PHILISSA CRAMER

Novelist Aaliyah Bilal reads a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza at the National Book Awards ceremony in New York, November 15, 2023. (Screenshot: X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

November 17, 2023, 3:33 am

At NY ceremony, majority of National Book Awards finalists call for Gaza ceasefire

Jewish sponsor backs out of event over statement signed by 20 of the 25 nominees for the prestigious literary prizes

Ethiopian Jews take part in a prayer of the Sigd holiday on the Armon Hanatziv Promenade overlooking Jerusalem on November 13, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

November 13, 2023, 11:44 pm

Ethiopian Israelis mark muted Sigd, as holiday overshadowed by war

Traditional Jerusalem ceremony overlooking city limited, with many instead celebrating holiday at absorption center in north where members of community from Sderot are relocated

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Australian police use pepper spray during clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators in Melbourne's Caulfield neighborhood, November 10, 2023. (Screenshot X, Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

November 13, 2023, 4:01 am

Melbourne synagogue evacuated on Shabbat as pro-Palestinian rally held nearby

Synagogue’s president and rabbi say police, security team told worshipers to leave mid-service; clashes between Palestinian supporters, pro-Israel demonstrators erupt hours later

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Rabbi Menachem Creditor, in this undated photo, wrote on social media that he disavows the use of his song 'Olam Chesed Yibaneh,' by anti-Zionist groups, citing its genocide accusation. (Courtesy: Menachem Creditor)

November 10, 2023, 6:15 pm

Jewish musicians want Jewish Israel critics to stop singing their songs at protests

Rabbi Menachem Creditor and Shoshana Jedwab are among artists who don’t want anti-Zionist groups, such as IfNotNow, using their works in wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre

By PHILISSA CRAMER

A man looks at the damage to a Jewish shop in Berlin on November 10, 1938, in the aftermath of Kristallnacht. (AP Photo/File)

November 10, 2023, 4:17 am

85 years after Kristallnacht, Holocaust survivors say antisemitism now similar to then

Those who survived genocide compare global spike in antisemitic incidents following Oct. 7 Hamas onslaught to Nazi discrimination of Jews: ‘This is how it started with the Germans’

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Family and friends attend the funeral of three members of the Sharabi family, Lian, Noya and Yahel, who were murdered by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Be'eri on October 7, 2023, in Moshav Kfar HaRif, southern Israel, October 25, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

November 6, 2023, 10:01 pm

A month into the war, American Jewry marks a traditional milestone of mourning

Even as victims are still being identified, US communities come together 30 days after 1,400 Israelis were killed by Hamas terrorists on October 7

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Posters of some of those kidnapped by Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023, are displayed on a pole outside of New York University (NYU) as tensions between supporters of Palestine and Israel increase on college campuses across the nation, on October 30, 2023, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP)

November 5, 2023, 12:48 am

New Facebook group Mothers Against College Antisemitism has 43K members and counting

Taking inspiration from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, a small collective of concerned US Jewish mothers is now a booming community

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Illustrative: Riot police monitor as pro Palestinian demonstrators 'in solidarity with Gaza' hold a rally in Duisburg, western Germany, on October 9, 202 (Ina FASSBENDER / AFP)

November 2, 2023, 5:07 am

Police in European countries arrest suspects in terror plots tied to Israel-Hamas war

Several men detained for allegedly perpetrating or planning to perpetrate attacks while citing events in Gaza

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Jacob Kaplan-Lipkin and his fiancee Shira pose before Rosh Hashanah 2023 at Kibbutz Hannaton in the Jezreel Valley of Israel. (Courtesy Kaplan-Lipkin via JTA)

October 11, 2023, 6:19 am

US rabbinical students, in Israel for the year, weigh whether to stay and how to help

Most programs were just getting underway when Hamas launched its massive onslaught of terror, forcing many pupils to consider their options amid an uncertain future

By PHILISSA CRAMER

The United States Postal Service released a new stamp honoring Jewish Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on October 2, 2023. (USPS)

October 2, 2023, 7:05 pm

US Postal Service releases stamp of liberal Jewish icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg

RBG latest American Jew to be commemorated by USPS, following Richard Feynman, Rube Goldberg and Shel Silverstein

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Peruvian Police escorting Eddie Manuel Nunez Santos, 33, who made string of bomb threats to US institutions including synagogues, in Lima, Peru, September 26, 2023. (Twitter video screenshot: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

September 28, 2023, 10:18 pm

Peruvian cops nab man suspected of making bomb threats to US synagogues

FBI says Eddie Manuel Nunez Santos embarked on bomb threat spree after asking teen girls to send explicit photos of themselves and being rejected in apparent bid to frame them

By PHILISSA CRAMER

A man inspects the damage caused by the earthquake in the old Medina of Marrakech, Morocco, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023. An aftershock rattled Moroccans on Sunday as they mourned victims of the nation’s strongest earthquake in more than a century and sought to rescue survivors while soldiers and aid workers raced to reach ruined mountain villages. (AP Photo/Rida Tabit)

September 12, 2023, 5:41 am

Moroccan Jews reportedly all safe in devastating quake that has killed over 2,800

6.8-magnitude quake, centered in Atlas Mountains near Marrakesh, struck at time of heightened Jewish tourism ahead of High Holidays

By PHILISSA CRAMER and Eliyahu Freedman

Twitter CEO Elon Musk speaks at the Twitter 2.0: From Conversations to Partnerships marketing conference in Miami Beach, Florida, on April 18, 2023. (Chandan Khanna/AFP)

August 22, 2023, 4:21 am

X briefly allows anti-Leo Frank ‘community note’ as antisemitic content spikes

Antisemites exploit safety features on platform formerly known as Twitter, including by falsely saying that victim of historic 1915 antisemitic lynching was guilty of rape

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Students affiliated with AEPi attend an Israel Independence Day Celebration at University of California, San Diego in 2018. (Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for AEPi via JTA)

August 14, 2023, 7:34 pm

ADL teams up with Jewish frat to fight antisemitism on US college campuses

Head of AEPi says fraternity’s members ‘are on the front lines of this battle,’ with initiative to involve its 150 local chapters

By PHILISSA CRAMER

Ghislaine Maxwell attends a press conference on the Issue of Oceans in Sustainable Development Goals at United Nations headquarters, June 25, 2013. (United Nations Photo/Rick Bajornas via AP, File)

August 7, 2023, 10:41 pm

Ghislaine Maxwell said receiving prison benefits by touting Jewish heritage

Assistant to Jeffrey Epstein, jailed for sex trafficking minors, did not previously identify as a Jew

By PHILISSA CRAMER