World News
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Ugly Hanukkah sweaters brought this Washington power couple together
(JTA) — Years before they were a couple, Shelley Greenspan and Reuben Smith-Vaughan were just two Amazon employees wearing ugly Hanukkah sweaters to a company holiday party. Both were working in Amazon’s Washington, D.C., office in 2017 when they each donned their sweaters — Greenspan in a hot pink number with a sparkly blue and gold dreidel;…
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Yankees outfielder Harrison Bader drops out of Team Israel’s World Baseball Classic roster, citing injuries
(JTA) — New York Yankees outfielder Harrison Bader, whose father is Jewish, shared this week that he will no longer play for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, citing a desire to remain healthy after an injury-plagued 2022 season. The 2023 Major League Baseball season begins only days after the WBC concludes in…
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A children’s book about Shabbat was returned to a Florida district’s shelves after year-plus ‘review’
(JTA) – Mara Rockliff’s “Chik Chak Shabbat” has become a standard for Jewish children since its 2014 publication. The picture book intended for young readers tells a whimsical story about a group of diverse neighbors who help an observant Jewish woman make her cholent — a stew traditionally served on the Sabbath — when they…
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Battle lines deepen in bruising fight for control of Germany’s liberal Jewish institutions
BERLIN (JTA) — The fight over control of Germany’s Reform rabbinical school has taken a new twist — one that appears poised to shatter longstanding institutions within liberal Judaism here, and reforge them into something new. The Central Council of Jews in Germany announced Thursday that it is bringing in an outside expert to help…
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Satmar Grand Rebbe visits convicted sexual abuser Nechemya Weberman in prison
(New York Jewish Week) — The Satmar “Grand Rebbe” Zalman Teitelbaum paid a visit to convicted sexual abuser Nechemya Weberman in prison last month, according to a Yiddish-language newspaper serving the Satmar Hasidic community that has published a series of favorable articles about the former therapist accused of sexually abusing an adolescent girl starting from…
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Trump to address conference of Orthodox Jews in wake of West-Fuentes controversy
(JTA) — Former President Donald Trump is set to address a conference organized by a haredi Orthodox education group weeks after his dinner with two prominent antisemitic figures sparked a wave of criticism. Trump will speak Friday at the annual President’s Conference of Torah Umesorah, Politico reported on Thursday, a days-long event at his National…
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New rabbi hopes to revive Turin’s shrinking Jewish population
This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with teens across the world to report on issues that impact their lives. TURIN (JTA) — The ancient Jewish community of Turin, in northern Italy, located in the multi-ethnic neighborhood San Salvario, isn’t hard to find. Visitors just need to…
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An afternoon with Shayna Maydele, possibly the most Jewish dog in New York
(New York Jewish Week) — In my decades as a journalist, I’ve interviewed some pretty powerful, important and, yes, even famous people. But never before have I been so excited — starstruck, even — to meet a subject, and this one wasn’t even human. I was positively giddy to visit the Upper East Side home last week of…
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Unilever ‘resolves’ legal battle with Ben & Jerry’s board over Israel sales
(JTA) – An extended legal battle over ice-cream maker Ben & Jerry’s operations in Israel appeared to come to a close as its parent company announced it had reached an agreement with the brand’s independent board of directors. Unilever, the British conglomerate that owns Ben & Jerry’s, said Thursday in a statement, “The litigation with…
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NY state officials want schools to say how they are teaching the Holocaust
This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with teens across the world to report on issues that impact their lives. (JTA) — Sasha Bandler and Josh Davis feel lucky to have learned about the Holocaust directly from survivors, but this wasn’t part of any formal education. The…
