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Did a Jewish nonprofit accidentally cause Michigan to drop charges against pro-Palestinian activists?

May 5, 2025May 6, 2025Sara Wood

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel unexpectedly dropped charges against seven pro-Palestinian student protesters, suggesting that an improper statement from a Jewish group motivated her decision. Nessel brought the felony and misdemeanor charges in September against the protesters, who had participated in the University of Michigan’s encampment last May. They stood accused of obstructing police and […]

Murders of two Israelis in Los Angeles appear unrelated as speculation mounts

May 2, 2025May 2, 2025Sara Wood

When news broke that two Israeli nationals were found murdered on the same day in Los Angeles this week, a string of social media accounts posted nearly identical messages warning, “They are literally HUNTING down Jews.” The killings came at a time when reports show surging antisemitism in the United States. In recent years, Los […]

Trump taps shock jock Sid Rosenberg and a Haredi newspaper publisher for Holocaust Memorial Council

May 2, 2025May 3, 2025Sara Wood

Days after firing eight Joe Biden-era appointees from the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, including former second gentleman Doug Emhoff, President Donald Trump tapped eight new members. Among them are shock jock Sid Rosenberg, who was a Trump surrogate during last year’s campaign, and Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz, the founding editor and publisher of […]

Reconstructionist leader to step down as head of movement riven by tension over anti-Zionism

May 1, 2025May 1, 2025Sara Wood

Rabbi Deborah Waxman, who leads the seminary and congregational union of Judaism’s Reconstructionist movement, said this week that she will retire in the summer of 2026, opening the top job at a movement that has been rocked by tension over a growing strain of anti-Zionism among its recent rabbinical school students and graduates. Since taking […]

As Supreme Court considers religious charter schools, Justice Kagan speculates about publicly funded yeshivas

April 30, 2025May 1, 2025Sara Wood

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan raised the concern during a hearing Wednesday that New York state could be forced to fully fund yeshivas that offer little education in basic secular subjects like English or math as a result of a landmark case the court will soon decide. At issue in the case is whether to […]

Mohsen Mahdawi, who led Columbia pro-Palestinian protests, freed from detention

April 30, 2025April 30, 2025Sara Wood

Mohsen Mahdawi, a pro-Palestinian student activist at Columbia, was released from federal custody Wednesday after a federal judge ruled it was unlawful to keep him detained with no formal charges. “The two weeks of detention so far demonstrate great harm to a person who has been charged with no crime,” said U.S. District Judge Geoffrey […]

Progressive Jewish groups oppose Antisemitism Awareness Act ahead of Senate vote

April 30, 2025May 1, 2025Sara Wood

As the Antisemitism Awareness Act heads to a Senate committee for a crucial vote, 10 progressive Jewish organizations have signed a letter opposing the legislation for representing an endorsement of the Trump administration’s “efforts to weaponize antisemitism.” “Voting in favor of this legislation in this current political climate would represent an endorsement of the Trump […]

Harvard releases long-awaited internal antisemitism report amid fierce battle with Trump

April 29, 2025April 29, 2025Sara Wood

Harvard University’s president has apologized for the campus climate over the last year and a half, in a letter accompanying a long-awaited report from a university task force on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias. The task force found that Jewish and Israeli students at Harvard experienced pervasive “shunning” and were relentlessly targeted for their identities by […]

Red paint coats Dartmouth building in pro-Palestinian protest

April 29, 2025April 30, 2025Sara Wood

As prospective members of Dartmouth’s class of 2029 visited their new campus for the first time Monday morning, they were confronted by a smattering of red paint across Dartmouth Hall’s facade. The person who was allegedly responsible for the paint, which dripped from the building’s windows and doorways, said the act was in protest of […]

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

April 28, 2025April 28, 2025Sara Wood

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, […]