(Philadelphia Jewish Exponent via JTA) – Rabbi Simeon “Shim” Maslin, a national leader in the Reform movement who pushed Reform Jews to embrace lifecycle traditions and a more substantive interpretation of mitzvah, died from cancer on Jan. 29. He was 90. Maslin was the senior rabbi at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania,…
(JTA) — An Arizona state senator wanted to make it clear that she reviled the antisemitism of one of her colleagues, so she shared an image of the cast of the Israeli family drama, “Shtisel.” Kelly Townsend, a Republican, no longer wants the endorsement of her colleague, Wendy Rogers, after Rogers drew national attention for…
(JTA) — Israeli-Canadian hockey player Eliezer Sherbatov detailed his harrowing experience fleeing Ukraine as war broke out last week on Instagram and in an emotional interview with Canada’s The Sports Network. Sherbatov, a longtime captain of Israel’s national hockey team, made headlines in 2020 when he joined a Polish team that plays in Oswiecim, or…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — On President Donald Trump’s last day in office, Roger Stone was furious that his old friend declined to pardon a bevy of Stone’s associates and fellow travelers. The longtime political trickster blamed Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and he had a plan. “In two weeks he’s moving to Miami,” Stone told Enrique Alejandro, his…
(JTA) — A best-selling children’s novel that the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum has said “should be avoided by anyone who studies or teaches about the history of the Holocaust” is getting a sequel. John Boyne, the Irish author of “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” announced Wednesday that he would be publishing a follow-up to…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s newly formed political action committee released its first list of 120 congressional endorses, and more than a quarter of them are Republicans who voted against certifying Joe Biden as president. AIPAC defended the inclusion of the 37 Republicans who would not certify Biden, noting its status…
Ken Duberstein, believed to be the first of several Jewish Americans to serve as the White House chief of staff, died on Wednesday at the age of 77. Duberstein, a Brooklyn native, served former President Ronald Regan in the last year of his second term. He previously worked as an assistant to the president for…
A Ukrainian Jewish soccer player who planned to take his talents to Israel
(JTA) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s direct and emotional appeal to the world’s Jews on Wednesday marked something of a departure for him. Before and during Russia’s war on his country, Zelenskyy had spoken plainly to civilians on both sides of the conflict, but he hadn’t directly addressed those outside the country. And for his…
(JTA) — (New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Thirty-five New York politicians have signed onto a letter from The Blue Card, a nonprofit helping Holocaust survivors, asking Optimum Cable to drop Russian TV stations that the letter says are spreading “pro-Putin propaganda.” “We were shocked to learn that Optimum TV’s Russian cable package includes…
(JTA) — Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Jewish Ukrainian president under siege, said he was moved by pictures of Israelis standing in solidarity with his country during the Russian invasion — but not so much the Israeli leadership. “I saw a beautiful picture today,” he said in remarks translated into Hebrew by YNet, the Israeli news outlet…
