Jay Sekulow, the Bar Mitzvah boy who converted to Christianity, became one of the nation’s leading evangelical legal advocates and is now co-leading President Trump’s impeachment-defense team, said in an exclusive interview that he has no idea how he was selected for the role other than by “God’s hand.” Sekulow, who along with the White…
This story was originally published on January 17, 2020 by THE CITY When sweeping bail reform was passed last April, state lawmakers allowed for the use of some kind of electronic monitoring for defendants charged with certain felonies. The reforms went into effect at the beginning of the year — and now city criminal justice…
A Jewish college in Michigan enrolled thousands of fictitious and actual Israeli students in a fake study abroad program as part of a scheme to pocket federal financial aid money, court documents unsealed Tuesday claim. The documents, which include a complaint filed by a former employee and whistleblower, describe in detail how the Michigan Jewish…
Posters implying that a major Orthodox Jewish political organization is opposed to requiring students to be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV) have been exposed as forgeries. The fliers, discovered in the Borough Park and Flatbush neighborhoods of Brooklyn on January 14, use the logo of Agudath Israel of America, a lobbying, charitable and social…
A board game called “Secret Hitler” has been a perennial best seller for the past three holiday seasons at Amazon, and organizations are calling for it to be removed from the e-commerce giant. So far, Amazon has not responded. The game is not new to Amazon, as data shows. Instead, it has been a top-100…
The two statements were issued hours apart on Friday, one echoing the other in their desire to end the uneasiness in Montclair, N.J. Rabbis and cantors signed one statement. Rabbis, cantors and African-American clergy signed the other. Neither would have been written if a local black leader had not sideswiped the town with comments at…
This story was originally published on 1/13/2020 by THE CITY. On Christmas Day, Richard Green, head of the Crown Heights Youth Collective, walked toward his rundown white van with a group of cops after giving out toys to kids at Brooklyn’s Kings County Hospital. The Dodge Ram is the last of a fleet that once…
Oniel Gilbourne was arrested in September after allegedly beating a 64-year-old Hasidic rabbi with a paving stone in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. While the community wondered aloud what was in Gilbourne’s mind, he likely heard a drumbeat of acronyms — MMPI-2, MCMI-II, WAIS-R — representing some tests used to assess mental illness. Violent attacks on the…
A man charged with committing anti-Semitic hate crimes is free after a year in jail awaiting trial, due to a new law that bans cash bail for certain offenses. Orthodox Jews say the law, intended to keep poor people from remaining locked up simply because they cannot afford bail, is the wrong move at a…
An American rabbi who fled to Israel ten years ago after being accused of sexually abusing female relatives was arrested by Israeli police on Sunday, according to Israel’s Justice Ministry. Jewish Community Watch, a watchdog organization that tries to combat child sexual abuse within the Orthodox Jewish community, identified that man as Rabbi Gershon Kranczer,…
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. After the Haredi newspaper Di Tzeitung published a photo in 2011 that intentionally deleted then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the editor issued a defense: “In keeping with our religious beliefs, we do not publish photographs of women.” Di Tzeitung’s “we” instigated a firestorm of criticism from the…
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