Daniel Sher’s voice broke as he related the latest to members of his Pacific Palisades synagogue. Kehillat Israel had just sent a message saying that its building had so far survived the devastating Palisades Fire, but, the associate rabbi noted, so much had been lost. “I cannot begin to describe the feeling that I am […]
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Eric Trager, a Republican Senate staffer and Egypt expert, is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Middle East advisor on the National Security Council, multiple news organizations reported. As senior director for the Middle East and North Africa, the top advisory role on Middle East issues, Trager would replace Brett McGurk, who has played a central […]
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A synagogue with more than 100 years of history in Pasadena, California, burned down overnight as fires swept across parts of Southern California. The fate of a Chabad center about 40 miles away near the coast was unclear as a major fire flared in the Pacific Palisades, one of three different blazes destroying structures and […]
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A Massachusetts man who was arrested on Saturday for threatening antisemitic violence had a gun, ammunition and a Nazi flag, police said. Local outlets reported that Matthew Scouras, 34, had allegedly threatened to rape Jewish women and called for people to be shot outside of synagogues. The FBI alerted police to the threat, and when […]
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The federal Department of Education is opening a Title VI antisemitism investigation into Sarah Lawrence College in response to a complaint from the campus Hillel chapter that the school fostered a hostile environment for Jewish students. The private liberal arts college in Westchester, New York failed to properly respond to harassment of Jewish students in […]
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When investors need help navigating business decisions in conflict zones they turn to specialized firms that are supposed to help them keep clear of human rights abuses. But one of the biggest firms offering advice on environmental, social, and governance issues recently announced that when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it will no longer […]
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When Matt Williams founded a research center for the Anti-Defamation League in 2022, he vowed to “ruthlessly and systematically test” what the organization does. Antisemitism was on the rise, and he wanted the Center for Antisemitism Research to scientifically study what could work to stop it. The creation of the center, he believed, represented an […]
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Outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed that he spent nine hours urging Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to provide aid to Palestinians in Gaza in the days after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. “In the course of that argument, when I was getting resistance to the proposition of humanitarian assistance getting in, […]
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Announcing his deputy envoy for Middle East peace, President-elect Donald Trump made it clear that he chose Morgan Ortagus reluctantly. Trump said he picked Ortagus, a spokesperson at the State Department when it was led by Mike Pompeo — who in 2024 considered running against him — because others lobbied hard for her. “These things […]
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When it came time to choose the text on which she would be sworn into the U.S. Senate, Elissa Slotkin turned to a relatively recent book that reflects her own identity as a Jewish woman. Slotkin, a former congresswoman who narrowly won her election in November, took the oath of office Friday on a copy […]
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