January 16, 2022
By ANDREW LAPIN
(JTA) — Over the course of a harrowing 12 hours on Saturday, the entire world found out just what the Jews of Colleyville, Texas, think of their hometown rabbi.
“Our rabbi is a wonderful human being,” Ellen Smith, who grew up at Congregation Beth Israel, said about Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker during an online vigil while he was being held hostage inside the synagogue building.
Cytron-Walker was leading...
November 19, 2021
By PHILISSA CRAMER
(JTA) — When Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, picked a favorite memory from the last year for a reflective Thanksgiving-themed tweet on Thursday, he didn’t turn to the day in January when his wife was sworn in or mention their first diplomatic trip together this week.
Instead, he shared pictures from the day his family affixed a mezuzah on the doorframe of the...
August 24, 2021
By PHILISSA CRAMER
(JTA) — Two weeks after Mayim Bialik said being selected to host primetime specials of “Jeopardy!” was “beyond anything I ever imagined could happen,” the Jewish actress is taking on an even more prominent role on the beloved game show.
Bialik is hosting the first three weeks of the regular season after Mike Richards, the producer originally selected to succeed Alex Trebek, stepped down on Friday amid...
August 15, 2021
By MADDIE ALBERT
In case you missed it, Jewish actress and neuroscientist Mayim Bialik is officially a new host of “Jeopardy!” She will be hosting primetime and spinoff versions of the beloved game show — including ABC’s recently announced college championship.
Bialik may be best known for the memorable characters she’s played, including Amy Farrah Fowler in the “Big Bang Theory” and Blossom in the beloved ’90s sitcom by the...
July 01, 2021
By LEE CUEN
(JTA) — Many of Twitter’s cryptocurrency zealots are often notorious trolls, but one particular thought leader stands out from the rest. He happens to be a rabbi.
“Twitter people either use it to scream at each other and not be nice, which I don’t like,” says micro-influencer Rabbi Michael Caras, also known as @thebitcoinrabbi. ”I enjoy connecting with my two communities through Twitter, both Jewish Twitter and...
June 17, 2021
By JACQUELINE RODERICK
(Kveller via JTA) – If you’re in need of inspiration today, look no further than Orthodox mom of four Liba Yoffe, who is competing in the current season of “American Ninja Warrior.”
Yoffe, 35, is the apparently first Orthodox Jewish woman to participate in the popular fitness competition — now in its 13th season on NBC — which pushes its athletic contestants to their limits with incredibly difficult...
May 24, 2021
By GABE STUTMAN
(J. the Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — Though she calls herself an “art kid” at her core, Christina Jefferson is no stranger to contact sports.
Recently hired by the San Francisco 49ers to lead the NFL team’s diversity and inclusion efforts — a newly created position — Jefferson has a long history with a quite different, yet still bruising, athletic pursuit: roller derby.
In...
December 03, 2020
By CNAAN LIPSHIZ
(JTA) — The constant stream of breaking news about American politics and the coronavirus pandemic has hidden a sobering fact: Six prominent Holocaust survivors who had dedicated much of their lives to educating others against hatred have died in Europe over the past month. These are their stories.
Mikhail Zhvanetsky
Before his death on Nov. 6 at 86 in Moscow, Zhvanetsky was to Russians what Jackie Mason...
July 09, 2020
By RON KAMPEAS
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Bethany Mandel wasn’t unnerved back in May when people all over the world were decrying her as a “Grandma killer.”
After all, the mother of four and rising star in the world of conservative thinkers had invited the moniker when she posted a cri de coeur on Twitter against what she saw as indiscriminate application of quarantine restrictions.
“You can call me a Grandma...
June 18, 2019
By BEN SALES
NEW YORK (JTA) — Eric Fingerhut believes in the “big tent.” But is the tent collapsing? For six tumultuous years, he has served as the president of Hillel International, the umbrella group for more than 500 Jewish centers on college campuses across the country. He’s leaving his position on July 1 to become the president of the Jewish Federations of North America.
Up to the end Fingerhut,...
