TEL AVIV (JTA) — On a blistering summer day a few years ago, journalist Joshua Mitnick and his Palestinian translator, Nuha Musleh, were out reporting a story about an East Jerusalem village. The Palestinian residents were protesting the Israeli security barrier that was being built there, cutting them off from the rest of the city. …
Former Trump administration officials are launching a new faith-based outreach effort to push back at what Republicans describe as an “anti-faith agenda” by the Biden administration. Named the National Faith Advisory Board, the coalition is a replica of the White House’s Faith and Opportunity Initiative — created by former President Donald Trump in 2018 and…
(JTA) — At least 150 child sex abuse lawsuits were filed against Jewish institutions in New York over the past two years under a special law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations barring old claims, according to an analysis of the New York court system by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. This look-back window for…
(JTA) — Jewish American Ian Seidenfeld upset the world No. 1 to win gold in table tennis at the Tokyo Paralympics. The 20-year-old has now followed the footsteps of his father Mitchell, a four-time Paralympic table tennis medalist who won gold in Barcelona in 1992. The elder Seidenfeld now coaches the Team USA Paralympics table…
(JTA) — California’s parole board recommended the release of Sirhan Sirhan, the Jerusalem-born assassin who changed history when he shot to death Robert Kennedy in 1968 just as he appeared set to secure the Democratic presidential nomination. The board said Friday that Sirhan, 77, was repentant and unlikely to re-offend. Sirhan’s death sentence was commuted…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In his first meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, President Joe Biden said that although he prefers diplomatic means to keep Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, he is not afraid to “turn to other options” on the issue. The pledge captured what both men, who are in varying degrees of…
(JTA) — Zebulon Simantov, Afghanistan’s last Jew, has not left Kabul, despite the best efforts of some Jewish figures and organizations. One of them was Moshe Margaraten, a haredi Orthodox fixer whose passion is bringing Jews out of danger. Margareten paid Moti Kahana, an Israeli-American businessman who helped extract people from war-torn Syria, to be…
(JTA) — In his first Paralympic Games, 21-year-old Israeli swimmer Mark Malyar has made history: He won gold for Team Israel and set a new world record in the men’s 200-meter individual medley (SM7) category. Malyar swam the race in a time of 2:29.01. The SM7 category includes swimmers who have limited leg function, or…
MADRID (JTA) — After taking criticism from several Holocaust scholars and Jewish organizations, a Spanish university has canceled a course titled “Auschwitz/Gaza: A Testing Ground for Comparative Literature,” according to the European Jewish Congress. The course at the University of of Santiago of de Compostela in Galicia trivialized the Holocaust by comparing it to the…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The highly-anticipated first meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and President Joe Biden will have to wait — but so far it’s not canceled in the wake of a brewing Middle East conflict. After news broke of the explosions outside Kabul’s airport that killed at least 12 U.S. troops, the White…
An altercation at a Florida resort is now being investigated as an enhanced antisemitic hate crime by the Aventura Police Department. Alain Altit, an Orthodox man and father of six, was standing by the pool when he overheard a guest call a woman a “dirty Jew.” When he tried to intervene to defend the woman,…
