‘Picasso Revisited,’ stained glass by Bob Samson
The Tucson Jewish Community Center will present “Spiritual Voices,” a juried art show, Nov. 30-Jan. 10. The exhibit will include 20 Jewish artists from Southern Arizona. Local artists Aimee Smythe and Lisa Mishler are the curators of “Spiritual Voices.” Both women have participated in numerous art shows throughout the… Read more »
The members of the Brandeis School's 2017-18 seventh-grade class said they appreciated hearing from a range of nonprofits in their city. (Ben Sales)
SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — Lyla Maymon and Jane Shvartzman went to interview officials last year at the Larkin Street Youth, a local organization fighting homelessness among young people, to see if their programs were worthy of a philanthropic grant. Maymon and Shvartzman asked all the right questions, like what… Read more »
Stephen Bannon speaking at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., October 23, 2017. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Stephen Bannon, the former chief strategist for President Donald Trump, called himself a “Christian Zionist” at the Zionist Organization of America’s annual dinner. He also praised Republican Jewish megadonor Sheldon Adelson for his help in guiding Trump through a sexual assault scandal. Bannon, at what… Read more »
Some of the tens of thousands of nationalists marching through Warsaw, Nov. 11, 2017. (Jakob Ratz/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(JTA) — The sight of far-right activists waving racist banners and shouting anti-Semitic slogans during a nationalist march in the capital of Poland over the weekend shocked many around the world. It was an understandable reaction to witnessing tens of thousands in Warsaw marching near what used to be… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — It’s lunch break during a one-day conference on “Israeli Cuisine as a Reflection of Israeli Society” — so naturally I’m eating lunch. Everything on my white plastic plate can be considered Israeli food. There is a burek (which originally heralds from Spain, by way of Turkey),… Read more »
Ari'el Stachel, right, plays matchmaker to two shy Israelis, played by Rachel Prather and Etai Benson, in "The Band's Visit." (Matt Murphy)
(JTA) — There’s a long and poignant story behind the T-shirt that Ari’el Stachel often wears these days. It says, in Hebrew letters, “Totzeret Teman” — “Product of Yemen.” The unexpected juxtaposition of two cultures, Israeli and Arab, is as fascinating and complex as Stachel himself. Stachel, 26, is an… Read more »
Morrissey performing at the Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Del., June 19, 2015. (Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for Firefly)
(JTA) — The British rocker and former Smiths frontman Morrissey has not one but two Jewish-themed songs on his forthcoming album, “Low in High School.” Perhaps the more notable one is simply called “Israel” and offers a blunt rebuke of critics of the Jewish state. “In other climes they… Read more »
Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center testifies before the House Judiciary Committee, Nov. 7, 2017. (Screenshot from YouTube)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish and pro-Israel leaders exchanged heated remarks at a congressional hearing on how to define anti-Semitism. Tuesday’s hearing of the House Judiciary Committee took up a bill that would, among other things, define as anti-Semitism language that “demonizes” Israel. Of the nine witnesses who addressed the… Read more »
This man in Puerto Rico lives in a nursing home that has not had power since Hurricane Irma. (Josefin Dolsten)
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (JTA) — “Feeling lucky today?” reads a flier for a casino tucked into the seat pocket of Adolfo Vasquez’s car. The car actually belongs to his wife, Vasquez explains. He borrowed hers, which is bigger, to drive a group from the San Juan Airport… Read more »
Ralph Northam, Virginia's governor-elect, greeting supporters at an election night rally in Fairfax, Nov. 7, 2017. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The big post-Election Day headline is the stunning Democratic sweep in Virginia’s gubernatorial and House elections, coupled with the predicted Democratic win of the governor’s mansion in New Jersey. Republicans are wondering what this says about the train that was Trumpism. In Virginia, Ed Gillespie was… Read more »
Soldiers in the Bardales Battalion training in southern Israel, July 13, 2016. The battalion is 50 percent female. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A group of leading Orthodox rabbis met with the Israeli army’s chief of staff to complain. According to Israel’s Arutz Sheva news website, the rabbis told Gadi Eisenkot on Tuesday that the growing ranks of female combat soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces are creating an… Read more »
Rhea and Arnie Merin in their sukkah Festival of booths Eight years ago, Arnie Merin bought a sukkah kit through the Sukkah Project at Sukkot.com. It is a cube (8 feet x 8 feet), big enough for a small table and 4-5 chairs. With assistance from his wife, Rhea, the small hut takes an hour to… Read more »
(L-R): Jim Whitehill, JCF board chair; Tom Warne, JFSA immediate past chair; Deanna Evenchik; Jonathan Rothschild, mayor of Tucson; Stuart Mellan, JFSA president and CEO; and Shelly Silverman, JFSA chair (Martha Lochert) JFSA and JCF hold grand opening celebration The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Jewish Community Foundation held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house at their new home, the Harvey and Deanna Evenchik Center for Jewish Philanthropy, on Sunday, Oct. 15. More than 150 people attended the event.… Read more »
JEWISH FAMILY & CHILDREN’S SERVICES has been selected as a semi-finalist in Social Venture Partner’s “Fast Pitch” competition. LIZ HERNANDEZ, JFCS director of marketing and development, will talk about the Project Safe Place program. Five attorneys from the law firm FARHANG & MEDCOFF, Robert Bernheim, Robert Garcia, Meredith Marder,… Read more »
ESTHER STERNBERG, M.D., director of research at the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, has been appointed chair of the National Library of Medicine’s Board of Regents. Sternberg also is founding director of the UA Institute on Place and Wellbeing, a professor with the UA College of Medicine–Tucson… Read more »
Ronald Sheldon Sandler, 87, died Oct. 17, 2017. Survivors include his wife, Marlene; and children, Jon and Amy of Tucson and Adam of Australia. Services were held at Congregation Anshei Israel with Rabbi Robert Eisen officiating, followed by interment at Evergreen Cemetery.… Read more »
Alfred Paul “Fred” Havas, 71, died Oct. 15, 2017. Mr. Havas was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His family immigrated to the United States and settled in Ogden, Utah. Mr. Havas, who spoke seven languages, spent time studying and working in Israel, but returned to Ogden and took over… Read more »
Hartley Lachter, Ph.D.
When medieval Christians claimed that Jewish history and religious practice was in decline, the Kabbalah, a mystical school of thought in Judaism, provided a powerful reimagining of Judaism, says Hartley Lachter, Ph.D., associate professor of religion studies at Lehigh University. “Kabbalah argues that there is this secret way in… Read more »
An heirloom Havdalah spice box is displayed with photographs of Esther Blumenfeld’s late father, Rabbi Karl Richter. (Courtesy Esther Blumenfeld)
After the death of his youngest sister in Stuttgart, Germany, my father thought deeply about the meaning of life and death, and the idea of becoming a rabbi became a calling. The 17-year-old Karl Richter, with youthful enthusiasm, decided to do his university as well as rabbinical studies at… Read more »
Richard Carmona Richard Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., FACS, the 17th surgeon general of the United States, will speak on “The Challenge of Brain Health in War and Peace” as part of the 2017 Mel Sherman Institute on Mental Health lecture series presented by Jewish Family & Children’s Services. Carmona will discuss the… Read more »
