Author: Sara Wood

(JTA) – When Brother John Muhammad emerged this fall as the leading candidate for a vacant city council seat in St. Petersburg, Florida, local Jews were distressed. Muhammad is well known in the city as the president of a local neighborhood association and as a frequent advocate for minority groups. But Jewish leaders learned that […]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Biden administration will base its relationship to Israel’s incoming government on the actions it takes, not the people installed in positions of power, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a speech Sunday. Blinken’s speech, to the conference of the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group J Street, was notable […]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The White House will convene a roundtable with Jewish organizations on antisemitism, to be chaired by Douglas Emhoff, the Jewish Second Gentleman. Also appearing at the event will be Susan Rice, President Joe Biden’s top domestic policy advisor; Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism; and Keisha […]

NEW YORK — (JTA) — Nothing riled Steven Salen like a powerful man in a bad suit. “‘That suit fits terribly!’” his daughter Elayne Landau recalled him as yelling at the TV, multiple times. “‘How’s he going to get elected? Elayne, send him a letter.’ He would dictate the letter. ‘I’m watching you on television. […]

(JTA) — A man who was waved away by local police after hassling people arriving at one of the Detroit area’s largest synagogues on Friday was arrested Sunday on charges of “ethnic intimidation.” Hassan Chokr was arrested Sunday, two days after video emerged showing local police questioning and releasing him, even after he said he […]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Iranian regime has launched dozens of plots to kill its perceived enemies abroad, including Jews, among them the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, according to a report in The Washington Post. The Iranian regime dramatically intensified its targeting of overseas figures after the United States assassinated a top general, Qassem Soleimani, in […]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Joe Biden, reacting after the latest station in Kanye West’s dolorous journey, explained that Hitler was bad and the Holocaust was real and chided politicians like his predecessor Donald Trump who give the rapper’s antisemitism oxygen. “I just want to make a few things clear: The Holocaust happened. Hitler was a […]

(JTA) — Abe Foxman, the past Anti-Defamation League leader who long has said that nothing could separate him from support for Israel, now says the leaders of an extreme party could do the trick if they get their way in coalition talks with incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I never thought that I would reach […]

(JTA) — Two weeks after returning from a suspension over his tweets threatening Jews, Kanye West has been booted from Twitter again — this time after posting a picture of a swastika. West, the rapper and designer who now goes by Ye, tweeted the swastika shortly after wrapping a three-hour-long appearance on Infowars, the streaming […]

(JTA) — A few years ago, Adam Azari was frustrated over how little he could do to alleviate suffering in the world with his modest income as a writer and caretaker for people with disabilities. He kept thinking about a set of statistics and ideas he had encountered during his graduate studies in philosophy. For […]