Judaism

Kentucky GOP group blames hacker for calling new US firearms regulator part of a 'Jewish junta'

July 18, 2022

When Steve Dettelbach was confirmed last week as the director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, he became the beleaguered bureau’s first head to pass a Senate confirmation in eight years. For some, the confirmation offered hope of a changing tide in America’s sea of mass shootings.

But a county Republican group in Kentucky saw a different story: that Dettelbach is part of a “Jewish junta” that “is getting stronger and more aggressive.”

The Bracken County Republican Party, representing a rural county with a population of around 8,400...

Read more about Kentucky GOP group blames hacker for calling new US firearms regulator part of a 'Jewish junta'

Members of minority faith, belief communities have mixed responses to Supreme Court ruling in favor of football coach praying on field

July 8, 2022

Members of minority faith and belief communities had mixed reactions after the recent Supreme Court ruling that said the Constitution protected a high school football coach in Washington who prayed on the field after games.

Some worried the high court’s ruling isn’t necessarily...

Read more about Members of minority faith, belief communities have mixed responses to Supreme Court ruling in favor of football coach praying on field

A Jewish camp is reassuring families amid a 'social media offensive' over its inclusion of trans children

July 8, 2022

A Jewish summer camp in southern California is reassuring families after a prominent anti-LGBTQ Twitter account, Libs of TikTok, called attention to a year-old “diversity and inclusion” statement on its website.

“Camp Ramah, which owns tens of camps across the country, announced they are housing kids according to their gender identity rather than birth sex,” the account tweeted Wednesday afternoon. It linked to ...

Read more about A Jewish camp is reassuring families amid a 'social media offensive' over its inclusion of trans children

Jewish, Islamic faith leaders say religion drives their abortion access views

July 7, 2022

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, some religious leaders celebrated the decision. Others denounced it. 

"It's just horrifying and frustrating and angering, and that feeling hasn't gone away and isn't going to go away," Rabbi Bonnie Margulis said. 

Margulis is the chair of the Wisconsin Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. She said she...

Read more about Jewish, Islamic faith leaders say religion drives their abortion access views

Judges dismiss Jewish couple's suit alleging adoption bias

July 5, 2022

A panel of Tennessee judges has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a couple who alleged that a state-sponsored Christian adoption agency refused to help them because they are Jewish.

The lawsuit against the state challenged a 2020 law that installed legal protections for private adoption agencies to reject state-funded placement of children to parents based on religious beliefs.

Much of the criticism of the law had focused on how it allowed adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ people...

Read more about Judges dismiss Jewish couple's suit alleging adoption bias

Leading Orthodox groups cheered the end of Roe v. Wade. Many Orthodox women are panicking.

June 30, 2022

Pam Scheininger and J. David Bleich have this much in common: They are Orthodox Jews who are preoccupied with Jewish ethics and teach at New York City law schools.

But when Scheininger looks at an American map, she sees 16 states where Orthodox Jewish women would not be able to have an abortion otherwise sanctioned by Jewish law. Bleich sees a different number — zero.

Disagreements among Jews over where Jewish and state laws intersect on abortion, once theoretical, have taken on urgency in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling this week overturning Roe v. Wade...

Read more about Leading Orthodox groups cheered the end of Roe v. Wade. Many Orthodox women are panicking.

Boise High grad brings community together to counter local Baptist pastor

June 28, 2022

Lizzy Duke-Moe, a Boise High School graduate who is attending Brown University in the fall, was spurred into action last week to counter a local Baptist pastor who called for the death of all gay people.

Duke-Moe said in an email that her mom, Keely Duke, and stepmom, Sarah Seidl are married — “they got married in Idaho,” Duke-Moe said, and her mother had shown her an article about the pastor’s sermons. “And...

Read more about Boise High grad brings community together to counter local Baptist pastor

LGBTQ youth of faith retell their stories to inspire others

June 27, 2022

Sabrina Hodak grew up in a Modern Jewish Orthodox family but only truly embraced Judaism at age 16, around the same time she understood she was bisexual.

It was an upsetting and confusing time, because the same religious mentors who helped her strengthen her beliefs kept saying her sexuality would conflict with her faith.

