Yearly Archives 2011

Israeli soldiers carry an injured person on a stretcher at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba following a Palestinian terrorist attack near the Egyptian border, Aug. 18, 2011. (Shay Levy/Flash 90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) – After deadly terrorist attacks in southern Israel, officials in Jerusalem are on alert for how Egyptian instability may be opening up more avenues for terrorists intent on attacking Israel. Thursday’s coordinated attacks north of Eilat by terrorists who crossed over the border from Egypt left eight… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Not all “Hava Nagila” routines are created equal. Here are five routines performed to different versions of the Jewish folk tune by notable gymnasts: Lilia Podkopayeva (Ukraine), 1994 World Championships in Brisbane, Australia http://youtu.be/-IVUIoLBMEg The future 1996 Olympic champion uses “Hava Nagila” in the all… Read more »

NEW YORK (Tablet) — Like so many other aspects of his life and work, Rembrandt’s connection to the Jews has been sentimentalized, overestimated, misappropriated, criticized, dissected — and debunked. In recent years, the image of the artist as a philo-Semite who painted and socialized with his Jewish neighbors has… Read more »

NEW YORK (N.Y. Jewish Week) — Like 500 other young Jews from the former Soviet Union who marched in this city’s Celebrate Israel Parade in June, Boris Shulman wore bright orange. In addition to signifying support for Israel’s settler movement, which also uses orange, the color contrasted sharply with… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (Jewish Journal) — In the same week in which a San Francisco judge struck from the city’s November ballot a controversial measure aiming to ban circumcision of any male younger than 18, two reputable media sources reported on a relatively new, little-known ceremony that serves as a… Read more »

Michael Ripstein on patrol along the Egyptian border (courtesy Michael Ripstein)

MAZKERET BATYA, Israel (Tablet) — In 20 years of military service, I thought I’d seen all the crappy training camps the Israeli army had to offer. But there I was, early one morning last spring, walking from the glorified gravel pit that passed for a parking lot at the… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — After many decades of being excluded from most history books and Holocaust museums, the 1940s’ rescue activists known as the Bergson Group are finally receiving the recognition they deserve. That’s important to ensure historical accuracy, to promote Jewish unity and, most of all, to help inspire… Read more »

Hundreds of Israelis protesting against the country's soaring cost of living in front of the knesset in Jerusalem, Aug. 2, 2011. (Yossi Zamir/Flash 90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — What began in Israel in June as a Facebook-driven rebellion against the rising cost of cottage cheese, then morphed in July into tent encampments protesting soaring real estate costs, has since turned into a full-scale Israeli social movement against the high cost of living in the… Read more »

The assembly line at Empire Kosher Poultry's plant in central Pennsylvania is the largest kosher one of its kind in America, with 240,000 chickens and 27,000 turkeys passing through every week. (Uriel Heilman)

MIFFLINTOWN, Pa. (JTA) – The end came swiftly for the chicken I’ll call Bob. Propelled into a trough of sorts by a machine that tips a crate’s worth of birds onto the assembly line — “They’re like children, sliding down,” the head kosher supervisor said — chicken Bob was… Read more »

AVIGNON, France (JTA) — The roomful of artists, musicians and cultural leaders let their imaginations run wild. Unencumbered by budgetary considerations or practical concerns, they dreamed up a theater partnership between Budapest and Bordeaux, a traveling photo exhibit on the idea of “kosher spaces” and a host of other… Read more »

Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaking at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, June 18, 2011. (Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — To some conservative Jews, Texas Gov. Rick Perry would make an excellent presidential candidate. He’s been to Israel more than any other candidate in the field and has said he loves it. Some conservative Jews say Perry creates jobs. But other Jewish conservatives seeking the anti-Obama… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — The threat of the infiltration of Sharia, or Islamic law, into the American court system is one of the more pernicious conspiracy theories to gain traction in our country in recent years. The notion that Islam is insidiously making inroads in the United States through… Read more »

Passers-by glancing at looted stores in a London neighborhood, Aug. 9, 2011. (Creative Commons)

(JTA) – While some Jews in London marked Tisha b’Av on Tuesday by lamenting the burning of the Holy Temples on that day some two millennia ago, other London Jews watched as their city burned amid widespread rioting. “Everyone is shocked,” Joel Braunold, a lifelong Londoner, told JTA in… Read more »

A daughter, MIA ROSE ROSENBLUM, was born June 20, 2011 to Elka Eisen and Leonard Rosenblum of Tucson. Grandparents are Judy and Stan Rosenblum of East Meadow, N.Y. and the late Marcelle and Stephen Eisen of Toronto. Mia joins her brother, Alex.… Read more »

A daughter, ZOE RIVKA LIEBERMAN, was born April 19, 2011 to Dr. Tamara Clark Lieberman and Mark Lieberman of Scottsdale, Ariz.  Grandparents are Danielle Reines-Clark and Todd Clark of Tucson and Gary and Kathy Lieberman of Tempe, Ariz. Great-grandmothers are Esther Reines of Tucson and Muriel Clark of Raleigh,… Read more »

The ARIZONA JEWISH POST has won a 2010 Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism from the American Jewish Press Association. “Chanukah on Christmas Avenue: Raising a Jewish family in Winterhaven” by Gila Silverman, published in our Nov. 26, 2010 edition, won a first place award in the… Read more »

BRUCE ZORTMAN has published a book, “Eight Little Candles Plus One: A Hanukkah Tale” (Strategic Book Group). Zortman was a professional educator for 25 years. REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS was named “Tourism Champion of the Year” by the Arizona Office of Tourism last month, recognizing her efforts to oppose last… Read more »

Charlotte Oremland, 95, died July 27, 2011. Born in New York, N.Y., Mrs. Oremland graduated from Hunter College. Mrs. Oremland was preceded in death by her husband, Gilbert Oremland, and five sisters. Survivors include her children, Phyllis (Jody) Sosnow of Scottsdale, Ariz., Joan (Barry) Richter of Guilford, Conn., and… Read more »

Bobbie Berger Hanft, 77, died July 21, 2011. Born in Lordsburg, N.M., Mrs. Hanft attended private school in Nashville, Tenn., and moved to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona. She was a special education teacher in New York and Tucson. She was also a realtor, a community activist… Read more »

Naomi Weinstein Duckler, 79, died July 17, 2011. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Mrs. Duckler earned  bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nutrition and food science from Brooklyn College. She taught high school, middle school and adult education. She also taught at senior centers and had special success with Alzheimer’s patients.… Read more »