When the Senate took on immigration reform in 2006, it was a Jewish Republican who led the way to approving a comprehensive bill that would provide millions of undocumented immigrants with a path to citizenship. The late Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania explained that his decision was guided by his own experience, as the son of…
This advocacy group believes same-sex couples should not be allowed to adopt. It says Vice President Mike Pence is a role model because he won’t dine alone with a woman other than his wife. It applauds legislation outlawing abortion after 20 weeks gestation, on the grounds that the “unborn child” can feel “fetal pain.” It’s…
On election night 2016, Barbara Goldberg Goldman and fellow Jewish Democrats gathered to follow the results. Champagne bottles were chilling, and everything was ready for the celebration to start as soon as the presidential election was called for Hillary Clinton. One year and one day later, the same group got together, but for a very…
“What’s in it for you?” the 30-second video advertisement asks as the screen fills with images of everyday Americans: a farmer, factory workers, a young African-American woman. “The Republican tax cut saves middle-class families more than $1,200 a year,” the ad states, as faces continue to flash on the screen: a woman clocking in as…
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are the glamorous Jewish power couple of the Trump White House. Ivanka the picture-perfect daughter of the president is a life-style guru, fashion retailer and Jew-by-choice. Husband Jared, raised Orthodox, now a trusted member of the Trump inner circle, is himself the son of a billionaire real estate developer Charles…
Over the past two years, Nazis and other white supremacists have been going through a series of dramatic makeovers. They’ve cast off the cloak of the Ku Klux Klan and emerged in the guise of the frat boy next door, in polo shirts and khakis. They dubbed themselves the “alt-right” and tried to join the…
In blunt remarks Sunday night, Sheldon Adelson erased any doubt about his intentions for the Israeli-American Council, the nationwide group into which he has pumped more than $10 million over the past three years: He’s building a harder-line alternative to AIPAC. Addressing the crowd after dinner at the IAC’s annual convention in Washington, D.C., Adelson…
A vicious underground social media war is rocking a City Council race in the Brooklyn ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Boro Park — and the nastiest blows are in Yiddish. Waged largely on private WhatsApp groups, the fight between Kalman Yeger and Yoni Hikind is largely hidden from the general public. The combatants are largely anonymous, with…
In Poland these days, the head of the country’s highest-profile Holocaust remembrance group is warning Poles that attacks on their country are coming from the “leftist Jewish media.” He says that the stories of Poles who actually helped Jews during World War II were not told until he arrived, despite decades of work in this…
The meaning of “Allahu akbar” was at the center of a polarized debate this week in the wake of a terror attack in which a motorist plowed down a crowd in Manhattan and reportedly shouted the Arabic phrase. Since then, pundits have been arguing over the use and meaning of the expression. “The Arabic chant…
When Michael Hassen, a Manhattan lawyer and father of two, was looking for a new apartment and neighborhood to move to, there was one very important requirement: He needed to be within walking distance from a synagogue. Hassen, like many other Jews, takes his Shabbat observance seriously. He doesn’t cook food or turn on his…
