In the fall of 2013, there was fear in the air in Orthodox Brooklyn. Power was shifting in the district attorney’s office, and Orthodox leaders worried that the borough’s new chief prosecutor, Ken Thompson, wouldn’t be a friend. “He said he’s going to target the Jewish community,” New York City Council member David Greenfield said…
Steve Bannon, the right-wing media provocateur who turned Breitbart News into a haven for white supremacy, the so-called “alt-right” and anti-Semitic tropes, is poised to play a key role in the incoming administration — setting off a firestorm of criticism from Jewish leaders and anti-hate groups. Bannon, who ran Donald Trump’s victorious presidential campaign, was…
This election has taken a toll on everyone. Each week seems to bring new revelations and scandals. Stressful, yes. Scary? Maybe. And taxing on our spiritual lives? Gary Shaffer worried that was the case. Shaffer leads weekly classes in Mussar, a 19th century Jewish spiritual practice focused on ethics at one of Brooklyn’s largest Reform…
An open letter from American Jews pledging solidarity with immigrants and Muslims during the Donald Trump administration has attracted more than 21,000 signatures in the past 24 hours. The letter, drafted and posted online by the Jewish social justice group Bend the Arc, promises support to “everyone who is threatened by the President-Elect and his…
In the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential win, some of the white nationalists who rallied around the Trump campaign are seeking elected office. “I think this will be inevitable, and I think that Trump will have encouraged this,” Jared Taylor, head of the white nationalist website American Renaissance, told Talking Points Memo, “our people will…
Birth and death, marriage and coming-of-age. These are the kind of life-changing events in which congregants look to rabbis to provide guidance and consolation. But what about an election whose result has shocked many Jews down to their souls? Here is what some rabbis have been telling their congregants since Donald Trump emerged clearly with…
Bernie 2020? Why not. The Jewish Vermont senator, the progressive champion who lost the presidential primary race to Hillary Clinton, is one the first senior Democrats to bounce back after November 8 and plot a way forward for the embattled party. Sanders is pushing to clean house at the Democratic Party to correct what he…
Donald Trump’s victory in this week’s presidential elections was celebrated by a new generation of white nationalists. In the days after Trump’s win, this cohort — mostly young and male — consider what comes next for their movement and dream of building their own “white ethno-state.” The so-called “alternative right” is a diverse movement, ranging…
The Israeli newspaper owned by the casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson appears to have nabbed the first post-election interview with president-elect Donald Trump. That’s the very, very first. No American media outlet has published an interview with Trump conducted since the election. Trump is scheduled to conduct his first domestic media interview with the CBS program…
Israel’s Foreign Ministry believes U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will reduce America’s involvement in the Middle East in general and in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular, according to a document written by ministry researchers and disseminated to Israeli diplomats throughout the world. The document, the contents of which were obtain by Haaretz, stresses that Trump’s statements…
The upper echelons of the Jewish establishment have wasted no time cozying up to the incoming Donald Trump administration. The Jewish Federations of North America fired off a letter to Trump Tower the morning after Trump’s victory, saying that the organization “look forward to working closely” with Trump. The letter included the phone number and…
