The American Jewish community is in crisis over Israel. Some support the state, others are sharply critical. The community used to be able to marginalize the…

The key to strengthening and supporting the community is to bypass its failed leadership and speak and interact directly with American Jews.

The American Jewish community is in crisis over Israel. Some support the state, others are sharply critical. The community used to be able to marginalize the…

Rural Central Texas, 1962. Dave, still lives in the old family home that his father built. The family is still the only Jewish family in this isolated country town. As his son Nathan faces the (to him) bizarre prospect of becoming Bar Mitzvah, his wife Rachel faces an even greater crisis of faith. As Dave encounters the remoteness of his community, and the even further distance from the faith of his father, his entire family faces the legacy left behind by their immigrant forebears: What do the Jews believe? This is a fictionalized account of the next generation of the family introduced in THE IMMIGRANT, and the second play in Mark Harelik's Texas saga of one Jewish-American family. \"The first full production of new play by Mark Harelik is a sequel to his previous successful drama, THE IMMIGRANT. This ongoing story of the Estanitskys, a Jewish family in Texas, slightly resembles, in its second installment, some aspects of Neil Simon's semi-autobiographical saga founded on his own early experiences - and with a precocious and talkative little lad serving as the author's presumed stand-in and mouthpiece as well ... Instead of spotlighting the psyche of some wunderkind, the playwright is probing (but never answering) ultimate posers dealing with life and death, God and man, Jew and Gentile, human suffering and eternal 'Why?' Harelik makes ideas confront each other with Shavian gusto, but he never lets the battle of words stray far from the passions and pain that provokes it ... THE LEGACY is as strong emotionally as it is cogitatively.\" -George Weinberg-Harter, Drama-Logue

In their statement, Jewish organizations said that they would "continue to explore every available avenue to ensure the safety and security of the Jewish community."

Contrary to recent media reports, the deactivation order remains in place today.

From bestselling author David Nasaw, a sweeping new history of the one million refugees left behind in Germany after WWII In May 1945, German forces surrendered to the Allied powers, putting an end to World War II in Europe. But the aftershocks of global military conflict did not cease with the German capitulation. Millions of lost and homeless concentration camp survivors, POWs, slave laborers, political prisoners, and Nazi collaborators in flight from the Red Army overwhelmed Germany, a nation in ruins. British and American soldiers gathered the malnourished and desperate refugees and attempted to repatriate them. But after exhaustive efforts, there remained more than a million displaced persons left behind in Germany: Jews, Poles, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, and other Eastern Europeans who refused to go home or had no homes to return to. The Last Million would spend the next three to five years in displaced persons camps, temporary homelands in exile divided by nationality, with their own police forces, churches and synagogues, schools, newspapers, theaters, and infirmaries. The international community could not agree on the fate of the Last Million, and after a year of debate and inaction, the International Refugee Organization was created to resettle them in lands suffering from postwar labor shortages. But no nations were willing to accept the 200,000 to 250,000 Jewish men, women, and children who remained trapped in Germany. In 1948, the United States, among the last countries to accept refugees for resettlement, finally passed a displaced persons bill. With Cold War fears supplanting memories of World War II atrocities, the bill granted the vast majority of visas to those who were reliably anti-Communist, including thousands of former Nazi collaborators and war criminals, while severely limiting the entry of Jews, who were suspected of being Communist sympathizers or agents because they had been recent residents of Soviet-dominated Poland. Only after the controversial partition of Palestine and Israel's declaration of independence were the remaining Jewish survivors able to leave their displaced persons camps in Germany. A masterwork from acclaimed historian David Nasaw, The Last Million tells the gripping yet until now largely hidden story of postwar displacement and statelessness. By 1952, the Last Million were scattered around the world. As they crossed from their broken past into an unknowable future, they carried with them their wounds, their fears, their hope, and their secrets. Here for the first time, Nasaw illuminates their incredible history and, with profound contemporary resonance, shows us that it is our history as well.

Philadelphia’s Jewish federation is facing a crisis of leadership. Home to the sixth-largest Jewish community in the country, Philadelphia has a new museum of American Jewish history, Jewish day schools, thriving synagogues, and a major liberal rabbinical seminary. Yet the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, Ira Schwartz, departed abruptly in early May,...

President Donald Trump's approval ratings may have gotten an early bump at the start of the COVID-19 crisis, but the Los Angeles Times reports that the president's campaign hasn't been nearly as confident behind the scenes that it will last through November.One former Trump official interviewed by t...

Jewish Federations lead North American response with $847 million for crisis relief, supporting victims and rebuilding communities.

The president's executive order is meant to protect Jews from anti-Semitism on college campuses. But the discussion in Jewish communities has fixed on how the government defines Judaism.

Vox is a general interest news site for the 21st century. Its mission: to help everyone understand our complicated world, so that we can all help shape it. In text, video and audio, our reporters explain politics, policy, world affairs, technology, culture, science, the climate crisis, money, health and everything else that matters. Our goal is to ensure that everyone, regardless of income or status, can access accurate information that empowers them.

