News

How Sholom Rubashkin’s supporters got Trump to commute his sentence

Sholom Rubashkin, seen in Postville, Iowa, in December 2004, served eight years of a 27-year prison term for bank fraud. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune/TNS via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Why did President Donald Trump commute the sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, the former CEO of an Iowa kosher meat plant sentenced to 27 years in prison for bank fraud? The official line is that the bipartisan support for Rubashkin’s cause made cutting short his sentence a… Read more »

2017 was a good year for Europe’s extremists

National Front leader Marine Le Pen addresses activists at the Espace Francois Mitterrand in Henin Beaumont, France, April 23, 2017. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

PARIS (JTA) — On the surface, at least, Europe has not changed much over the past 12 months. In fact, when it comes to European politics, this year may appear mild in comparison to 2016, which saw several dramatic and shocking developments, such as Brexit, a refugee resettlement crisis… Read more »

Mormons are baptizing Holocaust victims, Lubavitcher rebbe and celebrities, researcher says

The historic Salt Lake Temple and the world headquarters of the Mormon church in Salt Lake City, Utah, Nov. 14, 2015. (George Frey/Getty Images)

(JTA) — A researcher says Mormons have posthumously baptized the late Lubavitcher rebbe, the grandparents of Carrie Fisher and Steven Spielberg, and hundreds of Holocaust victims, violating an agreement to halt the practice. Helen Radkey, a Salt Lake City-based independent researcher who has been looking into the Mormon practice… Read more »

Bitcoin fraud could be the next big thing for swindlers in Israel

Guy Maimon with his father outside the Tel Aviv bitcoin exchange where he just bought his first cryptocurrency, Dec. 19, 2017. (Andrew Tobin)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israelis lined up Tuesday afternoon at the newly opened bitcoin exchange in this city to purchase the coveted cryptocurrency. Amid the store’s yellow signage, the customers one by one inserted bank cards into a towering ATM-like machine. Sharply dressed young employees helped them make the… Read more »

The top 10 moments that mattered to Jews in 2017

From a wave of bomb threats to JCCs and a neo-Nazi in Charlottesville and to Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, 2017 was not a quiet year for Jews. (JTA collage)

  (JTA) — The past year was not a quiet one, to say the least. From the tumultuous first year of Donald Trump’s presidency to a wave of bomb threats against Jewish community centers to the flood of high-profile sexual harassment allegations, Jews — like so many others —… Read more »

Rise of far-right party suggests Austria hasn’t learned from its Holocaust past

Protesters against a coalition of the People's Party and the far-right Freedom Party in Austria demonstrate outside the parliament in Vienna, Dec. 14, 2017. (Herbert Neubauer/AFP/Getty Images)

VIENNA (JTA) — Like Germany’s governments, those of neighboring Austria have acknowledged their country’s role as a chief perpetrator of the Holocaust. Since the 1990s, Austrian officials have faced up to and condemned how their countrymen and authorities supported Adolf Hitler, an Austria native, and his war of annihilation… Read more »

Arizona Jewish Post home delivery delay

Due to circumstances beyond our control,  delivery of the Dec.15 Arizona Jewish Post has been delayed. Papers will be delivered either this weekend or Monday.  We apologize for the inconvenience.… Read more »

Tucson peace officer’s trip bolsters regional bond with Israel

Jay Korza, right, with an Israel Defense Forces paramedic in Nir Am, Israel, in June 2017.

Israel’s intelligence community told a cohort of volunteer first responders that it is most concerned about a new war with Syria, says Jay Korza, a sergeant with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. If that threat materializes, Korza will be there to help. Korza traveled to Israel this summer to… Read more »

Teaching pioneer Kenneth Goodman believes education is key to social equality

Kenneth S. Goodman and his wife, Yetta Goodman

The most gratifying aspect of teaching is watching your students move toward their own greatness, says Kenneth S. Goodman, a professor emeritus at the University of Arizona department of language, reading and culture. “I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished, but I’m also proud of what the people who I’ve… Read more »

YWC plans ‘Mindfulness, Martinis & Mitzvahs’

Ali Katz

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Young Women’s Cabinet is hosting an event next month to help women of all ages kick off the new (secular) year feeling rejuvenated. “Mindfulness, Martinis & Mitzvahs” will be held Wednesday, Jan. 10 at 6:30 p.m. at the Harvey and Deanna Evenchik Center… Read more »

Kol Simchah choir marks 20th year of concerts

A choir started over 20 years ago by the late Karla Ember at Congregation Ner Tamid continues to perform at concerts and Shabbat and holiday services. “There have been many changes in content and personnel over the years, but Congregation Kol Simchah, successor to Congregation Ner Tamid, carries on,”… Read more »

Award-winning violinist will play with TSO

Gil Shaham

Grammy-award winning violinist Gil Shaham will perform Tchaikovsky’s “Concerto in D major, Op. 35,” considered one of the best known and yet most difficult of all violin concertos, with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra on Friday, Jan. 12 at 7:30 p.m. The concert also will include Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet… Read more »

Hadassah speaker to provide Israel update at brunch

Laura Green

Laura Green, Zionist affairs chair of the Desert-Mountain Region of Hadassah, will present an Israel update for Hadassah Southern Arizona on Sunday, Jan. 7 at 10:30 a.m., during a brunch at Skyline Country Club. Green, who last spoke in Tucson in October 2014, grew up on Long Island, New… Read more »

Personal injury lawyers stress compassion, looking out for the ‘little guy’

Getting injured in an accident can impact everyday life for individuals and their families, and personal injury lawyers help people through these difficult situations. Four local personal injury lawyers weighed in on why they like this field of law, and also provided advice on what do do if injured… Read more »

In Tucson and beyond, b’nai mitzvah kids already are Jewish philanthropists

Pictured, Brenda Landau, right, with seventh graders at the Or Chadash annual meeting on May 9, 2016. Landau and her son Matt Landau are the Noah Cohen Memorial Philanthropy Program advisors.

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — Lyla Maymon and Jane Shvartzman went to interview officials last year at the Larkin Street Youth, a San Francisco organization fighting homelessness among young people, to see if their programs were worthy of a philanthropic grant. Maymon and Shvartzman asked all the right questions, like… Read more »

Russian-American violinist to share immigration story with JFSA

Yevgeny Kutik will be hosted by UA Presents and the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. (Corey Hayes)

World-renowned Russian-American violinist Yevgeny Kutik was only 5 when his family immigrated to the United States, so he doesn’t clearly remember the anti-Semitism they faced in Belarus. But he’s heard his parents’ and grandparents’ stories. Kutik, who was born in Minsk in 1985, told the AJP the discrimination was… Read more »

Why Jewish day schools are breathing a little easier on tax bill

An illustrative photo of students at a Jewish day school. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Lawmakers finalizing the proposed tax overhaul reportedly have removed a provision that had sent shivers through the graduate student and Jewish day school communities. The House version of the reform bill, which was drafted by the Republican leadership, had removed the qualified tuition credit. The credit… Read more »

What Israel and the Palestinians make of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem

Protesters burn a poster of President Donald Trump in front of the Damascus Gate at the entrance to Jerusalem's Old City, Dec. 11, 2017. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Amid the global controversy over President Donald Trump’s recognition last week of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state, Israeli and Palestinian leaders actually found rare consensus: They agreed that the development was a win for Israel and a loss for the Palestinians. To be… Read more »