Articles written by Ben Sales
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JCC Manhattan's new director wants to help people 'reclaim pre-COVID life'
\(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Almost exactly 18 months ago, as the U.S. settled into its first pandemic summer, the Upper West Side’s flagship Jewish community center delivered some bad news to its staff: more than a third of them would be...
Israeli minister promises progress on prayer space
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Israel will set plans in motion to renovate the non-Orthodox prayer space at the Western Wall, an Israeli official said Tuesday in New York. The current Israeli government is expected to implement an agreement,...
Former champ Yuri Foreman is now the 'Vegan Boxing Rabbi,' certifying kosher doughnuts
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) - Yuri Foreman's professional peak as a boxer arguably came 11 years ago, when he faced off against Miguel Cotto in a marquee boxing match at Yankee Stadium. The...
Facing protest from his socialist allies, Rep. Jamaal Bowman opens up about his recent trip to Israel
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Speaking to a group of college students, Rep. Jamaal Bowman expressed no regret about taking a recent trip to Israel and the West Bank with the liberal pro-Israel group J Street, despite intense backlash from his...
Here's what Marty Markowitz, former Brooklyn borough president, has to say about Marty Markowitz of 'The Shrink Next Door'
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Marty Markowitz, the former borough president of Brooklyn, has never listened to the popular podcast called “The Shrink Next Door.” He’s only vaguely aware that it’s now a TV series with an A-list cast. He...
In speech to Jewish group, NY Gov. Kathy Hochul calls out Democrats who are 'questioning our commitment to Israel'
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — In what was billed as her first speech to a Jewish audience as New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul vowed to fight hate crimes and criticized fellow Democrats over their positions on Israel. The speech, delivered vir...
The real Jewish story behind the Will Ferrell-Paul Rudd series 'The Shrink Next Door'
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) - One of the first images of "The Shrink Next Door," the limited series premiering Friday on Apple TV+, is of a smiling man wearing a huge kippah, chatting at a party...
Sally Rooney: Israeli publishers can't put out my new book for now, but Hebrew translation 'would be an honour'
(JTA) — The bestselling author Sally Rooney said she decided not to publish her latest novel with an Israeli publishing house because she supports a boycott of Israel, but added that a non-Israeli press could still publish the book in Hebrew. Roone...
Israeli PM Naftali Bennett to American Jewish leaders: 'We have to redesign our relationship'
NEW YORK (JTA) - The first thing Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, facing a room full of the leaders of the American Jewish community: "I wish my mom were here." The son of American...
Seattle City Council won't bar police from training with Israeli forces
(JTA) — In a contentious meeting last week, the Seattle City Council narrowly voted down legislation that would have prohibited the city’s police department from conducting training with Israeli forces. The bill, which was defeated by a vote of...
Los Angeles teachers union votes to postpone Israel boycott motion indefinitely
(JTA) — Los Angeles’ main teachers union voted Thursday to indefinitely postpone a motion in favor of boycotting Israel. For months, the United Teachers of Los Angeles, which has approximately 30,000 members, has been debating a motion to...
Survey of Jewish fraternity and sorority finds most respondents experienced antisemitism on campus
(JTA) — A survey of members of AEPi and AEPhi, the most prominent national Jewish fraternity and sorority, found that large numbers of respondents have experienced antisemitism on campus. The survey also found that about half of respondents have...
Poway shooter pleads guilty to 113 hate crimes charges
(JTA) — The man who opened fire on a synagogue in Poway, California in 2019, killing one and injuring three, has pleaded guilty to a 113-count federal hate crime indictment. The guilty plea comes with a recommended sentence of life in prison plus...
Iraq issues arrest warrant against activists who called for normalization of ties with Israel
(JTA) — Hundreds of Iraqi civic leaders and activists attended a conference calling for the country to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel. But Iraq’s government rejected the call and is now seeking to arrest the leaders of the confer...
Josh Mandel, Jewish Ohio Senate candidate, compares Biden's vaccine mandate to the Gestapo
(JTA) — The latest politician to compare government vaccination efforts to Nazi Germany is Josh Mandel, a Jewish Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio. In a video last Thursday protesting President Joe Biden’s upcoming requirement that a...
FBI reports drop in number of antisemitic crimes in 2020 amid rise in total hate crimes
(JTA) — The FBI recorded the largest number of hate crimes last year since 2008, including spikes in the number of anti-Black and anti-Asian hate crimes. Anti-Jewish hate crimes dropped from 953 in 2019 to 676 last year, a decrease of 29 percent....
Natan Sharansky offered advice to cope with COVID lockdowns - now, he's recovering from the virus
(JTA) — When the world shut down last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Natan Sharansky figured his experience as a Soviet political prisoner meant he had a thing or two to teach the millions of people who were suddenly confined to their homes....
Progressive Jewish leaders condemn AIPAC for ads slamming 'Squad' members
(JTA) — Dozens of progressive Jewish leaders have signed a letter condemning the Israel lobby AIPAC for social media ads targeting Reps. Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other members of the group of progressive Congress members known as...
The Anti-Defamation League and Hillel are now working together to document antisemitism on campus
(JTA) — Over the last year, Jewish college students took it upon themselves to combat antisemitism at their schools. Now, two major Jewish organizations are working together to play a stronger role in fighting antisemitism on campus. Some of the...
Alleged assailant in stabbing of rabbi charged with hate crime
(JTA) — The suspect in the stabbing of a Boston Chabad rabbi has been charged with committing a hate crime and civil rights offense. Khaled Awad, 24, was arrested Thursday after allegedly stabbing Rabbi Shlomo Noginski outside of his school and...
Alleged assailant in stabbing of rabbi charged with hate crime
(JTA) — The suspect in the stabbing of a Boston Chabad rabbi has been charged with committing a hate crime and civil rights offense. Khaled Awad, 24, was arrested Thursday after allegedly stabbing Rabbi Shlomo Noginsky outside of his school and...
University of Chicago's Jewish community reels with the loss of 2 students
(JTA) - Rabbi Anna Levin Rosen has counseled Jewish students at the University of Chicago through crises before. But she says the last two weeks have been "devastating." First, Ilan Naibryf, 21,...
Rutgers' Hillel director is worried about Jewish student life as he leaves
(JTA) - As he ends his tenure as the director of the largest Hillel in the country after 20 years in the post, Andrew Getraer says Jews at Rutgers University face a reality out of Dickens: the best...
American Jews mobilize in response to building collapse in Orthodox enclave
(JTA) - As the United States woke up to news of the building collapse in Surfside, Florida, it quickly became clear that the disaster is an American Jewish tragedy. The 12-story building in the heav...
Palestinian Authority looks a gift horse in the mouth
(JTA) — The Palestinian Authority canceled a deal that would have seen Israel give it 1 million COVID vaccine doses in exchange for a later shipment. The P.A. made the move because many of the doses were set to expire in the coming weeks, according...
