Israel Independence Day

Israel at 75 Fuels Momentum Around Israel Engagement

As I have referred to in a variety of different circles, the Weintraub Israel Center, a partnership between the Tucson J and Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona (JPSA), has developed a generative mission statement that invites each of us to go on a self-propelled journey to individually connect in… Read more »

9 rare photos from Israel’s War of Independence

A photograph from June 30, 1948 shows Great Britain handing the port of Haifa to the Israel Defense Forces, with a formation of naval officers raising the flags of Israel and the Israeli navy for the first time in the port. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion is seen at left, with his wife Paula. (Kedem Auction House)

(JTA) — May 9 was Israel’s Independence Day, which commemorates the country’s official Declaration of Independence in 1948. The country celebrated with rallies, fireworks displays, flyovers by the Israeli Air Force and family barbecues. It was a hard-fought independence — the day after the declaration, a coalition of Arab… Read more »

Israel at 70: What women in Israel and the West learned from each other

Hamutal Gouri, a founding leader of Women Wage Peace, says the feminist movement in Israel "learned a tremendous amount from American Jewish activists.” (Courtesy of Gouri)

NEW YORK (JTA) — American Jewish women have idealized Israeli women as feminist role models since the days of prestate Israel, when women were photographed plowing fields alongside men. Post-independence posters featured images of female soldiers fighting alongside men. A chain-smoking Golda Meir served as Israel’s prime minister nearly 50… Read more »

Year in Tucson gives Israeli journalist new perspective

Alon Velan

Alon Velan, an Israeli reporter and editor at the Israel Broad­casting Authority, wasn’t sure what to expect on his leave of absence in Tucson. Here for a year with his wife, Hadas, who has a postdoctoral fellowship in psychology at the University of Arizona, and their two young children,… Read more »

Hasbara program boosts UA student’s passion for Israel

University of Arizona freshman Molly Katz Simon, right, with University of Texas at Austin student Tracy Frydberg, in Jerusalem. (Jeni Willenzik)

University of Arizona freshman Molly Katz Simon was the only Arizonan selected to participate in Hasbara Fellowships’ activism training program in Israel over winter break. One of 80 American students who spent more than two weeks traveling through Israel, meeting with leaders in business, politics, religion and social activism,… Read more »