Saturday, January 18th 2025   |

National

‘Shalom, friends’: Jews on TikTok prepare for app’s possible ban after Supreme Court ruling

By ANDREW LAPIN

(JTA) — Like many people during the pandemic, Asher Lovy became addicted to TikTok. After watching numerous videos on the social media platform, he asked his organization’s social media manager to start an account of their own.

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Trump taps Mel Gibson, actor-director with record of antisemitism, as ‘special ambassador’ to Hollywood

By ANDREW LAPIN

(JTA) — For years following his highly publicized antisemitic outbursts, Mel Gibson couldn’t find much work in Hollywood.

But now he’s back in the filmmaking capital — as Donald Trump’s “special ambassador.”

The president-elect announced Thursday he...

Ari Berman, Yeshiva U president, to deliver benediction at Trump’s inauguration

By BEN SALES

(JTA) — Rabbi Ari Berman, the president of Yeshiva University, will deliver a benediction at Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.

Berman, according to a Y.U. press release, is the first Israeli-American to ever speak at an inauguration. According...

Nearly half the globe has ‘elevated levels’ of antisemitic beliefs, ADL survey finds

By ASAF ELIA-SHALEV

(JTA) — Nearly half of adults around the world have “elevated levels of antisemitic attitudes,” the Anti-Defamation League reported in its latest global survey of anti-Jewish beliefs. 

In addition, the survey found that one-fifth of the world...

Jewish groups pushed Meta to crack down on hate speech. Now, the company is reversing course.

By ASAF ELIA-SHALEV

(JTA) — Six months ago, Jewish groups celebrated a policy win when Meta banned the use of “Zionist” as a coded slur against Jews and Israel. Now, the same organizations are condemning the company for dramatically loosening...

‘Just things’ — like what my LA neighbors have lost — are what makes houses into Jewish homes

By RACHEL STEINHARDT

(JTA) — The antique silver menorah. The shabbos candlesticks. The tiny tefillin set. The last remnants from Europe that my grandparents, all Holocaust survivors, managed to shlep to America. And I need to get them out of...

Celebrating Shabbat in Los Angeles: Amid the fires, a still, small voice

By RABBI PAUL KIPNES

(JTA) — So many questions swirled in my head, like burning embers caught up in the wind, each one demanding urgent attention. Will the power be on at the shul, or will we need to accept...

A rabbi and his son were arrested for vandalizing a swastika mural. Are they heroes or hooligans?

By ANDREW LAPIN

(JTA) — Zechariah Mehler wanted to see the swastika for himself.

It was September, and Milwaukee was abuzz over a mural that had gone up on the side of a commercial building in the city’s sixth district....

A synagogue that survived the Palisades fire has become a ‘refuge’ for many who lost their homes

By PHILISSA CRAMER

(JTA) — Two blocks away: a school reduced to ruins. Across the street: rubble. Under the door: ashes. And yet at Kehillat Israel, things look much the same as they did at the beginning of the week,...

Trump taps Senate staffer as National Security Council’s Middle East director

By PHILISSA CRAMER

(JTA) — Eric Trager, a Republican Senate staffer and Egypt expert, is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Middle East advisor on the National Security Council, multiple news organizations reported.

As senior director for the Middle East and...