Asaf Shalev
Jan Koum (Designed by Grace Yagel with images from Getty Images and Wikimedia Commons)
June 16, 2022, 1:45 pm
WhatsApp’s reclusive founder has quietly become a megadonor to Jewish causes
The publicity-shy Jan Koum, a Ukrainian-born Jew who arrived in California as a teenager, is more entwined than meets the eye with the events rocking the country.
By Asaf Shalev
Clockwise from the top: Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum (Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images), Rabbi Jill Jacobs (Courtesy Jill Jacobs), Rabbi Angela Buchdahl (Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images). Background: Demonstrators gather at the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem with flags of Israel during the controversial Flag March, organized by Israeli right-wing nationalists on June 15, 2021. (Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images)
April 7, 2022, 12:15 pm
Rabbis go public with plea to cut off American Jewish funding of Israeli extremists
The charity rebuffed the rabbis, declining a meeting request and ignoring their call to amend its funding practices and end payments to “organizations that support violence."
By Asaf Shalev
(Photo via Pixabay)
February 17, 2022, 1:37 pm
Reform movement’s longtime youth director named in landmark report on sexual misconduct in youth programs
Investigators learned of dozens of incidents of sexual misconduct, including 17 involving inappropriate behavior of adults toward children
By Asaf Shalev
Rabbi Mendy Krinsky and his wife, Chanie, of the Chabad Jewish Center in Needham, Massachusetts, pose beside the spot where someone tried to set their Chabad house on fire in May 2019. (Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
February 17, 2022, 9:50 am
An arsonist allegedly attacked 2 Massachusetts Chabad centers in 2019. The FBI was investigating him.
Alexander Giannakakis was arrested near Stockholm . The FBI believes that his brother was behind three fires at two Chabad centers and a fourth case of arson targeting a Jewish-affiliated business in May 2019.
By Asaf Shalev
Rabbis are leaving their jobs in unusually large numbers as the pandemic enters its third year. (Getty Images)
February 1, 2022, 4:33 pm
Congregations face a rabbinic hiring crisis
This year, there’s a bumper crop of retirements, while a thinning out of the next generation that was already underway continues.
By Asaf Shalev
The attack on a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, will be on the minds of congregants across the country this Saturday as they gather for services. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
January 20, 2022, 12:41 pm
American Jews prepare for a Shabbat in the shadow of Colleyville
Across the country and world, rabbis and those who help them lead their synagogues are weighing a host of concerns, including, is their security strong enough?
By Asaf Shalev
This Federal Bureau of Investigation handout image shows undated images of a woman identified as Aafia Siddiqui (FBI/Getty Images)
January 15, 2022, 11:03 pm
Who is Aafia Siddiqui, the prisoner whom the Colleyville synagogue hostage-taker wanted to free?
She is serving an 86-year sentence at Federal Medical Center-Carswell prison in Fort Worth. It is the only federal medical facility for women in the United States.
By Asaf Shalev
The Internal Revenue Service building stands in Washington, DC, on April 15, 2019 (Zach Gibson/Getty Images)
January 13, 2022, 3:02 pm
Muslim group, CAIR, accuses Jewish charities of funding Islamophobia
"This report is completely illegitimate and casts absurd and false accusations at Jewish Federations, whose sole purpose is to build up and secure the Jewish community."
By Asaf Shalev
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion has announced plans to accept students with non-Jewish partners. (Photo by ajay_suresh, creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
November 9, 2021, 4:16 pm
6 men and a ‘good old boys’ culture harmed students at Reform movement’s rabbinical school, report concludes
“The pain that many witnesses have harbored based on their experience at HUC — some for decades — was palpable,” the report says.
By Philissa Cramer and Asaf Shalev
A Chabad menorah, distinguished by the diagonal—rather than curved—arms. (Photo by Mindy Schauer/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images via JTA)
October 12, 2021, 6:29 pm
Creator of Chabad’s famous menorah sexually abused girl, lawsuit claims
The alleged perpetrator created the brass menorah, which is normally displayed during Hanukkah at the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Brooklyn.
By Asaf Shalev
A view of the destroyed Karnofsky family building where Louis Armstrong was a regular guest in New Orleans, Louisiana on Aug. 31, 2021. (Photo by Alan Smason/Crescent City Jewish News)
September 2, 2021, 2:36 pm
Scattered by Hurricane Ida, the Jews of New Orleans prepare for High Holidays
“The Jewish community overall is in a strong position but there are people who are running out of food and are without power."
By Asaf Shalev
Rabbi Mary Zamore, the executive director of the Women's Rabbinic Network (Photo by Steve Shawl via JTA)
August 19, 2021, 2:59 pm
The Reform movement is investigating its history of rabbinic sexual misconduct
The investigations could bring long-buried misconduct to light and change the movement’s policies about how it handles complaints about its rabbis and employees.
By Asaf Shalev
USY members celebrate at the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism's 2015 convention. (Photo by Andrew Langdal via JTA)
August 17, 2021, 7:31 pm
Conservative movement to launch investigation of sexual abuse allegations at USY
The allegations took place decades ago and involve a former USY counselor
By Asaf Shalev
Top left, clockwise, Gage Gorsky, Dalya Perez, Ari Kelman, Tobin Belzer, Vincent Calvetti and Tory Brundage. (Courtesy photo via JTA)
August 13, 2021, 1:19 pm
Researchers unveil massive study on Jews of color
Responses from more than 1,100 people in the study reveal a deep engagement with Jewish identity that has often come with experiences of discrimination in communal settings.
By Asaf Shalev
BENNINGTON, VT - JULY 3: Jerry Greenfield and Ben Cohen, partners of a homemade ice cream stand, Ben & Jerry's, in Bennington, Vt. (Photo by Ted Dully/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
July 29, 2021, 1:51 pm
Ben & Jerry speak out: We endorse the Ben & Jerry’s West Bank pullout
“That we support the company’s decision is not a contradiction nor is it anti-Semitic”
By Asaf Shalev
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