Yearly Archives 2014

Months after outbreak of anti-government protests, and days before Ukrainians head to the polls to elect a new president, central Kiev still has the feel of a war zone. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

KIEV, Ukraine (JTA) — Even in normal times, Kiev can feel like a city perpetually under construction. Potholes are “fixed” with flimsy coverings, ramshackle scaffolding clings precariously to the sides of buildings, and tangles of electric wires seem ever ready to combust. But since the outbreak of anti-government protests… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — The last time New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie spoke at a venue attended by Sheldon Adelson, he alienated the Republican Party mega-donor and other hawkish pro-Israel Jews by referring to the West Bank as “the occupied territories.” Sunday night at a gala awards program in… Read more »

Onno Hoes, fourth from right, the Jewish mayor of Maastricht in Limburg, attending a commemoration ceremony for the city's Jewish Holocasut victims, Oct. 21, 2013. (Stuichting Joods Cultureel Erfgoed)

MAASTRICHT, Netherlands (JTA) — In her nightmares, Tilly Walvis pictured German soldiers storming the house where she was hiding and deporting her children and the Christian couple sheltering them. Walvis had good reason to fear. At the time, her family was living in the home of Albert and Frederika… Read more »

A special event marking the opening of the first public Holocaust education center in Romania will take place Sunday, May 18, in the town of Sighet, Romania. The “Holocaust Cellar” will become a new feature of the existing Holocaust museum in the pre-war home of Nobel Prize-winning author Elie… Read more »

Pima Animal Care Center will hold a free vaccination  and wellness clinic on May 21. The first 100 patrons between 9 a.m. and noon will receive diagnostic testing and vaccines for their pets, thanks to grant funding from Banfield Charitable Foundation. Pet services offered at no charge (and worth… Read more »

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) speaks at the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference in March. (Gage Skidmore)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Can Rand Paul woo his party’s Jews? The Kentucky senator and likely candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination is stepping up his Jewish outreach. In recent weeks, Paul chatted with rabbis on a conference call and proposed legislation to cut funding to the Palestinian Authority… Read more »

Palestinian children play in a damaged building with a swastika and the Star of David pained on it in a Gaza refugeee camp in 2005. The ADL's survey found that 93 percent of respondents in the West Bank and Gaza have anti-Semitic views. (Abid Katib/Getty Images(

NEW YORK (JTA) – A lot of people around the world hate the Jews. That’s the main finding of the Anti-Defamation League’s largest-ever worldwide survey of anti-Semitic attitudes. The survey, released Tuesday, found that 26 percent of those polled — representing approximately 1.1 billion adults worldwide — harbor deeply… Read more »

Protesters in Jerusalem calling on the Israeli government to take action against so-called 'price-tag' attacks, May 11, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Houses of worship have been vandalized, businesses defaced and car tires slashed. So-called “price tag” attacks have proliferated since Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were suspended at the end of April. Intended to exact a price for Israeli government policies seen as detrimental to the settlement enterprise,… Read more »

A U.S. Army transport plane flies over the pyramids in Egypt in 1943. (Keystone/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — On the outskirts of Cairo, on a blistering hot afternoon in May 1942, British Army chaplain Rabbi Louis Rabinowitz ordered the driver of his military transport truck to pull over for a group of uniformed women who were hitchhiking. “We want to go as far as… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — The recent vote by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations rejecting J Street’s membership bid was not entirely surprising. J Street had been reaching out to conference members and community contacts for weeks. We knew that gaining the necessary two-thirds majority was… Read more »

Supporters of the government in Kiev collecting stones in downtown Odessa in preparation for clashes with pro-Russian protesters on May 2. (Julia Gorodetskaya)

(JTA) — Although Ukraine has been charting a bloody course toward civil war for months, Irina Zborovskaya had always felt safe in Odessa. Living in a cosmopolitan city where hate crimes are rare and a tradition of tolerance for minorities and dissidents prevails, many Odessites were lulled into a… Read more »

Miriam Goldfisher, director of a kosher supervision class for women, studying Jewish dietary laws in preparation for the Israeli Chief Rabbinate exam on the topic.

JERUSALEM (JTA) — In a step that further expands the opportunities for women to serve as recognized authorities in Jewish law, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate for the first time is allowing women to serve as kosher supervisors. Nine women took the Chief Rabbinate’s kosher supervision exam last week in… Read more »

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — At a Paris café after the war, a young publisher is quickly falling in love with an adorable Jewish author he just met as she discusses her still-unpublished book. It is an intensely private account based on a personal diary that recounts her amazing survival of… Read more »

Nancy Ben-Asher Ozeri

The Arizona Jewish Post has won a first place Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism from the American Jewish Press Association. “Warmth, eye-opening perspective for local firefighters in Israel” by freelance writer Nancy Ben-Asher Ozeri won the excellence in feature writing award for newspapers with circulation un­der… Read more »

(L-R) Bebe Fischer, Ina Shivack, Hilary Lyons and Billie Maas in Arizona Onstage Production’s ‘25 Questions for a Jewish Mother’

Part memoir, part stand-up routine, “25 Questions for a Jewish Mother” will feature two segments by local residents when it comes to Tucson this month. Comedienne Judy Gold and playwright Kate Moira Ryan weave actual interviews with Jewish mothers across the United States with memories from Gold’s childhood and… Read more »

Nichole Chorny

After an extensive national search, Congregation Anshei Israel has appointed Nichole Chorny as cantorial soloist. Chorny will be responsible for conducting congregational services and will coordinate and/or conduct life-cycle events and the B’nai Mitzvah program, in collaboration with Rabbi Robert Eisen. She will also develop and coordinate educational programs… Read more »

The Sisterhood of Congregation Or Chadash will hold a Fashion Show Fete celebrating mothers and daughters on Sunday, May 18 at 3 p.m. Mother and daughter models will be featured. The event, which will include an afternoon tea on the patio with sandwiches and desserts, plus door prizes and… Read more »

Christians United for Israel at the University of Arizona will host its fifth annual Night to Honor Israel at the Tucson Convention Center’s Leo Rich Theater on Thursday, May 15. The keynote speaker will be Deputy Consul General of Israel Uri Resnick, Ph.D. The Gatekeepers community choir will perform.… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El will honor the achievements of adult B’nai Mitzvah with two events this month. On Friday, May 9, at 6:30 p.m., the 13th anniversary of the 2001 adult B’nai Mitzvah class will be celebrated, with nine of the 14 members of Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon’s first adult B’nai… Read more »

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling is pictured with V. Stiviano to his left at a 2013 basketball game. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

When Donald Sterling’s racist rant hit the news last week, you could practically hear the jostling at the microphone by those eager to denounce the Los Angeles Clippers owner. For the beneficiaries of Sterling’s largesse, the denunciations took on a special imperative as a means of distancing themselves from… Read more »