Attracting pollinators is important for garden yields. (Andreas Ganter/Pixabay.com)
Experts in the garden and the kitchen are presenting programs at the Tucson Jewish Community Center this spring that celebrate the season’s bounty. Michael Ismail, the owner of Thrive and Grow Gardens, leads weekly gardening classes, now through June, on Fridays, which start indoors and move outside to the… Read more »
Volume 2 of “To Tell Our Stories: Holocaust Survivors of Southern Arizona” will be among hundreds of books represented at this weekend’s Tucson Festival of Books, March 10-11 at the University of Arizona. The newly-released book chronicles 45 local Holocaust survivors’ stories. It is the second book in a… Read more »
Cuddle a cockroach, go nose to nose with a skunk, or fly a drone. It’s kids’ choice at Tucson Hebrew Academy’s 4th Annual STEM Festival, Sunday, March 18. STEM encompasses science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The free, family fun fair will offer 50 different exhibits with hands-on activities or… Read more »
The replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (bringthewallaz.com)
Riverfront Park in Oro Valley was chosen as the only location in Arizona for “The Wall That Heals” exhibition, featuring a replica of the national capital’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Northwest Division is among sponsors of the exhibit, hosted March 15-18 by the Town… Read more »
Never again have wilted parsley for karpas (greens) on your seder plate. Instead, grow your own with free seeds, “borrowed” from one of several Pima County Library branches. This Seed Library was among the nation’s first circulating seed concepts, opened in 2012. Now, libraries across the country have adopted… Read more »
The International Rescue Committee in Tucson, in partnership with the Tucson Jewish Community Center, will present a “Walk a Mile in a Refugee’s Shoes” simulation event on Sunday, March 18, in the Tucson J’s Sculpture Garden. Registration starts at 9:30 a.m. and the event will run from 10 a.m.… Read more »
Carlos Galindo-Elvira The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Arizona surged to 26 in 2017, with the largest single-year increase on record for the region, the Anti-Defamation League said in a new report released Feb. 27. Nineteen percent of the incidents occurred in Tucson, including the bomb threats to the Tucson Jewish… Read more »
Marjory Stoneman High School student Cameron Kasky addresses area students as they rally at his school after participating in a countywide school walkout in Parkland, Fla., Feb. 21, 2018. (Rhona Wise/AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) — In the aftermath of the fatal mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, the Jewish community should take note: Teenagers are not just the future of the Jewish people; they are the dynamic force driving social change today. Today we are witnessing history unfold as the American teenage populace… Read more »
From left to right: U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon and Israeli Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked applaud for Vice President Mike Pence as he addresses the AIPAC policy conference in Washington, D.C., March 5, 2018. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A poll last year by the American Jewish Committee showed that 77 percent of American Jews disapproved of President Donald Trump’s job performance. American Jews had voted 70 percent to 25 percent in favor of Hillary Clinton over Trump. With the exception of the Orthodox, majorities of all… Read more »
The organizers of the Women's March, from left to right: Bob Bland, Linda Sarsour, Carmen Perez and Tamika Mallory at BET's Social Awards in Atlanta, Feb. 11, 2018. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Organizers of the Women’s March renounced the anti-Semitic views of Louis Farrakhan, but they stood behind one of its co-presidents who attended a speech last month by the Nation of Islam leader and seemed unperturbed by his attacks on Jews. Tamika Mallory, co-president of the… Read more »
Bogdan Bialek, right, and Michal Jaskulski during a 2016 discussion in Warsaw about the film made about Bialek's interfaith efforts in Poland. (Courtesy of the makers of Bogdan's Journey)
(JTA) — The Catholic journalist Bogdan Bialek is used to being called a traitor in Poland for his commemorations of Jewish victims of a 1946 pogrom in his city of Kielce. For over a decade he has promoted awareness of and atonement for the murders, violating taboos that regard… Read more »
Jerome Segal, a philosopher running for the U.S. Senate, at the AIPAC policy conference in Washington, D.C., March 4, 2018. (Ron Kampeas)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Thirty years ago, Jerome Segal made headlines in Israel and the United States with an odd pedigree: He was the committed Jew who wrote the Palestinian declaration of independence. That was never quite accurate — the University of Maryland professor of philosophy wrote an op-ed for… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the AIPAC policy conference in Washington, D.C., March 6, 2018. (AIPAC)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is mired in several corruption scandals back home, and his political future seems increasingly under threat. But you wouldn’t know it from his speech Tuesday at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee: He looked energized and… Read more »
AIPAC Executive Director Howard Kohr speaks to the Israel lobby’s policy conference in Washington, D.C., March 4, 2018. (AIPAC)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The American Israel Public Affairs Committee opened its arms to progressives this week, launching its annual policy conference with direct appeals to pro-Israel liberals who have lately considered the lobby an unwelcoming extension of Israel’s solidly right-wing government. In addition to major speeches and smaller… Read more »
Armie Hammer, left, and Israeli actress Gal Gadot present the Academy Award for best hair and makeup at the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles, March 4, 2018. (Craig Sjodin via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Half a century ago, Bob Hope’s films were wildly popular, but the comedian was never nominated for an Academy Award. So when Hope served as host of the 1975 Oscar bash, he opened his monologue with “Welcome to the Academy Awards … or as… Read more »
March of the Living participants carry Israeli flags at the former Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, April 24, 2017. (Omar Marques/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Three years ago, Shaul de Malach had no problem joining fellow educators from his country on a trip to former Nazi death camps in Poland. Like tens of thousands of Israelis and Jews in the Diaspora who go on commemorative missions each year, de Malach “didn’t… Read more »
Louis Farrakhan speaks at a news conference at the Mosque Maryam in Chicago, March 31, 2011. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Louis Farrakhan was an anti-Semite in 1972 when he said Jews were “in control of the media.” He was an anti-Semite in 1984 when he said “Hitler was a very great man.” He was an anti-Semite in 1995 when he said “You are the synagogue of Satan, and… Read more »
AIPAC President Mort Fridman addresses participants at the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., March 4, 2018. (AIPAC)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — On the second floor of the downtown convention center here, hundreds attending the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee packed a standing-room-only hall. A bouncer stood outside to control the overflow crowd. It wasn’t a session on boycotts, Iran or the… Read more »
The Thorpe children and their parents Miriam Taylor Thorpe, third from right, and Martyn Thorpe, second from right, celebrating Esther's b'nei mitzvah with congregant Hava Fleming. (Courtesy of Miriam Taylor Thorpe)
(JTA) — When Esther Thorpe came out as non-binary a year ago, identifying neither as male nor female, Miriam Taylor Thorpe was worried. Esther’s mother already had a child come out as gay and feared that Esther, 14, would have trouble finding a Jewish community that would be accepting… Read more »
Donald Trump waving after addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., March 21, 2016. Trump was elected president nearly eight months later. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When candidate Donald Trump spoke at AIPAC’s Policy Conference in 2016 and said Barack Obama may be the worst thing that ever happened to Israel, many cheered, many choked and the organization apologized. The fallout from that event will haunt the proceedings when 18,000 activists, including… Read more »
