(JTA) — Alex Morse, the 31-year-old gay, Jewish progressive Democrat running to unseat a longtime congressman in Massachusetts is facing allegations that he had inappropriate relationships with students at local colleges. Morse is the mayor of the town of Holyoke. The College Democrats of Massachusetts announced that the group would sever ties with Morse in…
(JTA) — Alex Morse’s first job out of college was as mayor of his Massachusetts hometown, Holyoke. Morse spent only one day a week on campus at Brown University his last semester as he mounted a campaign against an incumbent three times his age. When he was elected later that year, the then-22-year-old first-generation college…
(JTA) — A federal grand jury has indicted a Massachusetts man accused of using a homemade explosive to commit arson at a Jewish-sponsored assisted living facility. John Michael Rathbun, 36, was charged on two counts Tuesday, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts. He faces up to 10 years in…
(JTA) — Rabbis in Massachusetts say they are not rushing to open their synagogues even though the state’s governor has said houses of worship may resume services. Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, included houses of worship in the first phase of Massachusetts’ plan to resume operations after bringing coronavirus infections under control. He announced Monday…
(JTA) — The Hillel at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst was vandalized on Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. The red spray-painted Arabic letters translate as “Palestine,” The Massachusetts Daily Collegian student newspaper reported Tuesday. The graffiti was discovered on Tuesday morning. The school has been closed since mid-March due to the coronavirus crisis….
(JTA) — The Massachusetts man charged with attempted arson at a Jewish-sponsored assisted living facility was ordered back to jail after prosecutors protested his release on bail. John Rathbun, 36, allegedly attempted to detonate a homemade bomb, discovered on April 2, made up of a five-gallon plastic gas canister filled with flammable liquid, at Ruth’s House,…
A Massachusetts man was charged with two counts of attempted arson on Wednesday after being accused of trying to blow up a Jewish nursing home, NBC News reported. Police in Longmeadow, a town 90 minutes outside Boston, found last month what they described as a “homemade incendiary device” made out of a plastic gas container…
It’s not every Shabbat that the governor of a state gives the sermon at a local synagogue. It’s even more unusual when he’s speaking to a near-empty sanctuary. But that’s what happened last Friday night, March 20 at Temple Emanuel in Newton, Mass., one of the myriad ways Shabbat is changing in the coronavirus era….
