Evelyn Varady On Sunday, March 8, 18 Jewish women gathered at the Tucson Jewish Community Center for brunch, inspiration and guided schmoozing. Most of the women were not strangers. Some have been meeting regularly for nearly 13 years; others have joined the group more recently; two were attending for the first… Read more »
Israeli Minister of Education Naftali Bennet speaks at the Herzliya Conference, June 7, 2015. (FLASH90)
HERZLIYA, Israel (JTA) — When Israel’s coalition government formed last month, its constituent parties all but ruled out establishing a Palestinian state in the near future. But that doesn’t mean they can agree on what to do instead. Speaking at the Herzliya Conference this week, Israel’s premier diplomatic and security policy gathering,… Read more »
Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, right, attending a brit milah at a Moscow synagogue, on April 28, 2015. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
MOSCOW (JTA) – Rabbi Berel Lazar’s mother was eager for grandchildren. So she gave her 25-year-old son an ultimatum: He could return to his beloved Jewish outreach work in Russia if — and only if — he got married. His yeshiva classmates jokingly said he was already wed, “to the idea of… Read more »
President Obama speaks at Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C., May 22, 2015. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – It’s early days for the White House’s latest charm offensive among American Jews, but a new poll suggests that the wooing effort is having little effect. The poll, published Wednesday by J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group that generally backs President Barack Obama’s Middle East policies, shows… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — In the last 48 hours, rockets from Gaza were again fired at innocent civilians. This cannot be tolerated. The Israel Defense Forces must respond swiftly and without hesitation. We, as the opposition, will support strong government action. Yet such action cannot stand alone. We need… Read more »
Abraham Foxman NEW YORK (JTA) — Let’s be clear from the outset: the BDS movement, the effort to support boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, is sinister and malicious and is having a negative effect on Jewish students on some campuses and on the wider Jewish community. The origins of the… Read more »
Jeffrey Vinik says his Lightning has "really resonated" in the Tampa-area community, noting "great fans" and soaring television ratings. (Scott Iskowitz/TBL)
(JTA) — Jeffrey Vinik, the owner of the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning, is experiencing a first: his team playing in the Stanley Cup Finals, which opened June 3 in Florida against the Chicago Blackhawks. (Under previous owners, the Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2004.) Tampa… Read more »
The work of Polish-Jewish artist Agnieszka Kurant will be featured this summer at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. (Janek Zamoyski)
NEW YORK (JTA) — On June 5, Agnieszka Kurant will become one of only a handful of artists to have their work adorn the famous curved facade of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum here. Kurant’s “The End of Signature,” a neon white projection created from the actual signatures of… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office of the White House, May 20, 2011. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – When David Axelrod, then a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, first learned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly had referred to him and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel as “self-hating Jews,” he remembers feeling stung. “For people to suggest that I would… Read more »
Rochelle Shoretz was the founder and executive director of Sharsheret. (Courtesy of Sharsheret)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Rochelle Shoretz was fond of saying, “There are no problems, only solutions.” Her approach to life was not to dwell on bad news, but to channel the energy that friends described as boundless into somehow making things better. It’s what drove her to establish the… Read more »
Dr. Ruth Westheimer attends the opening night of "Wiesenthal: A New Play' in New York City, Nov. 5, 2014. (Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Wiesenthal)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the octogenarian therapist and TV host, is famous for her frank and open talk about sex. But she’s being called out for her recent comments about sexual consent — and using the Talmud to back up her controversial point of view. With her new book, “The… Read more »
Marilyn Agron, 78, died May 15, 2015. Born in Chicago, Mrs. Agron moved to Tucson in 1957. She was a lifetime member of Hadassah. Mrs. Agron was preceded in death by her two sisters, Shirley and Florence. Survivors include her husband of 57 years, Austin Agron; children, Elise (Pat)… Read more »
Sylvia Ulan, 77, died May 14, 2015. Born in the Bronx, N.Y., Mrs. Ulan was raised in Albany, N.Y. She graduated from Oneonta Teachers College and taught elementary school in the Albany school system for several years. She moved to Tucson to teach and attended the University of Arizona… Read more »
Rose Bike, 87, died May 8, 2015. Born in Chicago, Mrs. Bike graduated from Tully High School and worked in the family’s bakery and lingerie shop. She was accepted at Northwestern University, but instead began working at the telephone company as an operator, eventually becoming a supervisor and trainer… Read more »
Marjorie Emerson Paulson, 90, died May 4, 2015. Born in St. Louis, Mrs. Paulson lived most of her life in Phoenix. Mrs. Paulson was preceded in death by her first husband, Elliot. Survivors include her husband Norm Paulson and his extended family; children, Jim Emerson of Albuquerque, N.M., Gary… Read more »
Joan Lipsey, 84, died March 16, 2015. Mrs. Lipsey graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and continued her education in advanced dance in Chicago and New York City. She also trained as a lab technician. She had three dance studios in Iowa. She also taught… Read more »
(L-R): Cantorial soloist Marjorie Hochberg; Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon; b’not mitzvah Fran Haggerty, Margaret Lambert and Sharon Geiger; teacher Margaret Kendle
Adult b’not mitzvah celebrate at Temple Emanu-El Temple Emanu-El’s yearlong adult b’nai mitzvah course culminated in a group b’not mitzvah ceremony on Saturday, May 2, with the class leading Shabbat morning services. Tucson Hebrew Academy festival celebrates STEM fields More than 600 people… Read more »
(L-R): Kalman Shor, Gittie Shor, Moshe Shor, Ariella Youdelman, Frank Youdelman, Donna Youdelman (Lorraine DarConte)
Ariella Youdelman, daughter of Donna and Frank Youdelman of Tucson, and Moshe Shor, son of Gittie and Kalman Shor of Las Vegas, were married Sept. 7, 2014 at Reflections at the Buttes in Oro Valley with Cantor Avraham Alpert of Congregation Bet Shalom and Rabbi Billy Lewkowicz officiating. Ariella… Read more »
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, rabbi of the Jewish settlement of Efrat conducts the Pidyon HaBen ceremony for a 30-day-old first born son in Efrat, West Bank, May 25, 2015. (Gershon Elinson/Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — There’s no shortage of Israelis who want to reform the office of the Chief Rabbinate. Ranging from advocates of religion-state separation to leaders of Israel’s non-Orthodox movements to newspaper columnists, some want to end the Rabbinate’s monopoly over the country’s religious services; others want to dissolve… Read more »
Rabbi Joseph Radinsky, rabbi emeritus of United Orthodox Synagogues of Houston, was among those who had to be rescued from their homes by watercraft after Houston was hit with heavy flooding, May 26, 2015. (Robert Levy)
(JTA) – Two synagogues and the homes of countless Jewish residents were damaged in the floods that swept through Houston on Monday and into Tuesday, inundating homes and businesses, sweeping away cars and leaving at least five people dead. Houston, America’s fourth-largest city and home to more than 40,000 Jews, was paralyzed… Read more »
