Other News

NEW YORK (JTA)—On Jan. 27, President Donald Trump made Mark Hetfield’s job impossible. Hetfield is the president and CEO of HIAS, an organization that resettles refugees in the United States. A week into his presidency, Trump issued an executive order barring refugees...

NEW YORK (JTA)—The vast majority of Reform and Conservative rabbis affiliate as Democrats, according to a new study. The study, published this month by Yale University, found that more than 80 percent of Reform rabbis, and about 70 percent of Conservative rabbis,...

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) is responding to catastrophic flooding and mudslides in Sri Lanka, the result of the worst storms to hit the island nation since 2003. JDC, together with its local partner Sarvodaya, a Buddhist-inspired...

Sitting in front of my grandparents’ black and white television set watching Abba Eban’s unforgettable speech before the United Nations General Assembly is certainly one of my most distinctive memories of the Six-Day War. Just 10 years old and not able to fully...

(JTA)—The first thing Carl Reiner does every morning is pick up the paper and read the obituary section to check if he’s named there. “If I’m not, I’ll have my breakfast”—or so he says in the charming and appropriately titled HBO documentary If You’re Not in the Obit,...

When I was a kid, my father was a Chief Petty Officer, and then a Chief Warrant Officer, in the Coast Guard. That was (long) before the all-volunteer military, which means we never had a lot of money. But he and my mother were always generous at Chanukah. I know, I...

NEW YORK (JTA)—In August, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told New York magazine, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could get all the Russian billionaires to move here?” Today, the Russian billionaires—or at least some Jewish ones—returned the compliment, naming Bloomberg...

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Janet Yellen is soft-spoken, tough, methodological, flexible— and Jewish. President Obama’s announcement that he had tapped Yellen, 67, to succeed Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve made news in part because she would be the first woman...

Congregation Beth El made good use of its sukkah and the Sukkot holiday this year with programming covering a range of interests, ages and celebratory activities. The festivities kicked off with the “First Annual Sukkah Raising,” which was held as part of the opening...

The Tidewater Chapter of the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities held its first meeting of the fiscal year on Sept. 9, 2013 at the Simon Family JCC. Under the leadership of Carolyn Abron-McCadden, who is beginning her third year as chair, members discussed...

Matthew Levitt, author of Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God will speak at The Lee and Bernard Jaffe* Family Jewish Book Festival, in a program partnership with the Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater. A...

WASHINGTON (JTA)—The first lawmaker to speak at a closed-door Capitol Hill confab convened by the Republican Jewish Coalition’s women’s affiliate was, naturally enough, a woman. So was the second. Against the background of the current federal budget battle, that’s...

NEW YORK (JTA)—There are a lot more Jews in America than you may have thought—an estimated 6.8 million, according to a new study. But a growing proportion of them are unlikely to raise their children Jewish or connect with Jewish institutions. The proportion of Jews...

Netanyahu warns: If necessary, Israel will stop Iran on its own WASHINGTON (JTA)—Israel is prepared to strike on its own if Iran is poised to obtain a nuclear weapon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations General Assembly. “Israel will not allow...

Marcel Reich-Ranicki shaped the literary world of the Federal Republic of Germany in the last half century probably like no other public intellectual in German history. An expert of German literature, he became the most articulate critic of the country’s new literary...

The board of directors of American Friends of Tel Aviv University, a donor group that supports Israel’s largest academic institution, Tel Aviv University, recently elected Bonnie Brand to its board. A Tidewater native and lifelong resident, Brand serves on the board...

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Jewish groups called on the Republican candidate for Virginia’s lieutenant governor to explain a sermon in which he said non-Christians are engaged in a “false religion.” E.W. Jackson, a pastor, on Sunday, Sept. 22 preached at the Restoration...