An Israeli rabbinical court did not accept a conversion by an Orthodox rabbi who also helped Ivanka Trump become Jewish. In the latest case exemplifying the tension between Israel’s rabbinate and Orthodox groups in the Diaspora, a religious court prevented the marriage of an Israeli man and an American woman, who converted under a well-respected…
If elected president in November, Donald Trump would support Israel’s annexing parts of the West Bank, a senior official in the Trump campaign told Haaretz in an interview this week. Trump is not worried about the possibility of a binational state, said David Friedman, the candidate’s adviser on Israel. “Nobody really knows how many Palestinians…
Many formerly ultra-Orthodox and Modern Orthodox Jews who no longer hold the beliefs of their communities feel “pushed off the derech,” yet still retain their sense of Jewish identity, a groundbreaking new study of the group has revealed. A third of those surveyed have yet to physically leave their communities, and may maintain outward displays…
As schools let out for the summer, Camp JRF is preparing to welcome a diverse cohort of kids to its spot among the Pocono Mountains. Affiliated with the Reconstructionist movement and located an hour’s drive from Philadelphia, JRF is pushing to make inclusivity a key part of its mission — in particular, toward kids who…
Harold “Heshy” Jacob, the last of the great power brokers of the Jewish Lower East Side, died June 23 after an illness. Jacob, 71, was a neighborhood power player with a hand in much of the communal and business life of in Lower East Side. As Jacob explained his own influence in a 2013 interview…
When trains depart from Haifa in the fall along a new Israeli railway that stops only miles from the Jordanian border, it could revive not only trade but dreams of peace. “We always thought that this line symbolizes peace with the region,” Ilan Rozenfeld, the project director told the Wall Street Journal. “We have been…
Controversy raged this week over news that the Google Play store had allowed a free mobile game that promised players could “live like a real Jew” at Auschwitz. For the second time in a month, Google’s review process was brought into serious question. But now, the game’s creators have come forward to say that was…
Donald Trump has been having a difficult time raising money from donors. Just how difficult? He ended the month of May with a mere $1.3 million in his war chest, while his rival Hillary Clinton boasted $42 million in fundraising during the same filing period. It should have looked different, at least based on the…
New York City’s Jewish federation is pulling out of a fundraising pool run by the umbrella group for North American Jewish federations, in a move that highlights the struggles of the national bodies that serve local Jewish charities. The UJA-Federation of New York, the central fundraising body for New York City’s Jewish community, contributes $1.6…
More than 40 Jewish Americans gathered in front of the Trump Tower in protest on Tuesday. Brought together by the Bend the Arc social justice organization, the ralliers stood outside Trump Tower on June 21 in order to draw attention to Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric. Similar rallies took place in San Diego, Austin…
Jadyn Erin Larky, an 11-year-old girl from the Columbus, Ohio suburb of Bexley, had only just begun her summer at Camp Livingston, one of the country’s oldest active Jewish summer camps. The camp is located in a densely forested area near the Ohio River in southeastern Indiana, and has a beautiful lake on its property….
