January 14, 2021
By ALAN SMASON
(WASHINGTON) – Citing their abject disapproval at what they determined was President Donald Trump’s complicity in the January 6 riot that caused the deaths of six Americans and injured dozens more, the United States House of Representatives debated and then passed a single Article of Impeachment for “incitement of insurrection.”
The president, who has only six days remaining to his term of office, became the first sitting...
January 11, 2021
By RON KAMPEAS
(JTA) — Two days after his election to the Senate helped tip the balance of power in Washington, Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff found another historical echo in his victory.
In a Twitter thread, Ossoff described his trajectory from a teenage intern for John Lewis, the Georgia congressman and civil rights hero who died last year, to U.S. senator.
“And now a Jewish man he mentored and a...
January 07, 2021
By LAURA ADKINS and EMILY BURACK
(JTA) — The sweatshirt, spotted amid the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol, seemed designed to provoke fear.
“Camp Auschwitz,” it read, along with the message “Work brings freedom” — a rough translation of the message that greeted Jewish prisoners at the infamous Nazi concentration camp.
The back of the shirt said “Staff.”
A photo of the man wearing the sweatshirt was just one of...
January 06, 2021
By RON KAMPEAS
(JTA) — It’s been a day unlike any in modern American history: An armed mob broke through police into the U.S. Capitol building, vandalizing offices and taking over the dais on the Senate floor. Lawmakers have gone under lock and key. One woman was shot and died at a nearby hospital a short time later..
Capitol Police evacuated Congress members who were going through the ceremonial function...
January 06, 2021
By ALAN SMASON, Special to the CCJN
Flamed by presidential tweets, an unruly mob of tens of thousands of protestors today stormed the United States Capitol and uprooted members of both houses of Congress as they fled for their safety. Four people died as a result of the violence. A fifth victim, Brian Sicknick, identified as a Capitol Police officer, died as a result of head injuries he suffered when...
January 06, 2021
By RON KAMPEAS
(JTA) — Georgia appears poised to send a Jew and an African American to the U.S. Senate for the first time — and to shift control of the Senate to Democrats at a pivotal moment.
Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor at the Atlanta church made famous by Martin Luther King, was declared the winner of his race early Thursday morning, beating out Kelly Loeffler. Jon Ossoff, a...
January 05, 2021
By GABE FRIEDMAN
(JTA) — Tuesday’s two runoff elections in Georgia won’t just decide control of the U.S. Senate. They’ll also be significant symbolic wins for one or both of the polarized sides of the American Jewish community.
Thanks to several dramatic developments, including an infamous campaign ad, a year-old letter about a trip to Israel and a controversial photo taken with a white supremacist, the races have become a...
January 01, 2021
By SHIRA FEDER
(JTA) — If we learned anything from 2020, it was that trying to predict the future on Jan. 1 is a foolish exercise. Yet here we are, taking stock of what we learned in this tumultuous, terrible year and starting to think about what’s coming next.
Will Zoom become a permanent fixture of Jewish life? What will happen with anti-Semitic attacks once people start spending more time...
December 31, 2020
By ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY
(JTA) — Growing up in metro Detroit, I used to watch my Jewish mother, who immigrated from Riga, Latvia, decorate a tree in our living room each December.
“But we’re Jewish, so why do we have a Christmas tree?” I recall thinking.
While I didn’t understand the tradition at first, I grew to understand it over time. It wasn’t about assimilation, and it wasn’t even a Christmas...
December 30, 2020
By RABBI BENJAMIN RESNICK
(JTA) — Pixar’s “Soul,” released on Friday, Dec. 25 on Disney+, is a tender balm of a movie about an aspiring jazz musician who dies on the day he gets his big break. Watching “Soul,” which is set in a richly imagined New York City, as well as in a blissed-out, blue-ish, and minimalist realm of unborn souls, in the final days of 2020 is once...
