(JTA) — Vilnius University in Lithuania said it would give academic degrees posthumously to Jewish students who were unable to graduate because they were murdered in the Holocaust — unless they were partisans. In a statement published on Wednesday on its website announcing the initiative entitled “Recovering Memory,” Vilnius University encouraged relatives of Holocaust victims…
(JTA) — Five House Democrats called for Jared Kushner’s security clearance to be revoked over his alleged ties to Russia. In a letter co-signed by Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) to FBI Director James Comey and Charles Phalen, director of the National Background Investigations Bureau, the Democrats expressed concerns over the alleged failure of the President’s son-in-law…
(JTA) — Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is slated to become the first non-Israeli to light a torch during Israel’s main Independence Day ceremony in Jerusalem. Hier, who in January delivered a prayer during the inauguration of President Donald Trump in Washington D.C., is one of three individuals selected for the honor…
(JTA) — In a reaction to attempts in Europe to boycott Israel, the European Union’s report on commercial competition for the first time included a rejection of such initiatives. The reference to boycotts, which does not name Israel specifically, was introduced earlier this year into the draft of the Report on Competition Policy for 2016…
The Jewish anti-hunger group Mazon is bringing its touring exhibit to New York City this week, to educate visitors about the prevalence of hunger in the U.S. Built into a 53-foot-long trailer, the interactive exhibit features the stories of Americans struggling with hunger. “It’s not about statistics — we wanted people to have an experience,”…
NEW YORK (JTA) — The Anti-Defamation League is offering to hold Holocaust-awareness training for White House staff after administration spokesman Sean Spicer was pilloried for saying Adolf Hitler never used chemical weapons. In a letter to Spicer shared with the media on Thursday, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said his organization “would be happy to conduct…
A group of House Democrats released a letter on Thursday calling on FBI Director James Comey to suspend Jared Kushner’s security clearance after a New York Times report revealed that the presidential advisor’s clearance application failed to disclose dozens of meetings over the last several years with Russian officials. “Lack of candor, particularly regarding contacts…
(JTA) — Rabbi Saul Leeman, a longtime leader of Conservative congregations in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and a civil rights activist who marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965, has died at 100. Leeman, who served the Cranston Jewish Center on Rhode Island and later Temple Shalom in Medford, Massachusetts, died April 5. The Providence Journal…
If the Kushner-Trump clan are spending the Passover holiday at a Canadian ski resort, what’s the deal with the Twitter photo that Trump posted hour before Passover began of her family at the White House? CNN’s Betsy Klein appears to have cracked the case. That Instagram photo appears to have been taken two months ago,…
The most high-profile New York Times reporting duo covering the Trump White House were once fierce rivals in New York’s high-stakes City Hall tabloid culture — until they bonded over the surprise discovery that they’re both Jewish. Maggie Haberman, then with the New York Post, and Glenn Thrush, then with Newsday, refused to speak to…
Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman has become much closer to the president in recent days and played a critical role in Trump keeping the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as the Dreamers program, which gives the children of illegal immigrants two-year green cards. Schwarzman, the CEO of Blackstone Group and longtime acquaintance of President…
