A Jewish public school teacher who posed as a pro-Palestinian advocate in Philadelphia, Hannah Gann, admitted to fabricating Palestinian, Tunisian and black heritage to her colleagues for years, in a case that some online commenters are dubbing “the Palestinian Rachel Dolezal.”
“They blow the conch shell. We blow the shofar.” That’s how Rabbi Rachel Short, a rabbi on Hawaii’s Big Island, put it in a conversation the day after JNS reported that Jews, who make up about 0.69% of Hawaii’s population, were the targets of 75% of the religion-based hate crimes in the state in 2025 and, per official data, were targeted in 4.3% of all hate crimes in Hawaii since 2023.
Liberal Michigan rabbis and other Jewish leaders are calling on the Democratic Party to agree to a list of “nonnegotiable” principles about Jewish safety and Israel as the party’s US Senate candidate in the state, Abdul El-Sayed, seeks to make inroads with Jewish voters.
Gloria Steinem, the feminist who turbocharged the women’s rights movement and cast the liberation of women as part of the broader project of eliminating other bigotries, died at 92.
California is poised to become the first state to deem “Jewish identity” an ethnic and racial identity, after lawmakers gave final approval to the groundbreaking legislation on Aug. 31. The SB 1387 bill expands the definition of ethnicity “to include Jewish identity” in demographic data collection.
Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Michigan, apologized on Aug. 29 for his response to the March 12 attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani met with a group of rabbis on Aug. 10 for roughly an hour.The rabbis’ report on the meeting differed greatly from the report of the executive director of Mamdani’s office to combat anti-Semitism, Phylissa Wisdom.
A federal judge threw out the Trump administration’s lawsuit that accused Harvard University of having “turned a blind eye” to Jewish and Israeli students.
A major fire at Agri-Star, one of the largest kosher meat processing plants in the US is poised to increase the price of kosher meat ahead of the High Holidays, in addition to devastating the plant’s local community.
Vice President JD Vance has lost the confidence of many Jewish Republicans, who have taken issue with his rep- rimanding Israeli officials, indulgence of anti-Israel stances and silence on Tucker Carlson, the prominent pundit who has turned against Israel.
To the dismay and disappointment of many in the local Jewish and pro-Israel community, the Colorado Democrats who represent the state in the US House of Representatives voted to block some $3 billion in funding to Israel. The so-called “Massie amendment” to the national security appropriations act, introduced by Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, failed 314 to 104.
A majority of House Democrats, including all Colorado Democrats in the House, voting on July 22 backed Rep. Thomas Massie’s amendment to cut military aid to Israel. The amendment was soundly defeated after getting no support from Republicans with the exception of its sponsor, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who has made his disagreement with his party on Israel a signature issue.
Why did it take sexual assault allegations to collapse Graham Platner’s Maine Senate campaign when the Nazi-linked tattoo was there all along — for 18 years? Posted CEO of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, on X: “Leaders should not have needed another scandal to act. The Nazi tattoo should have been enough.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina who was one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in Congress, died suddenly at 71 on July 11. Graham had returned from Ukraine, where he met with Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky, the day before. Last month, Graham won the Republican primary in South Carolina, positioning him for a fifth Senate term in November.
Graham Platner, the anti-Israel progressive with a covered-over Nazi tattoo who took Maine’s political establishment by storm, is under intense pressure to suspend his campaign for US Senate amid allegations of sexual assault.
For the past five years, a specialty “command center” that researches anti-Semitism has been operating inside the New England Patriots’ home stadium in this Boston suburb — and tracked a rise in Hitler glorification since last February.
Israeli critics of the Iran deal should be wary of alienating President Donald Trump, particularly given their country’s dependency on US military aid, Vice President JD Vance told reporters on June 18. “Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time,” Vance said.
FBI director Kash Patel announced on Tuesday, June 16, that the FBI disrupted a plot to use explosive-laden drones to attack the June 14 martial arts UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House and to target politicians who received donations from AIPAC.
Days after Hebrew Union College graduated its final rabbinical class in Cincinnati, a new Jewish seminary has its eyes on the school’s campus — and wants the state of Ohio to bestow the prize on them.
Sheriff’s deputy Johnny Garcia won the Democratic nomination Tuesday in Texas’ 35th Congressional District, defeating opponent Maureen Galindo following a race shaped by scrutiny over Galindo’s virulently anti-Semitic rhetoric.
The Israel parade on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue this year is slated to have a Muslim group marching alongside Jewish organizations in what is believed to be the first time in the parade’s 61-year history. It will also be the first time in memory that New York City’s mayor will not participate in the parade, which shows support for the Jewish state.
Jewish groups denounced a May 18 fatal shooting at a mosque in San Diego in which three people, including a security guard, were killed. They are also saying the incident, which follows attacks on synagogues in Mississippi and Michigan, underscores a need for more federal funding for security at houses of worship.
The Jewish Theological Seminary has named Rabbi Mike Uram as its next chancellor, elevating a Jewish educator best known for his time as executive director of the University of Pennsylvania Hillel.
Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, vetoed a bill that would have created “security perimeters” around educational institutions that prevent “physical obstruction, physical injury, intimidation and interference” while “preserving and protecting the rights to free speech, assembly and protest.”