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,…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri has proposed an amendment that would allow illegal immigrants to be deported without their consent, contradicting the Supreme Court. The proposal, which reportedly is backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, comes days after the court ruled Monday that the government cannot hold…
(JTA) — A movie about Megan Phelps-Roper, who left the viciously anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church after a Twitter correspondence with a prominent Jewish blogger, is in the works. The screenplay for the film, with the working title “This Above All,” will be written by Oscar nominee Nick Hornby. Reese Witherspoon is reportedly one of the…
ROME (JTA) – Meeting at the Vatican, an international delegation of rabbis sought the pope’s cooperation in combating Islamic extremism. At the audience Thursday with Pope Francis, the rabbis presented a document calling for the two faiths to work together on Islamic extremism and other issues. The document was drafted last year by the Conference of European…
Once upon a time, a man named Juan Catalan was arrested for the murder of a 16-year-old girl. The alleged crime took place on May 12, 2003. Also once upon a time (specifically the exact same time!!!), Larry David filmed an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” in which he attended a Dodgers game with a…
