A week after former Israeli president Shimon Peres was brought to rest in Jerusalem, a high-level memorial service was held in Washington DC’s Adas Israel synagogue, featuring Vice President Joe Biden and former secretary of state Madeleine Albright. The event was attended by community leaders as well as administration officials. Absent from the memorial ceremony…
Donald Trump’s videotaped boasts about assaulting women likely won’t hurt his support among Orthodox Jews, because many Orthodox Jews won’t see the video. The vulgar tape, recorded in 2005 and posted online by the Washington Post on October 7, played in heavy rotation all weekend on cable news channels. In it, Trump says that he…
Donald Trump’s debate performance was full of dog-whistle references against Jewish people. But there was another group that Trump attacked completely outright: Muslims. Asked about his famous call for a Muslim ban, the Republican presidential nominee said it has now morphed into “extreme vetting from certain areas of the world.” Trump also called Clinton’s plan…
The second match-up between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was full of personal attacks, idle threats and hovering glares. But if things had gone Jared Kushner’s way, the debate would have started with even more TV drama. Kushner, Trump’s orthodox son-in-law, and Breitbart-chairman-turned-Trump-adviser, Stephen K. Bannon, cooked up a plan to embarrass and intimidate Hillary…
Between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, makeshift chicken coops appear on the streets and sidewalks of Hasidic Brooklyn neighborhoods like Borough Park and Williamsburg, dedicated to the ritual sacrifice of chickens for atonement in a centuries old practice known as kapparot, or kaporos. After campaigning against the practice for years, the Alliance to End Chickens…
Jared Kushner broke his usual Shabbat routine to help his father-in-law, Donald Trump, through a crisis sparked by the release of blockbuster tapes showing the presidential candidate lewdly discussing women. Kushner is an observant Orthodox Jew who normally does not work during Shabbat. But as the New York Times reported, he was among a group…
In a debate described as the “ugliest ever,” and marked by outright hostility between the candidates, trained ears also noticed an influx in Jewish namedropping by Donald Trump that could evoke anti-Semitic sentiments among some of his followers. Trump has been accused in the past of using dog whistles aimed at supporters from the “alt-right,”…
Herschell Gordon Lewis, the film director and producer celebrated as the Godfather of Gore, died September 26 at his home in Pompano, Florida. He was 90 years old. Lewis was born in Pittsburgh and grew up in Chicago, where he earned his bachelors and masters degrees in journalism at Northwestern University. After brief stints teaching…
The king arrived mysteriously in the Land of Israel. He wielded a staff and said he commanded a kingdom in Africa, and that he was capable of summoning millions of followers to his side. He travelled with an entourage. Angelic figures had visited him, he said, and he spoke directly to God. His followers projected…
Alan Lichtman made his first presidential prediction in 1984 and has gotten them all right ever since. He credits this prophetic success to a scientific model which never fails. And this model indicates that come January, Donald Trump will be moving to the White House. But now, for the first time since he took on…
On Friday, October 7, Shabbat was approaching — and off the coast of Florida and Georgia, so was Hurricane Matthew, the category 3 storm called a “monster” by Florida’s governor, Rick Scott. Which is why instead of putting out the prayer books and ironing their best clothes in preparation for Jewish day of rest, congregations…
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