New regulations issued by New York state’s education department on Tuesday will require education authorities to review the curricula of every Hasidic yeshiva in the state, along with those of all other private schools. The regulations come years into a growing controversy over whether New York’s Hasidic yeshivas are providing education that is substantially equivalent…
Students for Justice in Palestine, the biggest pro-Palestinian student movement in the country, is holding its annual conference this weekend. It will convene from November 16-18 on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles — which has one of the largest Jewish student populations in the country. Predictably, controversy has ensued. National Jewish…
Yehuda Webster has a routine when it comes to Torahs. Just about every month, he picks up a rented Torah in a plastic sleeve from J. Levine Books and Judaica in Manhattan. He uses the Torahs for the bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies he arranges through an organization he founded, for families that don’t belong…
Just weeks after the worst anti-Semitic massacre in U.S. history, a new report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation seemed to confirm American Jews’ worst fears: Hate crimes targeting Jews were way up in 2017. Jews in the U.S. are suffering an uneasy autumn, following a massacre in a Pittsburgh synagogue in which 11 Jews…
Updated November 13 Tuesday marked the start of “freshman orientation” in Washington, D.C., where new members of Congress arrived to meet their colleagues and learn how the House and Senate actually work. Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minneapolis and one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, quickly met up with some of…
Rabbi Rebecca Einstein Schorr said her local Women’s March in 2017 was “exhilarating” and “amazing” — a precious memory, until she learned that the march’s national leaders had met with and praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. They also refused to repudiate him, despite his anti-Semitic and homophobic remarks. Schorr will not be attending…
Shabbat was approaching, but Rabbi Jeffrey Myers didn’t have time to write his Saturday morning sermon. And this wasn’t just any Shabbat — it was the first Shabbat after the shooting that killed seven of his congregants, and four others. But on Friday afternoon, he officiated at a funeral. Then he was attending a shiva…
Cecil. David. Rose. Joyce. Sylvan. Bernice. Last Saturday, those six, along with seven other worshippers killed inside the Tree of Life synagogue building on October 27, became part of the long list of Jewish martyrs. But before that, they were six friendly faces that the middle schoolers of nearby Community Day School knew from attending…
Benjamin Ginsburg spent Wednesday night just like he does every other week, dancing with friends to live country music at the Borderline Bar & Grill. He heard two loud bangs ring out, but didn’t realize what was happening. An instant later, he dove for his life as chaos enveloped the dance hall in Thousand Oaks,…
Rashida Tlaib, who won her Detroit-area House of Representatives race on Tuesday, is a history maker in more ways than one. Not only is she the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, she also supports cutting military aid to Israel and the controversial boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. Tlaib cruised her way to Washington,…
In Tuesday evening’s New York state Senate elections, there were winners and there were losers. And there was Simcha. Democrats won the chamber. Republicans lost it. And Simcha Felder, who represents the Orthodox Brooklyn neighborhoods of Boro Park and Midwood, lost his status as the most powerful man in New York state politics. With Democrats…
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