July 29, 2021
By RON KAMPEAS
(JTA) — Sen. Ted Cruz is blocking the advance of a bill that would promote normalization between Israel and Arab states because it includes language enshrining a two-state solution as the preferred U.S. outcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Cruz is proposing amended language that does not remove a reference to a two-state outcome, but makes it clear that it should be Israel’s prerogative.
“Senator Cruz believes that...
July 26, 2021
(JTA) — At least 50 professors at the City University of New York have quit their union following passage of a resolution condemning Israel.
The New York Post on Sunday quoted James Davis, president of the Professional Staff Congress, as saying that the professors have quit in the wake of the resolution or signaled their intention to do so.
The union represents academic staff at CUNY.
Davis suggested that there...
July 26, 2021
By SHIRA HANAU
(JTA) — The leadership team at Ikar, a synagogue in Los Angeles, had just begun planning to move their services indoors. They had gone through a year of virtual services followed by several months of outdoor services for members vaccinated against COVID-19.
Then the Delta variant hit.
Now the synagogue, like many across the country, is reevaluating how to organize its High Holiday services, balancing the high...
July 25, 2021
(JNS.org) – Jackie Mason, a former rabbi who went from Catskills comic to hit one-man shows, passed away on Saturday at the age of 93.
Mason died at 6:00 p.m. at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. His death was confirmed by longtime friend and entertainment lawyer Raoul Felder, AP reported.
His memory was honored by celebrities of all stripes. Jason Alexander of “Seinfeld” fame tweeted, “I took my folks to...
July 25, 2021
By PHILISSA CRAMER
(JTA) — Jackie Mason, who died Saturday at 93, didn’t always set out to be a comedian. In fact, it wasn’t until he was 30 that he left behind the Orthodox rabbinate for irreverent open-mic nights.
Mason, born Yacov Moshe Maza to Orthodox parents, was one of the last survivors of the Borscht Belt comedy circuit that propelled a host of Jewish funnymen, including Jerry Stiller and...
July 23, 2021
By RON KAMPEAS
(JTA) — It has been a question insiders have posed all week: Could Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop selling its ice cream in the West Bank trigger many or all of the laws that U.S. states have passed in recent years to hurt the Israel boycott movement?
Well, five states are already looking into it.
Officials in Florida, Texas, New York, New Jersey and Illinois are...
July 20, 2021
By BEN SALES
(JTA) — Recho Omondi, a fashion podcaster who was accused of anti-Semitism for comments in a recent interview she conducted with a Jewish writer, has posted a lengthy apology to her listeners.
“I owe the Jewish community and anyone else who’s offended by my words an apology,” Omondi said in a six-minute segment uploaded Tuesday morning to her podcast channel, The Cutting Room Floor. “I said some...
July 20, 2021
By JTA STAFF
(JTA) — Kosher supermarkets are rethinking their inventory. Politicians are emptying their freezers. And the foreign minister of Israel is vowing to get involved in local US politics.
The reactions were all part of the firestorm that quirky ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry’s set off Monday morning with its announcement that it would no longer sell ice cream in “Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
The Vermont-based company, founded...
July 19, 2021
(JTA) — Following pressure from pro-Palestinian activists, Ben & Jerry’s announced Monday that it would stop selling ice cream in “Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
The Vermont-based ice cream brand said it would continue operating in Israel, suggesting that it is planning to pull its products from stores located in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
“We believe it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be...
July 16, 2021
(JTA) — Not even the CEO of Facebook’s dog is immune to online antisemitism.
Mark Zuckerberg posted a photo to his platform of his family pet — a Hungarian sheepdog named Beast — wearing a yarmulke and a canine-sized tallit, or Jewish prayer shawl, on Tuesday. The post was quickly inundated with comments, most of them pushing a pro-Palestinian message, despite the photo’s lack of Israel-related content.
Some of the...
