By RON KAMPEAS WASHINGTON (JTA) – Like the rest of the world, Rex Tillerson got the news of his firing on Twitter. “Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service!” was the only reference to the now-outgoing secretary of state in a tweet President Donald Trump posted at 8:44 a.m. that also announced Tillerson’s nominated replacement, CIA director Mike Pompeo, […]

NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – The father of a teenager killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., said the students’ gun control efforts are misdirected. Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was slain in the Feb. 14 attack, told CNN’s “New Day” on Monday, March 5, that now may not be the time for the students to work […]

By JONATHAN S. TOBIN (JNS)  – Jewish groups don’t hesitate to weigh in after the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., but the futile nature of the discussion about guns points toward more culture-war bitterness rather than solutions. When Lori Alhadeff screamed at a camera from CNN and demanded that President Trump, “Please do something, do something, action, […]

NEW YORK CITY  (JTA) – Aly Raisman, the Olympic gold medalist gymnast, told a recent BBYO conference she drew strength from her Jewish upbringing. Raisman, addressing the pluralistic youth movement’s annual conference in Orlando, Fla., said she wanted to “talk about how proud I am to be a Jewish athlete,” which drew cheers. “Being Jewish is all about family and I […]

NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and current host of a cable chat show, reacted to the school shooting in Parkland, Fla. Wednesday, Feb. 15, by comparing Israeli gun safety policy to America’s. “Just waking up in Israel to news of heartbreaking school shooting in FL,” Huckabee tweeted, hours after a gunman killed 17 […]

(JNS) – The Jewish community in Parkland, Fla., was plunged into mourning on Wednesday, Feb. 14, when a former student opened fire on students, killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, with at least four Jewish students and one Jewish teacher among the dead. The deceased Jewish students include Jamie Guttenberg, Alyssa Alhadeff, Alex Schachter and Meadow Pollack. Scott Beigel, a […]

NEW YORK CITY (JTA)– A former high school classmate of Blaze Bernstein, 19, the Jewish college student found dead in a park near his parents’ Southern California home, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges. Samuel Woodward, 20, of Newport Beach, Calif., was ordered held on $5 million bail, after he issued his plea in Orange County Superior Court. It was […]

By RON KAMPEAS NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel made it into his State of the Union speech. “Last month, I also took an action endorsed unanimously by the Senate just months before: I recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” he said to applause, mostly from Republicans. Erosion Of Support For Israel? […]

DC Report By Douglas Bloomfield Donald Trump squandered millions of tax dollars in a failed attempt to validate one of his most notorious lies, one that threatens to undermine American democracy and disenfranchise millions of American voters. With a voracious ego matched by his lack of integrity, he continues to perpetuate the lie that he lost the popular vote by […]

NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – Neshama Carlebach, daughter of the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, in her first public comments since the start of the #MeToo movement said that she is angry with her father over allegations of sexual misconduct but that he was more than just his faults. Carlebach in a blog post published on The Times of Israel website […]