(JTA) — (TC Jewfolk via JTA) — A suburban Minneapolis synagogue closed in the early hours of Friday morning after receiving what its managing director deemed “a specific threat of violence” — about one day after 32 headstones were knocked down at a nearby Jewish cemetery. Although local officials do not believe at this time…
(JTA) — (New York Jewish Week via JTA) — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last month that beginning Sept. 13, restaurants would have to ask customers for proof that they received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in order for them to dine indoors or else be fined. With the…
(JTA) — If you know any young children or fidgety adults, chances are you’ve seen, heard, or coveted a handheld piece of dimpled silicone known as a “pop-it.” The must-have toy was originally created in the 1970s by an Israeli couple with a penchant for playthings, according to a BBC report that calls the pop-it…
(JTA) — On Sept. 11, 2001, the greatest Holocaust film ever made, before or since, premiered at a festival — and quickly disappeared, largely unnoticed. The film’s cast included Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, David Arquette, Michael Stuhlbarg and Mira Sorvino, and it was written and directed by the acclaimed Jewish actor Tim Blake Nelson. Roger…
(JTA) — Arizona is divesting close to $200 million from Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever, becoming the first state to do so because of the ice cream brand’s decision in July to stop selling its product in the West Bank. The state’s Treasurer Kimberly Yee, a Republican who is running for governor, had sent…
(JTA) — The latest politician to compare government vaccination efforts to Nazi Germany is Josh Mandel, a Jewish Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio. In a video Thursday protesting President Joe Biden’s upcoming requirement that a large portion of private sector employees either get vaccinated against COVID or get tested weekly, Mandel instructed his…
(JTA) — The Taliban, the extremist Islamist movement once famously insular, is ready to build relations with the world — except for Israel. Suhail Shaheen, the spokesman for the movement that assumed control of Afghanistan last month, told Sputnik News that his country is ready to work with the United States and other countries in…
Barnard College told observant Jewish students that the school’s COVID-19 protocols required them to use technology on Rosh Hashanah before quickly reversing course, according to emails obtained by the Forward. Hours before the holiday began Monday evening, an email arrived in Jewish students’ inboxes: “We recognize that how you have practiced religious traditions in the…
(JTA) — Six Palestinian men who were imprisoned in Israel on terrorism charges escaped from their high-security jail, apparently through a crawl space. The men, five Islamic Jihad militants and the Fatah operative Zakaria Zubeidi, who is one of the best-known Palestinians convicted in Israel for terrorism, are the subject of a massive manhunt that…
(JTA) — The world population of those who self-identify as Jews stands at about 15.2 million — an increase of 100,000 over last year. Israel has 6.9 million Jews and the United States has “about 6 million,” according to an estimate by the Jewish Agency for Israel based on work by Sergio Della Pergola, a…
(JTA) — Zebulon Simantov, the last remaining Jew in Afghanistan, has finally left the country for fear of persecution by the Taliban, an Israeli television channel reported. Simantov, the 62-year-old former keeper of Kabul’s lone remaining synagogue, left the country for the United States in recent days with several other exiles, the Kan broadcaster in…
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