A chart said to belong to SEBIN, Venezuela's secret service, implicating Rabbi Pynchas Brener as the Mossad's top spymaster in the country. (Analises24) NEW YORK (JTA) — Espacio Anna Frank says its goal is to promote tolerance by teaching the life story of the teenage diarist murdered by the Nazis. But is there something sinister lurking behind the Venezuelan organization’s benevolent facade? SEBIN, the Venezuelan intelligence service, seems to believe so. According… Read more »
Even in his late 80s, political endorsements from Ed Koch, who served as New York City's mayor from 1978 to 1989, were prized. He appeared in this 2012 video supporting President Obama's bid for reelection. (Obama Campaign/YouTube)
NEW YORK (JTA) — One of the proudest moments of Ed Koch’s life came during a trip to Israel in 1990, in the midst of the first Palestinian intifada. Koch had recently left City Hall after 12 years as mayor of New York City and was touring Jerusalem when… Read more »
Israeli postal workers distribute gas masks to Jerusalem residents amid warnings of chemical weapons used by both sides in the Syrian civil war, Jan. 30, 2013. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israeli planes reportedly struck a Syrian weapons transport on the Lebanese border amid increasing fears that the country’s chemical weapons stockpile could fall into the hands of Hezbollah. The strikes, which occurred in the early hours of Wednesday morning, were reported to Reuters by a… Read more »
Yesh Atid chief Yair Lapid addressing party supporters in Tel Aviv following the release of exit poll results from the Israeli elections, Jan. 22, 2013. (Avishag Shaar Yashuv/Flash 90/JTA) (JTA) — This week’s election in Israel was a watershed — but not in the ways one might think. In almost every election cycle, the campaign has been about one thing. To adapt James Carville’s famous adage: It’s about security, stupid. Except this time, it wasn’t. The reason is… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Preaching to a preacher man — or woman — doesn’t always play out as planned. That’s the lesson learned this week by officials at the National Cathedral after several clergy, including three rabbis, made impromptu changes to the readings they were given to deliver at a… Read more »
Left to right, Baltimore Ravens' coach John Harbaugh, late owner Art Modell and general manager Ozzie Newsome at the Ravens training facilities, 2008. (Courtesy Baltimore Ravens) NEW YORK (JTA) — Every Sunday during the football season, a group of 30 diehard Jewish Baltimore Ravens fans suit up in purple pants, jerseys, socks, face paint and special Ravens tzitzit to watch the game together. If the game falls on a Saturday, the club gathers for a… Read more »
The American-born Rabbi Dov Lipman of the Yesh Atid party says there is no contradiction between working, serving the country and being haredi Orthodox. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90/JTA) TEL AVIV (JTA) – Last week’s Israeli election saw a major shakeup in the country’s government, with 53 new members elected to its parliament, the Knesset. Some already have received wide attention, including Yair Lapid, the middle class-focused chairman of Yesh Atid; Naftali Bennett, the high-tech entrepreneur who chairs… Read more »
Ron Prosor, Permanent Representative of Israel to the UN, speaks at a special event on “Children and the Holocaust”, held to mark the annual International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, on Jan. 27, 2012.(UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz) NEW YORK—Speaking in a voice fraught with emotion at the United Nations General Assembly, Israeli ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor proclaimed, “The loss is unimaginable… the riches lost to the world untold. But, their spirit lives on, their dreams never died… Nothing can break the… Read more »
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma in Moscow. Amid reports of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal falling within Hezbollah's reach, Assad reportedly remains "calm," perhaps due to Russia's deployment of a sizable naval force for an exercise off the Syrian coast. (Rakkar/Wikimedia Commons) Israel is continuing to warn the world of the potentially devastating outcome if Syria’s chemical arsenal falls into the hands of rebels, or worse, Hezbollah, as Lebanese media outlets reported that the Lebanese terror group had already obtained some chemical weapons and long-range missiles. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who… Read more »
