News

Saying goodbye to Shimon Peres, world leaders talk peace and love

President Barack Obama viewing the coffin of Shimon Peres after speaking during his funeral at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl national cemetery, Sept. 30, 2016. (Abir Sultan/AFP/Getty Images)

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israeli and world leaders gathered atop Mount Herzl on Friday to say goodbye to Shimon Peres, Israel’s last founding father. In addition to fond personal recollections, many of those who took the stage alongside Peres’ Israeli-flag-draped coffin offered their visions of the peace that eluded the… Read more »

Reporter’s Notebook: 1 million expected to pay tribute to Peres

The casket of Shimon Peres was brought from Tel Aviv to be presented at the Knesset Plaza with a military cavalcade, so mourners can pay their respects, Sept. 29. (The casket of Shimon Peres was brought from Tel Aviv to be presented at the Knesset Plaza with a military cavalcade, so mourners can pay their respects. (Hillel Maier/TPS)

Jerusalem (TPS) – A military cavalcade delivered the coffin of former President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres to the Knesset early Thursday, where the deceased will lie in state in the parliament courtyard until his funeral procession tomorrow. Jerusalem police and Knesset security officials said they expect up to 1 million Israelis… Read more »

Study shows how Jewish vote could play crucial role in key states

An interactive map by the American Jewish Population Project breaks down the Jewish population by state and even county. (American Jewish Population Project)

BOSTON (JTA) — A new study, touted as the first-ever state-by-state, county-by-county Jewish population estimate, shows how the Jewish vote could play a crucial role in key battleground states. The study, released Thursday and conducted by the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University in suburban Boston, found that in Bucks County, Pennsylvania — one of the areas… Read more »

OP-ED We need dialogue, not demagoguery, when it comes to Israel

A protester against Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip speaking into a megaphone as pro-Israel counterprotesters wave Israeli flags in Los Angeles, Aug. 2, 2014. (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

(JTA) — A Jewish educator who works on behalf of the Jewish people every single day recently received a letter that began with harsh words about her support for the anti-occupation group Breaking the Silence. Before long it took a startling turn. “I regretfully must express my utmost hope,” the author wrote,… Read more »

After bombings, New Yorkers cop an Israeli attitude: ‘Stuff’ happens

A New York City police officer standing guard outside Grand Central Station in New York City, Sept. 20, 2016. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — “I heard the explosion, then I went to the deli.” In the hours after the bombings Saturday in New York and on the Jersey Shore, the phrase became an instant slogan for New Yorkers’ purported coolness under fire. Attributed to a witness of the bombing that… Read more »

Jon Ben-Asher

Jon Ben-Asher

Back when he attended Tucson Hebrew Academy, Head of School Jon Ben-Asher was a bit of a Dungeons & Dragons geek. Ben-Asher, one of nine students in THA’s 1982 graduating class, remembers “this whole life of connectedness,” which encompassed the school, Congregation Anshei Israel (where classes were held and… Read more »

Lindsey Baker

Lindsey Baker at graduation from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 2015 (Courtesy Lindsey Baker)

Lindsey Baker, director of program development at Feeding America, says millions of fond memories flood her thoughts when she recalls her time at Tucson Hebrew Academy. But most important is the powerful feeling of belonging to a community that still resonates today. “THA gave me a sense of identity… Read more »

Howard Levkowitz

(Above) Howard Levkowitz with, from left, Olivia, wife Elayne, Ella, Jack and Julia at Jack’s bar mitzvah in 2012. (Courtesy Bertie Levkowitz)

Howard Levkowitz, co-founder and CEO at Tennenbaum Capital Partners L.L.C., a venture capital and private equity firm in Los Angeles, Calif., says he is very happy to see his good friend and former classmate Jon Ben-Asher working as head of school at Tucson Hebrew Academy. The Levkowitz’s were among… Read more »

Gerri Pozez

Gerri Pozez

With a career encompassing national and international security, defense and counter-terrorism, former Tucson Hebrew Academy student Gerri Pozez has taken the Jewish values she learned from THA, her family and the Tucson Jewish community to a global level. Practicing tikkun olam, making the world a better place, and l’dor… Read more »

Lisa Youngerman

From left: Lisa, Louisa, George and Emily Youngerman at their ranch with horses Majik and Surprize (the miniature) (Korene Charnofsky Cohen/AJP)

Lisa Himmelstein Youngerman, a 1978 graduate of Tucson Hebrew Academy, says her experiences there inspired her continuing involvement in the Jewish community. She passed on this tradition to her two daughters, also THA graduates. Youngerman’s parents, Paula and the late Stephen Himmelstein, were among several families that founded THA.… Read more »

Rabbi Ruven Barkan

Rabbi Ruven Barkan

Rabbi Ruven Barkan says his first and second grade teacher at Tucson Hebrew Academy “introduced me to God.” Morah Brandwein (the title means “teacher” in Hebrew) spoke to her students in glowing terms of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. “She planted a Jewish seed in my… Read more »

Brooke Sebold

Brooke Sebold (Courtesy Julian Higgins)

Brooke Sebold does. See boldly, that is. The 1995 Tucson Hebrew Academy graduate is a movie director, producer, writer and editor in Los Angeles. Her films have won numerous awards across the United States and many can be seen on NBC, PBS, the Sundance Channel and other entertainment platforms.… Read more »

New, inclusive prayer book wins local fans

Rabbi Helen T. Cohn

Congregation M’kor Hayim will start the new year with a new High Holidays machzor, or prayer book, recently published by the Reform Movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis. The two-volume machzor, Mishkan HaNefesh, should “add new energy and meaning to our High Holidays services,” says Rabbi Helen Cohn. Among… Read more »

Second Stone Avenue Block party will celebrate Jewish and Mexican cultures

Mexico City’s Benjamin Shwartz y Los Jreins will perform at the second annual Stone Avenue Block Party on Sept. 29.

As the sun goes down on Thursday, Sept. 29, live music by Mexico City’s Benjamin Shwartz y Los Jreins will heat up the night at the second annual Stone Avenue Block Party, presented by the Jewish History Museum and the Consulate of Mexico in Tucson. The party, which starts… Read more »