World News
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Playing with bows and arrows and other Lag BaOmer shtetl customs
עס קומט באַלד דער יום־טובֿ ל״ג־בעומר — דער 33סטער טאָג פֿון ציילן ספֿירה, די טעג צווישן פּסח און שבֿועות. ל״ג־בעומר איז אַ טאָג פֿון פֿרייד אין מיטן פֿון זיבן וואָכן טרויער און ערנסטקייט. מע דריקט אויס די פֿרייד אויף פֿאַרשיידענע אופֿנים. דאָס ווערטל „אַ ל״ג־בעומר-גענעראַל איז נאָר אויף איין טאָג“ פֿאַררופֿט זיך אויפֿן מינהג, אין…
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‘Don’t give up on us now’: Israel peace summit convenes thousands to aim for elusive progress
TEL AVIV, ISRAEL — On Thursday’s bright, sun-drenched morning during a rare pause in the multi-front war Israel has been locked into for nearly three years, in between the protests, funerals and steady drumbeat of violence and trauma, something decidedly more hopeful was taking place. In one of the city’s largest conference centers, thousands gathered…
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A GOP lawmaker tried to put a Holocaust denier on New Hampshire’s Holocaust education board
(JTA) — A Republican state lawmaker in New Hampshire partnered with a notorious German Holocaust denier in an effort to insert Holocaust denial into the state’s public education guidelines. Rep. Matt Sabourin dit Choinière successfully pushed the New Hampshire Commission on Holocaust and Genocide Education to hear testimony from Germar Rudolf, a German chemist who…
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NH lawmaker reprimanded for ‘final solution’ joke aimed at Jewish colleague
(JTA) — A Republican state legislator in New Hampshire faced a disciplinary hearing this week for having tweeted a “final solution” reference at a Jewish Democratic colleague. Last month, GOP state Rep. Travis Corcoran wrote on social media, “We need a final solution for theater kids in politics,” in response to state Rep. Jessica Grill’s…
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Sheryl Sandberg endows scholarship at Camp Ramah in California in honor of late husband
(JTA) — Sheryl Sandberg, the former Meta COO, announced on Thursday that she is endowing a new scholarship fund at Camp Ramah in California in honor of her late husband, Dave Goldberg. “Camp Ramah is where Dave built friendships that lasted decades. It’s where he developed a sense of independence that shaped the rest of…
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Keir Starmer: ‘If you stand alongside people who say Globalize the Intifada, you are calling for terrorism against Jews’
(JTA) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said people who use the phrase “globalize the intifada” should be prosecuted, describing the popular pro-Palestinian chant as a call for “terrorism against Jews” in the wake of a terror attack in a heavily Orthodox neighborhood of London. “Of course, we protect freedom of speech and peaceful protest…
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Analysis: As Democrats unite behind Platner, Schumer’s future as leader faces tests
National Democrats on Thursday moved swiftly to unite behind Graham Platner — a progressive candidate whose past Nazi-linked tattoo and sharp criticism of Israel have alarmed some Jewish groups — after he became the presumptive nominee for Maine’s Senate seat. The move made political sense. Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer, had already been leading…
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As Supreme Court dilutes Voting Rights Act, Tennessee’s first Jewish congressman could lose his seat
The first Jew elected to represent Tennessee in Congress could lose his seat to redistricting following a Wednesday Supreme Court decision that weakened the Voting Rights Act by limiting states’ ability to take race into account when drawing voting maps. Rep. Steve Cohen, a progressive Democrat elected in 2006, represents a majority-Black district that includes…
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Monitored phone calls and fear of arrest: What life looks like for Iran’s Jews now
Amid the war in Iran, one Iranian Jewish woman who lives in the United States, but whose family remains in Iran, has been wracked with fear. Before the ceasefire, she spoke with her parents once a week for exactly one minute — both because of the exorbitant cost, about $50 per minute, and because of…
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Graham Platner, whose Maine Senate run has concerned Jews, becomes presumptive Democratic nominee
(JTA) — Graham Platner, the oyster farmer and political neophyte whose past Nazi tattoo and current anti-Israel rhetoric have caused concern among some Jewish groups, has effectively clinched the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Maine after his primary opponent Janet Mills suspended her campaign Thursday. A key Jewish Democrat, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer,…
