Yearly Archives 2012

President Obama, shown hosting a Passover Seder at the White House on April 6, 2012, has gained Jewish support in the last half year, according to a new poll. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Obama enjoys the support of three-fifths of American Jews, according to the latest American Jewish Committee survey, a significant improvement over where he stood half a year ago in the organization’s polling. The poll, released Monday, shows Obama with 61 percent of the Jewish vote,… Read more »

BRUSSELS (JTA) — Jihadist websites eat up a fair share of Bart Olmer’s workday. He even has passwords to some closed hate forums. “Reading hate speech is part of the job,” says Olmer, who reports on intelligence services for Holland’s largest circulation daily, De Telegraaf. It’s an explanation he… Read more »

Last night, the siren sounded at 8 pm for Yom HaZikaron. I didn’t expect the tears. As the siren sounded, my children got up from the couch where they had been watching a cartoon and all stood at attention. Even as he stood, though, my five year old started… Read more »

It’s been a busy month in Israel. And a busy month or two for me, as I completed a huge work-related milestone in March — organizing and executing a 5-city U.S. Investor Road Show for 13 Israeli hi-tech start-ups. For me, the last few months of winter were intense… Read more »

The weather is perfect today. Blissfully perfect. And by some magical alignment, my family is perfect today, too. Tfoo. Tfoo. Tfoo. We spent the morning together cleaning our yard, which had gotten frightfully ghetto this winter. Miraculously, everyone pitched a hand. Even my 9 year old, whom we hardly… Read more »

When you first travel to Israel, one of the first things you are bound to notice at any youth hostel or hotel is the Israeli breakfast. It can be a bit of a culture shock if you’re used to Lucky Charms or Dunkin Donuts in the morning. On the… Read more »

Once a year, my husband and I used to head to Woodbury Common, a nice outlet mall off the NY Thruway. I remember laughing in bewilderment at the Asian or European tourists who would be bussed in by the dozens to the outlet center and would schlep out with bags and… Read more »

When I really want to feel life, I put on Billy Joel’s “Songs in the Attic” and drive to work. It doesn’t have to be Billy Joel. Jackson Browne also works. Depending on the season, so does Randy Newman or the Beach Boys or Elvis Costello’s and Burt Bacharach’s… Read more »

Arab and Israeli students holding hands at the Max Rayne Hand in Hand School for Bilingual Education in Jerusalem. (Kobi Gideon/Flash90/JTA)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The two seventh-grade girls walk together down the hall, their heads touching as they talk excitedly. Dana’s dark auburn hair is pulled back in a ponytail. Waard’s head is covered by a hijab, the traditional Arab headscarf, held with a fashionable pin. Dana is Jewish and… Read more »

President Obama embraces Elie Wiesel before delivering a speech about the Holocaust and its meaning at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, April 23, 2012. (Courtesy USHMM)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — One by one, the emails from the White House arrived in inboxes across Washington on Monday morning, each highlighting a unique initiative toward a different corner of the globe: Syria. Iran. Uganda. The unifying factor was the president’s appearance that day at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial… Read more »

(L-R) Birthday celebrant Ellis Friedman, Steven Stiglitz, Marnie Friedman and Irene Friedman

70th in shul The day before his 70th birthday on Feb. 12, Ellis Friedman led the Shacharit and Musaf services and chanted the Maftir (Torah reading before the Haftorah) at Congregation Anshei Israel’s Shabbat morning service. His wife, Irene, gave the D’var Torah. Members of their havurah — Vivien… Read more »

The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives. BALTIMORE (JTA) — On Jan. 3, 1948, Mordechai Levy, a resident of the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City, disappeared. The 17-year-old’s parents, David and Yaffa, alerted British mandatory authorities and checked local hospitals, the chevra kadisha… Read more »

DEANNA EVENCHIK was named to the Jewish Federation of North America’s National Women’s Philanthropy Board. Evenchik recently served as the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’­s Women’s Philanthropy chair and the Woman’s Philanthropy Campaign chair. She is currently on the JFSA executive committee and serves as the 2012 Federation Community… Read more »

TUCSON MEDICAL CENTER FOR CHILDREN and UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA MEDICAL CENTER — DIAMOND CHILDREN’S MEDICAL CENTER were among the first nine hospitals in the state to be certified by the Arizona Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics in the voluntary Pediatric Prepared Emergency Care program, created through a… Read more »

LIAM JOHN O’ROURKE, son of Lee and Paul O’Rourke, will celebrate becoming a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday, April 28 at Congregation Or Chadash. He is the grandson of Rhoda and the late Jack Demovic, Lollie and the late James Butler, all of Tucson, and Sandy and the late Bob… Read more »

Supporters of Nicolas Sarkozy awaiting his arrival at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, April 15, 2012. (Philippe Agnifili via CC)

PARIS (JTA) — Jewish voters couldn’t put incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy over the top in the first round of presidential elections in France. The Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande eked out a 1.4 percent victory on Sunday over Sarkozy, the center-right president, although Jewish community leaders said Sarkozy was the… Read more »

Harold Bongarten

Harold Bongarten, 89, of Tucson, died April 2, 2012. Born in Warsaw, Poland, Mr. Bongarten received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Northeastern University, a masters of management from the University of Pittsburgh, and completed the advanced management program at Harvard Business School. During World War… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Lithuania’s 800-year-old connection to its Jewish population broke down in 1941, when the Nazis invaded the country and murdered nearly all of its 200,000 Jews – often with the complicity of local Lithuanians. This month, 70 years on, Lithuania finally passed historic compensation legislation to… Read more »

Purim and Passover, which both encourage drinking, may be behind us, but every Kiddush, every simcha is another opportunity to raise a glass and say l’chaim. And to seriously overdo things. In reality, abuse doesn’t need an excuse. And the problem doesn’t stop at alcohol. For a long time,… Read more »

Abraham Verghese, M.D.

In this age of high-tech medicine compassion can often be neglected, but the annual Cindy Wool Memorial Seminar helps provide a remedy for healthcare professionals in Tucson. The third seminar and dinner on humanism in medicine, held March 28 at the Marriott University Park Hotel, sought to support physicians… Read more »