NEW YORK (JTA) — Some 38,000 people work at Jewish community centers across North America, staffing preschools, camps, gyms, classes, activities for seniors and more. Because of the coronavirus crisis, a lot of them are going to lose their jobs. “The cuts are going to be painful and deep,” said Doron Krakow, CEO of the…
(JTA) — The supply chain for kosher for Passover food has not been disrupted by the coronavirus crisis, the Orthodox Union kosher certification agency said. “Despite the long lines and panic shopping taking place at grocery stores around the country, there is an abundance of kosher food available for the upcoming holiday,” both in the…
(JTA) — Police in Lakewood, New Jersey, have arrested at least two Jewish men for hosting weddings with more than 50 people present, in violation of state rules designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy last week banned gatherings of more than 50 people, and on Saturday morning he…
Multiple white supremacists have discussed using the novel coronavirus as a biological weapon, Yahoo News reported on Saturday, citing a document from a division of the Department of Homeland Security. An intelligence brief issued Feb. 24 by the Federal Protective Service, which protects federal government buildings, claimed that “White Racially Motivated Violent Extremists have recently…
Hundreds of Haredi Jews protested in Jerusalem on Sunday against the Israeli government’s strict quarantine measures, including the closure of schools and yeshivas. Protesters in the Haredi neighborhood of Mea Shearim threw rocks at police officers who had come to close businesses that had stayed open despite government orders, the Times of Israel reported. Some…
The rabbinic leader of the Kiryas Joel branch of Satmar Hasidism, one of the largest sects of Haredi Orthodox Judaism in the world, has tested positive for coronavirus. Grand Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday after being in isolation for a week. Ezra Friedlander, a Hasidic lobbyist with close ties to the…
A group of at least 200 young men gathered Friday night to pray outside 770 Eastern Parkway, the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters, despite the announcement earlier that day by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo that nonessential gatherings of any size were banned as part of a broader effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. A uniformed…
(JTA) — Jewish community leaders in Antwerp are predicting that the coronavirus will infect 85% of its members — a significantly higher rate than the one projected for Belgium’s population. The projection, which was compiled last week and obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, also predicts that the coming weeks will see at least 550…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump nominated Kenneth Weinstein, a prominent Jewish conservative thinker, to be ambassador to Japan. Weinstein is the president of the Hudson Institute, a conservative Washington, D.C., think tank. He also has been deeply involved in the Washington-area Jewish community. In his writings, he focuses on the Middle East and Europe….
Couples who are marrying amid coronavirus have had to slash their guest lists. Nowhere is this trend more visible than Crown Heights, the Brooklyn neighborhood that’s the headquarters of the global Chabad-Lubavitch movement. As couple got married today in Crown Heights. Because no one could come to their wedding, they instead drove around the neighborhood…
More than 100 New York Jewish organizations and leaders, including dozens of rabbis, signed a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo urging him not to undo the state’s bail reform law. “To undo these measures now, returning us to jailing hundreds or thousands of presumptively innocent New Yorkers who have not been convicted or had a…
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