North American Jewish day school enrollment is up 7.5% since 2021, but the West grew just 0.2%. J. did its own Bay Area analysis to find out why. jweekly.com/2026/07/27/j...

Jewish day school enrollment largely stalls in NorCal, as rest of U.S. surges

A national study found that enrollment in Jewish day schools is growing, but data on Northern California schools tells a more complex story.

jweekly.com

Religion News Service talked to 18 Jewish New Yorkers after a Manhattan stabbing NYPD is probing as a hate crime, though it's unclear if Jews were specifically targeted. The interviews sufaced the ongoing fight over whether criticizing Israel endangers American Jews. religionnews.com/2026/07/31/j...

Jewish New Yorkers on antisemitism, safety and the city's first anti-Zionist mayor

(RNS) — 'Jewish New Yorkers are being asked to carry the weight of a conflict thousands of miles away, regardless of our individual beliefs, backgrounds or politics,' said Dan Haddad, a Brooklyn resid...

religionnews.com

Conservative rabbis still won't officiate interfaith weddings, but can now bless intermarried couples' Jewish homes. www.jta.org/2026/07/29/i...

As Conservative rabbis, we can't perform interfaith weddings. But we can bless the Jewish families they create. - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

The authors of a new teshuvah approved by Conservative Judaism’s Law Committee explain how they hope to balance tradition, inclusion and the realities of Jewish life today.

jta.org

New summer research edition. Inside: Orange County's Jews are as purple as the county itself; federation donor rolls grew 2.7% since 2023; and the 1939 Hitler-Stalin pact gutted the American Yiddish communist press. bermanarchive.stanford.edu/documensch-s...

Documensch Summer Research - Berman Archive

Hello and welcome to the Summer Research Edition of the Documensch Newsletter, By the looks of things below, Jewish Research doesn’t really take a vacation. On the Community Research side of things, w...

bermanarchive.stanford.edu

Our summer research edition is out: 17 new studies on American Jewish life, from algorithmic antisemitism to day school enrollment, Orange County demographics, and three national polls. 😅 bermanarchive.stanford.edu/documensch-s...

Documensch Summer Research - Berman Archive

Hello and welcome to the Summer Research Edition of the Documensch Newsletter, By the looks of things below, Jewish Research doesn’t really take a vacation. On the Community Research side of things, w...

bermanarchive.stanford.edu

"Shai's Lesson" is set in 19th century Morocco 🤩 please, MORE books about Moroccan Jews 🥳

Berman Archive at Stanford@bermanarchive.bsky.social · last wk.

This is cool. The @pjlibrary.org's new Sephardic Stories Initiative is publishing its first Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Ethiopian Jewish children's books, including a Farhud-era Baghdad story and a supernatural Libyan quest. forward.com/culture/8414...

While many Jewish communal leaders have chosen a path of confrontation rather than engagement with Mayor Mamdani, the events of last week make clear there are better ways to begin a working relationship with the mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population in the world.

The Blogs: Engaging Mamdani in the Fight Against Antisemitism

From the blog of Jonathan Jacoby at The Times of Israel

blogs.timesofisrael.com

This is cool. The @pjlibrary.org's new Sephardic Stories Initiative is publishing its first Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Ethiopian Jewish children's books, including a Farhud-era Baghdad story and a supernatural Libyan quest. forward.com/culture/8414...

Ladino-speaking pirates, genies and grumpy demon cats: PJ Library expands bookshelves with Sephardic stories

The iconic Jewish children's book publisher is boosting authors who want to publish Sephardic, Mizrahi and Ethiopian tales for kids

forward.com

RabbAI: @zvikak.bsky.social advises on AI ethics for Anthropic and other AI giants while leading a Berkeley shul, and says Jewish tradition's ease with "not-knowing" counters AI's instant answers. jweekly.com/2026/07/28/s...

