Scene from inside the "Balint Haz" Jewish Community Center in Budapest. (Ruth Ellen Gruber) BUDAPEST, Hungary (JTA) — A generation after the fall of communism, Jews in Central Europe feel comfortable where they live but are concerned about anti-Semitism. They like to visit Israel but don’t want to move there. And they feel that they don’t have to be religious to be a… Read more »
In a Middle East policy speech at the State Department, President Obama said the pre-1967 border should serve as the basis for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, May 19, 2011. (Pete Souza/White House) WASHINGTON (JTA) — From accolades like “compelling” to accusations like “Auschwitz borders” to radio silence, to label the Jewish response to President Obama’s speech on Middle East policy as diverse understates matters. The very breadth of the Middle East policy speech — 5,600 words and covering the entire Middle… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — Joan Nathan says she’s always had a particular fascination with French Jews and their food. For Nathan, author of “Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France (Knopf, 2010), the love affair with French cuisine started as a teenager when she made… Read more »
Ever wonder what’s in the Talmud and why it was written? Who wrote it and where? Why we study it and what we can learn from it? The Tucson Board of Rabbis will host “Talmud in Twenty” on Sunday, June 5 at Congregation Anshei Israel. The program will begin… Read more »
Congregation Anshei Israel’s Esther B. Feldman Preschool/Kindergarten will open its summer camp June 6 to children ages 2 to 6. This year, an additional 4-week morning camp for children with special needs ages 3 to 5 will be offered. Staffed by Debby Eisen, a certified special education teacher with… Read more »
Barry Baker, one of 43 Jewish Federations of North America Young Leadership Cabinet members from around the United States, represented Tucson on a JFNA mission to Chile — its first ever — and Argentina earlier this month. After spending two days in Chile and three in Argentina, Baker told… Read more »
Arab demonstrators marking the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba hold Palestinian flags as they approach the village of Majdal Shams in the Golan heights, between Syria and Israel, May 15, 2011. (Hamal Almak/Flash 90/JTA) TEL AVIV (JTA) — If a single phrase could capture the sentiment that motivated thousands of Arabs to try to cross Israel’s borders on Sunday to “retake Palestine” from the Jews, it would be this: Yes, we can. That can-do attitude had toppled regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, and… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Crush terrorists and then make peace. Through quirks of timing, it’s a narrative that President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally can agree on when they meet this week in Washington. There remains a critical difference, however, between the two over what happens in the… Read more »
Amy Hirshberg Lederman I recently returned from a fantastic trip to Israel — an interfaith business and leadership delegation sponsored by the America-Israel Friendship League. Our group consisted of 29 dynamic Tucsonans — a vibrant mix of faiths, ethnicities and professional backgrounds. Together we explored the religious, archeological, business and cultural sites… Read more »
Lillian Mizrahi, left, one of many Peace Corps volunteers over age 50, poses with her Macedonian host "mother" -- who is younger than Mizrahi. (Peace Corps) Lillian Mizrahi is not your typical Peace Corps volunteer. A Jewish woman from the Bronx who is now 69 years old, Mizrahi first considered joining 40 years ago, when she moved to Los Angeles from New York, but her life got busy with children and a career. “Two years… Read more »
ANGIE GOORMAN has been selected by the Jewish Federations of North America National Young Leadership Cabinet as a new member beginning with the 2011/2012 year. The cabinet is a group of men and women, ages 30-45, who are committed to shaping a bright future for the Jewish people in… Read more »
SHARON GLASSBERG, director of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Coalition for Jewish Education, and BRENDA LANDAU, director of the JFSA Jewish Community Relations Council, facilitated a Jewish American Heritage Month presentation, “An American Journey,” for the Tucson branch of U.S. Customs and Border Protection on May 18. The… Read more »
RACHEL MARIELLE LEVY, daughter of Douglas and Nanci Levy, will celebrate becoming a Bat Mitzvah on Saturday, May 28 at Temple Emanu-El. She is the granddaughter of Ginette and Ronnie Ogur of Syosset, N.Y., and Judith and the late Alan Leonard Levy of Greenwich Village, N.Y. Rachel attends Tucson… Read more »
Alene Schwartz has lost more than 125 pounds in three years. (Bryan Schwartz) Alene Schwartz weighed 265 pounds in 2008 when she embarked on an exercise and diet — or as she says, “live it” — program. “I just decided that as I got older, I wanted to have the strength to pick up a grandchild, bend down to get something, and… Read more »
Dawn Hunter (left) and Tandy Kippur in Buenos Aires on Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona 2011 Lion of Judah mission Visiting a home for senior citizens may seem an unlikely highlight for a trip to Argentina, a land known for tango, sun and sea. But ask the 11 women who went on the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Lion of Judah mission to Buenos Aires April 3 to 8… Read more »
Until his arrest in New York on charges of sexual assault, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was seen as a leading contender for the French presidency. WTO via CC) PARIS (JTA) — Shock waves continue to ripple throughout France as Dominique Strauss-Kahn, considered the likely Socialist Party candidate to challenge President Nicolas Sarkozy in French presidential elections next year, remains in a New York City jail on charges of sexual assault. Saturday’s arrest of Strauss-Kahn appears to significantly… Read more »
Lester Munday, 90, died April 27, 2011. Born in New York, Mr. Munday served in the Pacific theater during World War II. He returned to sing professionally for New York’s Metropolitan Opera. After moving to upstate New York, he had a daily radio show. In 1961, he moved to… Read more »
Gene Koppel, Ph.D., 79, died April 10, 2011. Mr. Koppel was a long time professor of English literature and humanities at the University of Arizona. He authored the book “The Religious Dimensions of Jane Austen’s Novels” and published a series of interviews with notable Jewish figures including Isaac Bashevis… Read more »
Cantor Charles Julian, 90, died April 1, 2011. Mr. Julian was born on the British ship, RMS Carmania, arriving in the United States with his parents who were emigrating from Liverpool, England.He grew up in the Bronx, N.Y., and was a talented singer and dancer. He performed in the… Read more »
Hadassah Rosensaft is flanked by her future husband, Josef, left, and Earl Harrison, President Truman's special envoy, at the Bergen-Belsen camp, July 1945. (Menachem Rosensaft) NEW YORK (JTA) — Sunday, May 13, 1945, five days after the end of World War II in Europe, was Mother’s Day in the United States. At Bergen-Belsen in Germany, however, there was nothing for my mother to celebrate on that day as she took part in the ongoing… Read more »
