Asaf Elia-Shalev

An aerial view of American Jewish University's Sunny & Isadore Familian Campus in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. (Courtesy of Communications Department, AJU via JTA)

June 10, 2023, 6:50 pm

$65 million deal to sell American Jewish University’s LA campus collapses

University’s finances put into question after planned sale to Swiss education company falls apart, 9 months after it was announced

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

Polish-Canadian historian Jan Grabowski stands at the podium for a planned lecture as far-right lawmaker Grzegorz Braun of Poland’s Confederation party grabs the microphone and smashes it, at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland, May 30, 2023. (Courtesy of Jan Grabowski via JTA)

June 2, 2023, 1:19 am

Lecture on Holocaust in Poland canceled after far-right lawmaker storms podium

Politician, protesters disrupt speech in Warsaw by historian Jan Grabowski, a vocal critic of Poland’s efforts to constrain Holocaust discussion

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

The Wikipedia page about the Holocaust in Poland. (JTA illustration)

May 23, 2023, 3:10 am

Wikipedia bans editors but sidesteps broader action in Holocaust distortion row

Online encyclopedia bars 3 editors from working on articles related to Holocaust in Poland, but avoids stance on underlying dispute over Polish antisemitism and complicity

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

Edwin A. Walker under the custody of marshals on campus of Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi, October 1, 1962. (AP Photo)

May 21, 2023, 1:53 am

How an ADL spy operation helped bring down the far-right John Birch Society

Researching his new book ‘Birchers,’ Matthew Dallek discovers paperwork documenting a successful espionage effort to thwart an anti-Civil Rights group deemed a threat by some Jews

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

Screen capture from video of the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles. (YouTube. Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

May 16, 2023, 4:08 am

US Conservative rabbinical school to relocate to Beverly Hills

Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies will move to new premises near Pico-Robertson neighborhood, the ‘heart of Jewish life’ in Los Angeles

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

Rabbi Laura Bellows, now Dayenu's director of spiritual activism and education, waves matzah as she encourages major financial organizations to divest from fossil fuels at a rally in Washington, DC, April 20, 2022. (Bora Chung | Survival Media Agency / Courtesy of Dayenu via JTA)

May 14, 2023, 4:42 am

US Jewish institutions awaken to climate crisis, with hundreds pledging action

Long a top priority for American Jews, climate change hasn’t been high on the agenda for the organizations serving them – but that’s beginning to change

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

Children light candles as part of their lessons at Yachad Religious School in Oak Park, Michigan. (Courtesy of Yachad via JTA)

April 26, 2023, 4:44 am

Hebrew school enrollment across US down by nearly half since 2006, report says

While the number of Jewish children rose by 17%, enrollment at afterschool programs dropped by 45%, indicating that parents may be seeking alternatives – or opting out completely

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

March 28, 2023, 12:47 am

Inside the New York auction house driving the rare-book craze in the Orthodox world

Behavior that confounds veterans of the rare Jewish book market has become routine at auctions organized by Genazym as it taps into emerging luxury market among Orthodox Jews

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

An academic paper found that a dedicated group has for some 15 years manipulated Wikipedia in ways that lay blame for the Holocaust on Jews and absolve Poland of almost any responsibility for its record of antisemitism. (JTA illustration)

March 2, 2023, 6:56 pm

Wikipedia’s ‘Supreme Court’ tackles alleged conspiracy to distort Holocaust articles

For the first time in its nearly 20 years, the online encyclopedia’s arbitration committee voluntarily takes up a case amid claims some editors are whitewashing Polish history

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

Charles Bronfman speaking at a Taglit-Birthright event. (Courtesy)

February 21, 2023, 3:14 am

Major Diaspora philanthropists warn judicial overhaul threatens Israeli democracy

15 leading donors and charities, including Birthright’s Charles Bronfman, say they are ‘deeply concerned’ by government’s plans, urge dialogue

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

Television and newspaper reporters in Los Angeles interview passersby in the Jewish neighborhood of Pico-Robertson following two shootings that occurred in the area in the previous two days on February 17, 2023. (Asaf Elia-Shalev)

February 18, 2023, 5:10 am

Uneasy calm in LA Jewish neighborhood after arrest of suspect in Jews’ shooting

‘I didn’t feel safe walking. It affects our lives,’ one person says after alleged hate crimes

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

Philanthropist Shelby White poses for a picture on the roughly 1,700-year-old Lod mosaic, ahead of the inauguration of a new visitors center she helped fund to display the prized piece in the Israeli city of Lod, June 27, 2022. (Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)

February 18, 2023, 1:32 am

New York antiquities trafficking unit focuses on US patron of Israeli archaeology

Shelby White has already relinquished two dozen items worth at least $20 million due to investigations

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman, seen in a video from Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, where he was senior rabbi from 1985 to 1996. (Screen shot from Vimeo via JTA)

February 15, 2023, 3:55 am

Ex-Reform movement chief expelled from rabbinical group after allegations reexamined

Sheldon Zimmerman, who previously led movement’s flagship institutions, ousted from Central Conference of American Rabbis over sexual misconduct allegations first made 20 years ago

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

Supporters for the freedom of Soviet Jewry rally in front of the Soviet consulate in San Francisco in a undated photo. (Courtesy of American Jewish Historical Society)

February 7, 2023, 4:17 pm

FBI memo: Bay Area Soviet Jewry protest leaders secretly sought Jews for Jesus’ help

Freedom of information request yields stunning revelation that leadership recruited the well-organized but widely loathed proselytizing group to help organize and bolster crowds

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

Noam party leader MK Avi Maoz seen during a vote in the Knesset, on December 28, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

February 1, 2023, 10:47 am

Far-right Maoz seeks to end Diaspora donations to pluralistic school education

If he succeeds, Noam party’s deputy minister could cause new type of rift between Israel and US Jews, whose organizations donate billions of dollars to development of the country

By Asaf Elia-Shalev