Jews participating in a memorial march in Paris for Mireille Knoll, March 28, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
(JTA) — Last April, Traore Kobili threw his Jewish neighbor to her death from her third-story home in Paris while calling her a demon and shouting about Allah. French authorities waited 170 days before they declared the killing of Sarah Halimi an anti-Semitic hate crime — and that was… Read more »
Birthright participants celebrate the program's 10th anniversary in Jerusalem, Jan. 14, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Engaging young people in their 20s and 30s, the so-called millennial generation, is a high priority for Jewish philanthropists. Some funders have banded together to create new initiatives, including free trips to Israel, with the express purpose of drawing members of this generation into Jewish… Read more »
An illustrative photo of a shopper at a grocery store picking up a box of matzah. (William Thomas Cain/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Pomegranate, a gourmet kosher supermarket in Brooklyn, spends $75,000 every year getting its kitchen ready for Passover. Hungarian Kosher Foods, a supermarket in Chicago, starts clearing its aisles for Passover eight weeks ahead of the holiday. The week before Passover, at Zabar’s, a Jewish favorite… Read more »
Alex Bregman's manager expects the young slugger to get even better. (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (JTA) – Sitting on a couch near his locker at the Houston Astros’ spring training facility here in mid-March, Alex Bregman is reflecting about an encounter his father had at the World Series last fall. It was in Los Angeles, between innings of the opening… Read more »
Zach Braff stars in the new ABC sitcom "Alex, Inc." (ABC/Tony Rivetti)
(JTA) — Lightning struck Zach Braff in 2001. The up-and-coming Jewish actor, who had appeared in a few films — perhaps most notably a small role in Woody Allen’s “Manhattan Murder Mystery” — landed the lead role of John “J.D.” Dorian in the hospital-based sitcom “Scrubs.” Along the way… Read more »
Jack Wertheimer (Courtesy of Wertheimer) NEW YORK (JTA) — Large donors and foundations are responsible for an increasing share of American Jewish giving, and are exercising greater influence on Jewish communal priorities than they were in previous generations, according to a new study. The mega-donor trend was quantified in the study of American Jewish… Read more »
Medical personnel from Hadassah Medical Center in Israel and the Ayder Comprehensive Specialized Hospital in Mekelle, Ethiopia, confer during a Hadassah team's mission in Ethiopia to perform spinal surgeries on young patients, March 2018. (Courtesy of Hadassah)
(JTA) — Israeli doctors performed surgeries to fix severe spinal deformities as part of a weeklong medical mission to Ethiopia. Eight doctors, two nurses and one physical therapist from the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem traveled on the mission last week to the city of Mekelle, in the African… Read more »
A view of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., March 13, 2018. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — An omnibus spending bill approved by Congress more than doubles spending for security grants that have been overwhelmingly tapped by Jewish institutions. The $1.3 trillion bill approved Thursday includes $60 million for the security grants, up from $25 million last year. More than 90 percent of… Read more »
Jewish students leading the Reform movement to the March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., March 24, 2018. (Hector Emanuel for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The organizers of the March for Our Lives, almost all of them under 20, had a gun control agenda packed with specifics. They were able to get 800,000 people on and off of this city’s Pennsylvania Avenue in three hours. They attracted A-list celebrities. They turned… Read more »
The Café at the J will be open Monday, April 2 through Thursday, April 5, during the chol hamoed (intermediate days) of Passover, with a special menu of kosher-for-Passover meals. This the first time the café at the Tucson Jewish Community Center will be open during Passover. The café… Read more »
A sample of goods donated by the Jewish community for children who had been removed from their adoptive parents’ home. Community aids children in distress Members of the Tucson Jewish community provided clothing and funds to help four children from the Flowing Wells School District who were recently removed from their adoptive parents’ home. After reading about the children’s plight in local media, Mary Ellen Loebl, coordinator of “Making… Read more »
OSHRAT BAREL, the Weintraub Israel Center’s first woman director and its sixth shlicha (emissary from Israel) completes her transition this month to vice president of the JEWISH FEDERATION OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA’s community engagement department. The new department will facilitate collaboration among three existing program areas: the Jewish Community Relations… Read more »
Michael Charles Sattinger of Show Low, Arizona, 62, died March 5, 2018. Survivors include his wife, Lorese; mother, Joyce Sattinger, and father, Irwin Sattinger, both of Tucson; stepchildren, Frank (Amy) Russell and April Russell, both of Show Low; brother, Stephen (Rachel) Sattinger of Tucson, and sister, Kim Sattinger of… Read more »
Richard H. Love, 95, died Feb. 27, 2018. Mr. Love was born in Detroit. He flew a B24 Liberator in World War II as a first lieutenant in the Army Air Force. He was a manager at the Michigan branch of Dominion Risk Management, an insurance provider. Mr.… Read more »
There was a wealthy Jewish merchant in London who would frequently invite individuals soliciting charitable donations to his home. He would invite his child to come to those solicitations to listen to the charitable request. After the request was made, he would ask his son to bring his checkbook… Read more »
Deborah Lipstadt, Ph.D. Eminent Holocaust historian, scholar and author Deborah Lipstadt, Ph.D., will be the keynote speaker at Jewish Family & Children’s Services 9th annual Celebration of Caring, Sunday, April 8. Lipstadt gained international recognition for defending the historical truth of the Holocaust in a precedent-setting lawsuit, tried in a British court.… Read more »
Tzuza Dance Company, which delighted the crowd at Tucson’s Israel festival in 2010, will return to perform at the Israel @ 70 Festival next month. The community-wide festival will be held Sunday, April 22, from 1-6 p.m. on the Jewish community campus at River and Dodge Roads. It is… Read more »
Rina Liebeskind A decade as the director of education at Congregation Or Chadash has flown by for Rina Liebeskind. The congregation will honor her for her years of dedicated service with a “Flying Chai” tribute festival at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on April 15. “As the oldest of six children,… Read more »
An annual Holocaust Days of Remembrance Observance, hosted by the U.S. Army at Fort Huachuca, will be held Monday, April 9 at 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Gil Ribak, Ph.D., assistant professor of Judaic studies at University of Arizona, will give the keynote address. He will speak about the… Read more »
Visualize a typical action-packed day in the life of a hypothetical Jewish family in Tucson: drop off the toddlers at the synagogue pre-school, stop in at the Israel Center to see the latest on the upcoming festival, catch the performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” at the Jewish day… Read more »
