Sam Sommer was accused, tried and convicted of the 1968 murder of his former business partner, who was found dead on a Long Island street. Prosecutors and a jury agreed Irving Silver was killed by Sommer to win a lucrative insurance policy and for other financial reasons related to their rocky business partnership. Sommer served…
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — A play that ignores Anne Frank’s Jewish identity and features an unfounded assault allegation against a Jew who hid with her is generating controversy in the Netherlands. The play, which is slated to premiere on Nov. 11 in the Netherlands, is set in modern times and mentions neither the Nazis nor why…
A major neo-Nazi website has dubbed Papa John’s the “official pizza of the ‘alt-right,’” in apparent praise of the company’s criticism of the ongoing NFL national anthem protests. “So Papa John is a major, long-standing sponsor of the NFL. And yet even they’re panicked about what’s going on,” a blogger for the Daily Stormer wrote…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — An estimated 85,000 rallied in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv to mark the 22nd anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The rally on Saturday night was controversial for stressing national unity over calling for peace and leaving the settlements. The rally, organized by two centrist organizations: the Darkenu…
Ivanka Trump is big in Japan. But she earned groans in Tokyo when she wore a way-above-the-knee skirt to a policy conference. The presidential daughter was showing plenty of thigh in her $1,700 pink Miu Miu outfit that she wore to the World Assembly for Women on Friday. Twitter screamed foul because Japanese culture is…
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…
