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7 arrested in Greece following attacks on a synagogue and Israeli-owned hotel
Greek authorities arrested and charged seven people Thursday for two separate attacks earlier this year on a synagogue and an Israeli-owned hotel in Athens. The incidents represented one of the latest instances of violent antisemitism in Europe since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7. In France, a 12-year-old girl was recently the...
After antisemitism scandals, the U.K.’s Labour party regained the Jewish vote. What’s next?
Britain’s Labour party has regained control of the government, after 14 years in opposition. They’ve also won back the Jewish vote. It’s a turnaround that few would have predicted in 2019, after the United Kingdom’s last general election saw just 11% of British Jews vote for Labour. The liberal-leaning party, which had traditionally won widespread...
Hostage posters ripped off the wall outside Brad Schneider’s office a week after his house is picketed after midnight
WASHINGTON — Vandals tore down Israeli hostage posters hanging outside the Capitol Hill office of Rep. Brad Schneider, an Illinois Democrat, a week after pro-Palestinian activists used megaphones and drums to protest outside his home in the middle of the night. “My Capitol office was vandalized yesterday in a vile act of hate in which...
Bereaved Israeli families may now add traditional phrase ‘May God avenge his blood’ to soldiers’ gravestones
In June, the family of Capt. Yisrael Yudkin gathered at a cemetery for a mournful ritual: the unveiling of the headstone of their son and brother, Yisrael Yudkin, an Israeli soldier killed on May 22 while fighting in northern Gaza. But unlike many of the hundreds of other Israeli families who have buried their sons...
‘The most important tattoo I ever did’: Artists volunteer to ink Oct. 7 survivors
The artists who gathered in Tel Aviv Thursday to offer free tattoos to survivors of Oct. 7 know their work is rooted in trauma. They want it to be a source of strength. Twenty tattooists — half from Israel, half from abroad — are volunteering with HEALING INK, a project of a nonprofit that enlists...
Don’t let your kids read this column (but don’t ban it either)
When I informed the comedian Moshe Kasher that his memoir had been banned by a school district in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, he reacted as though he’d won the Pulitzer Prize. “I could not possibly be more proud,” Kasher told me. Also “stoked,” “thrilled,” and some unprintable amplifiers. “I’m normally very sensitive, and any criticism...
The distressing truth behind an exhibit about antisemitism — it’s always timely
The first thing you see when you walk into 81 Leonard Gallery in Tribeca is an uncanny amalgamation of two faces: Adolf Hitler and Kanye “Ye” West. Is it a powerful dictator or a popular rapper? It’s both and neither, but a face and font of antisemitism regardless. Marina Heintze’s “Yitler” is like an artistic...
She was a nice Jewish mother — and an organized-crime boss
She was an adoring Jewish mother, a generous benefactor to her synagogue, Rodeph Sholom, and a proper 19th century lady who wore floor-length silk gowns. But Fredericka Mandelbaum was also what her biographer, Margalit Fox, calls “America’s first major organized-crime boss.” She made a fortune selling stolen luxury goods — silk, lace, cashmere, jewels — and...
Israeli soldiers are finding Judaica in Gaza — and trying to locate the items’ owners
(JTA) — The commander of a small Israeli military drone unit in Gaza was on a routine reconnaissance mission with his team in an apartment in Rafah when one of his soldiers came across an object that looked strikingly out of place: a wood laminate challah board framed with the biblical injunction to “remember the...
UK’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, observes Shabbat, supports Israel and vows to fight antisemitism
For the first time ever, 10 Downing St., the official residence of the United Kingdom’s prime minister, will be home to a practicing Jewish family. Keir Starmer, whose wife is Jewish, was sworn in Friday by King Charles III after the Labour Party won in a landslide. Though Starmer himself is not Jewish, his children...
Keir Starmer, who prioritized fighting antisemitism in Labour Party, set to lead Britain after landslide win
(JTA) — Keir Starmer, a centrist who worked to fight antisemitism in his party, is about to be the next British prime minister following Labour’s landslide victory in British elections Thursday. Labour’s win, tallying 410 seats out of the 650 in parliament according to a highly-regarded exit poll, ends 14 years of Conservative rule in...
NY Jews unnerved by spike in antisemitism and raucous protests take to krav maga for self-defense
(New York Jewish Week) — Last year, as antisemitism spiked in New York City after Oct. 7, occupational therapist Ruth Peer began to hear about troubling incidents from the Jewish children she works with in Crown Heights. In one case, an elementary school-age patient told Peer that she was riding with her father when a...
Hezbollah hits northern Israel with heaviest barrage since Oct. 7
Israel’s mostly evacuated communities near its border with Lebanon were battered Thursday morning by what locals called the most severe attacks since Hamas invaded Israel’s south from Gaza on Oct 7. The Israeli military said the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah sent about 200 rockets and 20 drones carrying explosives into Israel on Thursday, the day...
Steve Bannon wants Jews to ‘hard weld’ to Christian nationalists. Not so fast
Steve Bannon just entered federal prison, so for now I won’t be able to ask him what he meant when he said American Jews must join with Christian nationalists like him to save themselves and Israel. “We’re the most pro-Israel and pro-Jewish group out there,” Bannon, the architect of former President Donald Trump’s 2016 election...
Israel without a chief rabbi for first time in a century
(JTA) — Israel’s two chief rabbis stepped down from their posts this week, leaving the positions officially vacant for the first time in more than a century as the government has failed to set a date for their successors’ election. Two rabbis have stepped in to fulfill the jobs’ duties on an interim basis, but...
Jury convicts Blaze Bernstein’s killer of premeditated murder and a hate crime
SANTA ANA, Calif. – Samuel Woodward was found guilty of first-degree murder and a hate crime Wednesday, condemning the Orange County man who killed gay and Jewish college student Blaze Bernstein in 2018 to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The verdict — which drew cheers and applause in a courtroom packed with...
Israel and Hamas mulling latest hostage deal as unrest roils region
(JTA) — Israel and Hamas were considering the latest hostage deal, officials on both sides said, while an Israeli Arab citizen stabbed a soldier to death in northern Israel and unrest continued to roil the region. Israel’s Mossad security agency and Hamas both issued terse statements on Wednesday saying they had in hand the latest...
Ryan Turell, Orthodox Jewish pro basketball player, will take talents to Israel
Ryan Turell, who in 2022 became the first Sabbath-observant Jew signed by an NBA team, will continue his professional basketball career in Israel after two seasons in the NBA’s G League. Turell, 25, signed with Ironi Nes Ziyyona, a team in the Israeli league’s first division, the team announced Wednesday. Nes Ziyyona, which plays in...
The Christian right wants schools to teach the Bible — but doesn’t understand what the Bible is about
Call it MACA: Make America Christian Again. A fresh offensive with that goal has gone into overdrive in the past two weeks, first with a ruling in Louisiana that the Ten Commandments must be displayed on the walls of every classroom, then a directive by Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public instruction, that all...
Orthodox minor-league pitcher Jacob Steinmetz is eating kosher delivery, walking to the stadium on Shabbat — and staying focused on the game
(JTA) — As Jacob Steinmetz prepared for his first international road trip as a professional baseball player last week, he had plenty on his plate — literally. The 20-year-old pitching prospect, who in July 2021 made history as the first Orthodox Jew drafted into MLB, was set to make his third start for the Hillsboro...
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