November 1, 2017 - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

<a href="https://www.jta.org/category/news-opinion">News & Opinion</a>

President Trump with Jared Kushner in a meeting with Italy's Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni in Rome, May 24, 2017. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

Trump reportedly no longer trusts advice from son-in-law Jared Kushner

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump believes his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, is giving him bad advice, according to a Vanity Fair report. The report Wednesday, citing sources “briefed on Trump’s thinking,” said Trump has confided in two right-wing provocateurs, Roger Stone and Stephen Bannon, that he no longer trusts Kushner. Bannon for...

<a href="https://www.jta.org/category/news-opinion">News & Opinion</a>

Charles Schumer, left, at a press conference on Oct. 31 and President Donald Trump in a cabinet meeting, Nov. 1, 2017. (Drew Angerer/Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Trump attacks an immigration program, and Schumer gets caught in the crossfire

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Charles Schumer and Donald Trump like tweaking one another on a broad range of issues. In October alone, the president chided the New York senator for wanting to preserve the Iran deal he once opposed, and the Jewish Democrat berated the president for not moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Standard stuff...

<a href="https://www.jta.org/category/news-opinion/israel-middle-east">Israel & Middle East</a>

Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt visit Palestinian peace negotiator in the hospital

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and his top Middle East negotiator, Jason Greenblatt, made a hospital visit to Saeb Erekat, the top Palestinian peace negotiator who just underwent a lung transplant. “They went to visit him to see how he was feeling after surgery and to show support to Saeb, his...

<a href="https://www.jta.org/category/default">Default</a>

Disabled activists blocking a road near the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, as they protest calling for better health care and allowances, in Jerusalem, Oct. 24, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Too few Israelis with disabilities live in their own homes. Here’s how to change that.

(JTA) — In recent weeks we have seen Israelis with disabilities closing down highways and raising their voices and public profiles in unprecedented ways to demand better services, better treatment, and a role in Israel’s destiny and economic successes. In many ways they are fighting for personal freedom, to feel a part of a community and at...

<a href="https://www.jta.org/category/news-opinion">News & Opinion</a>

David Sackstein, left, a Harvard alumnus and now a first year student at Harvard Law School, has lunch dates with his mentor Henry Rosovsky, center, and his father, Robert Sackstein, a doctor who teaches at Harvard Medical School. (Courtesy of David Sackstein)

Harvard honors a professor who helped its Jewish life flourish

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (JTA) — When Henry Rosovsky first arrived at Harvard University in 1949, a newly minted graduate of the College of William and Mary, the young Jewish refugee could hardly have imagined that a building associated with the Harvard Jewish community would be named in his honor more than four decades later. Born in...

<a href="https://www.jta.org/category/arts-entertainment">Arts & Entertainment</a>

Scarlett Johansson tearing up on "Finding Your Roots" after learning that she had family members who died in the Warsaw Ghetto. (Screenshot from "Finding Your Roots)

Scarlett Johansson cries when she discovers her family’s tragic Holocaust history on ‘Finding Your Roots’

(JTA) — Scarlett Johansson knew that her mother’s side of the family came from Jewish communities in Eastern Europe, but she didn’t know much else about her Jewish ancestors. But when the movie star appeared on the PBS show “Finding Your Roots” on Tuesday night, she learned some specifics about those branches of her family tree...

<a href="https://www.jta.org/category/news-opinion/israel-middle-east">Israel & Middle East</a>

Australian and New Zealand horsemen reenact the Battle of Beersheba

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Some 175 horsemen reenacted the Battle of Beersheba, a World War I victory of Australian and New Zealand horsemen over the Ottoman army that enabled the Allies to capture Jerusalem. The event in southern Israel on Tuesday marked a century since the battle fought by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps,...

<a href="https://www.jta.org/category/news-opinion/israel-middle-east">Israel & Middle East</a>

Netanyahu reportedly asks Trump to let Pollard immigrate to Israel

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly has asked President Donald Trump to allow convicted spy for Israel Jonathan Pollard to immigrate to Israel. Netanyahu made the request after agreeing in May to provide economic goodwill gestures to the Palestinians, Israel’s Channel 2 first reported Tuesday. The Israeli leader reportedly promised Trump that...

<a href="https://www.jta.org/category/news-opinion/israel-middle-east">Israel & Middle East</a>

(Screenshot from YouTube)

Hamas releases footage of Gilad Shalit on final day of Israeli soldier’s captivity

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The terrorist group Hamas released footage of Gilad Shalit taken while the Israeli soldier was in captivity in the Gaza Strip. The footage released Wednesday shows some of the final moments before Shalit was released in a prisoner exchange deal in 2011 for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, many of them convicted terrorists responsible...

<a href="https://www.jta.org/category/life-religion">Life & Religion</a>

Jay Leno speaking onstage during the SeriousFun Children's Network 2015 Los Angeles Gala, May 14, 2015. (Mike Windle/Getty Images for SeriousFun Children's Network)

Jay Leno used to be a Shabbos goy

(JTA) — Jay Leno already has plenty of Jewish credentials. The comedian and talk show host — who is not Jewish — has described himself as a big supporter of the state of Israel and has hosted the ceremony for the Genesis Prize, nicknamed “the Jewish Nobel,” two years in a row. But recently the funnyman,...