Joel H. Cohen

By Joel H. Cohen NEW YORK — Major Jewish philanthropies are among those at risk in President Trump’s plan to remove the tax-exempt status for charitable organizations. Along with charities of every religious and ethnic background, including disease-fighting organizations, such Jewish entities as United Jewish Appeal, Hadassah, B’nai B’rith, Magen David Adom, and various federations […]

By Joel H. Cohen NEW YORK — To save himself from a long prison term, Michael Cohen, who probably knows more about the secret life of Donald Trump than anyone, including the president himself, is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller. But. according to sources familiar with the case, the first revelations of the president’s

By Joel H. Cohen NEW YORK — A seemingly far-out comment by Rudy Giuliani – – reported here last week – that President Trump’s power to pardon extended beyond human beings, has gained serious backing. A group of attorneys has filed an “amici curiae” (friends of the court) brief contending that there are no limits to the

By Joel H. Cohen NEW YORK — Although the events are years away, President Trump is planning the Bar/Bat Mitzvah parties of his three Jewish grandchildren. “They’ll be the biggest celebrations of their kind that anyone has ever seen,” he said.  “Obama had nothing like this. Neither did Bush, and certainly not Clinton.” The children

By Joel H. Cohen NEW YORK — He hasn’t “exactly” been invited, his press secretary acknowledged, but President Trump is planning to speak at the Jewish day school that two of his grandchildren attend. It may cause controversy among some of the parents, But he is planning to address the school on the last day

By Joel H. Cohen NEW YORK–At the suggestion of his daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared, President Trump will mark the Jewish holiday of Shavuot this month with a national week of special observance. But at their urging, he’s dropped his original plan of emphasizing one or two of the Ten Commandments each day of

By Joel H. Cohen NEW YORK — A consortium of Jewish women is developing a Jewish-oriented device along the lines of Alexa and other electronic gadgets that respond to and fulfill the user’s spoken requests to play music, read the news, give weather reports, order food, shop on line, and much more. The Jewish device

By Joel H. Cohen NEW YORK — The movement to eliminate or at least liberalize laws and customs relating to a get – a divorce document that an Orthodox Jewish husband may grant to or withhold from his wife seeking an end to their marriage – has enlisted a surprise adherent: President Trump. “Trust me,

  By Joel H. Cohen NEW YORK — It almost never happens, but for the second year in a row, President Trump is trying to cash in on the sale of not-kosher-for-Passover foods (chametz) to non-Jews and its re-purchase after the Pesach holiday. And the result is an escalating verbal and legal war that may