Articles written by Ron Kampeas
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 491
By 
Take antisemitism seriously
WASHINGTON (JTA) - Antisemitism is often not taken seriously until it becomes deadly, said Deborah Lipstadt, the Holocaust scholar whose nomination to be the State Department's antisemitism monitor...
Found in the conservative scrutiny of Florida's math books: a joke about Jews
(JTA) - In a purge following accusations that textbook publishers were trying to "indoctrinate" students in allegedly liberal concepts, Florida rejected dozens of math books from being used in the...
AIPAC's new PAC is now the country's biggest pro-Israel PAC
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The political action committee affiliated with AIPAC, the pro-Israel powerhouse lobby, has in less than six months of existence become the biggest pro-Israel PAC, delivering $6 million to 326 candidates. It is also now endorsing...
Karine Jean-Pierre to be next White House press secretary
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Joe Biden named as his next press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, a former official of the activist MoveOn group who endorsed its call on Democratic presidential candidates to boycott the annual AIPAC conference....
Reading names of the murdered
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Several dozen members of Congress joined Holocaust survivors to mark Yom Hashoah, the Holocaust remembrance day marked by Jewish communities worldwide, by reading out the names of the dead and hearing testimony in the Capitol...
Jewish approval of Biden drops from 80 to 63 percent
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The good news for Joe Biden is that a majority of U.S. Jews approve of the job he is doing. The bad news is that the number in a new poll, 63 percent, is a sharp double-digit drop from where he was last year. A poll released...
Matzah at the International Space Station
(JTA) - An Israeli astronaut made a decidedly low-tech delivery to the International Space Station: handmade matzah. Eytan Stibbe, 64, is one of three astronauts who paid for the privilege of...
Amnesty USA chief to lawmakers who criticized him: 'I regret' speaking for US Jews about Israel
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The director of Amnesty International’s U.S. branch apologized to Jewish lawmakers for claiming to speak on behalf of American Jews. “I regret representing the views of the Jewish people,” Paul O’Brien said in a March 25...
Senate unanimously confirms Lipstadt
WASHINGTON (JTA) - The Senate in a voice vote unanimously confirmed Deborah Lipstadt, the Holocaust scholar who endured delays and a contentious hearing in her nomination to be antisemitism monitor....
Biden proposes boosting budget for nonprofit security
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Joe Biden wants to increase federal funding for security for nonprofits from $250 million to $360 million, a key request advanced by Jewish organizations in the wake of attacks on Jewish institutions. Biden included the...
Bomb threats target 'Jew filth' at Jewish centers
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Security officials are reporting a spate of bomb threats targeting Jewish institutions in a number of states. The threats came into Jewish community centers around the country in recent weeks, most recently in Pennsylvania and...
The Russia-Ukraine war has Blinken stuck between the personal and the political
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When Secretary of State Antony Blinken cited his family’s Holocaust-era history in explaining a matter of U.S. foreign policy on Monday, it was far from the first time he has done so. “One of my responsibilities as Secretary...
Amnesty International official is 'opposed' to Israel as a Jewish state
WASHINGTON (JTA) — An Amnesty International official said that the organization is opposed to Israel continuing to exist as a Jewish state. “We are opposed to the idea — and this, I think, is an existential part of the debate — that Israel...
Longtime Jewish Maryland Democratic leader resigns
(JTA) — Barbara Goldberg Goldman, a lay leader in Democratic Party, resigned as deputy treasurer of the Maryland Democratic Party after questioning the viability of Black candidates for governor. Goldberg Goldman apologized for an email she sent...
In rare show of unity, all 25 Jewish House Democrats blast Amnesty director's comments on Israel
WASHINGTON (JTA) — All 25 Jewish Democrats in the House, a fractious caucus that rarely unanimously agrees on issues of Jewish interest, signed onto a statement slamming recent comments by Amnesty International’s U.S. director, who said he...
$1 billion extra for Iron Dome gets wrapped into Congress' must-pass 2022 spending bill
WASHINGTON (JTA) — After months of maneuvering over $1 billion to replace Iron Dome batteries Israel lost in last year’s Gaza conflict, the money is to be included in a bipartisan spending bill Congress will consider this week as it looks to...
In appeal to US Jewish leaders, Zelensky calls Russian invasion 'pure Nazism'
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In an emotional call with American Jewish leaders, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky characterized the Russian invasion of his country as “pure Nazism.” Zelensky also invoked his Jewishness in an appeal for assistance wh...
Wyoming's legislature rejects critical race theory ban
(JTA) — It seemed a slam dunk: The popular conservative cause of banning “critical race theory” in schools, being taken up for a vote in one of the country’s most lopsidedly conservative legislatures. Then a Democrat, one of just seven in the...
JFNA names 2nd female chair
WASHINGTON (JTA) - Julie Platt is a one-time banker who has become a leader in promoting Jewish education and helping to rescue Jewish camping from the ravages of the pandemic. Now, she's about to mak...
Georgia rabbi blows wake-up call to state legislators
(JTA) –When Rabbi Larry Sernovitz was asked to deliver the morning devotion to the Georgia state legislature, he came armed with an ancient alarm: A shofar, the ram’s horn blown in synagogues during the high holy days. The Atlanta...
New document adding gun reform and LGBTQ advocacy back to policy priority list
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Less than a week after the Jewish Federations of North America removed hot button items such as addressing gun violence and defending LGBTQ rights from their annual priorities list, the umbrella group added them back into a subse...
3 neo-Nazis arrested in Orlando
(JTA) — Police in Orange County, Florida, arrested three men accused of violence and theft during a neo-Nazi rally in Orlando that made national headlines. Local media identified the men as Joshua Terrell, 46; Jason Brown, 47; and Burt Colucci,...
Rep. Andy Levin the 'most corrosive' on Israel
(JTA) — Some members of Congress are openly hostile to Israel. But it was Rep. Andy Levin, a Detroit-area Michigan Democrat and a scion of a storied Jewish political family, whom a former AIPAC president identified in an email earlier this month as...
Schumer recites the Shema prayer at National Prayer Breakfast and joins Biden's plea for unity
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Chuck Schumer, the most senior Jewish elected official in U.S. history, recited the Shema prayer at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday. The New York Democrat added a reading from Leviticus that emphasized unity,...
Down to one Jewish justice
WASHINGTON (JTA) - Stephen Breyer, the oldest justice on the Supreme Court and one of its minority of three liberal justices, is set to retire, multiple reports said Wednesday. The move would leave...
