Yearly Archives 2015

NEW YORK (JTA) — Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu: As American Jewish progressive Zionists, we are deeply worried about the threat that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose to Israel. We know you would like pro-Israel Jews to publicly defend your positions on Iran and your plans to speak to Congress next… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told top Senate Democrats he regretted that his planned address to the U.S. Congress is being perceived as partisan, as President Barack Obama’s top security adviser said the speech was “destructive.” Netanyahu wrote Tuesday to decline an invitation from Sens. Dick… Read more »

Eating disorders are associated with a higher rate of mortality than any other mental illness, a fact that may not be widely known among the general population. As many as 20 percent of people suffering from anorexia will prematurely die from complications related to their disorder, according to a… Read more »

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has surrounded himself with foreign policy advisors who have worked for his father and brother as he eyes a run for the presidency. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — As clearly as Jeb Bush has stated that he does not want his foreign policy chops assessed against that of his brother — or his father — his choice in advisers has only made things murkier. Of 21 advisers to the former Florida governor and putative… Read more »

Students at Blich High School celebrating the victory of the center-left Zionist Union in the school's mock elections, Feb. 22, 2015. (Ben Sales)

RAMAT GAN, Israel (JTA) — When Isaac Herzog learned that his Zionist Union party had won the election with 32 percent of the vote, he posted a triumphant status update on Facebook. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had failed, Herzog wrote on Sunday, and vowed that his center-left party would… Read more »

(JTA) — As a longtime promoter of Jewish-Muslim dialogue in Denmark, Naveed Baig is no stranger to Copenhagen’s Great Synagogue. The imam at the capital’s Danish Islamic Center, Baig, 39, has on numerous occasions sat under the structure’s gold-and-white ceiling meeting with people he calls his “Jewish brethren” to… Read more »

"Beshert" by Lisa Mishler

“L’Chayim — To Life,” an exhibit of new mixed-media work by local artist Lisa Mishler, is on display at the Tucson Jewish Community Center Fine Art Gallery through March 26. Rabbi Stephanie Aaron asked Mishler to paint this series inspired by the stories of Mishler’s parents, Holocaust survivors and… Read more »

Ari Ne'eman

When Ari Ne’eman was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at age 12, his life changed. Administrators at the Conservative Jewish day school that Ne’eman had attended for years said they were not comfortable serving an autistic student, so he ended up transferring to a “segregated special-ed school.” Later, instead of… Read more »

EAST LAWN PALMS MORTUARY AND CEMETERY, a Dignity Memorial provider, has named Michael Landy as family service counselor with special responsibility for Jewish funeral and cemetery needs. Landy, the former executive director of Congregation Anshei Israel in Tucson and Congregation Ohev Shalom in Maitland, Fla., has over 20 years… Read more »

MARIAN SALZMAN has been named the new executive chair of Tucson Values Teachers. Salzman has been CEO of Havas PR North America since 2009 and has been named PRWeek’s U.S. PR Professional of the Year (2012) and Global PR Professional of the Year (2014), among other honors. Salzman also… Read more »

Rabbi Gedaliah Druin talks to University of Arizona students and other members of the community at the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation about the restoration of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies’ Torah scroll on Feb. 10. (John Winchester/Arizona Center for Judaic Studies)

  Rabbi Gedaliah Druin, a master scribe, spent Feb. 10 and 11 working on the restoration of a Torah scroll owned by the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona (left). The scroll, which is thought to be nearly 200 years old and originally used by… Read more »

Michael Goldman and actress Gwyneth Paltrow at the White House Chanukah Party

A coveted invitation Tucsonans Gloria and Michael Goldman were among the approximately 500 guests at the White House Chanukah party on the evening of Dec. 17, the same day Alan Gross was released from a Cuban prison. The Goldmans secured the email invitation through a friend’s son, Matthew Nosanchuk,… Read more »

Carol Ann Cohen, 68, died Jan. 28, 2015 in Fairfax, Va. Mrs. Cohen was born in Oak Park, Ill., and moved to Tucson in 1956. She taught Sunday school for Temple Emanu-El in Nogales, Ariz. Mrs. Cohen graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in journalism and… Read more »

Norman Dritch, 74, died Feb. 1, 2015. Mr. Dritch was born in Ponca City, Okla., and moved to Tulsa with his mother when he was 3 years old. He graduated from Will Rogers High School and was an active member of AZA, BBYO’s program for Jewish teenage boys, serving… Read more »

WASHINGTON (Washington Jewish Week via JTA) — Don’t make the enemy of your enemy your friend. That’s the message some lawmakers hope to convey to the Obama administration as they consider its request for a war authorization to combat ISIS. Concerns about how best to shape such an authorization… Read more »

Rabbi Israel Becker

Two weeks ago, we read that Moses’ father-in-law Yisro’s life changed forever when he heard of the massive miracles that occurred for the Jewish people as they left Egypt. At our Pesach seder, we remember these miracles, the 10 plagues, the splitting of the sea, etc. But one dimension… Read more »

It is too easy to dismiss Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appeal for a “mass-immigration” of European Jews to Israel, following the recent terrorist attacks, as another one of his election campaign gimmicks. By invoking aliyah, the quintessence of Zionism,  Netanyahu could have supposedly been trying to position himself as… Read more »

Bari Ross

Continuing strife in the Middle East, the worldwide growth of terrorism, economic struggles from a complex global marketplace … there is no shortage of stress inducers in today’s world. We can dwell on the dark side, or focus our thoughts and actions on what’s good in the world and… Read more »

Rabbi Barry Freundel, left, with his lawyer, Dmitriy Shapiro, outside the Washington courthouse where he pleaded guilty to 52 misdemeanor counts of voyeurism for spying on women at his Orthodox synagogue's mikvah, Feb. 19, 2015. (Dmitriy Shapiro / Washington Jewish Week)

WASHINGTON (JTA/Washington Jewish Week) — Rabbi Barry Freundel, the former spiritual leader at a prominent Washington synagogue, pleaded guilty to 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism. The plea Thursday means that Freundel could be sentenced to a maximum penalty of 52 years in prison and ordered to pay tens of… Read more »

A weekly Jewish sobriety group will start on Tuesday, Feb. 24 from 7:30-9 p.m. at Congregation Bet Shalom, 3881 E. River Road. Group facilitator David Mack, who’s Jewish, notes that the group isn’t part of Alcoholics Anonymous, but will act as a similar support group for Jewish participants with… Read more »