Author: Sara Wood

(JTA) — There’s a good chance that right now, Nathan Steuer is playing, or thinking about playing, Magic: The Gathering. The trading card game, which Steuer used to play with friends at Jewish summer camp, has become the 20-year-old Berkeley native’s lifelong passion and full-time job.  Steuer — who had a bar mitzvah in addition […]

(JTA) — The Anti-Defamation League is bolstering its advocacy on Wall Street by absorbing JLens, an organization known for rating companies on their alleged support for the Israel boycott, according to an announcement on Thursday by the ADL. Founded in 2012, JLens was for years one of the only groups pressing pro-Israel positions in the […]

(JTA) — Jewish groups thought Elon Musk was listening to them about antisemitism on Twitter. Then Kanye West came back. In the week after the rapper who now goes by Ye lost most of his endorsements due to his antisemitic rants, and amid an apparent uptick in broader antisemitic content on the platform, the Anti-Defamation […]

(JTA) — A man was taken into custody after authorities in Birmingham, Alabama, investigated a suspicious fire adjacent to a synagogue there on Friday. The fire, which came as Jews across the United States are on high alert, was determined not to be motivated by hatred against Jews, Rabbi Steven Henkin of Temple Beth-El told […]

(JTA) — Two Jewish Democrats who were believed to have a shot at open seats in the Tampa area lost Tuesday night as Florida overall shifted hard toward Republicans. Eric Lynn, a former Obama administration defense official with deep ties in the Tampa area Jewish community, lost Tuesday in the 13th District and Alan Cohn, […]

(JTA) — The overarching narrative from Tuesday night’s pivotal midterm election slate was clear by Wednesday morning: the Republican Party’s hopes of a sweeping red wave have been dashed. But how did the issues and candidates that Jewish Americans were watching most closely fare? Here are our initial insights from the first rounds of results. […]

(JTA) — Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who openly embraced his Jewish faith on the campaign trail and called his opponent out for his connections to antisemitic supporters, has won the state’s race for governor against the far-right Republican candidate Doug Mastriano. Shapiro, who is currently the state’s attorney general, launched his campaign with ads that […]

(JTA) — Rep. Elaine Luria, a moderate Democrat who cites her Jewishness and saw her profile grow as a member of the House committee overseeing the investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, lost her bid for reelection in a Virginia swing district. Luria, a former Navy commander, lost Tuesday in a close race to […]

(JTA) — Michael Bennet, the Democratic Colorado senator who cites his mother’s Holocaust experience as a key influence on his outlook, beat back a challenge from a moderate Republican. Bennet is among four Democrats with Jewish heritage running in statewide elections in the state. Jared Polis, the state’s first Jewish and openly gay Democratic governor, […]

(JTA) — Douglas Mastriano as Tevye would be an odd casting choice for a Republican candidate whose ties to a prominent antisemite have dogged his campaign. But Jaymie Bellet, who serenaded a crowd of Mastriano supporters on the last day of his bid to become Pennsylvania’s governor, suggested with her adaptation of a “Fiddler on […]