JTA News

10/16/2026

An Irish Jewish leader said a Dublin hotel canceled rooms reserved for European delegates after learning that they were visiting for an antisemitism conference.

Maurice Cohen, the president of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, said he booked over 70 rooms at the Herbert Park Hotel for people attending a meeting of the Special Envoys and Coordinators Combating Antisemitism (SECCA).

The envoys, who included Jewish community leaders, diplomats and government ministers from across Europe, were invited to the conference this week organized by the World Jewish Congress and the European Commission. The event was tied to Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which rotates between EU member states, and included delegates meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin. Most of the government-appointed special envoys are not themselves Jewish.

Full story here: https://www.jta.org/2026/10/15/global/irish-jewish-leader-shocked-after-hotel-cancels-over-70-rooms-for-antisemitism-conference

10/16/2026

James Talarico, Texas’ Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, said he holds Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rather than the Israeli people, responsible for civilian devastation in Gaza.

Talarico, a Texas state representative, is running neck and neck against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, in a race whose results could affect which party controls the Senate this November. Israel has been one of many sources of disagreement among the candidates, who have sparred on issues ranging from affordability to immigration to reproductive rights.

“I believe that Israel, like any nation, has a right to defend its people,” the candidate said while fielding questions on Wednesday at a CNN town hall. “But I don’t believe that Benjamin Netanyahu has a right to wage war against civilians or use collective punishment or restrict aid to civilians.”

A Texas Politics Project poll, issued by the University of Texas this week, showed Paxton trailing Talarico by 3 percentage points, with 47% to the Democrat’s 50% and a margin of error of 3.34 percentage points.

Full story here: https://www.jta.org/2026/10/15/politics/talarico-blames-netanyahu-not-the-israeli-people-for-devastation-in-gaza

10/15/2026

Can the liberal arts prepare students for a rapidly changing world? At Brandeis University, the answer is yes, thanks to a new approach that connects academic learning to career readiness.

Meet three students on three unique journeys that combine academic rigor, Jewish identity-building and career readiness.

10/15/2026

The mayor of Reggio Emilia, Italy, apologized Wednesday after educators from Jewish schools across the U.S. canceled a study trip amid a dispute over whether the hosts would require participants to sign a declaration distancing themselves from Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank.

“I acknowledge it was a mistake to seek an agreement with the two delegations through a declaration concerning Gaza and the occupied territories,” Mayor Marco Massari said in a statement, adding that the proposal was subsequently abandoned. “I want to apologize, especially to those who did not feel welcome in Reggio Emilia.”

The controversy has drawn accusations of antisemitism from Jewish educators and from Italian Jewish community leaders. It has also sparked a political dispute in Italy. In his statement, the mayor rejected accusations of antisemitism as “unfounded.”

Full story here: https://www.jta.org/2026/10/14/global/jewish-school-educators-cancel-trip-to-italy-after-italian-education-program-required-participants-to-denounce-genocide-in-gaza

10/15/2026

One year after Jewish Currents editor-at-large Arielle Angel called for “new Jewish institutions” that have no attachment to Israel or Zionism, more than 100 Jews crammed into a Victorian house-turned-event space in central Brooklyn in hopes of creating them.

The event was billed as a bootcamp for people hoping to get fledgling Jewish groups off the ground. Sessions focused on topics like staffing and funding, as well as discussions about who, exactly, is welcome in a space that is “anti-Zionist,” “non-Zionist,” “diasporist” and the like.

Many of the groups represented on Monday were minyans, which host prayer services in locations like people’s apartments or community spaces. They sought practical guidance for building their institutions, but also for defining who to welcome as their ranks expand.

“If we’re doing things right,” Angel said, “many of these small minyans will be synagogues in a few years.”

Full story here: http://jta.org/2026/10/14/ny/they-want-jewish-life-without-zionism-now-theyre-building-the-institutions-to-match

10/14/2026

Catch up on Episode 1 of our new podcast Waiting for 61 for the latest on Israel’s upcoming election at the link in bio 🎧

10/12/2026

Introducing Waiting for 61, JTA’s new podcast making sense of Israeli elections and the political chaos that comes with them.

In Israel, winning the most votes doesn’t necessarily mean winning power. With shifting alliances, competing parties and plenty of political maneuvering, figuring out who will actually form the next government is anything but straightforward.

Join Ami Eden, CEO of JTA’s parent organization, 70 Faces Media, and Ruth Eglash, JTA’s senior Israel correspondent, every weekday as they break down the personalities, power struggles and political calculations shaping Israel’s future.

🎧 Episode 1 is out now! Listen at the link in bio.

10/11/2026

In the middle of a conversation about her future children, it dawned on Leah Robbins that the school she imagined for them did not exist.

Robbins envisioned a Jewish school where children studied Jewish texts, history and observance, as she did at the school run out of her Conservative synagogue in northern Florida. But having long ago rejected the allegiance to Israel that was entwined with her education, she could not fathom sending her children to a school that promoted Zionism — which ruled out all the Jewish day schools she knew.

“I was just overwhelmed with a sense of grief that my kids could be less Jewishly educated than I was,” Robbins, who has lived in Boston for 10 years, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I would never ever consider sending my kids to any of the local day schools because of total values misalignment.”

Full story here: https://www.jta.org/2026/10/11/united-states/a-planned-non-zionist-jewish-school-in-boston-hopes-to-ride-the-momentum-of-the-left

10/11/2026

Running a major nonprofit is difficult. Raising money, managing employees, overseeing complex operations and answering to a board and a myriad of donors are serious responsibilities. Talented people deserve fair compensation.

But somewhere along the way, parts of the American and Israeli Jewish nonprofit world seem to have lost sight of the difference between fair compensation and excessive compensation. When a nonprofit CEO earns $250,000 or $300,000, few people would question whether that person deserves to make a good living.

But when the compensation reaches $700,000, $800,000 or more than $1 million, I think donors have every right to ask a simple question: Why? Why does this particular job require that level of compensation and is that the best use of charitable dollars?

Read the rest of Arnie Draiman’s opinion essay and explore even more of JTA’s Ideas section here: https://www.jta.org/2026/10/08/ideas/when-did-650000-become-a-reasonable-nonprofit-salary

10/11/2026

The miracle of Hanukkah came early this year: Hanukkah Barbie is here.

Mattel would like us to call her “Holiday Sweater Barbie.” Respectfully, no. This is Hanukkah Barbie.

She is dressed in the blue-and-yellow color palette that retailers have apparently decided belongs exclusively to Hanukkah. Her sweater is covered in Jewish stars and dreidels, with a light-up hanukkiyah built right into the front.

As if the sweater isn’t Hanukkah enough, she also dons blue-and-white gingham pants. And then there are the tiny tan shearling boots, because Hanukkah Barbie understands comfort.

Naturally, I bought her immediately.

Full story here: https://www.jta.org/2026/10/09/ideas/hanukkah-barbie-is-here-and-she-actually-got-the-jewish-holiday-right