Jewish News

Passover in the time of Deuteronomy: What a spectacle! We all got up and made pilgrimage to Jerusalem, pitching our tents on the surrounding hills. The priest helped us accomplish our lamb sacrifice, which we enjoyed in the evening cool of Nisan. It was a peak experience, away from home and its leveling routines. Alas, [...]

Jewish defense groups urged Congress to preserve the State Department’s anti-Semitism monitor. Representatives of the Anti- Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Secure Community Network testified Wednesday, March 22 before the human rights subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., the subcommittee [...]

More than 100 leaflets with hand-drawn swastikas were found dropped on the front yard of the Chabad Jewish student center at Virginia Tech. The leaflets were discovered at the student center located across the street from the Blacksburg university on Saturday, March 18 by the Chabad’s center co-director, Rabbi Zvi Yaakov Zwiebel. The incident occurred [...]

Jewish groups offered varied reactions, including disappointment, tepid congratulations and enthusiasm, to the confirmation of David Friedman as U.S. ambassador to Israel. On Thursday, March 23, the U.S Senate confirmed Friedman, a longtime lawyer of President Donald Trump who outraged some Jewish groups with his broadsides against liberal Jews, in a 52-46 vote that hewed [...]

WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Trump administration will not allow a repeat of last year’s United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel for its settlements, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told AIPAC. “Never again do what we saw with resolution 2334 and make anyone question our support” for Israel, Haley said at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee [...]

WASHINGTON (JTA)—“Many voices, one mission.” If AIPAC’s 2017 annual policy conference slogan, popping up on the conference app on activists’ smartphones, isn’t clear enough, the morning pick-me-up video it runs before conference business begins is pretty straightforward. In the video, activists are gravitating through sunny streets toward the convention center, and titles float above them: [...]

Organizations targeted by recent bomb threats and other U.S. Jewish groups welcomed news of the arrest of a suspect—an Israeli with American citizenship who reportedly is Jewish. The Anti-Defamation League, whose headquarters in New York and at least three satellite offices across the country received called-in threats, said in a statement issued Thursday, March 23—the [...]

Col. Edward Shames, pictured here with his letter of commendation from the Virginia General Assembly, was so honored on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Shames, a member of the legendary “Band of Brothers,” brought more of his men home than any other American commander in WWII . He was the first American soldier to enter the [...]

Poised and charming and offering insightful discussions, Jessica Fechtor, a guest author and speaker for the Beyond the Book Festival, established immediate rapport with her audience while reading from her book, Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals That Brought Me Home. Fechtor shared her journey of recovery from a ruptured brain aneurysm at the [...]

Beginning with a pop and a fizz, the Society of Professional’s Pour wine event gathered local Jewish professionals and friends at the Hilton Virginia Beach Oceanfront on Sunday, March 5. Overlooking the ocean, participants were led through progressive Kosher food and wine pairings by Certified Sommelier Crystal Cameron-Schaad of Crystal Palate. The 100 attendees were [...]