Rabbis and cantors across the United States have agreed to spend $31.50 on food and beverages for one week in support of those living on food stamps. The 2012 Jewish Community Food Stamp Challenge marks the third year that participating clergy have agreed to spend the amount allocated for individuals on SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition…
American Jewry’s umbrella organization for domestic issues has called on Congress to expand a key provision of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act to protect students from discrimination on the basis of religion. But the nascent effort has already raised the hackles of some Jewish officials who worry that this could open a can of…
With Jewish leaders poised to call for a restrained approach to the use of federal civil rights law for disputes on college campuses, one group is pushing the community to take a more aggressive role toward Jewish student complaints. The Jewish Community Relations Council of Northern New Jersey has submitted a proposal to the Jewish…
American Jewry’s primary umbrella group for addressing domestic concerns has backed off for now on trying to pass a controversial resolution warning Jewish organizations against using federal civil rights laws to “censor” perceived anti-Israel activities on campus. At its board meeting on October 24th, a task force of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs sent…
Soon, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which says that it serves as “the representative voice of the organized American Jewish community,” will be voting on a draft resolution on countering campus anti-Israel activity. The draft resolution follows from a policy issued last year by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR),…
Simmering divisions within the Jewish community are expected to come to a head this month over efforts to use federal civil rights laws to sanction some forms of alleged anti-Israel activity on campus. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs, American Jewry’s primary umbrella group for addressing domestic issues, will vote at its upcoming board meeting…
Jewish organizations generally don’t react quickly to events unless they involve terror attacks in Israel or blatantly anti-Semitic statements by foreign dictators, but one organization managed to whip out a response to President Obama’s jobs speech—a favorable one, as it happens—less than an hour after the president finished speaking. The quick response was from the…
The White House can add one more senior staffer to its list of advisers with Jewish roots, and it is an unlikely name. Valerie Jarrett, President Obama’s senior adviser and assistant for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement, disclosed her Jewish ancestry to a Jewish gathering on Monday. Speaking on behalf of the administration at the…
