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The Forward
Report: Schumer’s support for Biden is slipping
After more than a week of full-throated support for President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has privately signaled that he is open to him stepping aside, Axios reported Thursday. “In public, Schumer has been insistent that he is ‘for Joe.’ In private, he’s singing a different tune,” the news outlet reported. “Schumer has...
Should President Biden retire? Old Jewish men offer advice
President Joe Biden says he’s staying in the race for president, even as many Democratic voters and an increasing number politicians and commentators say it’s time for him to realize the limitations that age has wrought — and step aside. But what do old Jewish men think? We went back to the panel of old...
In groundbreaking new policy, Facebook says calling someone a ‘Zionist pig’ is antisemitic
Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, released a policy update Tuesday narrowing the acceptable use of the term “Zionist” on its platform. The new policy classifies some, but not all, use of the term as an antisemitic slur. Zionist is, however, not inherently a bad word. Plenty of Jews and Israelis self-identify, proudly,...
Did you know that baklava is part of Ashkenazi culinary history?
Editor’s note: In our recent cooking demo showing 13-year old Sender Glasser making baklava in Yiddish, we wrote that “this dish isn’t part of his Eastern European heritage.” Reader Joseph-Kass Tomaras begs to differ. When I was very young, my mother brought her grandfather Morris (Moishe) Belsky to tears with a platter of stuffed grape...
Jews felt Australia was a safe and boundless space. Then the Israel-Hamas war began, and everything changed
(JTA) — SYDNEY — The shaming of hundreds of Australian Jewish creatives played out very much in public, with names and photos and threats, at least one targeting a child. Now, months later, it lingers in silences — friends unfollowed, musicians quieted, colleagues ducked. In February, a number of prominent Jews who had expressed anguish...
The GOP platform: Supporting Israel, Fighting ‘anti-Christian bias’ and deporting ‘pro-Hamas radicals’
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — It pledges to fight antisemitism and to keep Israel safe. It promises to fight anti-Christian bias as well as “gender insanity.” And it vows, in all-caps, to “DEPORT PRO-HAMAS RADICALS AND MAKE OUR COLLEGE CAMPUSES SAFE AND PATRIOTIC AGAIN.” This is the 2024 Republican Party platform. Parties traditionally publish platforms in...
Trudeau appoints Jewish lawmaker as new adviser on Jewish community and antisemitism
(JTA) — A Jewish member of Canada’s parliament was tapped as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new adviser on the Jewish community and combating antisemitism following a series of violent attacks on synagogues and Jewish schools. Anthony Housefather’s appointment Friday came as Canada has seen a spike in violent antisemitism. Two synagogues in Toronto were attacked...
London gallery cancels Russian-Israeli artist’s anti-Putin show, objecting to her posts mourning Oct. 7
(JTA) — A gallery in London canceled an exhibition about censorship under Vladimir Putin because it objected to social media posts by one of the artists mourning the victims of Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7. In an Instagram statement posted July 4, Metamorphika studio accused Maria Sarkisyants, who is Jewish and comprises one-half of the...
Andrew Cuomo: Why weren’t Columbia protesters brought to justice?
By dismissing 31 of the 46 cases against protesters who briefly occupied Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall in April, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has done a disservice to the residents of New York City, who deserve a justice system that is willing to pursue cases even when they are difficult — and, dare I say...
Dept. of Education chides Brown University for taking ‘no or little action’ in response to complaints of antisemitism
(JTA) — A federal civil rights investigation into reports of antisemitism at Brown University since Oct. 7 concluded Monday by criticizing what investigators said was the Ivy League school’s lack of response to its Jewish students amid a reported surge in campus antisemitism nationwide. The school also failed to adequately address complaints of anti-Palestinian and...
Columbia removes 3 deans over text exchange deriding concerns of campus antisemitism
(New York Jewish Week) — Three Columbia University administrators have “been permanently removed from their positions” after sending a series of derisive text messages during a panel on campus Jewish life, the university’s provost announced Monday. In an accompanying letter, Columbia President Minouche Shafik wrote that the texts echoed antisemitism and vowed to start a...
Netanyahu issues list of demands for ceasefire deal as pressure mounts
(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out conditions for a ceasefire deal with Hamas as pressure ramped up at home and abroad for an outcome that would bring home the more than 100 Israeli hostages held by the terror group in Gaza. Netanyahu’s statement came days after Hamas put forward a new proposal...
Must Jews be defined by trauma? Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s sharp new novel offers a surprising answer
Surely, here in 2024, decades after the Holocaust and pogroms of Eastern Europe, American Jews are no longer defined by trauma and neuroticism. The epigenetic inheritance must wear off eventually — right? For a time, Jewish literature, film and TV was dominated by the likes of Philip Roth and Woody Allen and even Larry David,...
As Alec Baldwin court trial begins, what Jewish law says about charges against him
Alec Baldwin was formally charged with involuntary manslaughter Tuesday in the 2021 death of Halyna Hutchins, a cinematographer on the set of a movie he acted in and produced. Does Jewish law have anything to say about cases like his? The Torah does include laws for manslaughter. But what may surprise you is that while the...
Remembering Arnold Band, a towering figure in Jewish studies
Arnold J. Band, one of the great Hebrew literary scholars of the past 50 years and a towering figure in the global community of Jewish studies researchers, passed away Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Silver Spring, MD, at the age of 94. Arnie Band was a professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at UCLA for...
Left-wing alliance with history of antisemitism allegations declares victory in France’s split parliamentary elections
(JTA) — In a surprise outcome, French voters rejected a far-right party with antisemitic roots — but elevated a left-wing alliance that has faced antisemitism allegations of its own. The country’s most prominent far-left politician, meanwhile, vowed in his victory speech to push to recognize a Palestinian state. No party won a majority in the...
For Jews fearing the worst in France, a brief sigh of relief before facing the next fears
Until early Sunday afternoon, I planned to begin my column with the iconic lines from Mathieu Kassovitz’s 1995 film La Haine, or “Hatred.” Perhaps you know them: “Heard about the guy who fell off a skyscraper? On his way down past each floor, he kept saying to reassure himself: So far so good… so far...
What would a Kamala Harris presidency mean for American Jews and Israel?
President Joe Biden has remained defiant amid growing calls for him to quit the presidential race in the wake of a disastrous debate performance and diminishing polling numbers. But behind closed doors, and in conversations with major donors, Democratic Party officials are having their own debate: Who would be a viable candidate to replace Biden...
Americana meets meshuggeneh at a museum exhibit about MAD magazine
(JTA) — STOCKBRIDGE, Massachusetts — There’s a delightful “what if” moment at the start of “What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine,” a new exhibit at the Norman Rockwell Museum here. In 1964, MAD commissioned Rockwell himself to paint a portrait of Alfred E. Neuman, the humor magazine’s gap-toothed mascot, as he...
NYPD reports 45 antisemitic incidents last month, 57% of all hate crimes in the city
The NYPD reported 45 anti-Jewish hate crimes across the city in June as the increase in antisemitism continues more than eight months after Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel. The total for June was more than double the tally during the same month last year, when there were 19 antisemitic incidents reported to police. Jews...
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