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WASHINGTON — President Biden told a group of rabbis on Thursday that he was “raised in the synagogues” of Delaware — after previously claiming to have been raised by the state’s then-tiny Puerto Rican community. “I, you might say, was raised in the synagogues of my state. You think I’m kidding, I’m not,” Biden said during a call ahead of Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish new year holiday that begins Friday.

The United States’ largest rabbinic public policy organization says the Biden administration is facilitating terrorism against Israel by injecting nearly half a billion dollars into Palestinian government organizations that incite violence against the Jewish state. The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), a pro-Israel advocacy group representing more than 2,000 American rabbis, slammed the State Department on Monday for its allotment of U.S. tax dollars to the Palestinian government, which is funding a program known as "pay to slay," in which money is funneled to convicted terrorists and their families.

Two religious leaders plan to join a lawsuit filed by a synagogue in Boynton Beach, Florida against a state law banning abortion at 15 weeks gestation. The two leaders, one Unitarian and one Buddhist, will argue that the law violates the state Constitution’s right to privacy and freedom of religion (via NBC): The retired Unitarian Rev. Harris Riordan and the Buddhist minister Maya Malay confirmed they will file a lawsuit in state court next week, echoing arguments from Rabbi Barry Silver. Silver intends to file his own amended complaint next week along with Rabbi Arthur Wascow, the founder and director...

The Coalition for Jewish Values declared Monday that the promotion of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to a senior committee position shows that Congress accepts antisemitism. Omar was promoted to the position of Vice Chair on the Africa, Global Health, and Global Human Rights subcommittee within the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The CJV said in a statement: Omar, despite a history of support for organizations with ties to Islamic terror and condemnations of Israel sufficient to be voted “2019’s Anti-Semite of the Year” by StopAntiSemitism.org, was named Vice Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health,...

Follow the science. Governor Cuomo, the media, and his supporters have claimed that his false accusation that the segregation of particular areas as hot zones, some appearing to target Orthodox Jews, was based on the work of health experts and statistics. But discovery is a wonderful thing. Even when judges refuse to do the right thing, the process provides invaluable insights into a deeply corrupt system. The Brooklyn Catholic Diocese sued Cuomo and produced some incredible admissions, via OJPAC. "NYGovCuomo’s Howard Zucker admits in a brief in the Brooklyn Catholic Diocese case that “there is no specific percentage threshold to...

On Wednesday, three Orthodox Jewish congregations in Rockland County, N.Y., sued Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) for issuing a “blatantly anti-Semitic” coronavirus order restricting religious services in Jewish areas, just before three sequential Jewish holy days. Cuomo falsely blamed the Orthodox Jewish community for a surge in COVID-19 cases in New York, referring to the surge as “a predominantly ultra-orthodox cluster,” and he admitted the lockdowns were based on “fear” rather than science. According to the lawsuit, Cuomo’s October 6 executive order “is blatantly anti-Semitic, creating religious-observance based color coded ‘hot-spot’ zones directed towards particular Jewish communities.” The order “not only...

A rabbi in Israel is calling on fellow Jewish activists in the country to protect the thousands of African asylum-seekers the government is threatening to deport. Religious leaders from the advocacy group Rabbis for Human Rights expressed their willingness on Tuesday to open up their own homes to shelter the migrants. Rabbi Susan Silverman, sister of the American comedian Sarah Silverman, promoted the idea during a conference in Jerusalem and received the support of about 130 religious leaders who had assembled there, Haaretz reports. Silverman said the rabbis’ activism is driven by their Jewish faith ― and the fear that...

Republican voters overwhelmingly approve of President Donald Trump temporarily halting the importation of refugees, even after a media firestorm falsely labeled it a “Muslim ban.” Rasmussen Reports filtered out media hysteria and asked likely voters: “The federal government has banned refugees from all countries from entering the United States for the next four months until there is a better system in place to keep out individuals who are terrorist threats. Do you favor or oppose such a ban?” A majority, 52 percent, favored the move, while 43 percent opposed it, and six percent were unsure. Men strongly approved of the...

EW YORK (JTA) – Conservative Rabbi Seymour Rosenbloom has been expelled from the Rabbinical Assembly, the movement’s rabbis’ association, for performing interfaith weddings. An ordained Conservative rabbi for 44 years, Rosenbloom was expelled by unanimous vote last month after a hearing of the R.A.’s Executive Council. Since 1972, the Conservative movement has prohibited its rabbis from officiating at or even attending intermarriages. Rosenbloom told JTA the council offered to retain his membership in exchange for a promise not to perform any more intermarriages. Rosenbloom declined the offer.

JTA - Forty American "Open" Orthodox clergy co-signed a letter condemning Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for what they called his “hateful rhetoric and intolerant policy proposals.” The letter, whose signatories included Irving “Yitz” Greenberg, the founding president of Clal-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership in New York City — was published Friday on the website Cleveland.com. Noting that “religion should be invoked with care” when addressing politics, the rabbis added that, “Nevertheless, there are times when the political discourse veers into morally offensive language and policy proposals that violate fundamental religious norms.” The rabbis’ “core religious values...

