Just three months before the presidential election, a pair young Jewish political activists formed the Jewish Unity Political Action Committee. It raised all of $31,000, and every cent of it was spent supporting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Led by the co-founders, Isabel Baer of Westchester, N.Y. and Ethan Wolf of Deerfield, Ill., the group…
This winter, a lot of observant Jews are going to become the frozen chosen. Here’s how Dr. Moshe Cohn, who lives in the Orthodox hub of Teaneck, N.J., got dressed for weekday prayers on a recent cold day: He wrapped his tefillin, the ritual leather straps, around his arm and head. Then he put on…
Nobody knew what to call me either. Just over 30 years ago, I walked into a synagogue in Venice, California, met the rabbi, Naomi Levy, and felt my heart pound. A year-and-a-half later, we were married. She was my Kamala. Back then, women rabbis weren’t as scarce as Black-Indian female Vice Presidents-elect, but they weren’t…
In the days after the 2020 presidential election, Auschwitz survivor Irene Fogel-Weiss grew increasingly despondent. “I had worried so much before the election. I was happy to find out that maybe I was wrong and that I had overreacted, but now I can’t help but feel alarmed,” said Fogel-Weiss, a survivor from the Czech town…
So, in the wake of Election Day, is Florida still good for the Jews – at least those who call themselves liberal? Are lefty bubbies and retired blue Boomers safe in their South Florida shtetls? On Nov. 3, Trump carried the state by nearly 400,000 votes. Republicans also defeated Democrats down the ballot in the…
It began with books. Rabbi Michael Siegel gave Pastor Chris Harris a copy of Abraham Joshua Heschel’s “The Sabbath,” and “Lovesong,” by Julius Lester. Harris sent Siegel Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow.” They had met, about 10 years ago, after Siegel, the longtime senior rabbi at the Conservative Anshe Emet synagogue on Chicago’s North…
In the 1970s, Ron Coleman was growing up ina solidly Democratic household and attending a Jewish-socialist summer camp in upstate New York. These days, he is part of President Donald Trump campaign’s legal team in Pennsylvania looking to overturn the election results. Coleman has also been in the news for representing the far-right Proud Boys…
Supporters and friends of Jonathan Pollard, the American Jew who served Israel as a spy, are hoping that before he leaves office, President Donald Trump will enable Pollard to emigrate to the Jewish state by commuting his sentence or pardoning him. Pollard pleaded guilty in 1986 to conspiracy to commit espionage in connection with providing…
Jerusalem City Hall and the Israel Lands Authority have been identifying and expediting approval of building plans of construction beyond the Green Line over the next two months, to prevent them from being stopped once Joe Biden enters the White House in January. Once the administration in Washington changes, the municipality and the Lands Authority…
(JTA) — Five years ago, a plea to rescue a centuries-old synagogue in Ostroh, Ukraine, struck a chord with Hryhoriy Arshynov, a lifelong Jewish resident of the city four hours west of Kyiv. Damaged during the Holocaust, the magnificent 17th-century Maharsha synagogue was used as a warehouse under Soviet rule and endured decades of neglect….
This story was updated to reflect breaking news. Deni Avdija, a 6’9” forward for Maccabi Tel Aviv, was selected ninth overall by the Washington Wizards at NBA Draft 2020, becoming the highest-drafted Israeli player ever and just the second Israeli player to be drafted in the first round of the NBA Draft. Avdija told a…
