Author: Sara Wood

(JTA) — Every Thursday, Brad Orsini gets on a conference call with dozens of other security specialists who, like him, focus on preventing threats to American Jews. But in a few days, and for the coming months, the conference call won’t just address the dangers of the present and future. It will also deal with […]

(JTA) — A Seattle congregation that was vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti the day before Holocaust Remembrance Day left up the message for more than a day as a reminder of the hate that still exists in the world, its rabbi said. It’s a familiar scene for Temple De Hirsch Sinai, the last major Jewish congregation […]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — He left office after one of the shortest terms of any prime minister in Israeli history and doesn’t have an active political party. But just 10 months after stepping down from Israel’s highest position, and amid historic upheaval in Israel, Naftali Bennett is signaling that he’s ready to run again.  Bennett, formerly […]

(JTA) — Living in Brooklyn, surrounded by synagogues and Jewish schools, Rachel Weinstein White and her husband hoped to find a place where their children could receive a Jewish education for a few hours each week. But they knew they didn’t want to enroll at a traditional Hebrew school associated with a local synagogue. For […]

Until four years ago, Haim Hacohen, 37, was a full-time student in a haredi Orthodox yeshiva in the Israeli city of Ramat Bet Shemesh. Every month he received a government stipend of about $800 for his yeshiva studies, but it was hardly enough to support his wife and five children. “That’s when I decided to […]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will address the Israeli Knesset on his upcoming trip to Israel — the second speaker of the house to address Israel’s parliament. The announcement of McCarthy’s speech comes amid a chill in relations between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly criticized Netanyahu’s […]

(JTA) – Like many synagogues have done over time, Congregation Kol Ami in Seattle is partnering with local Israelis to celebrate Israel’s birthday — a big one this year. But Kol Ami won’t be holding a straightforward celebration for Israel’s 75th. Instead, it’s working with UnXeptable, a group of expat Israeli activists who have been protesting […]

(JTA) — Itamar Moses was 10 years old when he watched “An American Tail” at his Jewish day school in California. He was struck by the 1986 film, an animated musical about a family of Russian-Jewish mice who immigrate to America. Even though he was surrounded by Jewish classmates and teachers, he had never seen […]

This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around the world to report on issues that affect their lives. (JTA) — Weeks before United Synagogue Youth’s International Convention in December 2021, Alexa Johnson picked out some of the exciting seminars she wanted to attend. It would […]

(JTA) — Dan Snyder, the Jewish owner of the Washington Commanders football team who is under multiple investigations over sexual harassment and toxic workplace culture allegations, has agreed in principle to sell his NFL franchise to a group led by Jewish billionaire Josh Harris for a record $6.05 billion. Snyder and his wife and co-owner […]