Category: Local

Last year, New York’s attorney general started investigating a car wash that, her office suspected, was scamming Jewish customers. Now, Letitia James is ordering that business to end its “Passover special” — a car-cleaning offer that massively overcharged Orthodox Jews. Otherwise, it will have to pay $75,000. Jewish law strictly forbids owning any chametz, or […]

A pro-Palestinian student activist at Cornell University who was targeted by ICE for deportation has opted to leave the United States rather than continue fighting his deportation in court. In a manifesto posted online on Monday, Momodou Taal praised the “student intifada,” derided concerns for the safety of Zionist students and called on his supporters […]

Harvard University announced that it would pause a research partnership with Birzeit University, a Palestinian school, following public pressure, the Harvard Crimson reported last week. The decision to suspend ties with the West Bank university comes as pro-Palestinian activists at campuses across the United States and the world have long called on their schools to […]

Katrina Armstrong, Columbia University’s interim president, stepped down on Friday as the school faced criticism over campus antisemitism, including the threat of losing $400 million in federal funding. Armstrong’s departure means the Ivy League university in Manhattan will have its third leader in the space of a year. President Minouche Shafik resigned last August in […]

Washington, D.C.’s Jewish federation is allocating $180,000 to help laid-off federal workers, the latest way the Trump administration’s slashing of the federal government is rippling out to Jewish organizations. The sum is a multiple of 18, which signifies life in Judaism, and will be split: $100,000 will be distributed via local synagogue rabbis, and $80,000 […]

As at Columbia University, its fellow Ivy League school, Cornell University has had a pro-Palestinian student protest leader sought for deportation — as well as a handful of disruptive protests this year of the sort that drew attention from the Trump administration. But Mike Kotlikoff, Cornell’s new president, says he isn’t too worried that protest […]

New legislation banning child marriage in Washington, D.C., was signed into law last week following advocacy by a coalition including Unchained At Last, a Jewish-led organization that opposes underage marriage. The new act establishes the marriage age as 18 in Washington, D.C. with no exceptions. It was signed by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and became […]

Days after Yeshiva University announced that it would recognize a club supporting LGBTQ students, its president said the values espoused by a typical “Pride” club are “antithetical” to the school. Rabbi Ari Berman also claimed that the Modern Orthodox school’s decision to allow an LGBTQ club, after years of fighting in court not to recognize […]

A Tufts doctoral student was detained by ICE in the Trump administration’s latest attempt to deport a pro-Palestinian protester, according to an emailed statement from her attorney. Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish international student, was arrested Tuesday near her Somerville, Massachusetts home while walking with friends to an iftar meal, which breaks Muslims’ daily Ramadan fast, […]

State Sen. Simcha Felder handily won the election to fill a vacant City Council seat representing Borough Park, Brooklyn, beating the theatrical radio host Heshy Tischler. Felder is a veteran politician who has represented the heavily Orthodox area for about 20 of the past 23 years, serving in the New York State Senate as well […]