(JTA) — Israel’s state comptroller has launched an inquiry into the stampede at Mount Meron on Lag b’Omer that killed 45 celebrants, citing prior warnings from his office that the site was unsafe for mass use. “We must now examine and see how this incident should have been prevented,” Haaretz quoted Matanyahu Englman as saying…
(JTA) — A 21-year-old yeshiva student from Argentina was among the 45 people to die in the Lag b’Omer disaster in Israel last week. Abraham Daniel Embon attended Yeshiva Heichal Yitzchak in Jerusalem. His father, Daniel, is a rabbi at Sucath David Community Center, an Orthodox institution in Buenos Aires. Many of Argentina’s leading Jewish…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Joe Biden cited the precedent his vice president’s husband set as a high and the spike in antisemitism as a low in his proclamation marking Jewish American Heritage Month. Biden said this year Americans “recognize two historic firsts, as America saw the Vice President take the oath of office alongside her…
(JTA) — Fox News personality Sean Hannity demanded an apology and a retraction from the Jerusalem Post for reporting on accusations that his use of the word “Bolshevik” to describe Bernie Sanders had antisemitic connotations. “I demand an immediate retraction & apology from the @Jerusalem_Post,” Hannity tweeted Friday evening. “Israel has no greater friend, ally…
BERLIN (JTA) — The city of Dusseldorf has agreed to return an Expressionist painting estimated to be worth $18 million to the heirs of its original Jewish owner this week in a move that could set a precedent for German restitution claims. Kurt Grawi, a Jewish businessman and art collector, fled Nazi Germany for Chile…
(JTA) — Idaho and West Virginia have joined the growing list of states that over the past several years have passed anti-Israel boycott legislation aimed at outlawing businesses that support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. The bills passed this week bring the number of states with similar laws to 33. Idaho’s Anti-Boycott Against Israel…
(JTA) — Gugulethu Moyo’s speech this week at a conference for staff members at American Jewish museums was supposed to help chart an optimistic future for the field. Moyo had planned to talk about how to cultivate leaders from marginalized groups in museums, drawing on her experience as the first Jew of color to head a…
Tragedy has struck before on Lag Ba’Omer at Mt. Meron. On Thursday, at least 45 Jews died and more than 150 were injured in a stampede at the mountain in northern Israel. In 1911, an estimated 10,000 people gathered to sing and dance before the traditional Lag Ba’Omer bonfires on the mountain, not far from…
A teacher at a South Florida Chabad Lubavitch school was in custody for allegedly inappropriately touching a student
At least four U.S. citizens and one Argentine are among the 45 victims of the deadly stampede during Lag Ba’omer festivities in northern Israel overnight Thursday, according to the Foreign Ministry. The White House released a statement Friday saying that the United States was working to confirm reports of U.S. citizens killed or wounded in…
The Union for Reform Judaism has hired a law firm to investigate claims of sexual misconduct and assault after news of a prominent movement leader’s abuse surfaced in the Forward this week, the URJ said in an emailed statement. The law firm Debevoise & Plimpton will conduct the investigation, led by Mary Beth Hogan, the…
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