Yearly Archives 2014

(JTA) — When Carolyn Starman Hessel joined the New York-based Jewish Book Council in 1994 — at the request of friend Marsha Posner — she knew nothing about the publishing world. Since then, she’s been called the “Jewish Oprah” for her ability to help authors find audiences, and has… Read more »

Ari Engel on the European Poker Tour in Prague in 2013. (Thomas Stacha)

NEW YORK (JTA) – Ari Engel is homeless. It’s been a decade since he last held a regular job and two years since he gave up his apartment. But don’t shed any tears for him. Over the last 10 years or so, Engel has grossed about $5 million playing… Read more »

Boris Smolkin, left, and his co-stars on the Moscow set of the hit television series "My Fair Nanny" in 2006. (STS Television)

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (JTA) — In the basement of one of Europe’s largest synagogues, 100 Jews are waiting to meet local film star Boris Smolkin. The crowd applauds enthusiastically as the 66-year-old funnyman, who gave his voice to Master Yoda in the Russian-language version of the “Star Wars” trilogy,… Read more »

Two officers in an elite intelligence unit, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of their activities, are among several groups of Israelis who have announced their refusal to participate in certain Israeli military activities. (Ben Sales)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — The Israel Defense Forces oppresses people, the letter said. The army creates inequality, perpetuates injustice and corrupts social values. The letter didn’t come from a foreign protest group, but from teachers and graduates of one of Jerusalem’s elite high schools, the Israeli Arts and Sciences… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Stephen Hawking is much in the news these days. His personal story, the subject of the recently released film “The Theory of Everything,” is already spoken of as an Oscar contender. Diagnosed in 1963 with the dreaded Lou Gehrig’s disease and given two years to… Read more »

Rachaeli Ibenboim is urging women to boycott Israeli haredi parties in March's Knesset elections unless they include female candidates. (Hadas Parush/Flash 90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Racheli Ibenboim acts as if she’s in a rush, repeatedly checking her phone before hurrying off to her next appointment exactly 30 minutes after the current one begins. The way Ibenboim tells it, she’s not just trying to keep up with a tight schedule but… Read more »

Sarabel Eisenfeld, the founder of Gan shalom, and her Portland Jewish preschoolers grating potatoes outside for Chanukah latkes. (Anthony Weiss)

PORTLAND, Ore. (JTA) — Even on a cold, gray and rainy morning, the children from the Gan Shalom Collaborative School are outside, seated under a wood-framed shelter topped by corrugated plastic. With their teacher, Sarabel Eisenfeld, they grate potatoes for latkes, then cup their hands beside their heads to… Read more »

Children playing a baseball game in the streets of Havana. "For the baseball purists, those who love to go to Cuba, it's a unique culture," Kit Krieger says. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

(JTA) – To the dismay of baseball fan Kit Krieger, future travels to Cuba will no longer include get-togethers with ex-Washington Senators pitcher Connie Marrero. Marrero, who played for Washington from 1950 to 1954, died in Havana last April at age 102, a few months after Krieger’s last visit… Read more »

For years, whenever my non-Israeli friends would ask me to explain to them the meaning of the phrase “Israel being a Jewish and democratic state,” I would answer that I needed a week-long seminar to explain that. Indeed, how can a country be a full democracy when it is… Read more »

Dylan Siegel (left) and Jonah Pournazarian (Courtesy of David Siegel)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — A fundraising campaign started quietly by two first graders two years ago to help find a cure for a rare genetic disease just passed the $1 million mark, with donations streaming in from all 50 states and 60 countries across the globe. The million-dollar achievement… Read more »

Mark Halawa on the first night of Chanukah in Tel Aviv's Great Synagogue. (Anav Silverman/Tazpit News Agency)

When Mark Halawa lights his family’s menorah during Chanukah, it is not without recalling his unique journey as a Kuwaiti Muslim to Orthodox Judaism. The 38-year-old businessman, who lives today in Jerusalem with his wife and family, keeping Shabbat and kosher dietary laws, began his journey 12 years ago in… Read more »

Tucsonans can activate the Jewish concept of halbashat arumin, clothing the needy, this cold season by participating in a clothing drive to benefit Primavera Men’s Shelter. This social action effort running through Jan. 4 is sponsored by the Tucson Jewish Community Center and the Jewish Community Relations Council in partnership with several… Read more »

Leonard Cohen during a concert in Ramat Gan, Israel, Sept. 24, 2009. (Marko/Flash90)

BALTIMORE (JTA) — The YouTube entry is headlined, “A Christmas Version of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ That Will Give You Chills!” To some, the video is giving conniptions. “Hallelujah,” one of the Canadian-Jewish songwriter/singer’s most popular compositions, was penned in 1984 and quickly zoomed past fan-favorite territory to iconic. Plenty… Read more »

Sheldon Metz

Sheldon Metz thought he was retiring from a big-time career as an event producer when he came to Tucson in 2007.  “Instead, I’m busier than ever,” says Metz, 69. “My doctor says that’s what keeps me going.” Soon after Metz and his wife, Linda Schulman-Metz, arrived here, he jumped… Read more »

At United Synagogue Youth's 2014 convention being held in Atlanta, the board voted to relax the youth organization's ban on interfaith dating. (Courtesy of United synagogue Youth)

NEW YORK (JTA) – United Synagogue Youth voted to relax its rules barring its teenage board members from dating non-Jews. The amendment was adopted Monday in Atlanta at the annual international convention of the Conservative movement’s youth group. The change affects the 100 or so teen officers who serve… Read more »

(JTA) — When Britain’s Parliament voted in favor of recognizing Palestine in October, Elie Barnavi, a former Israeli ambassador to France, dismissed the motion as mere symbolism. Reflecting many Israelis’ view of the string of nonbinding motions on Palestinian statehood adopted by European parliaments in recent weeks, Barnavi said… Read more »

The Wheel of Conscience monument commemorates the doomed Holocaust-era voyage of the M.S. St. Louis. (Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21)

TORONTO (JTA) — Mere days after the Wheel of Conscience was unveiled in January 2011, it broke down — something that would happen to the Daniel Libeskind-designed Holocaust monument twice more within the year. In January 2012, the wheel broke again and was sent from its home at the… Read more »

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein arriving in Israel with the first group of immigrants brought by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Dec. 22, 2014. (International Fellowship of Christians and Jews)

(JTA) — Citing failures by the organization traditionally responsible for bringing Jews to Israel, the founder of a Jerusalem-based interfaith charity said his organization would begin bringing more Jews to Israel from Europe — starting with Ukraine. Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, the founder of the International Fellowship of Christians and… Read more »

(JTA) — What made headlines (in Israel, the U.S. and around the world) in 2014? Test your knowledge with JTA’s annual news quiz: 1. Palestinian officials apologized to Czech authorities after the Palestinian envoy to Prague, Jamal Al-Jamal, was killed in an explosion in his home because: a) a… Read more »

Sandy Koufax is out front in the Ron Lewis painting of Jewish major leaguers and others. The sale of 500 autographed prints is partly for profit and charity. (Jewishbaseballplayer.com)

(JTA) – At the first Detroit Tigers game he attended, in 1940, Bob Matthews saw slugging first baseman Hank Greenberg play. Now a retired orthodontist living in Farmington Hills, Mich., Matthews can gaze each day at his hero’s image on visits to the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit… Read more »