(JTA) — Nina Abrahams and Amit Bigler knew the coronavirus pandemic would have an impact on their wedding, which was already taking place in Israel, far from their home in New York. But they didn’t expect to have their guest list whittle down from 330 to about 20 — and for those 20 guests to…
(JTA) — The respected rapper and producer Jay Electronica — a friend of Louis Farrakhan — released his debut album on Friday and it’s already causing controversy. On the “Ghost of Soulja Slim” track, about a late rapper friend, Electronica raps in the second verse: “And I bet you a Rothschild I get a bang…
A month after Amazon removed several white nationalist and anti-Semitic items from its website, the online retailer has stopped selling a most editions of the most notorious anti-Semitic screed of the 20th century: Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.” The move comes after a decades-long push by Holocaust memorial organizations, The Guardian reported. Amazon alerted booksellers of…
NEW YORK (JTA) — The Italian people’s first reaction to the coronavirus was to have a good laugh. Not because they didn’t believe the virus was a real issue, but because that’s just how we like to process big changes in my home country. By Feb. 23, there were 152 confirmed cases in Italy. Yet many…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Figuring “the end of the world is near” because of the coronavirus, an Israeli man is trying to make amends by returning an archaeological artifact he took 15 years ago. It was a 2,000-year-old ballista stone, ancient ammunition, that he removed from the Jerusalem Walls National Park in the City of David…
(JTA) — At least 100 people have tested positive for the new coronavirus in Borough Park, a Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn. This story has been updated here. The number was confirmed by an official at Asisa, an urgent care clinic in the New York City neighborhood that caters to the Hasidic community. This gives me…
(JTA) — Michele Sciama, a former secretary-general of the Jewish Community of Milan, has died of the coronavirus. Sciama, known to his friends and family as Micky, was 79 when he died Monday morning. He is survived by his wife, Viviane, and two daughters, Dalia and Stefania, the Italian-Jewish Moked news site wrote in an…
Following the lead of cities in Italy, France, and Spain, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Sunday that in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus, New York will limit restaurants to takeout and delivery starting on March 17. “Social distancing,” the practice of limiting contact with others in order to…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Senior rabbinic leaders of the haredi Orthodox community in Israel announced that schools and yeshivas will remain open, but they have limited class sizes to ten students to adhere to Ministry of Health directives. The announcement was made in a letter published Monday morning that was signed by Rabbis Chaim Kanievsky and…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The rabbi of the Western Wall and other holy sites, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, called on worshippers not to kiss the stones to avoid spreading the coronavirus. The request came after consultations between Rabinowitz and the Health Ministry about required hygiene practices, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation said in a statement on Monday….
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will give Benny Gantz the task of forming a new government, his office said Sunday. Rivlin met Sunday with the heads of all the parties that won seats in Israel’s parliament in its last election earlier this month. At the end of the consultations, which were broadcast nationally,…
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