— A far-right party in Germany finished second in voting in the political home state of Chancellor Angela Merkel, ahead of Merkel’s party, spurring concerns among Jewish leaders in Germany. Alternative for Germany, known as AfD, with its anti-immigrant and ultranationalist platform, picked up 21 percent of the vote Sunday in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, behind the center-left…
(JTA) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was gifted a traditional Jewish prayer shawl by a pastor during a visit to a black church in Detroit. Bishop Wayne Jackson of the Great Faith Ministries in Detroit draped the tallit around Trump’s shoulders after the candidate finished addressing the congregation. “Let me just put this on…
Women of the Wall prayed under police presence at the Western Wall this morning after the group complained to Israel’s attorney general about the lack of protection at their monthly prayer service. The group, which advocates for equal prayer rights for men and women at Judaism’s holy site, was on edge ahead of its prayer…
(JTA) — The Philadelphia Police Department launched an internal investigation of one of its officers after a photo circulated online of the officer sporting a tattoo resembling a symbol used by the Nazis. The image of Officer Ian Hans Lichtermann was posted to Facebook by Evan Parish Matthews, who said he took the photograph at…
(JTA) — A Canadian football team has signed a player who tweeted anti-Semitic messages even after being fined in 2015 for doing so. The Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League signed lineman Khalif Mitchell Wednesday, drawing criticism from a Canadian Jewish group. “We are deeply troubled that Mitchell is continuing to spread messages of…
Supporters of Jewish Democratic congressional contender Josh Gottheimer believe his rival belongs in the Deep South. A campaign ad released Friday by the House Majority PAC, takes aim at Republican incumbent Scott Garrett known for his ultra-conservative views which, the ad claims, do not fit his New Jersey constituency. “His views are perfect for a…
KAZAN, Russia — Hundreds of Israeli and European Jews convened in the capital of the predominantly Muslim Russian state of Tatarstan for an annual Jewish music festival as well as a Jewish learning Limmud FSU conference. The two events, which coincide with a third — the Sept. 4 European Day of Jewish Culture — kicked off Friday evening…
The group that created “The Great Schlep,” a Jewish initiative that promoted Barack Obama’s presidential run in 2008, has written an anti-Donald Trump musical to be performed across the country. The musical, called “Chump,” is a satire of Trump’s Republican presidential campaign modeled on “The Great Dictator,” Charlie Chaplin’s 1940 satire of Adolf Hitler. Its…
(JTA) — The Trump and Clinton campaigns issued tough-on-Iran statements in the wake of a report that alleges that negotiators allowed Iran secret loopholes in the nuclear agreement. The Institute for Science and International Affairs, a think tank founded by a former United Nations nuclear weapons inspector, David Albright, said in a report released this…
A former Stanford University swimmer was released from jail on Friday after serving just half of a six-month sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, a sentence widely criticized as too lenient. Brock Turner, 20, left the Santa Clara County Main Jail in San Jose shortly after 6 a.m. PDT (1300 GMT), just three months…
— A Jerusalem rabbi said he would seek royalties from Japan’s delegation to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro for its allegedly unauthorized use of a melody he composed. Rabbi Baruch Hayat, according to the Shirunt website of Israeli songs, composed the melody to the popular song “Kol Ha’Olam Kulo Gesher Tzar Me’od” to…
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