The first time I reached out to Gabe Fleisher, the writer of the daily “Wake Up To Politics” newsletter, he asked if I would mind waiting until the weekend to talk. His final exams, he said, would have to take precedence on school nights. Fleisher is 15 years old, and after a recent profile in…
(JTA) — An anti-Semitic voicemail message was left for a librarian at Washington University in St. Louis after the librarian helped organize an exhibit on the Holocaust at a local museum. The Huffington Post first reported the anti-Semitic incident on Friday, though it occurred on March 15. The librarian, who declined to be named, notified…
A Twitter bot that drew international attention last month for its tweets about Holocaust refugees amidst the rollout of Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration has trained its fire on Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In January, the bot tweeted photos of the passengers on the ill-fated 1939 journey of the St. Louis, a boat full…
Police investigators in St. Louis and Philadelphia have yet to report on any progress in their efforts to find those behind the vandalism attacks targeting Jewish cemeteries in both cities. Meanwhile, in Jewish communities across the country, cemetery executives are trying to figure out how to prevent the next attack. “There’s always been a presumption…
Alan Bilinsky had just arrived back in his hometown of St. Louis on Monday when the cemetery where most of his family is buried was desecrated. He was devastated when he heard that some 170 headstones had been toppled and damaged. But there has been a silver lining to the carnage: it has led Muslims…
Muslim activists Linda Sarsour and Tarek El-Messidi have launched a crowdfunding campaign to support the repair of a St. Louis Jewish cemetery that was vandalized over the weekend — and the response has been overwhelming. The campaign, which aimed to raise $20,000, exceeded its target in three hours — and had drawn more than $130,000,…
Earlier today, Vice President Mike Pence made an unannounced visit to Chesed Shel Emet cemetery, the Jewish cemetery just west of St. Louis that was desecrated this past weekend. He was accompanied by the Republican governor of Missouri Eric Greitens — who is, himself, Jewish. While many were happy for Pence’s visit, calling it a…
It was a painful time at the Chesed Shel Emeth cemetery outside St. Louis this weekend, as members of the local Jewish community surveyed the damage after vandals broke or tampered with over 100 headstones. Janet Fishman, whose grandparents’ plot in the cemetery was disturbed, could not contain her upset in speaking to the city’s…
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