Barbra Streisand will receive an honorary Palme d’Or for lifetime achievement at the Cannes Film Festival in May. (Announced by the Hollywood Reporter)

President Donald Trump has named Kevin Warsh, 55, to succeed Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair. Warsh now faces Senate confirmation. If approved, he will take over the position in May, when Powell’s term expires. The nomination ends a competitive derby that at one point included 11 candidates. They spanned from former and current Fed officials to economists and Wall Street pros; the interview process was led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. [...]

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has appointed Phylisa Wisdom to run his Office to Combat Antisemitism. Prior to her new position, Wisdom was executive director of the New York Jewish Agenda, where she coordinated progressive Jewish organizations in the city.

The American Conference of Cantors (ACC) has announced that Rachel Roth, a longtime member of its senior staff, has been named Chief Executive Officer. Roth holds degrees from Indiana University and the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. She is a long-time member of the National Association for Temple Administration as well as the Church Alliance that reflects her commitment to service, collaboration and community-building across North American faith-based organizations.

  Jewish Olympian Jack Hughes scored the U.S. men’s hockey team’s game-winning goal in overtime, with some calling it the “most dramatic goal in nearly half a century” Hughes, who had at least two teeth knocked out earlier in the game, led the team, which included his brother, Quinn. Final score: 2-1 against Canada, giving men’s hockey its first Olympic gold medal since 1980s “Miracle on Ice” game. Pictured, Jack Hughes, left, with his brother. [...]

A Jewish American fighter pilot, whose plane was shot down in the Chinese theater during World War II, was given a proper burial 82 years after his plane went down, according to the United States Department of Defense. The remains of Lt. Morton Sher were buried in Greenville, SC, on Dec. 14 on what would have been his 105th birthday. Sher was a member of the pilot group known as the “Flying Tigers,” formed to [...]

Julie Menin is the first Jew to be elected speaker of the New Yor City Council, the second-most powerful government position in America’s largest city. Mainstream Jewish leaders see Menin as a check on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a potential guardrail on his actions, according to The Forward.

By Len Berk The whole story of Barbra Streisand and the sturgeon began a few months ago on a Thursday when I was at my regular spot at the fish counter. A pleasant, attractive woman ordered a pound of Nova and, before Slim, my sharp slicing knife, and I started our journey through the salmon, she said, “I’m buying this for Barbra Streisand.” I was skeptical, so I asked her what her relationship was with [...]

Hessy Levinsons Taft, who as an infant appeared on the cover of a Nazi magazine in Germany, promoting her as the ideal Aryan baby, a distinction complicated by the fact that she was Jewish and had been exploited as part of a hoax, died on Jan. 1 at her home in San Francisco. She was 91. Th episode began in 1934, when Hessy was 6 months old and her parents hired a photographer to [...]

President Donald Trump has tapped Shalom Baranes, a prominent Jewish architect, to redesign the White House’s East Wing ballroom. Baranes came to the U.S. as a child when his parents fled antisemitism in Libya with help from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). His projects have included work on the Pentagon and the historic Sixth & I synagogue, among other undertakings. The original architect for Trump's White House ballroom project was James McCrery II of [...]