WASHINGTON (JTA) — A bill that would create an Islamophobia monitor in much the same cast as the State Department’s antisemitism monitor cleared its first hurdle on Friday, after a House committee debate about antisemitism. The bill, whose lead sponsors were Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., one of three Muslims in Congress, and Rep. Jan Schakowsky,…
Representatives Ilhan Omar and Jan Schakowsky wrote a joint op-ed for CNN to call on Jews and Muslims to stand together against the common threat of white nationalism. Omar, a Muslim American representing Minnesota, and Schakowsky, a Jewish American representing Illinois, said that the evidence of a rise in hate crimes against religious minorities is…
President Trump’s first State of the Union address on Tuesday will be missing at least one important audience member: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ginsburg has a previously-scheduled speaking engagement in Rhode Island on Tuesday and so will not be attending the speech in Washington, the Associated Press reported Saturday. Ginsburg attended all eight…
Worries have evaporated among organizers about how to follow up on the January 21 Chicago Women’s March, which drew 250,000 protesters. Contrary to widespread concern about losing the energy that coalesced around the massive outpouring that took place in Chicago and other cities nationwide that day, said Donna Gutman, president of the North Shore chapter…
When the U.S. House of Representatives voted last week to condemn a U.N. Security Council resolution denouncing as illegal Jewish settlements in the Israeli occupied West Bank, the voting profile of Chicago-area members differed markedly from the House as a whole. While the House overwhelmingly backed the condemnation of the U.N. by a lopsided vote…
U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois apologized for referring to a one-time political rival as an “Orthodox Jew” in casting him as a threat to liberal interests. “It was correctly noted that my description of my 2010 opponent in the congressional race irrelevantly noted that in addition to being a Tea Party Republican, he is…
Illinois Democrat Jan Schakowsky is far from alone in her anger at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following his recent speech to a joint meeting of Congress warning against a deal with Iran being negotiated by the Obama administration and six other governments. But Schakowsky, an eight-term Jewish veteran of Congress and member of the…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) became the sixth Jewish lawmaker to say he will not attend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress and that has been maintaining a count of lawmakers who say they will skip the speech Tuesday, on Monday added Franken to its…
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