Khaled Abu Taomeh The truth sometimes hurts; that is why the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been working hard to prevent the outside world from hearing about many occurrences that reflect negatively on its leaders or people. In recent years, the PA leadership, often with the help of the mainstream media in the… Read more »
The Collier Bar Mitzvah group at the Davidson Center in Jerusalem: (L-R) Jack Aaron, David Aaron, Carol Collier, Naomi Present, Rosalie Rellin (back), Rabbi Stephanie Aaron (front), Maya Collier, Randie Collier, Joel Collier, Shelby Collier, Roger Collier
Winter Birthright Israel After finishing final exams, 30 University of Arizona students embarked on the Winter Taglit-Birthright Israel Hillel experience. Nine of the participants hail from Tucson — Michael Evenchik, Allie Healy, Emily Healy, Lauren Katz, Daniel Millstone, Benjamin Offenhartz, Nathan Sacks, Zachary Sattinger and Alyssa Silva. “The reasons… Read more »
Cari Frisch and Jason Drimer under the chuppah (Elyse Hall) Cari Frisch, daughter of James and Myrna Frisch of Tucson, and Jason Drimer, son of Jeffrey and Linda Drimer of Syracuse, N.Y., were married on Oct. 28, 2012, at Skyline Country Club, with Rabbi Robert Eisen of Congregation Anshei Israel officiating. Honored guests included Jason’s grandmother, Selma Radin of… Read more »
(L-R) Jennifer Kern, Ashley Heather, Jodi Pulman, Shelley Hoffman, Katy Darnaby, Ilana Shenitzer, Lindsay Nagel, Megan Rovner, Bari Levine, Leslie Pearlman, Joey Blumenfeld, Sadie Reuben (Elyse Hall)
High school romances that endure and result in marriage are not unheard of. But marrying your friend from preschool days is a precious rarity. Ilana Shenitzer and Jeremy Rothstein have enjoyed a life-long friendship that blossomed into love in their late teens. They cemented their relationship under the chuppah… Read more »
(JointMedia News Service) — As borders become more faint, and online dating services more prevalent, many of us are pushed out of our respective ethnic bubbles and into the arms of a special someone from a different background. While Jews share many customs and traditions, we also have our… Read more »
The “Nazi Hunters” series, with new episodes airing on PBS 6 next month, chronicles the stories of the determined individuals who chased some of the most reviled criminals on earth — the men who perpetuated the atrocities of the Third Reich during World War II. But the pursuers themselves… Read more »
TEMPLE EMANU-EL is one of eight Reform congregations nationwide selected to participate in the Union for Reform Judaism Emerging Young Adult Initiatives Community of Practice, a networking group aimed at discovering new ways to engage young adults in congregational life.… Read more »
BOB SCHWARTZ, formerly of the law firm of Russo, Russo & Slania, P.C., has been named chief executive officer of Southern Arizona Land Trust, Inc. Schwartz also will serve as in-house legal counsel of SALT’s sister company, Family Housing Resources, Inc. SALT and FHR are nonprofit supporting organizations of… Read more »
Lynn Sharon Strauss, 76, died Jan. 11, 2013, in Shreveport, La. A 45-year resident of Tucson, Mrs. Strauss operated an office consulting firm for medical practices specializing in computerized record keeping. She was a long-time member of Congregation Anshei Israel, where she was elected secretary-treasurer of the board of… Read more »
Milan Bier, 92, died Jan. 15, 2013. Born in Vukovar, Croatia (then part of Yugoslavia), Mr. Bier spent four years as a refugee in Yugoslavia, Italy and Switzerland during World War II. He graduated from the University of Geneva and immigrated to the United States in 1945. He received… Read more »
Henry and Madeleine Cornet in their home near Brussels in the 1940s (Jan Maes) As the sister of Belgium’s most powerful Nazi, Madeleine Cornet knew better than to inquire about the ethnicity of the three women she hired as housemaids in October 1942. Cornet did not want to further implicate herself by hearing what she already knew: Her new hires were Jews who… Read more »
