Category: Local

(JTA) – The foundation overseeing the planned memorial for the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh has selected its first director, and her aims are nothing less than the total end of antisemitism. Carole Zawatsky, a longtime veteran in Jewish nonprofit leadership, was announced as the first new Tree of Life CEO Tuesday. Her […]

(JTA) — In his first public appearance after midterm elections in which his Republican Party failed to take control of the U.S. Senate, former president Donald Trump headed to a friendly audience. The Zionist Organization of America was awarding Trump a rare honor, the Theodor Herzl Medal, for his contributions on behalf of Israel. When […]

(JTA) — For a short time Thursday night, Twitter users could see a post that would confuse anyone plugged in to the world of Israel advocacy. “We ❤️ apartheid,” tweeted an account with the handle AIPAC, the acronym for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The account’s profile picture was the same red-and-blue Jewish star […]

(JTA) – The U.S. Education Department says it will investigate allegations of antisemitism within a Northern Virginia public school district brought by the Zionist Organization of America, in a case the ZOA has pursued for more than a year. The federal department’s Office of Civil Rights wrote in a Nov. 3 letter to ZOA that […]

(JTA) – Chicago Jews were alarmed Thursday as local news outlets reported that a bus full of Jewish schoolchildren had been the victim of antisemitic harassment.  Police were investigating after a group of adults had forced the bus to stop, made their way on board, and then delivered a “Heil Hitler” salute, according to the […]

(JTA) — The NBA’s Jewish commissioner says he does not believe Kyrie Irving, the Brooklyn Nets star currently suspended amid an antisemitism scandal, is himself antisemitic. Irving ignited controversy last month when he shared a link to an antisemitic movie on Twitter. The link, which he did not elaborate upon, promoted a film called “Hebrew […]

(JTA) — Federal prosecutors have arrested and charged a New Jersey teenager with extremist Islamist views with making the threat that led to a sweeping FBI warning for the state’s synagogues last week. Omar Alkattoul, 18, of Sayreville, New Jersey, is charged with one count of transmitting a threat in interstate and foreign commerce for […]

(JTA) — A poll of Jewish voters showed them overwhelmingly listing abortion rights and risks to democracy as their top issues when they voted in midterm elections. The poll commissioned by J Street and another exit poll conducted on behalf of Fox News Channel and the Associated Press also showed substantial majorities of Jews voting […]

(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 […]