World News
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An alarming new battleground in campus fights over Israel
Graduation season is upon us, with its regalia, music, orations, crowds and controversies. This year, I’ll be attending two university ceremonies: my daughter’s graduation from Binghamton University, and the commencement at Case Western Reserve University, where I teach. As both a parent and a faculty member, I look forward to being part of the powerful ritual…
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My artist grandmother nearly made aliyah. I don’t know what she’d think of Israel today
With Mother’s Day coming up, I can’t help but think of my maternal grandmother, who passed away six years ago. And whenever I start thinking about my grandmother, my mind almost always turns to her art. My grandmother, Kayla Silberberg, had a brief period where she showed her work in art shows in California, selling…
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Is this Apple TV thriller hasbara — or societal critique?
AppleTV+’s new thriller Unconditional has the trappings of so much streaming content. A young woman disappears into hostile territory. Her mother, already juggling a family health crisis, does her own sleuthing to get her daughter back. People die, twisty alliances emerge. It’s all part of the suspense boiler plate, and it sizzles just enough to…
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Israeli man indicted in attack on Catholic nun in Jerusalem’s Old City
(JTA) — An Israeli man was indicted on Thursday in connection to the violent assault of a Catholic nun in Jerusalem last month, after prosecutors said he targeted her over her Christian identity. Yona Schreiber, 36, from the West Bank settlement of Peduel, was arrested last week and has since been indicted on charges of…
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Jewish real estate magnate Steven Roth likens Mamdani’s ‘tax the rich’ rhetoric to ‘from the river to the sea’
(New York Jewish Week) — Jewish real estate mogul Steven Roth compared New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “tax the rich” rhetoric this week to racial slurs and pro-Palestinian rhetoric on an earnings call for his company, Vornado Realty Trust. “I consider the phrase ‘tax the rich’ when spit out with anger and contempt by…
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Man who firebombed Boulder Israeli hostage march sentenced to life in prison
(JTA) — The man charged with carrying out a deadly firebombing attack on a march for Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colorado, last year was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Thursday after pleading guilty to muder and dozens of other charges. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national who was arrested…
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LA Orthodox school’s former guidance counselor will avoid jail time in sex abuse case
An Orthodox Jewish high school’s former director of academic support will avoid jail after pleading no contest Thursday to sexual abuse charges involving a student in her charge at the school’s boys’ division. Julie Tichon, 38, was working at YULA Boys High School in May 2024 when two students reported having separate sexual relationships with…
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Israel’s most dangerous war is with itself
My friend Rabbi Heshy Grossman recently invited me to Jerusalem to meet top Haredi rabbis. Unhappy with my critical writings about the Haredim, this well-meaning true believer hoped to jump-start fruitful dialogue. So I took the train to Jerusalem, and spent a fascinating day with pleasant and welcoming scholars who left me in even greater…
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In Max and Richard Fleischer, was father like son?
Spare a thought for Mr. Boop’s bald spot — or is it a yarmulke? In Max Fleischer’s 1932 cartoon “Minnie the Moocher,” Betty Boop is shown at home, harangued by her heavily-accented immigrant parents. They want her to eat her hasenpfeffer. For a particular subset of cartoon neurotics, what exactly is going on with Betty’s…
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Man charged for two Toronto-area synagogue shootings
(JTA) — Police have arrested a man in connection with two Toronto-area synagogue shootings that occurred on the same night in March. Nobody was injured in either attack, though two maintenance workers were inside Beth Avraham Yoseph when it was struck with bullets on March 6 after Shabbat services. Toronto police did not share the…
