Category: Local

WASHINGTON — In her last week in office, Deborah Lipstadt, whom President Joe Biden charged with fighting antisemitism around the world, expressed doubt as to whether the incoming Trump administration will be up to the challenge. “I certainly hope so — I don’t know,” said Lipstadt, during her final roundtable with the Jewish press at […]

Six months ago, Jewish groups celebrated a policy win when Meta banned the use of “Zionist” as a coded slur against Jews and Israel. Now, the same organizations are condemning the company for dramatically loosening restrictions on speech across its social media platforms. “It is mind-blowing how one of the most profitable companies in the […]

In 1972, I was a counselor-in-training at Herzl Camp in Webster, Wisconsin. If you also found your Jewish essence, your neshama, your soulfulness, at camp, this memory might resonate. One steamy midwestern August afternoon, a charismatic and beloved senior staff person tapped me on the shoulder and directed me to teach the camp song to […]

LOS ANGELES — The Shabbat service was in many ways standard fare: Hundreds of Jews gathered to light candles, sing prayers, rise for reflection and eat challah, together. But there was a big, and unexpected, difference this week for members of the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center: Instead of convening in their synagogue’s 80-year-old building, […]

So many questions swirled in my head, like burning embers caught up in the wind, each one demanding urgent attention. Will the power be on at the shul, or will we need to accept one of the many kind invitations to join another synagogue for services? Should we pack the cars before heading out for […]

Two blocks away: a school reduced to ruins. Across the street: rubble. Under the door: ashes. And yet at Kehillat Israel, things look much the same as they did at the beginning of the week, before the fires. That’s what the clergy found when they reentered their synagogue’s building on Thursday in the wake of […]

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 […]

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 […]