— Jordan won its first-ever Olympic medal thanks to the performance of a Palestinian taekwondo fighter whose family left Israel 20 years ago. Abu Ghoush, who was born in Jordan, received a call from Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who congratulated him on winning gold Thursday at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games. In addition…
A recent Brandeis University study titled “Connection, not Proficiency: Survey of Hebrew at North American Jewish Summer Camps” examines how Hebrew is incorporated into Jewish summer camps. The university polled directors across 103 camps. It is part of a larger study called “Hebrew At North American Jewish Summer Camps” that will be turned into a…
–Members of the tiny Jewish community of Macedonia and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee distributed hundreds of aid packages to victims of deadly floods that forced thousands out of their homes in the Balkan nation. The Joint, or JDC, along with the Jewish Community of the Republic of Macedonia and the Holocaust Fund of…
(JTA) — Forty American Orthodox clergy co-signed a letter condemning Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for what they called his “hateful rhetoric and intolerant policy proposals.” The letter — whose signatories included Irving “Yitz” Greenberg, the founding president of Clal-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership in New York City — was Friday on the website Cleveland.com. Noting that…
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration acknowledged that the release of $400 million in cash to Iran in January was linked to Iran’s release of American prisoners, but rejected notions it was a ransom payment. “With concerns that Iran may renege on the prisoner release given unnecessary delays regarding persons in Iran who could not be…
In a blog post published on Thursday, Twitter announced that it has suspended over 235,000 accounts since February. Since mid-2015, the company reported, it has suspended over 360,000 accounts total, in light of its policy banning violent threats and promotion of terrorism. The company has received criticism from Congress, as well as security experts, for…
AMSTERDAM — The effects of the Holocaust in the Netherlands and Jewish emigration have made Dutch Jewry’s communal institutions unsustainable, a key figure of that community said. Michel Waterman, the director of the Crescas institute for Jewish culture, made the unusual statement during an interview published Tuesday in Het Parool daily ahead of his retirement…
— A French Jew in his sixties was stabbed in Strasbourg in a suspected anti-Semitic attack. The man, who was wearing a kippah when the incident happened, was leaving his home when a suspect who is in police custody allegedly stabbed him in abdomen Friday morning, Le Figaro reported. According to Le Monde, the victim,…
Two Palestinian men sought for possession of weapons and other offenses were killed in a gun battle with Palestinian police in an arrest raid in the town of Nablus in which two officers also died, officials said on Friday. Palestinian security forces have arrested over 100 suspects in the past two months in the Israeli-occupied…
WASHINGTON — The City of Baltimore cut ties with a lawyer after an advocacy group exposed his ties to neo-Nazi and Holocaust denial groups. The office of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake terminated its contract with Glen Keith Allen, effective immediately, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported Thursday afternoon. The SPLC posted on its website documents showing…
WASHINGTON — A foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump allegedly boasted about firing Jews from his government department and denied the Holocaust to a colleague. Joseph Schmitz denies the allegations against him, which concern comments accusers say he made while he was the Defense Department’s Inspector General, the McClatchy news agency reported on Thursday. He…
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