(JTA) — Two senators introduced a bill providing protection from lawsuits to state and local governments passing anti-BDS legislation. On Tuesday, Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., introduced the Combating BDS Act, which would increase legal protection for state and local governments that ban, limit or divest from companies “engaged in commerce-related or investment-related BDS…
Outgoing U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro is leaving his diplomatic mansion in Herzliya but he’s not going home – instead, he and his family have rented a house in nearby Raanana to finish the school year. In an exit interview with Haaretz, Shapiro said he has received no calls from his possible successor David…
In his final White House press conference on Wednesday, outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama seemed ready to close the book on peace between Israel and the Palestinians. “I don’t see how this issue gets resolved in a way that maintains Israel as both Jewish and a democracy because if you do not have two states,…
Right wing Israeli lawmakers will waste no time advancing a bill to annex part of the West Bank after Donald Trump’s inauguration as U.S. president, believing that the incoming administration will be sympathetic toward settlement building in the occupied territory. Knesset Members Yoav Kish from the ruling Likud party and Bezalel Smotrich from the ultra-right…
Richard Spencer and his cadre of white supremacists launched a new online magazine on Martin Luther King Day, in what appears to be a bid to create their own version of National Review or The Nation. “AltRight.com brings together the best writers and analysts from Alt Right, in North America, Europe, and around the world,”…
Palestinian historian Rashid Khalidi is bemoaning that right-wing Jews are “infesting” the American government and influencing policy toward Israel. “There are a group of people, a lot of them in Israel, some of them in the United States, who live in a world of their own,” he told WBEZ’s Jerome McDonnell, criticizing President-elect Donald Trump…
(JTA) — More than 1,500 U.S. rabbis signed a letter calling on the incoming Trump administration to maintain the federal refugee resettlement program. HIAS, a global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees, released the letter on Wednesday. Formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the agency was founded in 1881 to help Jewish immigrants fleeing pogroms…
In the midst of a stormy confirmation hearing for Donald Trump’s Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos, Minnesota Senator Al Franken left the nominee speechless with attacks on her suitability for the position. “It surprises me that you don’t know this issue,” Franken said, after asking DeVos whether she believes individual improvement or meeting grade-linked…
As the Forward reported yesterday, the 2016 finalists for a number of National Book Critics Circle Awards include Jewish authors from Michael Chabon to Robert Pinsky. While the prize for excellence in reviewing has already been decided — the honor went to Michelle Dean, who shared that one of the reviews to help her garner…
(JTA) — The San Francisco-based Koret Foundation has given the Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot in Tel Aviv a $10 million grant — the largest from a U.S. philanthropic foundation in the museum’s 40-year history. The grant will establish the Koret International School for Jewish Peoplehood, the museum said in a statement….
The city of Whitefish, Monatana, which last week rejected an incomplete application for a parade permit from a neo-Nazi group, has said that it will approve future applications, according to local news station Fox Montana. Citing a letter from Whitefish’s city manager, the news station reported that the city would allow the controversial march, but…
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