RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) – At 91, Holocaust survivor Andor Stern no longer fears the Nazis who imprisoned him in Auschwitz. Living in his native Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest metro area of nearly 25 million, what scares him today are burglars – his modest house has been broken into twice in the city where he…
The holidays are coming, a chill settled across much of America this week, and impeachment is going public. It’s time to ask the question we’ve all been wondering about, now that several reliable news organizations have corroborated that President Donald Trump planned to give Ukraine hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid if, and…
Hate crimes, including anti-Semitic ones, were more violent in 2018, with assaults targeting Jews at an all-time high, according to the FBI’s annual hate crime report, released Tuesday. In general, assaults and other violent attacks based on bias reached a 16-year high, although the total number of bias-motivated incidents — a broader category that includes…
Twitter and other social media forums are abuzz with worry and anger about two anti-Semitic incidents in New York City: the smashing of windows at a girl’s yeshiva, and the scrawling of swastikas and a message — “Kill all Jews” — on a Manhattan subway station wall. These two incidents, which happened between Friday night…
The 1,000-year-old Hebrew Bible that went on public view for the first time last week would not exist at all, or have survived this long, without the obsessive efforts of two obscure Jewish groups: the Masoretes and the Karaites. The Masoretes were a mysterious group of scholar-scribes, who starting in the Sixth Century worked to…
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is reportedly preparing to run in the Democratic presidential primary, after floating and then dropping the idea earlier this year. Here’s a brief overview of some aspects of his Jewish record and background. He had a Jewish upbringing: Bloomberg grew up in Medford, Massachusetts, the son of William,…
If you feel your eyes watching the exit during Shabbat services, if you see danger lurking at Jewish celebrations and events, if you’ve felt the metallic cold of a Magen David as you tuck it into your shirt “just in case,” you’re not alone. In a recent survey of American Jews by the American Jewish…
A couple hundred bucks can get you a variety of things on Goodwill’s online store: Tory Burch boots; a metal detector; a Burberry duffle; a collection of Furbies. Oh, and a Torah. Until Tuesday, you could bid for a scroll — sacred, if tattered — at ShopGoodwill.com. First listed at $200, bidders quickly pushed the…
On Election Day, New York City provides translation services for widely spoken languages, like Spanish and Mandarin. But Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has also been working recently to improve ballot box accessibility more widely — even for speakers of tongues that are less well known, like the mame loshen, or mother tongue, of Ashkenazi…
In 1842, members of one of the first synagogues in Maryland broke away after a rebuke from their rabbi, an Orthodox hardliner who was deeply troubled by secularism among American Jews. He decried their use of Masonic rituals at Jewish funerals — in effect, idol worship. So they formed their own synagogue, Har Sinai Congregation….
(JTA) — As the old saying sort of goes, two Jews, three opinions. Add one headache for the Taliban. Meet Zabulon Simentov, 66, who is believed to be the last remaining Jew in Afghanistan. Emran Feroz recently profiled Simentov for Foreign Policy and uncovered some incredible stories about the feisty Afghan — including that the…
100% of profits support our journalism
