PHILISSA CRAMER

Illustrative -- The opening day session of the Kentucky State Legislature in Frankfort, Jan. 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

March 1, 2021, 10:41 am

Kentucky becomes first US state to adopt IHRA definition of anti-Semitism

Resolution crafted in response to anti-Semitic attacks on cemeteries, Jewish centers; critics say it stifles some forms of Israel criticism

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Illustrative: This June 9, 2014 photo shows a grilled cheese made with Bonne Maman fig preserves in Concord, N.H. (AP Photo/Matthew Mead)

February 18, 2021, 4:48 am

Is Bonne Maman the anti-Nazi jam?

A Holocaust survivor tells a fellow shopper she only eats that jam because company’s owners saved her family from the Nazis, but secretive French family isn’t commenting

By Gabe Friedman and PHILISSA CRAMER

Alena Lee gave a shoutout to 'Kitler' on her Saturday night weather broadcast, February 14, 2021. (Screen shot from YouTube)

February 16, 2021, 5:50 pm

US meteorologist sorry for showing Kitler, a Hitleresque cat, on air

Alena Lee says she ‘never intended to hurt or offend anyone’ with photo of mustachioed kitten she had said ‘kind of looks like Charlie Chaplin’

By PHILISSA CRAMER

This image from video shows a hearing from the 394th Judicial District Court of Texas. The hearing took a detour when an attorney showed up looking like a kitten. A filter that had been activated on the attorney's device obscured his appearance and made him look like a cat. Judge Roy Ferguson shared the short video clip of the mishap on YouTube. The judge says everyone involved handled the situation with professionalism and grace. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP)

February 12, 2021, 1:29 am

‘I’m not a cat’ lawyer’s dark past with Jewish woman who owned a Tx. smoke shop

Long before his fluffy feline video went viral, Rod Ponton drew national attention, accused by Ilana Lipsen of targeting her in terror-linked drug raid after she ended their affair

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Tobin Mitnick really loves trees, and wants you to, too. (Courtesy of Mitnick/ via JTA)

January 28, 2021, 2:30 am

TikTok’s comic ‘Jew Who Loves Trees’ wants you to take Tu Bishvat very seriously

Tobin Mitnick entertains his 110,000 fans with interesting facts about vegetation near his LA home, but on the Jewish Arbor Day he’s stressing good deeds and connection with nature

By PHILISSA CRAMER

January 27, 2021, 10:42 am

Facebook gets a ‘D’ from ADL on curbing Holocaust denial

Watchdog finds Twitch gaming network is the social media platform most effective at rooting out offending content; YouTube, Twitter and Tiktok get a C

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Illustrative -- A Pakistan Army helicopter flies over the site of an avalanche over Gayari camp, April 18, 2012 (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

January 22, 2021, 9:33 am

Jewish Harvard Medical School professor dies climbing in Pakistan’s mountains

Campaign launched to fund return of Alex Goldfarb’s body after he died while apparently attempting to scale Broad Peak on his own and without supplemental oxygen

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Rabbi Jordan Hersh has been deployed as part of the Maryland Army National Guard to the US Capitol since a mob of Trump supporters stormed it on January 6, 2021. (Courtesy/Hersh via JTA)

January 16, 2021, 3:26 am

‘Something holy about this space’: The rabbi on guard at the US Capitol

National Guard chaplain Jordan Hersh, stationed in Washington since the pro-Trump riot, says protecting Congress is ‘like a spiritual experience’ for himself and his unit

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Senator-elect Jon Ossoff speaks during a campaign rally, December 21, 2020 in Columbus, Georgia. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

January 8, 2021, 1:42 am

Jon Ossoff: Everything you need to know about the new Jewish Democratic senator

One of the first Members of the Tribe to be elected to the position by a Southern state, the newest legislator from Georgia had a bar mitzvah and is married to a doctor

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Israeli teachers wait to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, at the Shamir Medical Center in Be'er Ya'akov, on December 30, 2020. (Avi Dishi/Flash90)

January 6, 2021, 11:21 am

Vaccination nation: 5 factors in Israel’s world-leading COVID inoculation drive

How the Jewish state catapulted itself to leading the world in mass inoculation of its population, and what side issues come along for the ride

By PHILISSA CRAMER and Ben Sales

An attendee wears a yarmulke with an image of US President Donald Trump at a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House on December 6, 2018, in Washington, DC. (Oliver Contreras-Pool/Getty Images via JTA)

December 27, 2020, 1:51 pm

Republican official believes he caught virus at White House Hanukkah party

Tom Mountain, from party’s Massachusetts branch, has been hospitalized twice; says he tested positive 2 days after event; wife, son, daughter-in-law, mother-in-law also infected

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Rabbi Shayna Golkow and Ben Zauzmer created VirtualDreidel.com to add a competitive option during the pandemic. (Courtesy Golkow and Zauzmer/ via JTA)

December 11, 2020, 11:33 am

A game for the times: Virtual Dreidel lets you spin with distant friends

Rabbi Shayna Golkow and LA Dodgers analyst Ben Zauzmer come up with online platform to let pandemic-era players face off in the traditional Hanukkah game from anywhere in the world

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Screen capture from 1993 video showing US President Bill Clinton grabbing Ilana Kattan's hair to stop it from burning after noticing that it had caught fire on the menorah her class had just helped him light at the White House. (Clinton Presidential Library on YouTube via JTA)

December 10, 2020, 7:50 pm

Woman recalls Clinton saving her locks from Hanukkah candles

In interview with Slate, now-33-year-old Ilana Kattan talks of impact 1993 incident had on her 6-year-old self — when she got a little to close to Oval Office menorah

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Air crew walks past an empty Starbucks at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport on March 17, 2020 in Montreal, Canada. (JOCELYNE ZABLIT/AFP via Getty Images)

November 23, 2020, 7:54 am

Quebec eases virus rules for Christmas gatherings, but not Hanukkah

Canadian Jewish groups cry foul, say pandemic policy must also apply to Jewish communities during their upcoming holiday

By PHILISSA CRAMER

People walk through Williamsburg, one of several Orthodox neighborhoods in Brooklyn with rising COVID-19 rates, on October 1, 2020. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

November 22, 2020, 10:05 pm

Satmar Hasidim hid massive Brooklyn wedding from public view – report

Ceremony for grandson of Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum attended by thousands, arranged to avoid detection by secular authorities, according to New York Post

By PHILISSA CRAMER