Eytan Stibbe, the former Israeli Air Force pilot who is self-funding a trip into space aboard SpaceX’s Axiom Mission 1 in January, has chosen a particularly apt piece of Jewish heritage to accompany him: a coin from the era of the Bar Kochba revolt, bearing the name of its leader, Shimon Bar Kochba. Bar Kochba…
(JTA) — Camila Giorgi won the National Bank Open, Canada’s most prestigious tennis tournament, this week, and it was a milestone for two reasons. First, it was the first major title win in the 29-year-old’s career, and a huge upset — she was ranked 71st in the world before beating No. 6 Karolina Pliskova in…
(JTA) — Amid the Taliban’s total takeover of Afghanistan this week, some had specific concerns about one person: that country’s last remaining Jew, 62-year-old Zebulun Simantov. Simantov, who has in recent years lived in Kabul’s only synagogue, said earlier this year that he would leave before the Taliban arrived, possibly for Israel. He has also…
(JTA) — A 19-year-old student at an Orthodox yeshiva in Denver was shot and killed while standing outside his school building early Wednesday morning, according to reports in the local and Orthodox media. The shooting came shortly after two attempted carjackings near Yeshiva Toras Chaim. “At this time, it does not appear that it was…
(JTA) — When the federal government moved up the deadline to complete the 2020 U.S. Census to the middle of the High Holidays last year, many Orthodox Jews feared that the local community would not be fully counted. “It’s something that’s very concerning to us as a community,” Rabbi Avi Greenstein, executive director of the Boro…
Ritchie Torres, a first-term Democratic congressman from New York, suggested on Tuesday that the Black-Jewish alliance could save his party from being overtaken by the far-left progressive movement in the 2022 midterm elections. Torres, who describes himself as the embodiment of a pro-Israel progressive, pointed to the recent election in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District where…
(JTA) –Stanley Aronowitz, a longtime activist and theorist who was hugely influential in the labor and civil rights movements, has died at 88. His daughter, Kim O’Connell, posted on Facebook after midnight Tuesday about her father’s passing. “He was the funniest person I’ve ever met,” O’Connell wrote. “He ran full speed down the street with…
(JTA) — Days after allegations of sexual abuse by former Jewish youth program participants appeared in the media, the Conservative movement announced it would implement new safety measures and investigate how program officials have handled complaints. In the announcement, the CEO of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, said the reports of…
(JTA) — Lithuania’s government has shelved controversial plans to build a flashy conference center on what used to be a Jewish cemetery in the capital city of Vilnius because of how the COVID-19 pandemic “has changed the conference tourism market and environment.” The Chancellery of the Government of Lithuania made the statement to the news…
(JTA) — A woman is suing Bob Dylan for sexually abusing her when she was 12 under a New York law that temporarily lifted limitations on such lawsuits. The woman, identified in court documents as JC, says the Jewish rock star groomed and exploited her in his room at the Chelsea Hotel over six weeks…
(JTA) — Two major humanitarian crises are eliciting the involvement of Jewish aid organizations, although it is unclear whether much can be done from afar to support Afghans now that the Taliban has retaken their country. An earthquake struck Haiti early Saturday, killing nearly 1,300 with the death toll likely to rise. Meanwhile, a tropical…
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