David Nesenoff, who filmed the video exposing the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views of longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas, will speak Sunday, Jan. 6 at 7 p.m. at Congregation Young Israel. The lecture, “To Catch an Anti-Semite,” will kick off Chabad of Tucson’s 2013 lecture series. Nesenoff, ordained as… Read more »
Yearly Archives 2012
Retired attorney to parse U.S. Constitution
Ruth Davis will go anywhere to talk about the U.S. Constitution. Anywhere that people will listen, says the retired attorney, former public school teacher and counselor. Her next stop to discuss “The U.S. Project: In Our Words” will be Temple Emanu-El on Wednesday, Jan. 9 at 7 p.m., the… Read more »
“The Chosen” at Live Theatre Workshop
Anshei Israel marks 83rd year by writing new Torah scroll
Each Hebrew letter has meaning, Zerach Greenfield, a sofer stam (scribe), said at the kick-off for Congregation Anshei Israel’s new Torah scroll on Dec. 16. That meaning is reflected in the way each letter is written in the Torah. For example, the letter aleph stands for eretz (earth) and… Read more »
Anshei Israel scholar-in-residence to discuss peace and violence
Congregation Anshei Israel will host Prof. Robert Eisen as its scholar-in-residence for the weekend of Jan. 11-12. Eisen’s work as a professor of religion and Jewish studies at George Washington University focuses on the interpretation of peace and violence in the three Abrahamic faiths. Why is it, asks Eisen,… Read more »
Zehngut award nominations now open
The Women’s Philanthropy Advisory Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is accepting applications for the Seventh Annual Bryna Zehngut Mitzvot Award, recognizing an outstanding Jewish teenage girl. The award, which honors the late Zehngut, will recognize a girl who is currently a high school junior or senior… Read more »
Allen Baron
Allen Lee Baron, 79, died Dec. 14, 2012. Born Abraham Podolny in the Bronx, N.Y., Mr. Baron attended DeWitt Clinton High School. He graduated from University High School in Los Angeles. He enrolled at UCLA in 1952, joining the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity, but his studies were interrupted by… Read more »
Moshe Dayan and the Settlements: A look back
Recently, while browsing through news clips I have collected over the past 30-plus years, I came across a story I wrote when I was a very young reporter for The Jerusalem Post. “Dayan: Israel needs civilians in W. Bank,” the headline said. The story ran at the top left of… Read more »
Where did the Gaon go?
(Jewish Ideas Daily) — Although the Jewish encounter with modernity emerged out of a complex interplay of social, economic, and intellectual currents, Moses Mendelssohn (1729-86) is acknowledged as its godfather. The small-town Jewish boy who became a leading Enlightenment philosopher in Berlin not only embodied the synthesis of observant… Read more »
How to choose when giving tzedakah
AVENTURA, Fla. (JTA) — Anyone committed to financial support of Jewish causes likely has grappled with the questions of where to give, what to give, how to give and, of course, why to give. As the end of the year approaches and organizations seek those last of our 2012… Read more »
Iran fears may be compelling Saudi Arabia to begin to tell the truth about Israel
If there were a prize for the Arab country that has done most to promote Arab-Israeli peace recently, I’d seriously consider nominating Saudi Arabia. Admittedly, that’s a counterintuitive choice: Riyadh doesn’t even recognize Israel and shows no signs of doing so anytime soon; moreover, it finances the spread of… Read more »
On Israel, Obama brings Moynihan to mind
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Those who view American-Israeli relations through a dualistic “are you pro-Israel or anti-Israel” lens must be confused. In one week, the United States stands virtually alone with Israel against the Palestinians’ upgrade of their status at the United Nations, then immediately condemns Israel’s settlement expansion. Similarly,… Read more »
Jewish priorities to watch for in Washington in 2013
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Will we fall of the fiscal cliff? Plunge into war with Iran? Dive into contentious confirmation battles? One thing’s for certain: There will be plenty of action in Washington that the Jewish community will be watching closely over 2013. Here are some likely focal points: Fiscal… Read more »
In Israeli political campaign, Facebook and YouTube play growing role
HAIFA (JTA) — The debate was not televised. The participants did not sit on a stage in front of an auditorium under bright lights. Nor were Israel’s major candidates present. Instead, five representatives of Israeli political parties sat at a folding table in a classroom of perhaps 100 students… Read more »
Jews and pro-Israel community warm to prospect of a Secretary of State John Kerry
WASHINGTON (JTA) — On a wintry day at a small Iowa shul in November of 2003, John Kerry got all verklempt. The man whose opponents had taken to depicting as aloof and patrician, whose campaign for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination had been all but written off by that… Read more »
Calling caterers and rescuing carrots, Leket Israel hopes to feed Israel’s poor
RAANANA, Israel (JTA) — From the outside, it looks like any other warehouse: imposing, gray and rectangular, with trucks idling outside and hundreds of crates stacked in the driveway. Inside, the largely empty main room, however, is a vegetable sorting machine and several large boxes of produce: carrots, pomelos… Read more »
At White House, Chanukah’s light comes from Sandy-ravaged shul’s menorah
WASHINGTON (JTA) — It has become something of a White House Chanukah tradition. For the second time, the Obama White House used a menorah from a hurricane-hit region to mark the holiday. This Chanukah, Rabbi David Bauman brought to the White House one of two 90-year-old menorahs that survived… Read more »
International birdwatchers flock to Israel for bird festival
Some of the lesser known ‘tourists’ that visit Israel by the millions each year, are the 300 species of birds, which use Israel as a rest-stop as they migrate en route from Africa, Asia and Europe. For international bird watchers attending the Second International Hula Valley Bird Festival in… Read more »
As new chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis faces a fractious British Jewry
LONDON (JTA) — Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has big shoes to fill. Appointed this week as the 11th British chief rabbi, he will succeed Jonathan Sacks, an internationally renowned author and public intellectual who speaks frequently on moral, philosophical and theological affairs. The widespread assumption among British Jews has long… Read more »
Healing service gives Anna Greenberg and family support in cancer fight
“Anna-tude” – it’s a new word in the Tucson lexicon to describe the shining spirit of Anna Greenberg, 27, who has been fighting cancer with enormous courage and a wry sense of humor for more than a year. Anna was diagnosed with cancer in October 2011 after her dramatic… Read more »