Ohio Applebee’s defaced with antisemitic graffiti reading ‘Jews work here’

An Applebee’s in Miamisburg, Ohio was closed Saturday after employees discovered the building had been defaced with antisemitic graffiti including a swastika and the messages “F— Jews” and “Jews work here.” “We’ve seen the statistics, an 893-percent increase in antisemitic incidents in the United States over the past decade according to the ADL,” Cathy Gardner, […]

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Halacha and the dangers of religious passion

Halacha is this-worldly. It deals with the observable, grounds itself in facts and reality, and provides practical, detailed guidance for daily life. It acknowledges life’s messiness while directing us through conflicting demands and competing responsibilities to ourselves, our families, and our neighbors. This this-worldliness is so pronounced that halacha often frames religiosity in interpersonal terms. […]

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J.B. Pritzker accuses Trump of ‘disparaging the very foundation of Judaism’

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker rebuked President Donald Trump for “disparaging the very foundation of Judaism” in a fiery address in New Hampshire Sunday night. “Stop tearing down the Constitution in the name of my ancestors. Do not claim that your authoritarian power grabs are about antisemitism. When you destroy social justice, you are disparaging the […]

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Chicago mayor donned keffiyeh for Arab Heritage Month event, sparking outcry from Jewish groups

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson came under fire from local Jewish leaders after he wore a keffiyeh, or a traditional Palestinian headscarf, to a public event this week. The Chicago chapter of the Council on American–Islamic Relations posted a picture of Johnson with its executive director, Ahmed Rehab, at an event to mark Arab Heritage Month. […]

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Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear

The Justice Department announced Friday that it will walk back the cancellations of hundreds of student visas amid mounting legal pressure. It was not immediately clear whether the reversals would affect any of the high-profile cases of students whose visas were revoked because of their participation in pro-Palestinian protests. Instead, the announcement related directly to […]

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Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’

Deborah Lipstadt, President Joe Biden’s antisemitism envoy, says parts of the Trump administration’s crackdown on campus antisemitism have “gone way too far.” In an interview, she declined to comment on specific cases that have unfolded since the White House began cracking down on pro-Palestinian student activists. But she denounced the conditions under which some of […]

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