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Conservative Ziegler rabbinical school to relocate to ‘heart of Jewish life’ in Los Angeles
(JTA) — Following the sale of its Bel Air campus last year, American Jewish University announced Monday that its rabbinical school will relocate to a commercial building in Beverly Hills, within walking distance of the heavily Jewish Pico-Robertson neighborhood, in 2024.
The Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, which is affiliated with Conservative Judaism, will occupy 7,700 square feet in a building that is also home to a bank and other businesses. The leased space will include a library, faculty offices, classrooms and a conference room.
Pico-Robertson is home to a diverse set of Jews as well as many kosher restaurants, Judaica stores and the Simon Wiesenthal Center Holocaust museum. Multiple synagogues, including the Conservative Temple Beth Am, can be found within a few blocks. Earlier this year, the neighborhood was also the site of an antisemitic shooting spree that left two Jewish men wounded.
“With this move, American Jewish University begins a new chapter for the Ziegler School, providing our students with innovative opportunities to flourish in the heart of Jewish life in Los Angeles,” AJU president Jeffrey Herbst said in a statement.
AJU relinquished its historic 35-acre campus in 2022 amid financial pressures and years of declining enrollment, selling the property to a Swiss education company, which reportedly beat out other bidders with a $ 65 million offer.
University officials didn’t disclose the terms of the new lease, but at currently advertised rates for space in the building, the cost to AJU would come out to about $460,000 a year.
In addition to downsizing its real estate and, several years ago, closing its undergraduate program, AJU last year slashed Ziegler’s tuition by nearly 80% from about $31,000 to $7,000 in the hope of attracting more rabbinical students; only four were enrolled last year. New donations, rather than the revenue from the sale of its campus, are underwriting the reduced tuition structure, according to the school, which also recently announced the creation of a distance-learning doctoral program in Jewish early childhood education.
The ongoing shakeup at Ziegler comes amid changes across the rabbinic training landscape, as fewer students seek to enroll in traditional seminaries and fewer American Jews affiliate with synagogues and denominations. Hebrew College, a nondenominational seminary outside Boston, recently sold its suburban campus and began sharing space with a Conservative synagogue.
Meanwhile, the Conservative movement’s other U.S. rabbinical school, the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan, recently shed real estate during a campus overhaul. And the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College recently condensed its rabbinical training from three campuses to two.
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The post Conservative Ziegler rabbinical school to relocate to ‘heart of Jewish life’ in Los Angeles appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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120th anniversary of the Forverts advice column “Bintel Brief”
מזל־טובֿ! דעם 20סטן יאַנואַר 2026 איז געוואָרן 120 יאָר זינט דער גרינדונג פֿון „אַ בינטל בריוו“ — דער עצות־רובריק פֿונעם פֿאָרווערטס. די רובריק איז פֿאַרלייגט געוואָרן פֿונעם גרינדער און לאַנגיאָריקן שעף־רעדאַקטאָר אַב קאַהאַן אין 1906.
כּדי אָפּצומערקן דעם יום־טובֿ ברענגען מיר אײַך צוויי זאַכן:
• ערשטנס, אַן אַרטיקל וועגן אַ טשיקאַווען בריוו וואָס איז אָנגעקומען אין דער פֿאָרווערטס־רעדאַקציע אין יאַנואַר 1949, פֿון אַ לייענער וועמעס זון האָט חתונה געהאַט מיט אַ קריסטלעכער פֿרוי
• צווייטנס, אַ פֿאָרווערטס־ווידעאָ אויף ייִדיש וועגן דער געשיכטע פֿון „אַ בינטל בריוו“, מיטן געוועזענעם פֿאָרווערטס־רעדאַקטאָר באָריס סאַנדלער און דער פֿאָרווערטס־אַרכיוויסטקע חנה פּאָלאַק.
The post 120th anniversary of the Forverts advice column “Bintel Brief” appeared first on The Forward.
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Report: Khamenei Moved to Underground Bunker in Tehran
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a televised message, after the ceasefire between Iran and Israel, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Amid tense expectation of US strike on key assets of the Islamic regime, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was moved into a special underground bunker in Tehran, the Iran International website reported on Saturday.
The report further added that the supreme leader’s third son Masoud Khamenei has taken over day-to-day management of the leader’s office, functioning as the de facto main channel for coordination vis-à-vis the executive branches of the government and the security forces.
The report describes Khamenei’s hideout as a “fortified site with interconnected tunnels.”
On Thursday US President Donald Trump said that a “massive” naval force was heading toward Iran.
“We have a lot of ships going that direction just in case. We have a big flotilla going in that direction. And we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters.
“We have an armada. We have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it. We’ll see,” Trump added.
The USS Abraham Lincoln, along with three destroyers, was spotted making its way to the Middle East from Asia, according to ship-tracking data.
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Israel, Syria to Finalize US-Brokered Security Deal ‘Soon,’ as ‘Developments Accelerate Noticeably’
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a Ministerial formation of the government of the Syrian Arab Republic, in Damascus, Syria, March 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
i24 News – Syrian and Israeli officials are expected to meet soon under US mediation, perhaps in Paris, to finalize a security agreement between Damascus and Jerusalem, a source close to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa told i24NEWS on Saturday.
According to the Syrian source, the talks will also focus on various potential joint strategic and economic projects in the buffer zones between the two countries.
“There is very optimistic talk suggesting the possibility of even opening an Israeli embassy in Damascus before the end of this year, given the significant progress in the prospect of Syria joining the Abraham Accords,” the source said.
The original Syrian plan was limited to a security agreement and the opening of an Israeli liaison office in Damascus without diplomatic status, the source tells me. “But developments are accelerating noticeably under pressure from the United States, and specifically by President Trump, and amid growing Syrian openness.”
If Damascus manages to reach an integration agreement with the Druze in southern Syria, similar to its agreement with the Kurds in the northeast, and Israel commits to respecting Syria’s unity and territorial integrity, then al-Sharaa would be open to elevate the status of the agreement with Israel to more than just a security agreement, to also include diplomatic relations and an Israeli embassy in Damascus.
“The al-Sharaa government believes that a viable compromise to advance a peace process with Israel would include a 25-year lease for the Golan Heights, similar to the one Jordan previously signed with Israel over the border enclaves, turning it into a ‘Garden of Peace” of joint economic ventures,” the source said.
The source close to al-Sharaa also tells me that US President Trump is seeking to bring Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Al-Sharaa together for a peace agreement signing ceremony.
It should be noted that Israel has repeatedly rejected returning any part of the Golan Heights, let alone the entire territory.
On another front, the source stated that Damascus intends to adopt a new local administration system based on expanded administrative decentralization to enhance participation in local communities across all Syrian governorates.
According to the source, this solution would resolve persisting disputes with the Druze, Kurds, Alawites, and other minorities. A new Syrian government is expected to be formed within the next three months, the source added.