Meet the Berkeley rabbi Silicon Valley pays for advice on AI ethics

Zvika Krieger stays busy, juggling his dual roles as an ethics adviser to AI giants in Silicon Valley and serving as a congregational rabbi.

jweekly.com

A new @theguardian.com documentary follows @matthewcassel.bsky.social through NYC's Jewish community, exploring how the situation in Gaza and genocide accusations against Israel are dividing families (including his own) and generations over support for Israel. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHrb...

Why so many American Jews are turning away from Israel | On the Ground

YouTube video by The Guardian

youtube.com

America has always been a little Jewish. Don't miss our conversation with AJHS director Gemma R. Birnbaum on All We Have Standing Between Us, the exhibit, podcast, and curriculum built from 30 million objects for America's 250th. bermanarchive.stanford.edu/america-alwa...

America: Always a Little Jewish - Berman Archive

America turned 250 this year — the fanfare, reflections, and bunting have been unmissable. The American Jewish Historical Society came with receipts (30 million) and a lot of great thinking in its eff...

bermanarchive.stanford.edu

Today is Tisha B'Av, when Rabbinic Jews fast to mourn the destruction of Jerusalem's First and Second Temples (586 BCE, 70 CE). Jewish groups from San Diego to D.C. are tying it to protests over immigration enforcement. forward.com/news/839714/...

To protest ICE, they’re saying kaddish — then marching to Comic-Con

Jewish groups nationwide stage ICE protests pegged to Tisha B’Av

forward.com

Steve Marcus's YIVO show mixes Talmud and psychedelia: LSD blotter art of rabbis, a peace-sign Torah pointer, tefillin on a Black Power fist. Thru Dec. at the Center for Jewish History. 👁️ forward.com/culture/art/...

Sex, drugs and Torah scrolls: At the Psychedelicatessen, visitors receive a powerful dose of art

At artist Steve Marcus' exhibit, Talmud and psychedelics get crossed

forward.com

America turned 250, and the American Jewish Historical Society has receipts: 30 million objects on the Jews who shaped, protected & sometimes undermined American democracy. We spoke with AJHS director Gemma R. Birnbaum about bringing the archive to life. 👉 bermanarchive.stanford.edu/america-alwa...

OC Jews: New Cohen Center data shows Orange County's "purple" politics hold among its Jews too. Half are Democrat, well below the 57% share nationally; 21% are Republican, closer to the national Jewish norm. www.brandeis.edu/cmjs/communi...

New book from Sharon Avni & Laura Yares: most American Jews learn about Judaism far from the synagogue, in cultural spaces engagement surveys never count. Some of the most engaged learners aren't even Jewish. ejewishphilanthropy.com/learning-abo...

Learning about Judaism in unexpected places

The spaces where Jews and non-Jews are learning about Judaism are more numerous, more varied and more generative than our communal conversations often acknowledge.

ejewishphilanthropy.com

"An archive, if you're not careful, can just sit on the other side of a wall." —Gemma R. Birnbaum of AJHS on turning 30 million objects into an exhibition, a podcast, and a curriculum for America's 250th. bermanarchive.stanford.edu/america-alwa...

America: Always a Little Jewish - Berman Archive

America turned 250 this year — the fanfare, reflections, and bunting have been unmissable. The American Jewish Historical Society came with receipts (30 million) and a lot of great thinking in its eff...

bermanarchive.stanford.edu

House GOP is probing @newisraelfund.bsky.social, backer of progressive Jewish & Arab groups in Israel, over 2019 Israeli campaign activity. NIF says the allegations recycle a lawsuit already dismissed in federal court and target American Jews' 1st Amendment right to give. www.jta.org/2026/07/10/u...

New Israel Fund decries House GOP investigation over its alleged Israeli election spending - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

“NIF will not be deterred in our work to defend democracy, promote equality, and advance peace in Israel,” the group said.

jta.org

Tome Home: A Hasidic-raised scholar's "10,000-book library" landed him in eviction court on the Upper East Side, pitting a landlord against an enthusiastic adherent of Jewish reading culture. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/s...