As the new Jewish state was taking root in 1948, an estimated 850,000 Jews living in Arab countries were being expelled or fled their homes in those countries.

The Lown Institute released the winners of the "2022 Shkreli Awards," named after the notorious ex- pharma executive Martin Shkreli.

Book Synopsis Honorable Mention for the 2014 Jordan Schnitzer book award in Medieval and Early Modern Jewish History presented by the Association for Jewish Studies On August 3, 1492, the same day that Columbus set sailfrom Spain, the long and glorious history of that nation'sJewish community officially came to a close. The expulsionof Europe's last major Jewish community ended more thana thousand years of unparalleled prosperity, cultural vitalityand intellectual productivity. Yet, the crisis of 1492 also gaverise to a dynamic and resilient diaspora society spanningEast and West. After Expulsion traces the various paths of migration and resettlementof Sephardic Jews and Conversos over the courseof the tumultuous sixteenth century. Pivotally, the volumeargues that the exiles did not become "Sephardic Jews"overnight. Only in the second and third generation did thesedisparate groups coalesce and adopt a "Sephardic Jewish"identity. After Expulsion presents a new and fascinating portrait ofJewish society in transition from the medieval to the earlymodern period, a portrait that challenges many longstandingassumptions about the differences between Europe and theMiddle East. Review Quotes "[T]his book isgroundbreaking in what it does accomplish, and in terms of the many ideas Ray presents that others will undoubtedly pursue, research, and publish. For anyone who had assumed that there was a cohesive Sephardic identity of the Jews who left Spain at the end of the fifteenth centurythis book is a revelation."-- "American Historical Review""After Expulsion charters the (literally and metaphorically) troubled waters of the sixteenth-century Mediterranean with deftness and elegance. It takes us on a journey from Seville to Fez, Salonica and Venice. It fills a notable gap in the literature by offering a synthetic and yet thought-provoking narrative of the most complex period in the early modern history of the Sephardic diaspora."--Francesca Trivellato, Frederic W. Hilles Professor of History, Yale University"After Expulsionimplicitly invites the reader to succumb to the outmoded, rigid spell of historical structuralism, In this sense, Ray has offered a challenging achievement by proposing an explicit culturalist narrative that implicitly endorses structuralist interpretations of the Sephardim and the Mediterranean."-- "Jewish History""After Expulsionis a rich and compelling history...With its intense focus on one century, Ray's book makes a distant time and trauma painfully vivid and immediate to the reader."--Jane Mushabac "Jewish Currents Magazine""After Expulsionwill prove to be an indispensable volume in the library of any reader interested in the history of Judaism in early modern Europe. Ray has written a brilliant, groundbreaking study fundamental in our understanding of the intricacies of the long and difficult configuration of the Sephardic Diaspora."-- "Sixteenth Century Journal""In tracing the social and political development of the Sephardic community during the sixteenth century, Ray reminds historians to exercise restraint in projecting community identities and affiliations backward in time. It is an important point, one that also fruitfully calls into question assumptions about the primacy of religious identity. Such cautions are timely, especially as more and more scholars take the & religious turn and, together with Rays inventive and careful revision of the poorly understood formative period of Sephardic identity, should win for this interesting book a broad readership."-- "The Journal of Modern History""Rays exciting volume contains a wealth of original insights on the subtle and complex process that transformed the Jewish outcasts of Spain of 1492 into a new society that would become known as the Sephardic diaspora. Based upon a careful reading of a wide variety of Spanish and Hebrew primary and secondary sources, Ray provides a new and rich understanding of the crucial sixteenth century in Jewish history. His refreshing historical analysis provides fruitful and novel interpretations of Sephardic and early modern Jewish history."--Jane S. Gerber, Professor of History and Director, Institute for Sephardic Studies, City University of New York"This valuable and readable scholarly work will attract academics"-- "CHOICE"

Innovative ideas changing the face of the private-sector real estate market are applicable to the Jewish community real estate dilemma. By Daniel Berkowitz The American Jewish community is in a real estate crisis. We are a wandering people. Rarely by...

Jewish Family and Children's Service of Greater Philadelphia (JFCS) resulted from the merger of two important human service organizations in 1983: the Association for Jewish Children of Philadelphia and Jewish Family Service of Philadelphia. Helping one in four Jewish households in crisis and in need as well as thousands of others, JFCS plays a primary role in the Greater Philadelphia community. The earliest predecessor of JFCS, the Jewish Foster Home, opened in 1855 with five children in its care. Established through the leadership of Rebecca Gratz, the foremost American Jewish female leader of her day, it was the nation's first Jewish orphanage and heralded a record of compassion, skill, and innovation in community services. Today, JFCS reaches out to more than 41,000 individuals and families each year with a wide array of programs from adoption to senior services. Jewish Family and Children's Service of Greater Philadelphia is the first illustrated history of this organization. With numerous historic photographs, including images from the 150th anniversary celebration in 2005, this book touches on all aspects of the organization's history: services, programs, staff, and fund-raising.

Clever asks activists and experts to imagine what the future holds