June 13, 2021
By DMITRY SHAPIRO
(JNS.org) – A group of 19 Republican members of Congress on Wednesday sent a letter to U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona highlighting rampant anti-Semitism at American colleges and universities, and urging him to apply Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect Jewish students as it would towards racist actions against other minorities.
The effort to put together and send the letter was...
June 12, 2021
By RON KAMPEAS
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When the veteran Jewish leaders logged onto a call to hear from the secretary of state about his trip to Israel, many were surprised by the guest list.
While many of the groups typically present on such calls were represented, so was an official from the Holocaust museum here. What, they thought, did he have to do with Middle East peace?
They were more...
June 11, 2021
By RON KAMPEAS
WASHINGTON (JTA) — After a dozen Jewish Democrats in Congress asked Rep. Ilhan Omar to clarify remarks in which she grouped Hamas and the Taliban with the United States and Israel, she complied — but not before she got something off her chest.
An insinuation in the request that she was covering for terrorists was Islamophobic, Omar said in a tweet, and she exhorted her colleagues to...
June 03, 2021
By JOSEFIN DELSTIN
(JTA) — For years, Chava Shervington would connect informally with other Black Orthodox Jews to celebrate Black history that often wasn’t discussed in their communities and to offer and receive advice on a range of topics – from what communities were the most inclusive to how to deal with their children being bullied at majority-white day schools.
But it wasn’t until last year — as the death...
June 01, 2021
By RON KAMPEAS
(JTA) — Nikki Fried, Florida’s Jewish agricultural commissioner who has said part of her mission is to keep Democrats pro-Israel, announced a run for governor on Tuesday.
Fried, 43, the only Democrat elected to statewide office in 2018’s election which saw razor-thin margins in all of the swing state’s major races, announced Tuesday that she would run on a platform of running against a “rigged” and “corrupt”...
May 28, 2021
(JTA) — A “virtual rally” to combat anti-Semitism exhibited rare agreement between the leading Republicans and Democrats in Congress on the need to fight hatred of Jews.
The Zoom event, which approximately 23,000 people attended Thursday, was held in the wake of an increase in anti-Semitism nationwide surrounding the recent conflict in Israel and Gaza. Jews have been assaulted and synagogues and other Jewish establishments vandalized in cities across the...
May 26, 2021
By RON KAMPEAS
(JTA) — The Biden administration increased its assistance to Palestinians by $38.5 million in the wake of the latest Gaza war and pledged to abide by U.S. laws that would keep the money from going to terrorists.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlined the additional funds that the administration plans to steer to the Palestinians. His statement came a day after Blinken concluded his trip...
May 26, 2021
By RON KAMPEAS
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Four Jewish House Democrats have called out party colleagues who accused Israel of apartheid and terrorism, as well as a Republican who has likened coronavirus restrictions to the Holocaust.
Their rebuke was part of a letter condemning the rising antisemitism sparked by the Israel-Hamas war earlier this month — the latest plea to President Joe Biden to make a priority of tackling the phenomenon.
...
May 26, 2021
By GABRIEL GRESCHLER
(J. the Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — In an historic endorsement, San Francisco’s teachers union passed a resolution in support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel.
The United Educators of San Francisco, which has 6,200 members, is the first American K-12 union of public school teachers to officially support BDS, although other education and trade unions have done so. The resolution...
May 24, 2021
By YVETTE ALT MILLER
SKOKIE, Ill. (JTA) — After a synagogue in this Chicago suburb was vandalized on May 16 in what police are calling a hate crime, local rabbis could not dwell on the damage: They had to prepare for Shavuot, the two-day Jewish holiday that began that evening.
A week later, though, the rabbis were the engine behind a 500-person rally in this heavily Jewish town against antisemitism.
...
