An ultra-Orthodox Purim reveller has what might be our favorite costume this year for its sheer snackability. It’s a popcorn streimel. The streimel is a wheel-shaped hat typically worn by married ultra-Orthodox men. The hat is usually covered in marten or fox fur, but this guy filled his with popcorn. Israel Broadcasting Authority journalist Sam…
It’s Scarlett vs. Ivanka! Hollywood superstar Scarlett Johansson pulled no punches on “Saturday Night Live,” ripping into the First Daughter for being “Complicit” in her father’s controversial policies. The skit, one of several targeting Donald Trump on “SNL,” mocked Ivanka for a fictional perfume brand that spotlighted her so-far ineffective efforts to portray herself as…
Israel’s national baseball team upset Cuba 4-1 in the World Baseball Classic, continuing its unlikely run in the tournament. After falling behind 1-0 in the second inning Sunday, Israel took control of the game, driving in four consecutive runs and holding the heavily favored Cuban team to just five hits. The game was the first…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos praised Orthodox Jewish schools as a model for publicly funded education. “I applaud Agudath Israel for their leadership and commitment to providing their community with access to educational options that meet the academic and religious needs of their families,” she said Wednesday after meeting with leaders of the…
A BBC discussion with South Korea expert went viral last week when the children of Professor Robert E. Kelly burst in on his Skype interview as his wife scrambled to pull them out of the room. Part of what makes the video so hilarious is the element of surprise, as the somber TV newscast is…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Two Jewish agencies charged with elderly care sharply criticized the new Republican health care bill. B’nai B’rith International, which sponsors low-income housing for the elderly, and the Jewish Federations of North America, which advocates for funds for the poor and the elderly, took aim changes contained in the American Health Care Act,…
WASHINGTON [(JTA](JTA](http://jta.org “(JTA”)) — Vice President Mike Pence and a bipartisan slate of top members of Congress are scheduled to address AIPAC’s upcoming annual conference. An American Israel Public Affairs Committee official confirmed to JTA that Pence will keynote the conference scheduled for March 26-28 in Washington, D.C. Pence, who enjoyed a long relationship with the…
(JTA) — Austin, Texas, is known for several things: authentic barbecue, hot weather, cowboys — and, increasingly each year, the ever-growing South by Southwest festival. What began as an indie music event in the late 1980s has swelled to include multiple conferences on film and technology. Last year, over 70,000 people registered to attend the nine-day…
(JTA) — Students at the University of Illinois and Ohio State University voted down measures urging their schools to divest from companies complicit in Palestinian human rights violations. The Illinois referendum was rejected late last week by a margin of 56.8 to 43.2 percent, according to media reports. The Ohio State measure failed by a…
(JTA) — Seventy percent of American voters see anti-Semitism in the country as a “very” or “somewhat serious” problem, up from 49 percent a month ago, according to a new poll. The responses differed by party identification, with an overwhelming majority of Democrats, 87 percent, seeing anti-Semitism as a “very” or “somewhat serious” problem, and…
It took a full seven weeks, but President Trump finally spoke to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas by phone Friday afternoon. Trump, according to a Palestinian spokesman, invited Abbas to meet with him at the White House in the near future, although the date is yet to be set. The spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdainah, said Trump…
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