(JTA) — Among the students who benefited from Fran Berger’s coaching on the Miami Palmetto Senior High School debate team are dozens of lawyers, surgeons, judges and no small number of Ivy League graduates. Now the Jewish debate coach, who died at the age of 61 in 2008, can also be credited with teaching and…
(JTA) — Could the next Jennifer Hudson or Kelly Clarkson be a senior at a Modern Orthodox high school in Los Angeles? If Danielle Finn has her way, that’s exactly what will happen starting Sunday night when she competes on the new season of “American Idol,” the popular TV singing competition that has launched the…
Two people were wounded in a shooting at Indianapolis’ Jewish Community Center Saturday afternoon that police said they do not believe was a hate crime. The shooting, which took place in the center’s athletic complex around 2 p.m. EST, is instead thought to be related to a basketball game that turned contentious. As IndyStar reported,…
(Ha’aretz) — After a harrowing journey that took nearly an entire day, a small group of immigrants bound for Israel from Ukraine crossed the border into Poland on Saturday. According to the Jewish Agency, which arranged for their departure, the immigrants will be put up in Warsaw for the next few days before flying to…
For those looking for ways to help Ukrainian Jews, the Forward has compiled a list of organizations that are assisting them or collecting money for nonprofits on the ground. A country of 44 million people led by a Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s rich Jewish history dates back many centuries — Odessa was once the…
In a webinar with American Jews, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. Friday said she was appalled by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that he invaded Ukraine to “denazify” the country. The assertion is particularly ridiculous because “antisemitism is a crime in Ukraine,” Ambassador Oksana Markarova told the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry, an American group…
As Russia’s military invasion presses closer to the seat of the Ukrainian government in Kyiv, Israel has been reportedly asked to mediate between the two countries. The news, reported by a correspondent for Kan News, an Israeli state-owned television channel, comes as Russia bombards the Ukrainian capital with missile strikes. According to correspondent Gili Cohen,…
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — UJA-Federation of New York approved up to $3 million in emergency funding to support the Jewish community of Ukraine as Russia launched a multi-pronged invasion of the country. The funds will be directed to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Jewish Agency and other grassroots partners in…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Naftali Bennett, Israel’s prime minister, and Yair Lapid, Israel’s foreign minister, have run a fairly cohesive foreign policy, despite occupying different points on the Zionist spectrum. The day Russia invaded Ukraine was a stark exception. Lapid, ensconcing Israel In the West, forthrightly condemned Russia. Bennett, wary of inserting Israel into a no-win…
Some of the young Jews from Ukraine and Russia have finished their Birthright trips and others are still touring, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine means that many can’t head home. There are now three groups from Russia and Ukraine on Birthright Israel trips, with 26 of the participants from Ukraine. Sixteen of the Ukrainians were…
(JTA) — All of the posturing and fears and hypothesizing became reality early Thursday morning in Ukraine, as Russia launched a full-scale armed invasion by land and sea. Tens of thousands of Jews live in Ukraine, making it home to one of the world’s largest Jewish communities — one with a complicated history, tainted by…
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