Too Many Books?

nytimes.com

New AP-NORC poll: 30% of American Jewish adults say Israel committed genocide in Gaza, 49% say it has not. 51% of Jewish Democrats say the US is "too supportive" of Israel. ~6 in 10 Jewish adults view Netanyahu unfavorably. www.timesofisrael.com/poll-third-o...

Poll: Third of US Jews say Israel committed genocide in Gaza, as broader support dives

Only 2 in 10 Americans say Israel did not commit genocide, while half don't know enough to say; 58% of Dems think US too supportive of Israel; only 20% have positive view of PM

timesofisrael.com

Two decades after Katrina, Jewish New Orleans has more than rebounded. @benyamincohen.bsky.social visits Touro Synagogue, the 198-year-old shul on the Mardi Gras route whose problem is growing too fast. forward.com/news/833489/...

How a 198-year-old New Orleans synagogue became one of America’s fastest-growing Jewish communities

A Reform synagogue on the Mardi Gras route — with no dues and fluid denominational lines — is a catalyst for Jewish life after catastrophe

forward.com

250 years of Jewish life in American democracy, in one exhibit: AJHS, the Center for Jewish History & Yeshiva University Museum present "All We Have Standing Between Us," opening July 21. Companion podcast launches today. Seven sections, Emma Lazarus to Betty Friedan. ajhs.org/democracy/

Texas approved a required Bible reading list for public schools with no Jewish input, mostly Protestant translations of Hebrew texts, & the one Jewish passage paired with Holocaust literature. Rabbis aren't thrilled. forward.com/news/834539/...

New Texas Bible curriculum isn’t as ‘Judeo’ as advertised, local rabbis say

Jewish clergy warn required reading list for schools, pairing Bible with literature, crosses the line from teaching about religion to endorsing it

forward.com

80 Wexner Heritage alumni signed an accountability letter & launched Tikkun Funds: $356K+ pledged to support survivors of sexual violence & trafficking. Wexner, major Jewish communal funder, had Epstein ties. His foundation is spinning off under new name in 2027. jweekly.com/2026/06/26/w...

Jewish leaders shaped by Wexner want reckoning over Epstein ties

Participants in a well-respected Jewish learning and leadership program are grappling with revelations about the man behind it all.

jweekly.com

Texas Jewish voters caught between a Democratic Party whose Israel positions feel alienating and a Republican right where Ted Cruz himself warns antisemitism has spiked sharply. www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/vot...

Jewish voters express growing isolation amid rising antisemitism in both major political parties | Houston Public Media

Faced with anti-Israel and even anti-Jewish sentiment by party activists, and by an increasing number of political candidates, many Jewish voters are facing uncomfortable choices as they cast their ba...

houstonpublicmedia.org

Started as a COVID stopgap, Los Angeles-based IKAR's daily 8am Zoom minyan peaked at 110 participants two days after Oct. 7. Six years later it draws 40–60 people daily from around the world to connect through kaddish. religionnews.com/2026/06/23/t...

This 8 am Zoom service has become a satellite of love

(RNS) — The 30-minute morning minyan offered through the Los Angeles-based IKAR Synagogue has become the primary form of community and prayer for a group of Jews from around the world.

religionnews.com

For Juneteenth, the Jews of Color Initiative has compiled essays, events, and readings at the intersection of Black and Jewish life. Their 2026 resource list: thejoci.org/resources/ju...

For Juneteenth, the Jews of Color Initiative has compiled essays, events, and readings at the intersection of Black and Jewish life. Their 2026 resource list: thejoci.org/resources/ju...

Holocaust Museum LA opens "The Beautiful Game," tracing Jewish roots of soccer. www.latimes.com/sports/socce...

L.A. museum highlights Jewish roots that shaped world's most popular soccer styles

As World Cup matches are played in L.A., the holocaust museum unveils an exhibition that explores how World War II upheaval altered global soccer.

latimes.com