Category: Local

(JTA) — A pair of pants coming up for auction are being described as “holy” — and not just because they’re a little torn.  Rather, the pants once belonged to the late Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, an Israeli haredi Orthodox leader considered by his followers to be the leading Jewish authority of his generation. Kanievsky died […]

(JTA) — New Hampshire’s attorney general launched an investigation into an overnight wave of vandalism attacks in Portsmouth that included a red swastika and a cross painted on a synagogue. The attack on Temple Israel was one of at least 14 acts of vandalism carried out before dawn on Tuesday against Jewish and minority-affiliated institutions, […]

(JTA) — A large painting of Jesus will be moved out of a room at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York, and mandatory events will not take place in its presence. That decision by the academy, announced on Friday, concludes a dispute over the painting’s fate that pitted religious freedom advocates against conservatives. […]

(JTA) – A Catholic high school in Miami forfeited its semifinal game in a state soccer tournament over the weekend, days after players fought in an on-field brawl with a Jewish school’s team. The Catholic school, however, did not offer additional comment on eyewitness accounts claiming that the fight was fueled by antisemitism. Archbishop Coleman […]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — George Santos, the New York Republican congressman in trouble for a string of lies about his education, his career and his background, said his claims of Jewish identity were a “party favor joke.” But he doubled down on his debunked claim that his maternal grandparents were Jewish. Santos made the comments on […]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rep. David Cicilline, the Jewish Rhode Island Democrat and influential pro-Israel progressive, is leaving Congress. Cicilline said Tuesday he will exit Congress in June to head the Rhode Island Foundation, the biggest funder of nonprofits in the Ocean State. The foundation is massively influential in the state and leading it could offer […]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — In a rare comment on internal Israeli politics, the umbrella organization for local Jewish federations is urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to drop one element of his government’s controversial plan for judicial reform. On Tuesday, the Jewish Federations of North America sent an open letter to Netanyahu and Yair Lapid, leader of […]

(JTA) — The Israeli minister responsible for relations with Jews in the Diaspora has a message for the government of the country where most of them live: “Mind your own business.” Amichai Chikli made the comment Sunday in a radio interview in Israel, where he was asked to address recent comments by U.S. ambassador Tom […]

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — The morning after Los Angeles police arrested a man suspected of shooting two Jews outside their synagogues, the biggest indicator of disruption in the neighborhood where the incidents took place was a caravan of news trucks. Along Pico Boulevard, the thoroughfare running through the Pico-Robertson neighborhood that is home to a […]

(JTA) — Assembling abortion aftercare kits. A Havdalah ceremony combined with an update on state reproductive rights legislation. Sermons on abortion and Jewish law. Those are some of the many ways more than 1500 synagogues and Jewish communities nationwide are observing the third annual “Repro Shabbat,” which begins tonight. It’s the first time the Shabbat […]