WASHINGTON (JTA) — Just as college students were finishing their winter exams, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg selected a partnership of The Technion Israel Institute of Technology and Cornell University to build a campus on Roosevelt Island that will become a global center for technological talent and entrepreneurship. Few… Read more »
Yearly Archives 2012
After string of foiled plots, concerns mount over Iranian-backed terror
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When America’s top intelligence official said that Iran’s regime is considering attacks on U.S. soil, he cited a single incident and qualified the assessment with a “probably.” But intelligence and law enforcement experts say the Jan. 31 warning by the director of national intelligence, James Clapper,… Read more »
Komen reverses course on Planned Parenthood, but supporters still upset
NEW YORK (JTA) — It took just hours for the protests against Susan G. Komen for the Cure to begin, and they quickly took on the fury and form of a full-blown movement. Online petitions were started. Calls poured forth to withhold donations from Komen for its de-funding of… Read more »
Orthodox Union has found solution to Orthodoxy’s problems: Houston
NEW YORK (JTA) – With day school tuition fees on the rise, New York housing costs among the highest in the nation and the job market still tough, the Orthodox Union has a solution for Orthodox Jews under pressure: Move to Houston. In a first-of-its-kind partnership for the organization, the… Read more »
Op-Ed: Israel must criminalize the purchase of sexual services
RAMAT GAN, Israel (JTA) — In Israel, an estimated 15,000 individuals are involved in prostitution, including 5,000 under the age of 18, according to reports shared with the Task Force on Human Trafficking by Knesset member Orit Zuaretz of the Kadima Party, as well as other experts and activists.… Read more »
NCJW applauds Komen Foundation for reversing decision on Planned Parenthood funding
February 3, 2012, Washington, DC — The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) today commended the Susan G. Komen for the Cure® foundation for reversing its decision to defund cancer screenings performed by Planned Parenthood. NCJW CEO Nancy K. Kaufman released the following statement: “NCJW was deeply disappointed when… Read more »
For some schoolkids in southern Italy, meeting their first Jew on Holocaust Day
AMENDOLARA, Italy (JTA) — It was International Holocaust Memorial Day, and when I told my audience that I was a Jew, they burst into applause. I was speaking at the City Hall in this ancient seacoast town in Calabria, deep in southern Italy on the instep of the Italian… Read more »
On Israel, think tanks adopts a more cautious approach, even as anger at critics lingers
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In one corner was the Center for American Progress, or CAP, arguably Washington’s leading liberal think tank. In the other was Josh Block, a pugnacious former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, who aggressively pushed the notion to reporters that CAP has an Israel… Read more »
On Iranian nuclear issue, mixed signals proliferate
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel, the United States and Iran have all gone deep into mixed-signals territory. Conversations with Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, left one prominent journalist convinced that Israel will strike Iran by year’s end. Yet two weeks ago, Barak had said that any possible Israeli… Read more »
In honor of Ledbetter anniversary, NCJW calls for passage of Paycheck Fairness Act
January 31, 2012, Washington, D.C. — Upon the third anniversary of the signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act by President Obama, the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) yesterday called upon Congress to complete the task of ensuring workplace equality by passing the Paycheck Fairness Act. NCJW… Read more »
Controversy grows in Israel over extension of Tal Law granting haredim army exemptions
JERUSALEM (JTA) — When Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, granted a few hundred haredi Orthodox Jews an exemption from army service, it’s likely he never dreamed that 63 years later, tens of thousands of haredi Israelis would claim the exemption — or that the issue would be among… Read more »
In Jewish fracking debate, it’s the environment vs. energy independence — and energy’s winning
NEW YORK (JTA) – To frack or not to frack? As concerns mount over the environmental and public health consequences of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, Jewish groups are coalescing around a strategy that supports efforts to extract natural gas from shale rock while seeking to mitigate its worst… Read more »
Business briefs 1.27.12
SHEILA WILENSKY has been named associate editor of the ARIZONA JEWISH POST. Wilensky, a former teacher and bookstore owner, has been assistant editor of the AJP for the past eight years. 1ST RATE 2ND HAND THRIFT STORE has given $100,000 back to the Jewish community since its inception in… Read more »
P.S.: Clowning around, Bat Mitzvah on a boat, Birthright 2012, Planting for the future
Clowning around Susan Claassen, managing artistic director of the Invisible Theatre, has been a clown in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for the past 11 years. She’s honored to have a photo of her and the other 2010 “Confetti Clowns” encircling the parade’s executive producer, Amy Kule, as part… Read more »
Custom trellis can add focal point, new dimension to Southwest gardens
If you think of your garden as a canvas, then a custom designed trellis is like a living sculpture. Aesthetically combining ornamental metal work and climbing plants, a custom trellis can be an expression of both your green thumb and your artistic taste. It can be a simple flat… Read more »
Reflection
In retrospect, I’m glad we made Aliyah at the end of a calendar year. At the time, moving during the first of New Jersey’s many blizzards and dealing with holiday travel didn’t seem like such a good idea. But now, as I reflect on the year that we’ve been… Read more »
Seeking Kin: Tracing a group of refugees, from Europe to Cyprus to Palestine to East Africa
The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives. BALTIMORE (JTA) — A virtually unknown episode in prestate Israel grabbed Peter Keeda last year and won’t let go: the British government’s June 1941 shipment of 384 European Jews from Cyprus to Palestine. They and 39 others… Read more »
Tucsonans fare well at Pan American Maccabi Games in Brazil
Sao Paolo, Brazil, is “a weird place,” with the most skyscrapers in the world but also teeming slums, says Tucsonan Josh Landau, who was there for the 12th annual Pan American Maccabi Games, held Dec. 26-Jan. 2. “We were staying in a really nice four-star hotel and you look… Read more »
Arizona Centennial: Cemeteries reveal history of years gone by
It’s not morbid, it’s history. For a state that’s nearly 100 years old, Arizona has no shortage of fascinating stories, many of which can be found in our historic Jewish cemeteries. Evergreen Cemetery in Tucson contains the grave sites of the men and women that figure prominently in the… Read more »
Arizona Centennial: Women vital to arts, education, religious life
Tucson trailblazer Clara Ferrin, the daughter of German immigrants Joseph and Therese Ferrin, was born in Tucson on July 26, 1881, at her parents’ home. She, along with her sister and brother, attended the Congress Street School, which later became the location of the David Bloom & Sons Clothing… Read more »