Posts By Jigsaw Digital

Barry Baker, one of 43 Jewish Federations of North America Young Leadership Cabinet members from around the United States, represented Tucson on a JFNA mission to Chile — its first ever — and Argentina earlier this month. After spending two days in Chile and three in Argentina, Baker told… Read more »

Arab demonstrators marking the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba hold Palestinian flags as they approach the village of Majdal Shams in the Golan heights, between Syria and Israel, May 15, 2011. (Hamal Almak/Flash 90/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — If a single phrase could capture the sentiment that motivated thousands of Arabs to try to cross Israel’s borders on Sunday to “retake Palestine” from the Jews, it would be this: Yes, we can. That can-do attitude had toppled regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, and… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Crush terrorists and then make peace. Through quirks of timing, it’s a narrative that President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally can agree on when they meet this week in Washington. There remains a critical difference, however, between the two over what happens in the… Read more »

Amy Hirshberg Lederman

I recently returned from a fantastic trip to Israel — an interfaith business and leadership delegation sponsored by the America-Israel Friendship League. Our group consisted of 29 dynamic Tucsonans — a vibrant mix of faiths, ethnicities and professional backgrounds. Together we explored the religious, archeological, business and cultural sites… Read more »

Lillian Mizrahi, left, one of many Peace Corps volunteers over age 50, poses with her Macedonian host "mother" -- who is younger than Mizrahi. (Peace Corps)

Lillian Mizrahi is not your typical Peace Corps volunteer. A Jewish woman from the Bronx who is now 69 years old, Mizrahi first considered joining 40 years ago, when she moved to Los Angeles from New York, but her life got busy with children and a career. “Two years… Read more »

Alene Schwartz has lost more than 125 pounds in three years. (Bryan Schwartz)

Alene Schwartz weighed 265 pounds in 2008 when she embarked on an exercise and diet — or as she says, “live it” — program. “I just decided that as I got older, I wanted to have the strength to pick up a grandchild, bend down to get something, and… Read more »

Dawn Hunter (left) and Tandy Kippur in Buenos Aires on Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona 2011 Lion of Judah mission

Visiting a home for senior citizens may seem an unlikely highlight for a trip to Argentina, a land known for tango, sun and sea. But ask the 11 women who went on the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Lion of Judah mission to Buenos Aires April 3 to 8… Read more »

Until his arrest in New York on charges of sexual assault, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was seen as a leading contender for the French presidency. WTO via CC)

PARIS (JTA) — Shock waves continue to ripple throughout France as Dominique Strauss-Kahn, considered the likely Socialist Party candidate to challenge President Nicolas Sarkozy in French presidential elections next year, remains in a New York City jail on charges of sexual assault. Saturday’s arrest of Strauss-Kahn appears to significantly… Read more »

Hadassah Rosensaft is flanked by her future husband, Josef, left, and Earl Harrison, President Truman's special envoy, at the Bergen-Belsen camp, July 1945. (Menachem Rosensaft)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Sunday, May 13, 1945, five days after the end of World War II in Europe, was Mother’s Day in the United States. At Bergen-Belsen in Germany, however, there was nothing for my mother to celebrate on that day as she took part in the ongoing… Read more »

WASHINGTON (Tablet) — Earlier this month, before the nation’s attention was consumed by the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death, was a busy one for Washington’s media society, and no one made more of it than Sarah Palin. First there was a stop with Greta Van Susteren at a… Read more »

RAMALLAH, West Bank (JTA) — The delegation of Israelis who traveled last week to the West Bank headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, the Mukata in Ramallah, consisted mostly of the usual suspects. There were a few newcomers, such as Israeli tycoon Idan Ofer, but for the most part they… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Nearly 35 years ago, on July 4, 1976, the streets of America were aglow. The nation was celebrating the bicentennial — the 200th anniversary of its independence. In Israel, too, the streets were radiant. Israel Defense Forces commandos had rescued some 100 hostages held captive by… Read more »

SAG HARBOR, N.Y. (JTA) — Change is afoot in American Reform Judaism. A new president of the Union for Reform Judaism has been selected. The movement has launched a series of nationwide public forums to discuss its future. Hundreds of Reform rabbis have endorsed a plan toward achieving greater… Read more »

WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (JTA) — On a recent trip to Berlin with a dozen other Conservative rabbis, we made certain to stop at the apartment building that Regina Jonas once called home. I had never heard of Jonas, but to the four female rabbis in our group she was… Read more »

(JTA) — We appreciate Rabbi Shafran’s embrace of the importance of the work of Magen Tzedek when he states in his JTA Op-Ed, “to be sure Jewish ethical values in food production are no less important (than) halachic concerns, and are indeed embodied in independent halachic mandates. But they… Read more »

(JTA) — There is something ironic, to put it politely, about an effort championing ethics that speaks from both sides of its mouth. That would be the new certification seal for kosher food products, created by a Conservative rabbi and actively being promoted by his movement, that aims to… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Known today as the massacre at Babi Yar, the killing near Kiev of tens of thousands of Jews by German troops at the end of September 1941 is remembered today as one of the most grisly chapters of the Holocaust in Ukraine. In the weeks… Read more »

Lisa Edelstein, a star of the hit television show "House," jokingly comforts a dummy used in medical simulations at the Sheba Medical Center, an Israeli hospital outside of Tel Aviv alongside fellow cast members. [Jorge Novominsky]

RAMAT GAN, Israel (JTA) — On television Lisa Edelstein, a star of the hit Fox show “House,” and her fellow actors work medical miracles every episode. But at an Israeli hospital she stumbled trying her hand at simulated arthroscopic surgery. “I’m so glad this is not a living person,”… Read more »

John Demjanjuk is wheeled into a Munich courtroom on Nov. 30, 2009 for the first day of his trial. The photo was taken by Sobibor death camp survivor Thomas Blatt. (Thomas Blatt)

BERLIN (JTA) — The guilty verdict pronounced May 12 against John Demjanjuk in a Munich courtroom was a long time coming. Following a trial that lasted a year and a half — capping more than three decades of legal drama — the 91-year-old former Ohio autoworker is now officially… Read more »

Stone-throwing Palestinians clash with Israeli troops near the Kalandiya checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem on the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba, May 15, 2011. (Nati Shohat/Flash90/JTA)

RAMALLAH, West Bank (JTA) — Clouds of tear gas hovered over hundreds of rioting Palestinian youths on the road to Jerusalem, where demonstrations marking the anniversary of Israel’s founding 63 years ago turned violent. “I want a third intifada,” said Ala Barghouti, a 21-year-old accounting student, his nostrils stuffed… Read more »