Archived News

Steven Brickman in front of Israel’s new Lenora W. Pate Fitness Facility By Richard Friedman When Birmingham’s Lenora Pate died in June 2021, the Jewish community lost a friend. A devout Christian, Lenora was married to Steven Brickman, a longtime Jewish community volunteer leader. There […]

Screenshot of drone footage of downtown Selma after a large, long-track tornado tore through the city on Jan. 12. Mishkan Israel, the city’s lone synagogue, is in the upper right corner. Footage courtesy Rex Jones of Cougar Oil. Mishkan Israel, the historic synagogue in downtown […]

During the Violins of Hope programs in New Orleans, the featured violin will be the Katrin violin, which is also referred to as the “Violin of the Flowers.” The Katrin violin is a relatively recent acquisition, which the Weinsteins worked on in 2021. It came […]

While the Violins of Hope will be visiting New Orleans from Jan. 24 to 28, another violin from that era will be displayed as a new acquisition of the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience — from a participant in the Kindertransport rescue of Jewish […]

Four “Violins of Hope” will be visiting New Orleans this month, bearing witness to a handful of the millions of individual tragedies of the Holocaust. The Violins of Hope are violins that were played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust, often in concentration camps. Some […]

Mel Gibson. Credit: Made In Hollywood/Flickr. Updated throughout, Jan. 8 at 3:45 p.m. following Endymion’s announcement. Updated 5:45 p.m. with statement from Jewish community organizations. After a quick and vociferous backlash, the Krewe of Endymion announced that Mel Gibson “will not ride” as co-Grand Marshal […]

Kentucky Jewish Council representative Rabbi Shlomo Litvin (pictured) told JNS, “Unfortunately this year we have seen antisemitism in Kentucky from a variety of sources.” Photo: Courtesy of Rabbi Litvin. By David Swindle (JNS) — From an attempted murder of a Jewish candidate for political office, […]

Otzma Yehudit Party chairman Itamar Ben-Gvir (left) and Religious Zionism Party head Bezalel Smotrich at a campaign event in Sderot, Oct. 26, 2022. Photo by Flash90. From JNS and staff reports More than 330 U.S. rabbis have signed a “call to action” pledging to bar […]

Photo by Orrling/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 Willie Sims, a “beloved” Israeli basketball star who was born in Alabama and was a key member of Louisiana State University’s basketball team 40 years ago, died on Dec. 23 in Israel. He was 64, and had been hospitalized […]