BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — The Reform movement is launching its first school to train and ordain rabbis from Latin America, Spain and Portugal to work in those communities. The Ibero American Institute for Rabbinical Education of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, or WUPJ, will begin classes in August in Buenos Aires. “This project will transform the regional reality,”…
Ivanka Trump said that she sometimes disagrees with her father, President Trump, but she’s being coy on where the two diverge. “I give him my open and candid feedback,” she said in a Monday morning interview on “Fox and Friends.” “Sometimes we agree. Sometimes we disagree.” When pressed to disclose areas of disagreement, she demurred….
(JTA) — The Jewish resettlement agency HIAS decried the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to allow parts of President Donald Trump’s travel ban to be enforced. On Monday, the court said it would hear the appeals of two cases that had resulted from the travel ban, which aimed to keep the citizens from six predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States for…
The trustee recouping money for Bernard Madoff’s victims has reached more than $23 million of settlements with the estates of the swindler’s late sons and related defendants, ending more than eight years of litigation. According to a Monday court filing, the settlement will strip the estates of Andrew and Mark Madoff of “all assets, cash,…
The largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization said the Supreme Court’s latest church-state ruling puts public aid for synagogues on “solid constitutional footing.” On Monday, the court ruled 7-2 that the state of Missouri should not have denied Trinity Lutheran Church a grant to build a children’s playground because of the church’s status as a religious institution, since it met…
A colorful converted school bus used by a Brooklyn artist as both a studio and workplace burnt to the ground late Sunday night. Lev Scheiber, the owner, said he was shocked to find his elaborately-decorated vehicle destroyed this morning. “I went to the bus today and it was completely destroyed. My initial reaction was it…
(JTA) — Jewish groups denounced the banning of Jewish Pride flags at a march in Chicago celebrating the lesbian community and called for an apology. Organizers of the 21st annual Chicago Dyke March told the three women asked to leave the march that the rainbow flags with a white Star of David in the center would…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office said it was working to ensure that Jews of all streams can feel comfortable praying at the Western Wall after the Cabinet voted to freeze an agreement that would have made a permanent space there for women and men to pray as they wish. Non-Orthodox and feminist groups in…
Britain’s Conservative Party has announced a new parliamentary coalition, with the small Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. Prominent British Jews have hailed the prospect of a powerful DUP in the past. President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews Jonathan Arkush told The Jerusalem Post that a majority coalition involving the DUP would…
The nice thing about being a celebrity is that it takes relatively little effort to effect change. Whereas a retweet or imploring Facebook post issued by one of us “normals” will have little to no impact on anyone, a celebrity throwing his or her name behind a cause has real influence and reach. So it’s…
Ivanka Trump has an office in the West Wing, but the first daughter said that she tries to keep her nose out of politics, which she says is her father’s specialty. “I try to stay out of politics. His political instincts are phenomenal. He did something that no one could have imagined he’d be able…
