LAURA E. ADKINS

Former US president Donald Trump's impeachment lawyer David Schoen covering his hand with his head before drinking water during a Senate hearing in Washington, DC, February 9, 2021. (Screen Capture from CNN live broadcast via JTA)

February 10, 2021, 7:42 am

Why did Trump’s impeachment lawyer keep putting his hand on his head?

While David Schoen tried to avoid calling attention to his Jewishness by wearing kippa, his halachically questionable way of reciting a blessing before drinking water did just that

By LAURA E. ADKINS and Ron Kampeas

Qanon 1972 jacket (Spencer Platt/Getty Images via JTA)

January 8, 2021, 12:34 pm

A guide to the hate symbols and signs on display at the US Capitol riots

From ‘Q’ to boogaloo: An abundance of emblems and slogans representing conspiracies and far-right militias seen in the crowd of Trump supporters

By LAURA E. ADKINS and Emily Burack

A man yells anti-Semitic slurs at Gil Tamari, the Washington correspondent for Israel's Channel 13 news, during the storming of the US Capitol by Trump supporters on January 7, 2021. (Screen capture: Twitter)

January 7, 2021, 11:26 pm

Israeli reporter interrupted with anti-Semitic slurs during broadcast at Capitol

Agitator accosts Channel 13’s Gil Tamary as he reports on riot by Trump supporters, calls him a ‘lying Israeli’

By LAURA E. ADKINS

Jewish hip hop singer Nissim Black performs at a Hanukkah festival in Pittsburgh, 2018. (Esther Wayne/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images via JTA)

December 10, 2020, 8:13 am

Orthodox rapper remakes ‘Hava Nagila’ just in time for Hanukkah

‘The Hava Song’ by Nissim Black, who declares during the song that he’s ‘Black, Jewish and proud,’ is a modern take on the classic tune

By LAURA E. ADKINS

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and his book 'Morality,' which will be available Sept. 1 in the United States. (Courtesy of the Office of Rabbi Sacks)

August 28, 2020, 4:43 pm

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks warns ‘cultural climate change’ eroding collective morality

With release of his new book, former UK chief rabbi discusses cancel culture, restoring morality and Israel’s missed opportunities

By LAURA E. ADKINS

Ramy Hassan (played by Ramy Youssef) and Zainab (played by MaameYaa Boafo) in a scene from the second season of the Hulu show 'Ramy.' (A24/ via JTA)

June 28, 2020, 6:49 am

Locked down? Open up to ‘Ramy,’ a religious Muslim who Orthodox Jews understand

With its second season now streaming on Hulu, the show’s protagonist’s funny but poignant struggle with religion is eminently relatable for people of any (or no) faith

By LAURA E. ADKINS

Men pray at the gravesite of the late Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson on his 20th yahrzeit in Queens, N.Y., July 1, 2014. (Adam Ben Cohen/Chabad.org)

June 28, 2020, 12:45 am

100,000 said to mark anniversary of Chabad leader’s death on Zoom

Event held on 45,000 devices in lieu of traditional in-person gathering in New York to commemorate 26 years since passing of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson

By LAURA E. ADKINS

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo (3rd R) launches the 'No Hate in Our State' campaign to combat hate, division and anti-semitism in New York State, February 27, 2020 (Courtesy)

February 28, 2020, 8:22 am

In response to rising anti-Semitism, NY’s Cuomo proposes domestic terror law

Legislation will classify mass violence motivated by hate as a felony punishable by up to life in prison without parole; also includes education initiatives

By LAURA E. ADKINS

Illustrative: US President Donald Trump with, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, from left, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump and their children Arabella Kushner and Joseph Kushner, applaud during a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House on December 11, 2019, in Washington. (AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

February 7, 2020, 3:04 am

Jared Kushner: Redrawing maps street by street while wearing a red string

5 takeaways from his interview with an Orthodox weekly as the author of the Trump peace plan reveals he had no idea he would even be working on it

By LAURA E. ADKINS

An attendee wears a 'Make America Great Again' kippah before US President Donald Trump speaks at an annual meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition on April 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (AP/John Locher)

February 5, 2020, 1:49 am

How deep is Trump support among US Orthodox Jews? New poll says it’s complicated

What may be the most robust survey of America’s most religiously observant Jewish demographic reveals that even within subgroups, there are massive differences in political opinion

By LAURA E. ADKINS and Ben Sales

Supporters of Donald Trump hold signs in Hebrew and English as the president speaks at the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual leadership meeting in Las Vegas, April 6, 2019. (Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images/via JTA)

February 5, 2020, 1:49 am

‘I think it’s Israel’: How US Orthodox Jews became Republicans

America’s most religiously observant Jewish voters have undergone a diametric shift in the last 20 years — but it may be the political parties themselves that have changed

By Ben Sales and LAURA E. ADKINS

Emergency responders work near a kosher supermarket and a synagogue that were the site of a shooting in Jersey City, New Jersey, December 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

January 14, 2020, 7:51 am

Reported bias crimes in New Jersey up by 65 percent in 2019

944 total is largest number since 1996, biggest year-over-year increase since reporting standards implemented in 1991; figures by bias type not yet available

By LAURA E. ADKINS

Writer Robert Caro speaks at the 2012 Texas Book Festival in Austin about his latest work, 'The Passage of Power' (Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images/via JTA)

January 10, 2020, 12:12 pm

Biographer Robert Caro’s papers to get permanent installation in New York

New-York Historical Society to provide a home for some 200 linear feet of famed biographer’s notes, interview transcripts and once-classified documents

By LAURA E. ADKINS

A view of the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn December 9, 2014 in New York. (DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images via JTA)

December 27, 2019, 10:41 pm

Man enters Chabad world headquarters in Brooklyn and threatens to shoot it up

NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force investigating, with no arrests made yet; incident latest in string of anti-Semitic attacks in New York in recent days

By LAURA E. ADKINS

A Hasidic man stands in front of JC Kosher Supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey, the site of a deadly anti-Semitic shooting, December 11, 2019. (Laura E. Adkins/JTA News)

December 12, 2019, 4:07 am

Orthodox Jews tried to build a home in Jersey City, the shooting won’t end it

Kosher store opened by Leah Mindel Ferencz, who was killed in attack, and her husband, was a foundation stone of new community of Hasidic Jews escaping Brooklyn’s high prices

By Ben Sales and LAURA E. ADKINS