WASHINGTON (JTA) — A Minnesota congresswoman called AIPAC a “hate group” inciting against her after the Israel lobby featured her in an attack ad. “AIPAC claims to be a bipartisan organization, but its use of hate speech actually makes it a hate group,” U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, a Democrat, said Wednesday in a statement. “By…
(JTA) — A group of undergraduate students at Harvard University has formed what they call an “anti-Zionist Jewish organization” that supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. The Harvard Jewish Coalition for Peace introduced itself in a public statement posted Monday on Facebook as “a new organization founded in the idea that Jewish…
(JTA) — The presidents of Yeshiva University’s seven student councils have abstained from voting on whether or not to approve an LGBTQ club. The fate of the YU Alliance as an official campus organization will be left to the administration, The Commentator student newspaper reported. In a statement emailed to the student body, the presidents…
(JTA) — A student government committee at the University of California, Berkeley, voted down a resolution condemning a display by a pro-Palestinian student group. The Associated Students of the University of California Senate’s University and External Affairs Committee met on Monday night to discuss the resolution presented by a Jewish student senator, Milton Zerman. The…
A member of the board of directors of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research has resigned, and another has been removed from the organization’s website, amid controversy over the organization’s decision to lay off its library staff. YIVO, the world’s preeminent center for the study of Yiddish and its history and culture, laid off all…
The UN human rights office released Wednesday a long-anticipated report which names companies with ties to Israeli West Bank settlements. Full list of companies below. The Office of the HCHR said it has reasonable grounds to believe that 112 business entities have ties to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, 94 based in Israel, and…
(JTA) — A crowdfunding campaign spearheaded by an Orthodox community in Brooklyn raised some $48,000 for the family of the police officer killed in the Jersey City attacks that also left three dead at a kosher market in the city. A check was presented Tuesday to the widow and five children of Det. Joseph Seals…
(JTA) — Jussie Smollett, the “Empire” actor who had charges dropped last year for lying to police about a racist and homophobic attack, has been indicted by a special prosecutor on the same charges. The special prosecutor, Dan Webb, said in a statement Tuesday that Smollett faces six felony counts of disorderly conduct over four…
The NYPD will begin to record non-criminal bias incidents in a data tracking system, part of an upgrade of the complaint reporting system discussed in a recent city council hearing. During a Committee on Public Safety hearing Monday, NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael LiPetri indicated that the department will begin recording non-criminal bias…
Aaron Zelinsky, a synagogue board member and former clerk for the Israel Supreme Court, resigned from the case against former Trump ally Roger Stone on Tuesday, apparently in protest against the Department of Justice intervening in their recommendations for Stone’s sentencing. Stone was indicted by the team of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and convicted in…
(JTA) — The U.S. government must expedite the resettlement applications of over 300 refugees affected by the Trump administration’s 2017 ban as part of an agreement settling a lawsuit by Jewish groups and others. HIAS, the Jewish immigration advocacy group, had brought the suit on behalf of its partners, Jewish Family Service of Seattle and…
