A major Jewish foundation with a focus on Jewish education named its first president and CEO on Feb. 17. Barry Finestone will succeed Chip Edelsberg, the Jim Joseph foundation’s first executive director, on Jan. 1, 2017, according to a press release from the foundation. Currently the executive director of the Lisa and John Pritzker Family…
Ted Nugent has joined a Jewish gun rights advocacy group after being sharply criticized for posting an image on Facebook blaming several prominent Jews for spearheading gun control. Nicki Kenyon of the Zelman Partisans group claimed Monday that Nugent accepted the group’s honorary membership offer. The right-wing rocker also reportedly said he would wear a…
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush tweeted an image of a gun manufactured by a U.S. company with a parent European firm that made firearms for Nazi troops. On Tuesday, the former Florida governor posted the image of a handgun engraved with his name following a campaign stop at the FN America gun manufacturing plant in…
The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism is launching a new push to help congregations become inclusive of people with disabilities. The initiative, funded by a $375,000 three-year grant from the Ruderman Family Foundation, will involve up to 20 congregations. Each synagogue will assess its current handling of disabilities issues, create an action plan to become…
A student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has apologized for vandalizing a menorah outside the campus Chabad house. Ruby Rivera, a junior, took responsibility for the Feb. 7 incident in a letter to the News Gazette, the local newspaper reported Tuesday. She is scheduled to appear in court later this month to face…
A “Vampire Breast Lift.” A laser skin-tightening procedure. A 10-day first-class trip to Israel. Those are a few of the services included in the $200,000 gift bags that one marketing firm has promised for celebrities attending the Oscars ceremony on Feb. 28. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hands out the awards,…
The Jewish Community Center of Kansas City will erect a memorial to honor the victims of the deadly 2014 shooting at the JCC and a nearby Jewish site. The memorial site at the Jewish community campus in Overland Park, Kansas, is under development, according to the JCC, the local media reported. Sculptor Jesse Small of…
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened to hit large ammonia gas tanks in northern Israel that he said would wreak damage and casualties equal to a nuclear attack. Nasrallah threatened to hit the targets in Haifa in a future attack on Israel, during a speech in Beirut. “This would be exactly as a nuclear bomb, and…
Paraguay’s President Horacio Cartes will receive the Shalom Prize from the World Jewish Congress for his “contributions to building coexistence.” The Latin American branch of the World Jewish Congress made the announcement on Tuesday, as did Cartes’ office. The prize will be awarded in March, in a ceremony to be held in Buenos Aires, the…
The Dutch government announced it plans to limit ritual slaughter through new measures, including a ban on the export of kosher and halal meat. Agriculture Minister Martijn van Dam announced his government’s plan to limit ritual slaughter in the kingdom on Wednesday, in a letter he sent to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of…
The British government’s plan to outlaw attempts to boycott Israel shows it is committed to fighting them in word as well as in deed, the leader of the European Jewish Congress said. EJC President Moshe Kantor praised the planned measures on Wednesday, in a statement that coincided with the visit to Israel of Matthew Hancock,…
