It’s not unusual to hear U.S. Jewish groups speaking out against laws that discriminate and framing their protests as protecting Jewish interests. What’s unusual is that the target this time is the Israeli government and the proposed law emphasizes Jewish rights. At issue is Israel’s nation-state bill, which if passed by the Knesset would enshrine Israel’s […]

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas was the most exciting entrée that president Mort Klein dished up at his Nov. 23 Zionist Organization of America dinner at Manhattan’s Grand Hyatt. The ballroom rocked with chants of “Run Ted Run! Run Ted Run!” Will these hordes of supporters pass the pushke to help fill Cruz’s coffers? Cheerleading burnishes […]

It’s been a big Jewish week for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. The headliner was the annual dinner of the Zionist Organization of America, a can’t-miss night on the calendar, especially for those who unabashedly support Israeli settlements, believe Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are bent on destroying Israel, and think the Obama administration isn’t much better. The ZOA gig included […]

At a time when old-time Zionists have become more acquainted with anxiety than celebration, with Israel confronting floodwaters of excoriation and isolation internationally and on campus, and with thousands feeling connected to more than a dozen families saying Kaddish for terrorist murders, Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, sensed that the annual ZOA dinner […]

Attorney Alan Dershowitz was honored by the nation’s oldest pro-Israel organization Sunday night. Dershowitz received the Mortimer Zuckerman Award for “promoting Israel’s record of a relentless pursuit of peace,” according to the Zionist Organization of America. The award’s namesake heaped praise on Dershowitz, a famed civil rights attorney. “He’s a brilliant, extraordinary man with a […]

Say what you will about Ted Cruz. The senator does his homework. More than a few heads nodded approval at last Sunday night’s Zionist Organization of America dinner when Cruz noted that the Hebrew month of Kislev had just begun. “The month of Hanukkah, a month of miracles,” Cruz went on, recalling the Maccabees’ victory over an […]

Two of the hottest stars in the Republican firmament, Ted Cruz of Texas and Sheldon Adelson of Nevada, tore through the skies this week in what’s traditionally considered America’s most solid Democratic stronghold, the New York Jewish community. The resulting sound-and-light show probably doesn’t tell us a whole lot about the fates of the two […]

Jewish life in New York is dominated by ritual. Holidays. A pastrami reuben on a hero at Katz’s. The reading of holy books in cycles that take a year (the Torah) or seven and a half years (the Talmud). And just as reliably, there’s the ritual of presidential candidates sniffing around for dough right after […]

Republican Texas Sen. and likely 2016 White House competitor Ted Cruz will speak at next February’s Conservative Political Action Conference — but first he’ll be honored in Manhattan by the Zionist Organization of America. The ZOA, which calls itself the nation’s “oldest pro-Israel organization,” will give Cruz the Dr. Bob Shillman Award at its annual Justice Louis D. Brandeis […]

By Jacob Kamaras/JNS.org Published November 18, 2014 What message is the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) sending to the Jewish community through its recent selection of White House aide and social entrepreneur Jonathan Greenblatt to succeed longtime National Director Abraham Foxman?  While some are praising ADL for thinking outside the box with its hire and trying to appeal to […]