Articles written by Andrew Lapin
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'Origin' story: How Ava DuVernay's new movie connects the Holocaust, slavery and caste
(JTA) - Early in the new drama "Origin," the Pulitzer Prize-winning Black author Isabel Wilkerson (played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) calls her cousin from Berlin to share that, as part of her research...
'Barbenheimer,' 'Maestro' and 'The Zone of Interest' lead large crop of Jewish-inspired Oscar nominations
(JTA) – The year’s biggest movie phenomenon was a one-two punch of blockbusters with Jewish roots — and they both came up big at Tuesday’s Oscar nominations. “Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan’s biopic of the Jewish “father of the...
Citing risk to Elie Wiesel's 'Night,' Iowa judge blocks key parts of state book ban law
(JTA) – A federal judge in Iowa has blocked much of a state law forbidding school libraries from stocking books depicting “sex acts,” in part because he said it was keeping a classic Holocaust memoir off shelves. U.S. District Court Judge...
Claudine Gay resigns from Harvard
(JTA) – Harvard University President Claudine Gay has resigned in the wake of plagiarism allegations and months-long criticism of her response to allegations of antisemitism at the school. Gay is...
Florida district pulls many Jewish and Holocaust books, including Saul Bellow's 'Herzog' and 'Black, White and Jewish'
(JTA) — A global bestseller by a Jewish Holocaust victim; a novel by a beloved and politically conservative Jewish American writer; a memoir of growing up mixed-race and Jewish; and a contemporary novel about a high-achieving Jewish family are...
A new 'Color Purple' adaptation hits theaters, returning author Alice Walker's history of antisemitism to spotlight
(JTA) - The bright, colorful movie musical "The Color Purple," which opens in theaters on Christmas, tells a story that has by now become a familiar part of the American canon - of a young Black...
Feds to probe University of North Carolina's response to harsh anti-Israel speech
(JTA) – Earlier this month, a lawyer acting on information from a pro-Israel group of North Carolinians told the federal government that their state’s flagship public university should be investigated for allowing anti-Israel rhetoric on campus....
MIT federal civil rights investigations
(JTA) – The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Davis, both of which have recently experienced widely publicized episodes of conflict around Israel, are among six new institutions facing U.S. Department of...
'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' HBO's especially Jewish comedy, to end after upcoming 12th season
(JTA) - A decades-long era of Jewish comedy on television will come to an end next year, as "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Larry David's HBO comedy, is set to end after its 12th season. The imminent...
Harvard president will remain in office despite criticism of her response to antisemitism
(JTA) – Harvard University’s board of directors will keep Claudine Gay as the school’s president despite pressure to force her out after she declined to say outright that calls for the genocide of Jews violated campus rules. The Harvard Corpo...
Norman Lear, Jewish creator of pioneering TV, dies at 101
(JTA) - Norman Lear, the Jewish TV pioneer behind iconic comedies of the 1970s and 1980s that helped bring social commentary and Black characters into the mainstream, has died at 101. Lear's death...
Susan Sarandon and Melissa Barrera among Hollywood figures facing blowback for stances on Israel and Jews
(JTA) — The star of a blockbuster horror franchise and an Oscar-winning veteran actress saw their careers take a hit this week over their public comments on Jews and Israel in some of the most high-profile examples yet of how the ongoing...
Jewish groups condemn shooting of 3 Palestinian students
(JTA) – Jewish congregations, politicians and campus groups in the Vermont area and beyond condemned the shooting of three Palestinian college students in Burlington, an incident authorities are investigating as a possible hate crime. A...
Elon Musk says he'll donate X ad revenue to hospitals in Israel and Gaza
(JTA) — Elon Musk announced Tuesday that his social network X would be “donating all revenue from advertising & subscriptions associated with the war in Gaza to hospitals in Israel” and to a humanitarian organization operating in Gaza. The...
The first Mom For Liberty to successfully ban Anne Frank went on an antisemitic livestream
(JTA) — A Florida organizer of the right-wing activist group Moms For Liberty who successfully pressed her school district to remove a version of Anne Frank’s diary recently appeared on a livestream banned from YouTube because of its pastor...
White House decries 'grotesque' antisemitic campus activities in support of Hamas attacks
(JTA) — The White House denounced “antisemitic messages being conveyed on college campuses” in a statement Thursday, condemning students groups that have praised Hamas’ attack on Israel or “call for the annihilation of the state of...
An avowed Holocaust denier is running for school board in Minnesota
(JTA) — One of the candidates on the ballot for an upcoming Minnesota school board election is an avowed Holocaust denier who has called for all Jews to be sterilized and tattooed with the Star of David, all synagogues to be closed and all Jewish...
Biden's new book ban czar is a longtime progressive Jewish leader
(JTA) – The Biden Administration’s new point person for combating book bans at school districts and public libraries across the country is a gay, Jewish progressive activist who has served as a government liaison to the Jewish and LGBTQ...
Texas teacher reportedly fired after reading from Anne Frank's diary to students
(JTA) — A middle school teacher in a district outside Houston, Texas, has been fired reportedly for reading a sexual passage from Anne Frank’s diary out loud to eighth-grade students, the district told local news. The passage came from a 2018...
Farrakhan follower leaves meeting
(JTA) – Days after a synagogue in St. Petersburg, Florida, was forced to evacuate services following a bomb threat, the local city council met to discuss a resolution about antisemitism. The resolution was about whether to endorse a definition of...
Member of Goyim Defense League extradited to Netherlands
(JTA) – A prominent member of an American neo-Nazi group has been extradited to the Netherlands, where he will stand trial for projecting an antisemitic message onto the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Robert Wilson is accused of being behind a...
At least 49 synagogues have been evacuated due to bomb threats in the last 2 months
(JTA) – At least two more synagogues in the United States evacuated their congregants over the weekend following bomb threats, the latest in a series of such calls that have put dozens of congregations on high alert heading into the High Holidays....
Watchdog group reports on antisemitism on campus
(JTA) – Nearly one in three current Jewish college students has witnessed or experienced some form of antisemitism on campus, according to a new survey. The survey was released by Jewish on Campus, a student-founded antisemitism watchdog group. It...
Six Jewish things to know about Vivek Ramaswamy
(JTA) - Ahead of the first Republican presidential debate, the candidate with the least political experience is making some of the biggest headlines - in part due to his views on Israel. Vivek...
Jewish groups back gun restrictions for domestic abusers in high-profile Supreme Court case
(JTA) – Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s announcement that it would consider a major case on Second Amendment rights, Jewish groups are joining an effort led by a Jewish organization for survivors of domestic abuse to back gun-rights restrictio...