For many American Jews, the midterm election results brought a collective sigh of relief when Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, lost his race, defeated by Josh Shapiro, the state’s attorney general and a fellow Jew.

The U.S. Jewish community has strained in the past few months under a barrage of antisemitic attacks from multiple directions: the rap artist Ye, Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving and even former President Donald Trump.

Mastriano seemed most frightening of all: A pro-Trump Christian nationalist (though he dismissed...

Rabbi A. James Rudin, the longtime interreligious affairs director for the American Jewish Committee, will be conferred the prestigious Papal Knight of St. Gregory for his work on Catholic-Jewish relations, one of the few non-Catholics to receive the honor.

Only eight other Jews have been knighted by the order, established in 1831, that recognizes personal service or unusual labor in support of the Catholic Church. Among them are three other rabbis, David Rosen and the late Mordecai Waxman and Leon Klenicki.

A Reform rabbi and also a writer who has contributed...

On Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur this year at Temple Emanu-El, a landmark Reform synagogue steps from Manhattan’s Central Park, a 6-by-11-inch flyer was placed at every seat, next to the prayer books, offering instructions on what to do in the event of an attack during one of the High Holiday services.

“If running from the threat is not an option,” the flyer read, “crouch down between the pews or hide behind a pillar. Make yourself as small of a target as possible. Remain quiet and still.” 

A rise in antisemitic...

Nets guard Kyrie Irving and the team said Wednesday that they would each donate $500,000 to “causes and organizations that work to eradicate hate and intolerance in our communities” after Irving posted a link on Twitter to an antisemitic documentary last week.

The donations were announced in a joint statement from the Nets, Irving and the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization that fights antisemitism.

“I am aware of the...

The White House on Monday called Donald Trump’s attack on American Jews antisemitic after the former president wrote online that American Jews need to “get their act together” and show more appreciation for the state of Israel “before it is too late.”

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, speaking to reporters in Washington on Monday, said, “Donald Trump has aligned...

A seconds-long interaction in a New Jersey classroom unleashed a national firestorm last October as it ricocheted across social media platforms. A 7-year-old girl had come home from school upset, telling her mother that her teacher in Maplewood, N.J., had tried to pull off the hijab the girl wears as an observant Muslim.

Her mother recounted the story on Facebook, and Ibtihaj Muhammad, an Olympic medalist who fences in a hijab,...

Four years after the massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue, believed to be the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history, Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania, has rattled a diverse swath of the state’s Jewish community, alarming liberal Jews with his remarks and ...

She's not even a doctor yet, but a young Minneapolis woman is already a changemaker in hospitals all over the country. She's turned one really bad day at medical school into something great.

The OR of the top hospital in the country is a place southwest Minneapolis native Rewan Abdelwahab has dreamed of since she was in undergrad at Harvard University.

"I fell in love with the sciences, started volunteering in a clinic in Chelsea, and from there immersed myself in the pre-med track," she said.

Source:...

Leandro De Leon wondered if his Catholic faith would remain strong during a global pandemic.

He left his home in the Philippines 17 years ago and has lived in Squirrel Hill with five colleagues and friends since 2019. The 61-year-old graphic designer lost his job and learned how to bake and cut hair during the pandemic.

Sometimes he wondered why God allowed so much misfortune to fall on people, both the ones he knew and those he didn’t. He went to a Zoom funeral for someone who died before the COVID-19 vaccine became available. The ceremony was streamed through a...

Student clubs at Yeshiva University will resume later this month after a judge approved an agreement between the university and an LGBTQ club pausing their dispute until all appeals are decided.

The Modern Orthodox university had suspended all club activity rather than comply with a previous court decision ordering it to support the YU Pride Alliance over the administration’s rigorous objections. 

The ...

A group of Jewish gun owners filed a lawsuit last Friday against Gov. Kathy Hochul’s gun laws, saying they infringe on their religious freedom as well as their right to bear arms.

The New York State Jewish Gun Club, a Rockland County-based firearms club, funded and put together the lawsuit, which was filed on Sept. 29 in the Southern...

When they gather on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year and a traditional time of fasting, some members of D.C.’s Jewish community will bring something unexpected: food.

They might pack soup or a turkey sandwich, leftover pasta or a PB&J. What matters is that they’re choosing to eat on Wednesday, when Jewish law commands most of the faithful to abstain from food and drink.

The lunch meetup, hosted by the Jewish young adult group...

The long-delayed capital murder trial of Robert Bowers in the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre will begin in April, a federal judge has ruled.

Robert Bowers, a Baldwin resident who has pleaded not guilty, could be sentenced to death if convicted of the shootings. He faces more than 60 federal charges stemming from the Oct. 27, 2018, attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh that killed 11 worshippers in the deadliest attack on Jewish people in U.S. history.

U.S. District Judge...

The kids are coming back inside for Rosh Hashanah services at Temple Shir Shalom, a Reform synagogue in suburban Detroit.

Last year, in a concession to COVID-19, the congregation held its family services on a football field. This year, the services will take place inside Shir Shalom’s West Bloomfield, Michigan building, where other changes are happening, too. Masks are recommended but no longer required, and a vaunted dessert reception is returning for the first time since 2019.

Two miles down Walnut Lake Road at Temple Israel, a slate of services has been tailored...

Debra Feldstein is a bit frustrated, and cautiously optimistic.

Since her older child started going to school 11 years ago, she’s been asking teachers, principals and administrators if they could consider not having picture day, school dances or crucial testing happen on important Jewish holidays, such as the Rosh Hashana New Year’s celebration happening this week.

“I have been fighting this battle every year for 11 years,” she told Lookout on Wednesday. Now, given new efforts to respond to such concerns by both the Santa Cruz County Office of Education and some...