(JTA) — Bypassing students’ refusal to register a pro-Israel group at Williams College, administrators gave it an official status. The prestigious Massachusetts institution on Tuesday registered the Williams Initiative for Israel group, or WIFI, Williams’ director of media relations Gregory Shook told FIRE, a non-profit promoting freedom of expression on American campuses. Williams College “had a…
BOSTON (JTA) — A second suspicious fire in less than one week burned Thursday night outside of the home of the rabbi of a Chabad center in suburban Boston. The fires at the Center for Jewish Life Arlington-Belmont are being investigated as hate crimes. The Arlington Police Department and its Fire Department are working with…
(JTA) — Terrorist attacks on Israelis more than halved over March last month, which was the first month in over a year with no casualties among victims. The Israel Security Agency documented 126 attacks in April, compared to 308 in March, the agency said in its monthly report. The previous month with neither fatalities nor…
President Trump issued a full pardon on Wednesday night to Conrad Black, a Canadian newspaper mogul who was convicted in 2007 of fraud and obstruction of justice. Black has said he is a friend of Trump’s and wrote a book last year called “Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other.” Black has also written…
(JTA) — A jogger was arrested for allegedly verbally threatening and spitting on elderly Jews in Florida as they walked home from synagogue. Daniel Valerivich Starikov, 33, of Hollywood, Florida and who is originally from Britain, was arrested on Wednesday on two charges of battery on persons 65 years or older, and three charges of…
BOSTON (JTA) — A fire outside the suburban Boston home of a rabbi that serves at a Chabad center is being investigated as a possible hate crime. Police in Arlington, Massachusetts, have asked for the public’s help in identifying a person caught on a neighbor’s video camera walking away from the home Saturday night around…
(JTA) CLEVELAND (Cleveland Jewish News via JTA) — Eric Fingerhut is leaving his position as president and CEO of Hillel International to take the same posts at the Jewish Federations of North America. Fingerhut, who served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Ohio in 1993 and 1994, will succeed Jerry Silverman. The Times…
(JTA) — A St. Louis teen who writes a daily politics newsletter scooped New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s presidential candidacy announcement. De Blasio officially made the announcement early Thursday morning in a 3-minute video posted on YouTube, and followed it up with an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” But Gabe Fleisher, had already…
(JTA) — A teenager has turned himself in for punching an identifiably Jewish man in the head in Brooklyn. It was one of two attacks on haredi Orthodox men in the largely haredi Williamsburg neighborhood in less than two weeks. Police are withholding the 16-year-old’s name because he is a minor. He turned himself in on…
Former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein’s final speech was a love letter to the Justice Department and the privileges and responsibilities that accompany it. Rosenstein recently stepped down as the department’s second-in-command, and he used his last words to speak highly of its role in society. He spoke about the inspiration he drew from the…
(JTA) — There were 1,799 anti-Semitic hate crimes reported in Germany in 2018 – and nearly 90 percent of the perpetrators had a right-wing extremist background. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer introduced the new official figures on Tuesday. There were 7,701 total reported crimes against those perceived as foreigners in 2018, a 20 percent increase from 2017. Anti-Semitic…
