President Obama speaks with Jacob Lew on the Colonnade of the White House in 2010. Lew was nominated as Treasury secretary on Jan. 10, 2013. (Official White House Photo) WASHINGTON (JTA) – Jacob Lew helped Orthodox observance reach the highest precincts of governance. But can a man that Republicans say “can’t get to yes” be confirmed as secretary of the Treasury? President Obama on Thursday nominated Lew, his chief of staff, to the post on Thursday, replacing Timothy… Read more »
I'm lucky I brought my down jacket from New Jersey with its faux eskimo hood Two years ago, it snowed like the apocalypse in Newark, New Jersey. Nevertheless, the airports were open the next day and early in the morning December 28, we packed our three kids and 15 duffel bags into a shuttle bus. As the sun rose, we headed up the NJ… Read more »
Bragging moment: I was accepted into the University Honors Program in college. I even got a scholarship. That letter in the mail was likely the pinnacle of my academic career. That, or the poetry award I won from Mr. Schaeffer at the end of 9th Grade. I was your… Read more »
I’m a minor space geek. Minor because I’ve never fully engaged in studying the skies above me; rather remained content to swim in the magical mystery of it all: Glow-in-the dark constellations arranged haphazardly on my bedroom ceiling “Star light star bright first star I see tonight” Scanning the… Read more »
A boy with his homemade sun scope, after observing the Transit of Venus in 2012 Back when this little guy was a tad bit younger than he is today, he used to “take pictures with his mind.” He’d put his pointer fingers up to his temples, lean down towards the object he wanted to focus on (typically a kitten or a flower), and snap… Read more »
Tonight my son was the student of a lesson I’ve been actively trying to learn all week all my life. How to keep thinking you’re a rock star when the world hands you proof otherwise. The setting? My son’s soccer ceremony. The kick in the gut? Instead of being awarded the… Read more »
(This was originally posted on the Times of Israel on 1.2.13) Sometimes I imagine I am a woman on her death bed. How else to explain the sense of wonder I have the minute I pull out of my driveway each morning to head to work? Before I even… Read more »
Israel, 2012 Dear Jen: It’s a trend in the last decade or so for writers or celebrities to pen letters to their younger, seemingly more innocent and vulnerable selves. While sometimes introspective and poignant, this practice is a waste of time. Letters lead only to wistful and wishful thinking. Energy is… Read more »
In the decade since the attacks of 9/11, the United States and its allies have portrayed terrorism as primarily al Qaeda-centric. This, in turn, has led, logically, to a search for the origin of the terrorism aimed at us. Thus, after 9/11, many American analysts wondered, “Why do they… Read more »
Oscar Hammerstein II. (Library of Congress) Oscar Hammerstein II was raised by Scottish Presbyterians, and the only time he ever entered a synagogue was to deliver eulogies at Temple Emanu-El on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. But according to his grandson Oscar Andrew (Andy) Hammerstein III, his Jewish heritage influenced Oscar II’s work—for which he won… Read more »
Dr. Essam el-Erian, a senior Muslim Brotherhood official and adviser to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, has called on Jews who left Egypt to return, as “Israel will be destroyed within a decade.” Speaking to the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat from Cairo, El-Erian called on Egypt’s Jews “to leave historic… Read more »
Lee Olitzky THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA has posted the preliminary findings from its Jewish Community Planning Survey at www.jewishtucson.org/planning. The informational study was designed to inform the work of the strategic planning steering committee and task forces; it is not a demographic study and does not represent a statistically… Read more »
THOMAS MILLER is one of seven Arizona artists to win an artist research and development grant from the Arizona Commission of the Arts. Miller’s grant, in the category of literary arts, will allow him to conduct field research for a nonfiction travel narrative, “Don Quixote’s Trail,” tracing places mentioned… Read more »
Raquel Litin, daughter of Zora Litin and Brad Litin, and Edward Arriola, Jr., son of Sharon Bart and Edward Arriola, Sr., were married on Sunday, Dec. 9, the first day of Chanukah, by Rabbi Billy Lewkowicz in the Rose Garden at Reid Park. Grandparents are Herman and Helen Moskovits… Read more »
Julie Feldman, center, with her children, Rachel Dveirin, left, and Haley Dveirin. Prayer book donation Congregation M’kor Hayim is a small but mighty synagogue. Comprised of approximately 60 members, the group uses Tucson Hebrew Academy’s Beit Midrash (house of study) for its Friday night services and Shabbat morning Torah study. Discovering that the prayer books for THA second through fourth graders… Read more »
Andrew Silow-Carroll In one of his best known poems, “El Male Rachamim,” the late Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai enters into a dispute with God by subverting the words of perhaps the most moving of all funeral prayers. The poem begins as the prayer does — “God-Full-of-Mercy” — then takes a sharp… Read more »
Alan Elsner A recent announcement that I had joined J Street as vice president of communications raised some eyebrows among some of my friends in the Jewish community. After all, as recently as two months ago, I was a member of senior management at The Israel Project, a very different organization.… Read more »
Sharon Megdal (third from left) toasts “L’Chaim”with desalinated seawater with her colleagues at a desalination plant in Hadera, Israel. University of Arizona Distinguished Outreach Professor Sharon Megdal grew up in Irvington, N.J., where scarcity of water wasn’t a problem. After she settled in Tucson in the late 1970s, her perspective began to change. “I lived here a dozen years before becoming immersed in water,” says Megdal, who started… Read more »
A family reunites outside the New Jersey home of Elise and Hal Hirshberg, parents of Tucsonan Amy Lederman. Front row: (L-R) Sylvia Boris, Lederman, Lynn Pollan, Carol Lewis, Farida Deske, Elise Hirshberg, Myriam Nahmani. Back: Shelley Hirshberg, Bella Bernard, Jeff Hirshberg (Robert D. DeCuir) Since the beginning of time, in every culture, across every continent, one thing connects us all: the deeply human need to convey what is important to us from one generation to the next. The telling and retelling of the stories of our lives is essential to the creation of… Read more »
One of the oldest gowns in the Jewish History Museum exhibit was worn in 1702. The gown was shown in the museum’s first ketubah exhibit and was so fragile it was kept behind glass. It has since been restored at the Costume and Textile Study Center in Norfolk, England, and has been donated to the JHM permanent collection. Three dark-colored wedding gowns will be spotlighted in the Jewish History Museum’s Fifth Annual Ketubah exhibit, which opens Jan. 1, including a Virginia widow’s gown of black satin with a collar trim of white lace. The bride who wore it, Elizabeth Rachel Richardson, was a wealthy confederate widow, says… Read more »
