his primary focus was…
(JTA) — Berlin’s mayor, many local Jewish leaders agree, could do more to counter the city’s vocal BDS movement. But does that make him an anti-Semite? A report that the California-based Simon Wiesenthal Center may include Mayor Michael Müller on its annual list of the world’s 10 worst cases of anti-Semitic activity has perplexed prominent…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Supreme Court has ordered the government to either reinstate the Western Wall agreement with non-Orthodox groups or explain why it should not force the state to honor the deal. “One can’t help but ask ‘What exactly happened here?’” Chief Justice Miriam Naor said at a hearing Thursday. “There was an agreement,…
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