Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz has barred North Carolina theaters from producing his shows, in protest of a new state law that entrenches discrimination against LGBT people. The Jewish composer, who worked on such musical hits as “Wicked” and “Pippin,” called the law “reprehensible and discriminatory,” in a letter obtained by . “I feel that it…
The recent revelation that New York Observer editor Ken Kurson helped Donald Trump with his AIPAC speech has led to a new policy at the paper on covering the presidential election. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner owns The Observer, which has presented a conflict of interest for the staff when writing about him. The Observer’s Senior…
New York — An exhibition on Israel at the United Nations headquarters will include a panel on Zionism, one of three that the international body had previously deemed “inappropriate.” Calling the reinstated panel a “clear win for Israeli diplomacy and a victory for the truth about Israel,” Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations,…
Washington — Donald Trump and John Kasich are skipping a Republican Jewish Coalition forum for presidential candidates. RJC officials told JTA on Monday that Trump, the real estate magnate and front-runner for the Republican presidential nod, and Kasich, the Ohio governor who is running third, will not be able to attend the event the group’s…
The lobby of an apartment building in a Hasidic Jewish neighborhood of Brooklyn was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti. A resident of a six-story building in Borough Park reported the graffiti, which said “F— Jews,” to the New York Police Department’s 66th Precinct on Sunday, JPUpdates reported. The precinct is investigating with the department’s Hate Crime…
The interim president of Brandeis University condemned a swastika incident at an off-campus site where a Jewish fraternity was hosting an event. The swastika was outlined on a window at a house where the local chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi was hosting a party on Friday night. Lisa Lynch said in a statement issued Saturday…
The third largest city in Canada’s Quebec province was defaced with swastikas and other anti-Jewish symbols. More than a dozen swastikas were spray-painted last week in Laval, about 20 miles north of Montreal. Police have yet to label the incident a hate crime, despite the presence of a giant Star of David with an “X”…
(JTA) — The Israeli Supreme Court decision on Jewish conversion changes almost nothing. But down the line, it could change a lot. Under the March 31 ruling, the state of Israel must recognize Jewish conversions performed in private Orthodox conversion courts not run by its Chief Rabbinate. A network of such courts, called Giyur Kahalacha,…
Donald Trump’s campaign denied a report that he reprimanded his Jewish son-in-law after a planned visit to Israel fell through because of the candidate’s controversial comments on Muslims. New York magazine, in a profile of the front-runner in the race for the Republican presidential nod, reported Sunday that Trump was upset with Jared Kushner, who…
The Supreme Court of Israel gave the government an extra three months to present a plan for egalitarian Jewish prayer at the Western Wall. Sunday’s ruling also declined to issue a temporary order allowing women to use the site’s Torah scrolls in the women’s section in contravention of the orders of the rabbi of the…
Construction workers in Gaza have discovered ancient ruins that archaeologists say may be part of a Byzantine church dating from around 1,500 years ago, the Palestinian tourism and antiquities ministry said on Monday. The findings include segments of marble pillars with ornate Corinthian capitals, one nearly three meters (yards) long, and a 90 cm (35…
