April 28, 2021
By BEN SALES
(JTA) — Linfield University, a small liberal arts school in Oregon, has fired a Jewish professor who accused the college’s president of making antisemitic remarks.
Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, a tenured professor who taught English literature, has accused Linfield President Miles K. Davis of making multiple antisemitic remarks in recent years. The antisemitism, he said, was partly a backlash to Pollack-Pelzner demanding that the school do more to address...
April 27, 2021
(JTA) — John Kerry, an architect of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, has adamantly denied that he discussed Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria with Iran’s foreign minister.
“I can tell you that this story and these allegations are unequivocally false,” Kerry said Monday on Twitter following reports of a leaked taped conversation with Javad Zarif. “This never happened — either when I was secretary of state or...
April 27, 2021
By BEN SALES
(JTA) — Despite COVID-related restrictions that kept Americans inside for significant portions of last year, the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents barely decreased in the United States in 2020, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
The number of anti-Semitic assaults fell sharply, however, and for the first time in three years, no one was killed in an antisemitic attack.
The ADL’s annual audit, published Tuesday, tallied 2,024 incidents...
April 26, 2021
(JTA) — Aviva Okeson-Haberman had come home after apartment hunting in Lawrence, Kansas, where the reporter for the Kansas City NPR affiliate was about to start a new job covering social services and criminal justice.
On Friday, Okeson-Haberman was hit by a stray bullet that entered her first-floor apartment in Kansas City’s Santa Fe neighborhood. The Jewish journalist was found unconscious and rushed to a hospital, where she was placed...
April 26, 2021
NEW YORK (JTA) — Four synagogues in the New York City neighborhood of Riverdale were vandalized as rocks were hurled through their windows and glass doors.
The vandalism in the Bronx neighborhood, which has a large Jewish population, occurred overnight on Saturday. The vandalized synagogues are the Riverdale Jewish Center, Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale, Young Israel of Riverdale and Chabad of Riverdale.
No suspect has been arrested, according...
April 23, 2021
By RON KAMPEAS
(JTA) — Democrats who hope to make Washington, D.C., a state have tapped Joe Lieberman, known for his cross-party outreach, to make the case to skeptical Republicans.
Forbes reported Wednesday that Sen. Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat who is spearheading the bid in the Senate now that it has passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, has picked Lieberman to make the sale.
Lieberman, whose last acts...
April 20, 2021
By RON KAMPEAS
(JTA) — Walter Mondale, the former vice president who represented a time in American history when being pro-Israel and progressive were often synonymous, has died at 93.
He passed away Monday at his home in Minneapolis, multiple sources reported.
From the launch of his national political career, Mondale was close to the national Jewish and pro-Israel communities. He found in those organizations willing partners in his endeavors...
April 18, 2021
(JNS.org) – The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed on Saturday that Iran had begun the process of enriching uranium to a purity level of 60 percent, the closest level yet to the 90 percent required to make a nuclear bomb.
The work is taking place at Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility, Reuters reported on Saturday. Thousands of uranium enrichment centrifuges were damaged or destroyed in a blast that tore through Natanz facility on...
April 17, 2021
By SHIRA HANAU
(JTA) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has long prided himself on his strong relationship with the Jewish community — a relationship he dates back to his father’s three terms as governor.
But that love for the Jewish community apparently does not extend to the Jewish holiday of Succot.
In a story about Cuomo’s political career, The New York Times Magazine reported Cuomo’s frustration with a campaign appearance...
April 14, 2021
By BEN SALES
(JTA) — Bernie Madoff, the fraudster who ran a $17.5 billion Ponzi scheme ensnaring thousands of investors, including a long list of Jewish organizations and families, has died at 82.
The Associated Press reported Madoff’s death Wednesday at a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina.
Madoff was known as a selective money manager who made fantastic yet consistent profits for his clients until his entire operation was exposed as...
