(JTA) — The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of a Jewish death row inmate in Texas who says his judge was anti-Semitic. Randy Halprin, 42, had been scheduled to be executed on Oct. 10, 2019 but was granted a stay of execution by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals four days before. He…
(JTA) — In the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s Passover will be like no other in living memory. With families kept apart by lockdown orders and millions struggling with uncertain financial futures, the needs are great and the logistics of coordinating Passover aid are daunting. Across America, Jewish federations are finding unconventional ways…
(JTA) — Just before his synagogue in Chicago’s West Rogers Park shut down in response to the current pandemic, Yerachmiel “Rick” Beilis made a siyum, a festive meal celebrating his completion of a tractate of Talmud. Only weeks later, he was dead, struck down by the coronavirus. Beilis, a high-tech worker who died April 4…
(JTA) — The New York state legislature passed a hate crimes act that considers murders committed due to the victims’ race or religion as “acts of domestic terrorism.” The legislation, passed Thursday as part of the state budget, was renamed the Josef Neumann Hate Crimes Domestic Terrorism Act, to honor the victim of a stabbing…
(JTA) — Empire Kosher closed its processing plant in Pennsylvania after two employees tested positive for the coronavirus. But chickens are expected to be available for next week’s Passover seders, Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of the Orthodox Union’s Kosher Division, which supervises the Empire facility, told Crain’s New York on Thursday. The Mifflintown plant, which…
(JTA) — A Jewish day school in New York City has sued a Miami Beach hotel for a refund after canceling a 10-night Passover vacation due to the coronavirus crisis. Students, parents and staff of the Magen David Yeshivah in Brooklyn had rented 621 rooms for about 1,200 guests for the April program at the…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Health Minister Yaakov Litzman has been diagnosed with the coronavirus. The announcement that Litzman and his wife tested positive for the deadly virus came late Wednesday night. Litzman, 71, has mild symptoms, according to reports. He is continuing to work from home, his office told Israeli media. The entire Health Ministry…
With March Madness cancelled by coronavirus, Jewish basketball aficionados lost the chance to cheer underdog qualifier Yeshiva University through the championships. But you can still engage in Jewish bracket betting. On Thursday, homebound members of the University of Missouri Hillel took to Twitter to create a virtual tournament of famous Jews from all time periods…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is working out at the high court’s private gym, with precautions, during the pandemic, her trainer said. “Everybody’s been shut down,” Bryant Johnson told Law 360, a legal news website, this week. “The only reason why I didn’t shut the justice down is because, hey, she…
MONTREAL (JTA) — Jewish Canadians streaming from Florida to outrun the coronavirus and beat the pre-Passover rush unwittingly helped stoke one of the highest virus-positive rates in Quebec province. Cote St. Luc, a Montreal suburb with the densest and most elderly Jewish population in Quebec, reported some of earliest cases and has declared a state…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rabbi Barry Freundel, a once-prominent Modern Orthodox rabbi in Washington, D.C., who was convicted for secretly videotaping women in his synagogue’s mikvah, is set to be released on Wednesday. Amy Zubrensky, an assistant U.S. attorney, alerted Freundel’s victims on Wednesday with an email. Because of “swiftly moving events,” she wrote, “I just…
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