Aviva Kempner makes films about what she calls “underknown Jewish heroes.” More than a decade ago, she attended a talk on Martha’s Vineyard by civil rights activist Julian Bond, who spoke about Julius Rosenwald, the Jewish businessman and head of retailing giant Sears, Roebuck. Bond described how Rosenwald worked with Booker T. Washington to help […]
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An abandoned synagogue in Pennsylvania’s coal region, which until the early 2000s had served Jewish residents of Mahanoy City for more than 80 years, collapsed late Thursday night, officials and neighbors told the local media. Emergency crews responded to reports of falling walls and scattered debris at the former Beth Israel Synagogue, a brick building […]
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The newest Jewish Federations of North America survey has already generated its share of anxious headlines: Only 37% of American Jews say they identify as Zionists. Seven percent call themselves anti-Zionist, 8% non-Zionist and 18% aren’t sure. Another 30% say none of the labels offered describe them. And yet 88% say Israel has the right […]
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As President Donald Trump ramped up his rhetoric against Somali immigrants in Minnesota and ordered a surge in immigration enforcement because Somalis took part in a social-service fraud scheme, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey pushed back. “’When a fraud takes place, when a crime takes place, you investigate it, you prosecute it, you charge it. You […]
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Journalists I know joke that the only Jewish historian they ever need to call is Jonathan Sarna. Jews and the Civil War? Sarna knows where the bodies are buried. Need a quote about Jews and bagels? Sarna will give you one with everything. The history of American Jewish prayer? Amen. That Sarna is quoted on […]
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