The New York City Council has scrapped a $1 million initiative to prevent hate crimes from its upcoming annual budget. The budget cuts, originally reported by Next City, targeted funding for the Hate Crimes Prevention Initiative in the year-old Office of Hate Crimes Prevention. Last year, the $1 million had been divided up among 15…
The first time I received an e-mail decrying the outbreaks of pogroms in Los Angeles, I read as far as the all-caps title,”KRISTALLNACHT 2020 – DOES ANYONE CARE?” and no further. The second time, I read down to the part where the writer, Rabbi Yakov Saacks of The Chai Center in Dix Hills, compared the…
After a Chicago Tribune columnist published a diatribe against George Soros that invoked classic anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, the newspaper will rearrange its presentation to more clearly distinguish between opinion writing and reported news. The Tribune’s editor-in-chief, Colin McMahon, announced on Monday that the work of columnists like John Kass, who took aim at Soros in…
The last light of sunset lingered as Lena August walked down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena after celebrating her mother’s birthday at a Mexican restaurant. As she approached her car, she noticed a law enforcement vehicle double-parked next to hers. As soon as she turned the ignition, the glare of police lights flashed in her eyes….
In the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic and historic protests over systemic racism in American society, three New York electoral districts with large Jewish communities are getting new political representation for the first time in well over a generation. The heavily Jewish Riverdale section of the Bronx as well as Rockland and Westchester Counties are…
Protesters escaping clouds of tear gas and dodging flash-bang grenades. Rifle-wielding Federal agents emerging from unmarked vans to snatch protesters off the streets and whisk them away. A Navy veteran seeking answers from unidentified agents ended up beaten and left with a broken hand. A line of mothers in street clothes wearing cycling helmetsthat are…
The victory of an activist over a long-serving state politician might signal that there’s more support, even in a devout Brooklyn district, for secular education in religious schools than suspected. Community organizer Emily Gallagher, 36, narrowly beat Assemblyman Joe Lentol, 77, by an estimated 400 to 600 votes in the Democratic primary in the 50th…
Lily Gray, a college senior from Minnesota, wants her generation to turn out at polling stations this November – not just as voters, but also as election day poll workers. “When younger people think of civic engagement, all they think about is voting, but really there’s a vast variety of opportunities that they can do,”…
Facing mounting pressure from district families, a Secaucus, N.J., high school announced it will reprint a yearbook that many believe contains an Neo-Nazi hate symbol. But some students and parents at High Tech High School say the do-over isn’t enough. Instead, they’re frustrated by what they see as the district’s refusal to address the inclusion…
As California inches closer to creating a statewide Ethnic Studies curriculum for public schools, Jewish groups say their cultural history and experiences are being left out. As approval deadlines approach for finalizing a model early next year, advocates for the Jewish story are largely on the fringe and playing defense. With the four major study…
There’s a new song making the rounds in the Jewish corner of TikTok, the colorful video-based social media platform so beloved by tweens, teens and people in their twenties: Nicki Minaj rapping over the Hora. Since the remix was first published on the TikTok in June, the Jews of “Jewish TikTok” — a community dominated…
