Author: Sara Wood

WALTHAM, Massachusetts (JTA) — The days before Thanksgiving break were supposed to be packed at Brandeis University’s Hillel: There was a talk on Sunday about sexuality in Judaism, a ceremony for students who participated in a study program and a forum for candidates running to help lead the campus Jewish center. Instead, Hillel canceled everything […]

(JTA) — Elon Musk bantered with Kanye West and trolled the Anti-Defamation League this weekend, signalling the no-bigots-barred free-for-all he apparently hopes the platform will become. The rapper and designer who also goes by Ye was banned last month from Twitter for threatening Jews, and then freed from Twitter jail on Nov. 4 for a […]

LAS VEGAS (JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu’s acceptance of a Republican invitation to speak to Congress in 2015 to decry the Obama administration’s Iran policy notoriously helped bring about a rupture between the once and future Israeli prime minister and Democrats. Now Netanyahu says the decision helped cement secret ties with Arab countries that led five […]

(JTA) — Steny Hoyer, the longtime No. 2 leader of Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives who was known for decades for his closeness to AIPAC, is stepping down from his leadership position. Hoyer, 83, the current majority leader, has been close for decades to Maryland’s Jewish community. He announced his departure Thursday, the […]

LAS VEGAS (JTA) — Kevin McCarthy, the likely next speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said he would remove Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota Democrat, from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in part because of her criticism of Israel. He also hinted that her personal criticism of him last year was a factor. McCarthy, a […]

LAS VEGAS (JTA) — As Elon Musk polled Twitter users about whether he should reinstate Donald Trump’s account, the former president told Jewish Republicans Saturday that he saw “no reason” to go back to the platform, saying his competing social media outlet had “smart voices,” including pro-Israel voices. The CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition […]

(JTA) — The Orthodox Union has endorsed religious liberty provisions added to the Respect for Marriage Act, marking the first time that the group has said it could support federal legislation enshrining the right to same-sex marriage. When more than 100 Jewish groups endorsed the Respect for Marriage Act this summer, the OU, an umbrella […]

LAS VEGAS (JTA) — Donald Trump changed his mind and is ready to speak to the Republican Jewish Coalition. What’s not as clear is how ready Jewish Republicans are to hear from him. As of last week, the group said Trump had cited an undefined “conflict” in turning down an invitation to address its annual […]

BOSTON (JTA) — When Harvard University’s rabbi first pushed to relocate the Hillel from the outskirts of campus to its center, Henry Rosovsky was initially skeptical. “He was absolutely right. I was wrong,” Rosovsky told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2017, at a 25th anniversary party for the Hillel building that bears his name: Rosovsky […]

(JTA) — Five days after Nancy Pelosi made history in 2007 as the first woman elected to be speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, she held an event at her alma mater, the private Roman Catholic university, Trinity Washington. She asked a rabbi, the Reform movement’s David Saperstein, to headline the event because she […]