As the political turmoil rages on in the Ukraine, Jewish communities continue to awaiting nervously the outcome of the civil unrest. With a handful of anti-Semitic incidents having broken out over the past week leaving Ukrainian Jews fearful that they may be amongst those targeted in continued attacks throughout theContinue Reading
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA)—Just how open should Jewish institutions be when it comes to talking about Israel? That’s the question at the center of a flurry of controversies over the last few days involving Jewish museums, an Orthodox high school and Hillel chapters onContinue Reading
Sighting too many overly sensitive complaints from kvetching clergy , Newsweek’s Top 50 Rabbis List co-founders explain why they have decided, after seven years, to discontinue the “unusual snapshot of the Jewish landscape” in their publication. Read the full letter on Tablet Magazine. Continue Reading
By Talia Lavin and Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA World News Service (JTA)—The turmoil in Ukraine has left one of Europe’s largest Jewish communities on edge. After an outbreak of violence in Kiev last week that left dozens of protesters and policemen dead, President Viktor Yanukovych fled the capital and parliament installedContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service JERUSALEM (JTA)—A billboard in central Tel Aviv features a black-and-white photo of a distressed woman above a caption in bold red letters that reads, “The pain and remorse from my abortion accompany me every day.” The billboard is an advertisement for Efrat, anContinue Reading
By , JNS.org (JNS.org) Jewish organizations have set up emergency assistance for Ukraine’s roughly 200,000-member Jewish community amid ongoing political unrest there. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) said that it is providing immediate assistance in areas of Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, to ensure that elderly Jews and people withContinue Reading
By , JTA World News Service (JTA)—Spanish Muslims urged their government to grant citizenship to descendants of Muslims who were expelled from Spain in addition to Jews. The demand was made this week in a statement by the Association for Historical Legacy of Al-Andalus, the Spanish news agency EFE reportedContinue Reading
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA)—When Abraham Foxman steps down next summer from his longtime post as national director of the Anti-Defamation League, he’ll be leaving his successor with a much brighter picture on anti-Semitism in America than when Foxman joined the organization in 1965. InContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews It took six months, $5 million, and a lot of work both in fundraising and construction to reach the moment on Feb. 8 that filled the new theater at the Stroum Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island. What was once a dark, uncomfortable room hasContinue Reading
By Rita Berman Frischer, Special to JTNews Twenty-five years ago, the Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee recognized children’s author/artist Patricia Polacco for her book The Keeping Quilt, a loving tribute to her family’s past. I was one of those who voted to honor her for showingContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, JTNews The Feb. 7 announcement by Spanish minister of justice Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon of the introduction of a bill to offer Sephardic Jews Spanish citizenship has caused quite a stir. On one hand, the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain has been bombarded with phoneContinue Reading
By Maayan Jaffe, JNS.org Sexual abuse of minors has for many years been among the most controversial and suppressed issues in the Jewish community. An inaugural conference in Israel next month will, at the very least, contribute to the conversation on that issue. “The mere fact that we are talkingContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA)—Presbyterians who engage in dialogue with Jewish groups are scrambling to undo what they say is the damage caused by a congregational study guide assailing Zionism distributed by a group affiliated with their denomination. The guide, “Zionism Unsettled,” posits that the Israeli-PalestinianContinue Reading
By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTNews Correspondent (JTA)—When Farida Trichine and 11 of her friends burst into a French supermarket in 2009 and began applying stickers with anti-Israel slogans to vegetables imported from the Jewish state, she expected to be escorted from the store by police. What she didn’t expect was toContinue Reading
As the founding chair of Israel advocacy group StandWithUs Northwest, Basker is now a public speaker on modern Israel, its politics, government, people, and the Israel-Palestinian conflict runs Broader View — Beyond the Headlines: Context and Perspectives on Israel and the Middle East.Continue Reading
By Maayan Jaffe, JNS.org Picture a mad science lab with electrical wires, computer chords, ropes, and wheels and you have a pretty good picture of one of the country’s more than 20 CIJE-Tech laboratories. CIJE, the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education, is a non-profit organization that provides advanced classroomContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews Hillel at the University of Washington was evacuated Monday afternoon after a fired employee threatened to cause an explosion in the building. Police shut down streets in Seattle’s University District after receiving a call from employees about the threats. No one was injured. Police believeContinue Reading
By JTA News Desk, JTA World News Service Spain’s Jewish community congratulated the government for approving a bill proposing to facilitate the naturalization of Sephardic Jews of Spanish descent. Last Friday, Spain’s government approved the bill, which was filed in January by the ruling Popular Party and proposes to amendContinue Reading
By Alina Dain Sharon, JNS.org With the Winter Olympics gearing up for their Feb. 7 start in Sochi, Russia, the Jewish debate on the games mirrors the discourse taking place in the broader international and athletic communities. While some Jews say they view the games purely as sport—with social orContinue Reading
By Dmitriy Shapiro, JNS.org Efforts to keep a significant collection of artifacts seized from Iraq’s Jewish community by Saddam Hussein from being returned to the Gulf nation by the United States may be picking up steam on Capitol Hill. With just months to go before a June deadline mandates theContinue Reading
