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Sen. Joseph Lieberman participates in the Race for the Cure event in Jerusalem in 2010 with his wife. Hadassah, left, and Komen founder Nancy Brinker. (Photo U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv)

NCJW applauds Komen Foundation for reversing decision on Planned Parenthood funding

Posted under National, News on February 3rd, 2012. Leave a Comment »

February 3, 2012, Washington, DC — The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) today commended the Susan G. Komen for the Cure® foundation for reversing its decision to defund cancer screenings performed by Planned Parenthood. NCJW CEO Nancy K. Kaufman released the following statement: “NCJW was deeply disappointed when the Susan G. Komen for the [...]

Amendolara Mayor Salvatore Antonio Ciminelli, left, standing next to JTA's Ruth Ellen Gruber, after presenting award certificates to some of the 100 schoolchildren who attended a Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony in the town hall, Jan. 27, 2012. The children received awards for art or writing projects about the Shoah. (Photo courtesy Amendolara Town Hall)

For some schoolkids in southern Italy, meeting their first Jew on Holocaust Day

Posted under Columns, World on February 1st, 2012. Leave a Comment »

AMENDOLARA, Italy (JTA) — It was International Holocaust Memorial Day, and when I told my audience that I was a Jew, they burst into applause. I was speaking at the City Hall in this ancient seacoast town in Calabria, deep in southern Italy on the instep of the Italian boot. My audience consisted of some [...]

On Israel, think tanks adopts a more cautious apporach, even as anger at critics lingers

Posted under National, News on February 1st, 2012. Leave a Comment »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — In one corner was the Center for American Progress, or CAP, arguably Washington’s leading liberal think tank. In the other was Josh Block, a pugnacious former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, who aggressively pushed the notion to reporters that CAP has an Israel problem. Nearly two months after their [...]

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, seen here addressing a regional economic summit in Tehran in May 2011, says he is "optimistic" that nuclear inspectors will not find anything amiss this week during their visit to the country. (Parmida Rahimi via Creative Commons)

On Iranian nuclear issue, mixed signals proliferate

Posted under Israel, Middle East, National, News on January 31st, 2012. Leave a Comment »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel, the United States and Iran have all gone deep into mixed-signals territory. Conversations with Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, left one prominent journalist convinced that Israel will strike Iran by year’s end. Yet two weeks ago, Barak had said that any possible Israeli attack on Iran is “far off.” [...]

In honor of Ledbetter anniversary, NCJW calls for passage of Paycheck Fairness Act

Posted under National, News on January 31st, 2012. Leave a Comment »

January 31, 2012, Washington, D.C. — Upon the third anniversary of the signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act by President Obama, the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) yesterday called upon Congress to complete the task of ensuring workplace equality by passing the Paycheck Fairness Act. NCJW CEO Nancy K. Kaufman released the [...]

Soldiers from the Israeli army's haredi Orthodox unit called the Netzah Yehuda Battalion praying. (Abir Sultan/Flash90/JTA)

Controversy grows in Israel over extension of Tal Law granting haredim army exemptions

Posted under Israel, News on January 31st, 2012. Leave a Comment »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — When Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, granted a few hundred haredi Orthodox Jews an exemption from army service, it’s likely he never dreamed that 63 years later, tens of thousands of haredi Israelis would claim the exemption — or that the issue would be among the most contentious in modern Israel. [...]

$Activists connected to Jews Against Hydrofracking demonstrating in New Jersey on Nov. 21. (Jews Against Hydrofracking)$

Activists connected to Jews Against Hydrofracking demonstrating in New Jersey on Nov. 21. (Jews Against Hydrofracking)

In Jewish fracking debate, it’s the environment vs. energy independence — and energy’s winning

Posted under National, News on January 31st, 2012. Leave a Comment »

NEW YORK (JTA) – To frack or not to frack? As concerns mount over the environmental and public health consequences of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, Jewish groups are coalescing around a strategy that supports efforts to extract natural gas from shale rock while seeking to mitigate its worst effects. In May, the Jewish Council [...]

Peter Keeda, an Australian retiree, stumbled upon the story of a group of Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe who were sent by the British from Cyprus to Palestine and later to East Africa. (Courtesy Peter Keeda)

Seeking Kin: Tracing a group of refugees, from Europe to Cyprus to Palestine to East Africa

Posted under World on January 30th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives. BALTIMORE (JTA) — A virtually unknown episode in prestate Israel grabbed Peter Keeda last year and won’t let go: the British government’s June 1941 shipment of 384 European Jews from Cyprus to Palestine. They and 39 others were transported six months later to [...]

Tucsonan Josh Landau, left in second row, with teammates at the opening ceremony of the Pan American Maccabi Games in Brazil.

Tucsonans fare well at Pan American Maccabi Games in Brazil

Posted under Local on January 27th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

Sao Paolo, Brazil, is “a weird place,” with the most skyscrapers in the world but also teeming slums, says Tucsonan Josh Landau, who was there for the 12th annual Pan American Maccabi Games, held Dec. 26-Jan. 2. “We were staying in a really nice four-star hotel and you look out our window and across the [...]

Arizona Centennial: Cemeteries reveal history of years gone by

Posted under Local on January 27th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

It’s not morbid, it’s history. For a state that’s nearly 100 years old, Arizona has no shortage of fascinating stories, many of which can be found in our historic Jewish cemeteries. Evergreen Cemetery in Tucson contains the grave sites of the men and women that figure prominently in the city’s early Jewish history, including the [...]