Participants celebrating during services at the World Union for Progressive Judaism Conference of Jewish Communities in Buenos Aires, Argentina, August, 2012. (Diego Melamed) BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — When the Sao Paulo Hebraica Sports Club and Community Center in Brazil opened the Aleph School earlier this month, it welcomed 450 students and had 120 more on the waiting list for next year. Hebraica, which is similar to an American Jewish community center,… Read more »
CHICAGO (JUF News) — Ready for a clean slate? We Jews are lucky to get a chance to start over every fall as the shofar sounds a wake-up call in each of our lives. With the changing leaves, the crispness in the air and new Justin Bieber Trapper Keepers… Read more »
In these heated months before the presidential election, we step back to pray during the High Holidays and hope for the best for our country, Israel and the world. Throughout the year, many Jewish Tucsonans are engaged in social activism and involved in politics on a local or national… Read more »
Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon The great beauty of the Jewish High Holy Day season is the wonderful opportunity it provides for each of us to start over. Whatever it is that we have done in the past year, whoever we have offended, however we have failed, we now have the chance to begin… Read more »
Last Yom Kippur, a fasting Brenda Rienhardt sat in the hallway outside her classroom studying for a test while watching online Yom Kippur services on her laptop. “I wanted to keep up with what was going on religiously and not fail my test,” said Rienhardt, 26, a Fort Lauderdale,… Read more »
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are our holiest days of prayer and personal reflection — and a time to remember people in need. Each year, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona works with synagogues and local Jewish agencies on Project Isaiah, a food… Read more »
A Holocaust education teacher in-service, “Digital Literacies and Holocaust Education: Teaching the Holocaust with Video Testimonial,” will be held Thursday, Sept. 20 at the University of Arizona College of Education,1430 E. 2nd St., in the Kiva Auditorium. The program, which will feature Sheila Hansen, the lead trainer of the… Read more »
The 2012-2013 Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra season will feature five local composers, including two world premieres by Tucson artists, “Running the Rim” by Jay Vosk, which opens the series in October, and “Landscapes” by Peter Fine, which will conclude the series in May. The Vosk premiere will be… Read more »
American Physicians and Friends for Medicine in Israel will hold an Emergency and Disaster Preparedness Course, Nov. 3-8, in Israel. In conjunction with the Ministry of Health and the medical corps of the Israel Defense Forces, the course offers emergency and peacetime preparedness techniques. Local physician Ken Brandis,… Read more »
Rabbi Miriam S. Jerris Rabbi Miriam S. Jerris of the Society for Humanistic Judaism will lead the Secular Humanist Jewish Circle’s third annual High Holiday “Celebration of Community and Connection” on Saturday, Sept. 22 at 9:30 a.m. The service will include moral and ethical teachings related to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, as… Read more »
I know how you’re feeling. Your despair is palpable. Your resignation is visceral; your frustration is visible. You open The New York Times, Ha’aretz or The Jerusalem Post and you think you don’t know the place anymore. You can’t swallow, you fume. You give up. You’ve always supported… Read more »
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz The start of the Jewish New Year, the month of Tishrei, is filled with holy days, among them four foundational celebrations: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah-Shemini Atzeret. They are quite different from one another. Yet we may also think of all four holidays as two pairs… Read more »
Rachel Meyer demonstrates an axe kick The thrills of the summer Olympics are behind us, but Tucsonan Rachel Meyer, a 16-year-old Taekwondo champion, has a new international competition to look forward to: the 19th World Maccabiah Games in Israel next July. Meyer will turn 17 at the games in Jerusalem and will compete in the… Read more »
Martin Schultz, president of the European Parliament, speaking at the Great Synagogue of Europe in Brussels, March 2012. (Courtesy European Parliament) BRUSSELS (JTA) — Under the gaze of a dozen police officers, a single file of Belgians forms outside the Great Synagogue of Europe. Waiting to enter the shul on its annual “open day” — when the synagogue throws open its doors to the public — many on this Sunday… Read more »
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (JTA) — Republicans and Democrats may not have much common ground this election year, yet their national conventions shared one feature: Both gatherings were blessed from the podium by prominent American rabbis. The Democrats had Rabbi David Wolpe, a best-selling author and leader of a prominent (capital-c)… Read more »
President Obama speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Sept. 6, 2012. (Donna Bise via flickr.com/photos/demconvention) CHARLOTTE, N.C. (JTA) — It was the nuts-and-bolts convention that nearly broke down over the most ethereal of issues: Jerusalem and God. But by its third and final night, the Democratic National Convention had gotten back on message: jobs, jobs, staying on course with getting the economy back on… Read more »
I applaud your comments associated with my letter to the editor on Aug. 24. It renews my faith in the objectivity of the AJP. Thanks for publishing both my and your comments. —Ken Miller… Read more »
Ken Miller ends his Aug. 24 letter by criticizing the Arizona Jewish Post for publishing a partisan viewpoint. Let’s leave aside Miller’s own partisan statement that a cartoon satirizing Romney’s Israel trip is “just another liberal attack on Romney.” Much more disturbingly, how can the AJP let stand Miller’s… Read more »
You remember the classical description of Jewish people and opinions? When two Jews are in discussion, there are three opinions. The AJP has no need to apologize for publishing a variety of viewpoints; it’s one of the paper’s, in fact, any paper’s, strengths. Additionally, it behooves those who write… Read more »
When Rabbi Shafir Lobb was first visiting Congregation Ner Tamid eight years ago, I was assigned the job of helping to make the landing in Tucson as soft as possible. Now eight years later, I would like to acknowledge the contribution that Rabbi Shafir made beyond the Jewish community… Read more »
