May 02, 2018
NEW YORK (JTA) — Michael Twitty won the James Beard Foundation’s 2018 Book of the Year award for his book on African-American Southern food.
The James Beard Foundation announced last week that Twitty, an African-American Jew-by-choice, won the book of the year and the best writing awards for “The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South.” The book explores the history of soul food and its relationship to...
May 01, 2018
By BEN SALES NEW YORK (JTA) — Three Jewish organizations are accusing the Zionist Organization of America of inappropriately criticizing them. And the ZOA is accusing one of them right back.
On Wednesday, the various spats will have a formal hearing at a committee meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations, an umbrella association for Jewish groups. The Presidents Conference by-laws, according to the Forward, prohibit...
May 01, 2018
JERUSALEM (JTA) — “Iran lied big time” about the nature of its nuclear program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu on Monday evening unveiled copies of half a ton of material that make up part of what he identified as Iran’s secret nuclear files. He first delivered his presentation in English in an effort to reach the widest possible audience.
The files, which the Israeli leader calls “new...
April 24, 2018
(JNS.org) — For the first time, the head of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) arrived in Israel for an official meeting with top Israeli military officials.
Gen. Joseph L. Vote is scheduled to meet with Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, Israeli National Security Council members and senior IDF officials to discuss security issues in the region.
As Vote arrived, the IDF fired on a...
April 24, 2018
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump will be part of the delegation coming to Israel next month for the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, according to an Israeli news program.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who is Jewish, will lead the group of more than 250 U.S. delegates, including 40 members of the Senate and House of Representatives, Channel 10 news reported Sunday, citing unnamed Israeli officials.
...
April 23, 2018
(JTA) — In a phone call last year with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump asked him whether or not he genuinely wants peace, according to a new report.
Trump asked the question in the wake of news reports that Netanyahu had planned to build new settlement housing to placate members of his coalition government, Axios reported on Sunday, citing three sources familiar with the call. The news website...
April 20, 2018
By DEBORAH NUSSBAUM COHEN
NEW YORK (JTA) — Congregation Kolot Chayeinu in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood is removing its savings from JPMorgan Chase, making it the first U.S. synagogue to publicly divest from a bank or other corporation “to explicitly oppose the funding of fossil fuel and other related projects dangerous to the world in which we live,” according to a statement from the congregation.
The move also puts...
April 20, 2018
By BEN SALES
(JTA) — When Starbucks announced that it would close its U.S. stores for one day to conduct anti-bias training for employees, seeking the expertise of the Anti-Defamation League seemed unsurprising.
It’s the most prominent group in the country fighting anti-Semitism, and it also opposes bigotry of all kinds. Its website says it has conducted anti-bias training in schools, workplaces and elsewhere for 60 million people.
But when...
April 17, 2018
(JTA) – Barbara Bush “was the gold standard for what it means to be First Lady,” the Republican Jewish Coalition said following her passing Tuesday night in Houston.
The wife of the 41st president, George H.W. Bush, as well as the mother of the 43rd, George W. Bush, died at her home with her husband by her side. She was 92 and had been battling COPD, a lung disease,...
April 16, 2018
(JTA) — The two black men whose arrest at a Starbucks in Philadelphia has gone viral were waiting for a local Jewish businessman, Andrew Yaffe, who tried to stop their arrest.
Yaffe, who runs a real estate development firm, was meeting the men to discuss business investment opportunities. In the viral video, he arrives at the Starbucks and tells police that they were waiting for him.
“Why would they...