The first thing I noticed about Pascale Bercovitch was her energy. She all but glowed, although she said she was exhausted from trying to adapt to Tokyo time in advance of her flight to the 2020 Paralympics, which departed just a few hours after we spoke by video chat. Bercovitch is competing as a kayaker…
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — When Tom Tugend was 13 years old, he received news not uncommon for a teenager: His family was moving. His father, a respected physician, had taken a new job. During the taxi ride to the airport, Tugend looked out at his beloved hometown. All around him were trees and poles covered…
(JTA) — Weeks after the Olympics came to a close, Tokyo is filled again with athletes, for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. Among them are dozens of Jewish athletes looking to medal in an array of sports. The Paralympics, founded by the late German-Jewish doctor Ludwig Guttman, are for athletes with physical disabilities. Some 4,500 athletes…
(JTA) — This article originally appeared on Alma. The 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games open on Tuesday. Much like the Olympic Games in the Japanese capital, there are plenty of Jewish athletes to support, like emerging track and field star Ezra Frech and veteran swimmer Matt Levy. But unlike the Olympic Games, the Paralympics have an…
Funerals during the pandemic are tough enough, with many bereaved families unable to invite more than a handful of relatives for fear of spreading COVID-19. But now, a new obstacle challenges mourners: a national shortage of headstones. Jewish families who held small funerals were hoping to have more normal unveilings a year later. But now…
The family of a rabbi who made his San Diego-area synagogue the center of a sprawling network of tax fraud has regained control of the synagogue’s finances, state filings show, replacing a board that had sought to bring accountability to the institution. For decades, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein had exploited a lack of oversight at Chabad…
Around the world, black-and-white stickers have been popping up on lampposts and bus stops. “The Nazis had a phrase that covered all abuses of the state: It’s for your safety,” one says in blocky black letters. “People in 1940s Germany didn’t realize they’d been brainwashed by the media and government either,” screams another in all-caps….
Updated Aug. 25, 2021 at 11 a.m. California’s $276 million recall election on Sept. 14 consists of two questions. The first is, essentially, “Should Gov. Gavin Newsom be given the heave-ho?” The second asks who should replace him, with 46 people on the ballot seeking to do just that. At least three of the candidates…
Despite their deep differences on major diplomatic questions, President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett are hoping to set a new tone for U.S.-Israeli relations at the White House Thursday, their first meeting since each took office. They disagree on returning to the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and China, but…
MADRID (JTA) — Bernardo Pulido spent over $29,000 on genealogical documentation, Jewish heritage certificates, attorney fees and trips to Spain to prove his Sephardic heritage. But last month, like so many others attempting to gain Spanish citizenship through a 2015 law promising to right the wrongs of the Spanish Inquisition that expelled Jews, Pulido received…
Eight years ago, Todd Kaminsky went cross country seeking some advice from his great uncle, the comedian Mel Brooks. Then an assistant U.S. attorney in New York’s Eastern District, Kaminsky was considering running for elected office and wanted to know what Brooks, the younger brother of his grandfather Lenny Kaminsky, thought of the idea. Brooks,…
