Yearly Archives 2012

When news outlets began reporting last Friday that the owner of the Atlanta Jewish Times had published an opinion column seemingly suggesting that Israel might be wise to assassinate President Obama, the response from prominent American Jews was fast and furious. Here was a Jewish newspaper publisher providing fodder… Read more »

Robert Wistrich

The Muslim Brotherhood did not initiate the current upheavals in the Middle East, but the Islamist parties in Egypt, as in Tunisia and Libya, have been the chief beneficiaries of the collapse of longstanding authoritarian repressive regimes across North Africa. In Egypt itself, the two largest Islamist groups —… Read more »

Rabbi Sid Schwarz

About a year and half ago, I participated in a fact-finding mission to Israel sponsored by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Israeli Arabs (IATF). Established in 2006 as a consortium of some of the major organizations in American Jewish life — including the Joint Distribution Committee, the Conference of… Read more »

A free screening of the documentary “This Song Is Old,” about the B’nei Menashe Jews of India, will take place Thursday, Feb. 2, at 7 p.m. at the Sun City Social Hall, 1495 E. Rancho Vistoso Blvd. in Oro Valley. The B’nei Menashe, who live in the northeastern Indian… Read more »

Susan Kovitz (left) and Susan Claassen rehearse ‘Look Ma, We’re Dancing,’ premiering at The Invisible Theatre. (Tim Fuller)

The Invisible Theatre will stage the world premiere of Janet Neipris’ “Look Ma, We’re Dancing,” a lighthearted comedy about two grown sisters who are still competing for the approval and attention of their long dead mother. The show will run Feb. 8-26, with a preview performance Feb. 7. “Janet… Read more »

Charles Moses Strauss, the first Jewish mayor of Tucson, Arizona Territory (elected 1883), with his son, Charles junior. Eileen Warshaw, executive director of the Jewish History Museum, explains that Strauss was actually a very dapper gentleman. The Western “duds” he and his son are wearing in this photo were photographer’s props. (Courtesy Jewish History Museum)

Tucson has a rich Jewish history, which the Jewish community will celebrate during the city’s Arizona Centennial Weekend from Feb. 10 to 12. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime event,” says Eileen Warshaw, executive director of the Jewish History Museum and one of the co-chairs of the Downtown Centennial Celebration Committee.… Read more »

Vered Otmy

Four Israeli artists will spend almost two weeks in Tucson this month, giving workshops and talking about their experiences as artists living in Israel. “This amazing ‘partnership 2gether’ project, sponsored by the Jewish Agency for Israel, Jewish Federations of North America and our local TIPS (Tucson, Israel, Phoenix, Seattle)… Read more »

On a JFSA mission in 2006, Deborah Kay visits a Kiryat Malachi program for Ethiopian mothers and children

Thousands of protesters demonstrated in Jerusalem Jan. 18 against racism and discrimination toward Ethiopians in Israel. Some 5,000 protesters marched in front of the Knesset before proceeding to Zion Square for a rally. They carried signs reading “Blacks and Whites — We’re all Equal,” “Social Justice” and “Stop racism.”… Read more »

(L-R): Nina Isaac, Randi Levin, Cheryl Wortzel, Shaun Kozolchyk and David Plotkin at JFSA’s Hava Tequila Young Leadership Bash last year.

The 2nd Annual Hava Tequila Bash, sponsored by the Jewish Federation’s Young Leadership Cabinet and the Tucson Jewish Community Center, will take place Feb. 4, from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the JCC. Co-chaired by Andrew and Nina Isaac and Phil and Dani Bregman, Hava Tequila offers a… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Joseph Cedar is on a pretty good run: The Israeli director has made four movies in his 11-year career, and the first three have represented his country at the Academy Awards for best foreign-language film. One made the cut of five finalists, but a Cedar… Read more »

(JTA) — The Israeli film “Footnote” and veteran Jewish filmmakers Woody Allen and Steven Spielberg are up for Academy Awards. Oscar nominations were released Tuesday by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Israel’s hope for its first Oscar was kept alive with Joseph Cedar’s “Footnote,” listed among… Read more »

(Jewish Ideas Daily) — Some days, I think back 25 years to my high-school French course, where I first encountered the concept of the juste milieu — the happy medium — and the difficulty of achieving it. Why is it so elusive? Why do I often feel caught betwixt… Read more »

(Jewish Ideas Daily) — Suddenly, it seems, gender segregation is everywhere in Israel — buses, army bases, Jerusalem sidewalks, Beit Shemesh schoolyards and, above all, the front pages. What is going on here? Let’s start with the buses. In the late 1990s, at the request of some Haredim, the… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — It was said to be a finding of groundbreaking scholarly and historic significance, comparable in importance to the 19th-century discovery of the Cairo Geniza and rivaling the Dead Sea Scrolls for sheer drama. That, at any rate, was the buzz in scholarly circles when reports… Read more »

BALTIMORE (Baltimore Jewish Times) — On his Facebook page, Airman 1st Class Matthew Ryan Seidler posted the lyrics to one of his favorite tunes, “Opportunity” by Australian singer-songwriter Pete Murray. “Your coffee’s warm but your milk is sour/Life is short but you’re here to flower,” the lyrics state. “Dream… Read more »

(New Jersey Jewish News) — It’s a familiar story: Kids grow up in a suburban synagogue, move to the big city and leave the synagogue behind. What’s a congregation to do? How about bring the synagogue to the big city? That’s the thinking behind the monthly Friday night services… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — It is virtually impossible to imagine anything more reprehensible than the recent spectacle of haredi Orthodox Jewish boys wearing yellow stars of David and simulated striped black-and-white concentration camp uniforms at a demonstration in Jerusalem. Offended by the Israeli authorities’ efforts to curtail the verbal… Read more »

BEIT SHEMESH (JTA) — It’s raining as I write — a rare, cold, hard rain that is welcomed by Jerusalemites who know that it’s good for them and the country. Water, like patience, is a treasured commodity here in Israel: temporarily inconvenient, but better for you in the long… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — So it’s nearly Purim and the excitement in my house is rising every day. I’m not a great one to fuss with costumes, but my mind is bubbling over with ideas for mishloach manot, the Purim gift baskets. It’s more than mere “tradition” to give… Read more »

PARK CITY, Utah (JTA) – Kosher food isn’t something one generally associates with ski resorts, and Utah isn’t a place known for its Jewish population. But after Canyons, the state’s largest ski resort, opened the nation’s first ski-area, glatt kosher restaurant this season, the Jews came. And ate. And… Read more »