“That was very frustrating, because I also knew that a lot of other religious people believed that,” said Hodak, now a 19-year-old psychology major at Florida International University. In her journal, she kept asking, “Can I please just find...

Read more about LGBTQ youth of faith retell their stories to inspire others

Is Intermarriage Good for the Jews?

June 23, 2022

In 1990, American Jews decided they had no future.

That was the year the National Jewish Population Survey—then the most comprehensive study of American Jewry ever undertaken—revealed that more than half of America’s Jews, 52%, were intermarried. Though the report itself was even-keeled in its analysis, the reaction among many Jews veered toward panic.

Intermarried couples weren’t raising their...

Read more about Is Intermarriage Good for the Jews?

Judge Orders Yeshiva University to Recognize LGBTQ Student Group

June 15, 2022

Yeshiva University (YU) will now be required to formally recognize an LGBTQ student group following a Tuesday ruling by a New York state judge.

Judge Lynn Kotler of the New York County Supreme Court determined that despite the private university’s “proud and rich Jewish heritage,” it is not a religious organization. Therefore,  the institution is subject to the New York Human Rights Law, which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Kotler ordered the school to provide the club, known as the YU Pride Alliance, with “full and equal accommodations,...

Read more about Judge Orders Yeshiva University to Recognize LGBTQ Student Group

Synagogue challenges Florida abortion law over religion

June 14, 2022

A new Florida law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks with some exceptions violates religious freedom rights of Jews in addition to the state constitution’s privacy protections, a synagogue claims in a lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed by the Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor of Boynton Beach contends the law that takes effect July 1 violates Jewish teachings, which state abortion “is required if necessary to protect the health, mental or physical well-being of the woman” and for other reasons.

“As such, the act prohibits Jewish women from practicing their faith free of government...

Read more about Synagogue challenges Florida abortion law over religion

Conservative rabbis approve new language for nonbinary Jews

June 8, 2022

Each Saturday, several members of a Jewish congregation are called up to the podium to bless the Torah before a portion of it is read aloud. This calling forward, called an aliyah, is considered an honor.

But the pronouns used to summon people in Hebrew are gendered. What’s a congregational leader to do when summoning a nonbinary person who identifies as neither exclusively male nor exclusively female?

Now the Conservative movement has formalized a series of Hebrew terms service leaders can use to call nonbinary people to Torah honors. The opinion by the...

Read more about Conservative rabbis approve new language for nonbinary Jews

Religious leaders, community members come together after Chabad House fire

May 23, 2022

Religious leaders, elected officials among others attended a ceremony at the Jewish Community Center on Sunday to show unity after a fire destroyed the Chabad of Kentucky back in April.

On April 23, firefighters were called around 4 a.m. to respond to the headquarters for Chabad of Kentucky in Almara Circle after a grease fire broke out, spokesperson for the Saint Matthews Fire Department Rick Tonini said.

Firefighters were able...

Read more about Religious leaders, community members come together after Chabad House fire

A Jewish leader is not 'just a man with a beard' women rabbis tell NYC Mayor Adams

May 19, 2022

New York City Mayor Eric Adams met with 55 women rabbis and cantors Thursday in what one of the rabbis called a “productive and respectful” discussion on issues that included combating antisemitism, climate change, homelessness, closing Rikers Island, healthcare, affordable housing and more.

The clergy sought the meeting earlier this week out of concern that the Orthodox Jews Adams regularly consults don’t represent the...

Read more about A Jewish leader is not 'just a man with a beard' women rabbis tell NYC Mayor Adams

How Black people and Jews are bound together in 'great replacement' theory

May 16, 2022

The man authorities say opened fire in a Buffalo grocery store Saturday (May 14), killing 10 mostly Black shoppers, was an avowed white supremacist. But his agenda went far beyond Blacks.

In the 180-page manifesto posted online two days before he carried out his attack, the 18-year-old gunman wrote that he chose the Tops Friendly Market on Buffalo’s east side because it is in an area with many Black residents. Eleven of the 13 people shot there were Black, law enforcement officials said.

Blacks, wrote Payton Gendron, come from a culture that sought to “ethnically...

Read more about How Black people and Jews are bound together in 'great replacement' theory

Pages