Judge Merrick Garland is being considered for attorney general by President-elect Joe Biden, according to an NPR report. Garland, who currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama but the Republican-led Senate refused to hold a vote on his nomination….
(JTA) — A broad coalition of Jewish studies scholars and directors of Jewish and Holocaust museums has signed a petition opposing the proposed appointment of Effi Eitam, a far-right Israeli politician, to chair Israel’s Holocaust museum. The petition, which has 750 signers, is the latest protest against Eitam. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies…
Mike Pompeo became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit both an Israeli settlement in the West Bank and the Golan Heights, a disputed area on Israel’s border with Syria that the Trump administration has recognized as part of Israel. At a news conference Thursday in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Pompeo…
President-elect Joe Biden is considering appointing Diane Yentel, a housing policy expert with two decades of experience in the field, as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, according to the Real Deal. Yentel, leads the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), a progressive housing policy nonprofit established in 1974 in Washington, D.C. Yentel previously worked…
(JTA) — President Donald Trump has nominated Darren Beattie, a former White House speechwriter who attended a white supremacist conference, to a government commission that monitors Holocaust sites. Beattie, who identifies on Twitter as a “proud Jew,” attended a conference of the H.L. Mencken Club in 2016. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Trump White House is throwing an in-person Hanukkah party, one of a series of recent events the administration has held despite coronavirus concerns. The reception will be held Dec. 9 in the afternoon, a day before the holiday’s first candle lighting, according to an invitation obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency….
While New York City public schools are closing due to the city reaching an average 3% positivity rate over the last seven days, private schools, including Jewish day schools and yeshivas, are not being asked to comply with the city’s ruling — yet. The city and state both have different data for the seven-day average…
There’s lots to do in Tel Aviv. Shop in the Shuk HaCarmel market, take a stroll along Jaffa’s pier, or, according to a recent ad by the United Arab Emirates’ national airline, Etihad, visit the Second Temple. The video, which was quickly removed by the airline, features an Etihad stewardess boasting about Tel Aviv’s notable…
Ivanka Trump invited her 10 million Twitter followers to follow her to Parler, an app that’s been billed as an alternative to Twitter by right-wing figures who feel they are being censored on mainstream social media. Follow me on Parler! pic.twitter.com/BiQwZRSlq0 — Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) November 17, 2020 “Parler has attracted a range of right-wing…
Agudath Israel, the largest ultra-Orthodox umbrella group in the United States, has filed an injunction with the U.S. Supreme Court to block Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s October orders restricting attendance at houses of worship to 10 or 25, depending on local coronavirus infectivity rates. Agudath Israel argues that the governor’s restriction specifically targets the Jewish community….
(JTA) — President-elect Joe Biden assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call Tuesday that the ties between their countries would remain strong. “The president-elect noted that he expects to work closely with the prime minister to address the many challenges confronting our countries,” Biden’s transition team said in a statement following the…