A conversation between two of the most distinguished rabbis in Israel indicates scholars of the Torah see unmistakable signs of the coming of the Messiah. What’s more, in the Messianic era, Christians will become a source of Torah learning, as believers in Jesus Christ rediscover the source of their beliefs in both Judaism and the Torah. The conversation took place between Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch and Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, both of whom are regarded as leading experts in the Torah. During the conversation, Rabbi Kanievsky reportedly predicted the imminent coming of the Messiah, before the end of the year after the...

More than 25 prominent rabbis from Israel and abroad recently issued a statement calling for a renewed look at Jesus, Christians and the New Testament faith. Quoting from their own sages, these outstanding Orthodox rabbis are not ashamed to exalt the name of Jesus, welcoming the carpenter from Nazareth back into the Jewish fold.

A group of prominent Orthodox rabbis in Israel, the United States and Europe have issued a historic public statement affirming that Christianity is "the willed divine outcome and gift to the nations" and urging Jews and Christians to "work together as partners to address the moral challenges of our era." "Jesus brought a double goodness to the world," the statement reads. "On the one hand he strengthened the Torah of Moses majestically" and on the other hand "he removed idols from the nations," instilling them "firmly with moral traits."

Cruz Welcomes Endorsements From More than Two-Dozen American RabbisHOUSTON, Texas – Presidential candidate Ted Cruz this week welcomed the endorsements of more than two-dozen rabbis, influencing a community of around 10,000 Jewish Americans.In conjunction with Chanukah, the group released a letter of support for Cruz, citing a shared commitment to the Judeo-Christian ethic, human freedom, and the futures of Israel and the United States. The coalition represents a range of leaders, from the ultra-Orthodox Haredi to Modern Orthodox leaders.Yaakov Rosenblatt, a leader of the coalition, is a rabbi and businessman in Dallas, Texas. Rosenblatt received his masters of Talmudic Law...

Who has Obama conned - the Rabbis or the Generals? Congress--and the world - need to know The upcoming debate and vote in the US Congress to endorse the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran (JCPOA) has become even more critical now that President Obama has reportedly secured the necessary votes to veto any Congressional resolution of disapproval. Congress has been flooded with petitions - ostensibly neither Democrat nor Republican - urging Congressmen to cast their votes by crossing political party lines. 340 Rabbis in their appeal to Congress dated 17 August—have made the following assertions:

791 (at least count) American rabbis - more than double the number who signed a petition in favor - have signed a petition against President Obama's sellout to a nuclear-armed Iran. PLEASE SIGN ONLY IF YOU ARE AN ORDAINED RABBI —THANK YOU!We, the undersigned rabbis, write as a unified voice across religious denominations to express our concerns with the proposed nuclear agreement with Iran.For more than 20 months, our communities have kept keen eyes on the nuclear negotiations overseas. As our diplomats from Washington worked tirelessly to reach a peaceful resolution to the Iranian nuclear challenge—we have hoped, and...

UPDATE: Three of the four worshippers killed in a Jerusalem synagogue attack are Americans, according to multiple media reports. Earlier: Two Palestinians stormed a Jerusalem synagogue on Tuesday, attacking worshippers praying inside with knives, axes and guns, and killing four people before they were killed in a shootout with police, officials said. The attack, the deadliest in Jerusalem in years, is bound to ratchet up fears of sustained violence in the city, already on edge amid soaring tensions over a contested holy site.

Israeli rabbi Michael Finkel says the Jewish community is on high alert because of the influence of the neo-Nazi's within Kiev's temporary government. "This is Right Sector. This is the peole who are marching in Nazi uniforms with SF on their arms and on their military uniforms," Finkel says. According to the rabbi, it is possible that Ukraine could turn into a country similar to Lebanon. "In Lebanon, there's an official government and there is Hezbollah, which is a terrrorist organization linked to the government. They're members of the parliament, and there's a Hezbollah militia over thre, a separate army,...

Misunderstanding can result from the mechanical reproduction of previously published ideas either because those ideas are taken out of context or because they are based on factual errors. The way authors sort and select data, without verifying the source or checking the facts, leads to distorted interpretations. This problem must be anticipated in Bible interpretation where it is common to rely on what the rabbis have written. As the Bible is viewed as a Jewish religious text, it is natural to seek rabbinic guidance. Christians tend to read the Old Testament through rabbinic sources. Many pastors use commentaries written by...

A group called Rabbis from the Committee to Save the Land and People of Israel sent a letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry this Sunday, warning him to end his “antagonism” towards Israel. […] Drawing on Jewish history, the letters declares to Kerry: “If you continue on this destructive path, you will ensure your everlasting disgrace in Jewish history for bringing calamity upon the Jewish people—like Nebuchadnezer and Titus who destroyed, respectively, the first and second great Temples and the entire Holy City of Jerusalem, and who, by Heavenly punishment, brought eventual disaster upon themselves, too.” “By the...