When Hurricane Irma finally bore down on St. Martin, a tiny Caribbean island, Rabbi Moishe Chanowitz and his family thought they were ready. The Chabad emissaries have lived on the island for eight years, and have seen many storms. But the record-breaking 185 mile-per-hour winds drove them from their homes into the recently constructed Chabad…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Bernie Sanders sidestepped criticism from Hillary Clinton that he paved the way to Donald Trump’s victory with his attacks against her in the Democratic primary. Sanders, I-Vt., said he preferred to focus on countering the Trump agenda. “My response is that right now it’s appropriate to look forward and not backward,”…
(JTA) — British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis called on a meeting of more than 100 Orthodox rabbis to be more inclusive toward the LGBTQ community. On Tuesday, at his annual pre-High Holidays conference for the rabbinate, Mirvis also called for extra concern for other special groups as well. “Every person is precious. Single parents, women,…
A new 30 second ad is going after New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker for his refusal to support the Taylor Force Act, a bill aimed at cutting U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority until it stops paying stipends to convicted terrorists and their families. “He ran here as a friend to Israel,” the ad narrator…
NEW YORK (JTA) — Mike Tolkin apologizes for checking his phone as he sits down at a café in this city’s Flatiron district. The 32-year-old Democratic New York mayoral hopeful was waiting to hear Tuesday whether he would be allowed to participate in the final primary debate the following day, which would boost his exposure amid…
(JTA) — Pennsylvania State University has begun providing a kosher food option for campus dining on a one-year trial basis. Penn State Senior Aaron Goldberg of Philadelphia last year approached Lisa Wandel, director of residential dining, about the need for a kosher dining option, bringing 10 pages of requests from other students and ideas about how…
President Trump is considering many candidates to head up the Federal Reserve and has soured on nominating his top economic adviser Gary Cohn to lead the U.S. central bank, according to sources close to the White House and an administration official. Two sources said Trump remained upset with Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs president, for…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Syria said Israeli airstrikes targeted a military facility in the west of the country, killing two soldiers. Syria’s military confirmed in a statement that Israeli warplanes struck the site near the town of Masyaf after 2 a.m. on Thursday from Lebanese airspace. The statement warned Israel of “serious consequences” over the attack….
(JTA) — Berlin’s mayor will block the use of city venues and funds by groups or event organizers that support the boycott movement against Israel. The move, announced Wednesday, followed pressure by the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, which had threatened to put Berlin Mayor Michael Müller on its annual list of 10 worst anti-Semitic incidents…
BERLIN (Reuters) – Two aging Holocaust survivors joined forces with a younger Israeli singer to perform songs of hope at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate on Wednesday at a time when Germany is seeing a rise in anti-Semitism. Saul Dreier, a drummer aged 92, and Reuwen “Ruby” Sosnowicz, an 89-year-old accordionist, backed up Gad Elbaz at a…
Why were Nazis called Nazis? The full name of the party was the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers’ Party), and you can see in the first word where the “Na” and “zi” come from — just as members of the Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei) were called “Sozis.” But there is a more…
