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

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.

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images.

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 protect China from Japanese invasion following the assault on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He was piloting  a P-40 Warhawk when he was shot down by Japanese bombers on Aug. 9, 1943. His mother Celia received Sher’s Purple Heart that same year.

Two attempts were made to locate his remains, in 2012 and 2019, but neither was successful. A breakthrough came in 2024, when a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency excavated a crash site in the province where Sher’s plane fell; DNA analysis confirmed the match.

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.