NEW YORK (JTA) — Leading Orthodox Jewish groups have come out firmly against shared Passover meals, two days before the holiday begins and two weeks after the groups left open the possibility of communal seders under narrow circumstances. “Everyone must plan to celebrate Pesach where they are currently,” reads the guidance issued Monday by a…
(JTA) — Frida Wattenberg was too young to get a driver’s license when the Nazis invaded her native France in 1940. But three years later, at the age of 19, she was already risking her life by helping to drive Jewish children out of occupied France into neutral Switzerland. Wattenberg died in Paris on April…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. reassured Jewish Democrats that they would be happy with the next party platform. “We want to make sure that our platform, which is our values statement of our party, is a platform that you can be proud of, a platform that, again, reaffirms…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel said that if Israel invents a vaccine for the coronavirus those who reject normalization with Israel by boycotting it can still be given the vaccine. Omar Barghouti made the comments in a Facebook live Arabic-language webinar Sunday titled “BDS and Anti-normalization:…
(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…
