Martin Rosenthal, M.D., 69, died Jan. 14, 2018. Dr. Rosenthal grew up in Akron, Ohio, graduating from Buchtel High School, Indiana University and Ohio State Medical School. He left the Midwest and ventured west to Phoenix, eventually settling in Tucson, where he spent many years as an emergency room… Read more »
Sheldon Silverman, 91, died Jan. 8, 2018. Mr. Silverman was born in Chicago and had lived in Tucson since 1992. He served in World War II as a private in the U.S. Army Air Corps. In 1950, he graduated from Roosevelt University in Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in… Read more »
(JTA) — In 2015, Ukraine’s president signed a law whose critics say stifles debate on the historical record of World War II and whitewashes local perpetrators of the Holocaust. Law 2538-1 criminalized any rhetoric insulting to the memory of anti-communist partisans. And it celebrates the legacy of such combatants… Read more »
A view of the border between Lebanon, left, and Israel near the village of Kfar Kila, Feb. 7, 2018. (Ali Dia/AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a simple, straightforward message this week when he toured Israel’s border with Syria and Lebanon with top security officials. “Our face is turned toward peace, we are ready for any eventuality, and I don’t suggest anyone test us,” he said… Read more »
(Kveller via JTA) — I have three children. Three healthy, wonderful, grown-up children. I have a wonderful husband. And I have a father, a brother and sister-in-law, and other friends and relatives whom I love. Sounds good, no? It is good. It’s very good. Yet I often say that… Read more »
Guava and Cheese Hamantaschen (Sandy Leibowitz)
(The Nosher via JTA) — Guava, or guayaba in Spanish, is native to tropical areas such as Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Because of its proximity and availability, the fruit is a part of many Latino cuisines. Guavas have a strong tropical fragrance and floral taste… Read more »
Elaine Luria, running for Congress, speaking at a Democratic committee meeting in Norfolk, Va., Feb. 3, 2018. (Ron Kampeas)
NORFOLK, Va. (JTA) — The Norfolk Democratic Party Committee is meeting on a Saturday and Picadilly, a breakfast joint propped along a highway in this scrubbed-clean hardscrabble town perched on the Chesapeake Bay, is loud with the clatter of dishes, cutlery and politics. Until, that is, Elaine Luria is… Read more »
Eva Lavi, who was 2 years old when the Nazis invaded Poland, addressing the United Nations last week. (Courtesy of the Israeli mission to the U.N.)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Eva Lavi’s earliest memories are of the Holocaust. She remembers how her mother made her hide outside in below-zero weather, clutching a standing pipe, as Nazis searched her home in Poland. She remembers her father telling her to swallow a spoonful of cyanide — better… Read more »
Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaking with the Forward's editor-in-chief, Jane Eisner, at Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C., Feb. 1, 2018. (Ron Sachs/CNP)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told a Jewish audience that she would serve on the U.S. Supreme Court as long as she felt up to it. Ginsburg, appearing Thursday at a Forward event at Adas Israel synagogue in Washington, D.C., appeared to confirm recent reports that she… Read more »
David Wain, director of "Wet Hot American Summer," in January 2018. (Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for Entertaiment Weekly)
(JTA) — Many Jews attend overnight camp. But growing up, Micah Hart was so Jewish that he attended two every summer. Hart was the son of the director of Jacobs Camp, a Reform Jewish camp in western Mississippi. He went there every year, but to give him some independence,… Read more »
Passover-Friendly Chicken Schnitzel (Shannon Sarna)
(JTA) — Two of my family’s favorite dishes are schnitzel and rainbow cookies, and I have a feeling your family may feel the same. Here’s some great news about both: They very easily translate into Passover-friendly versions with minor adjustments. While you could serve them for your seder meals,… Read more »
Democratic Reps. Steny Hoyer, left, and Nancy Pelosi at the State of the Union address in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives, Jan. 30, 2018. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(JTA) — President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel made it into his State of the Union speech. “Last month, I also took an action endorsed unanimously by the Senate just months before: I recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” he said to applause,… Read more »
A view of the main prayer hall of the Great Synagogue of Tomsk. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
TOMSK, Russia (JTA) — When two strange men approached 8-year-old Herzl Tsam in an alley of his hometown in what is now Ukraine, he knew that he had to run as fast as his legs could carry him. In 1851, as a Jewish boy from a poor family in… Read more »
(My Jewish Learning via JTA) — Here are nine things that many likely wouldn’t know about the Festival of Freedom: 1. In Gibraltar, there’s dust in the charoset. The traditional charoset is a sweet Passover paste whose texture is meant as a reminder of the mortar the enslaved Jews… Read more »
TVP, the state-owned television station in Poland, apologized to an Israeli ambassador for a tweet accusing Israel of ulterior motives in objecting to a new law regulating how Poles may discuss the Holocaust. (Flickr Commons/Piotr Drabik)
WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — Debate over a Polish law that proposes to outlaw rhetoric blaming Poland for Nazi crimes has prompted a wave of anti-Semitic comments in the Polish media. RMF, one of the largest Polish commercial radio stations, suspended a journalist who wrote about the “war with the… Read more »
(JTA) — Free exercise of religion in America is a foundational civil right and one of our nation’s greatest strengths. But as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled decades ago, the free exercise of religion cannot infringe on the rights of others: It must be balanced with other civil rights.… Read more »
Brittan Heller
Brittan Heller will bring personal experience as a victim along with extensive professional international law and cybercrime experience to her Tucson presentation, “Pulling the Plug on Online Anti-Semitism & Bigotry,” on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. at the Harvey & Deanna Evenchik Center for Jewish Philanthropy, 3718 E.… Read more »
(JTA) — When Gabrielle Birkner and Rebecca Soffer met in 2007, the two Jewish journalists found they had much more in common than their professions. Through a mutual friend, they joined what became known as Women With Dead Parents, a monthly dinner gathering in New York City for women… Read more »
(Kveller via JTA) — Twinkle, twinkle, kochavim (stars), Shining in the shamayim (sky). When I say Shema tonight, Everything will be all right. Years ago, my oldest child brought this song home from preschool. It made me wonder: What exactly was the message they were trying to convey to… Read more »
Kenneth Marcus (Screenshot from YouTube)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — If there’s overlap between Hillel and the National Council of Jewish Women, it’s in two areas: defending Israel and combating violence against women on campus. Leaders of the campus Jewish organization took a look at the record of Kenneth Marcus, President Donald Trump’s nominee to run… Read more »
