Mourners walking at the funeral of Bernice and Sylvan Simon, Nov. 1, 2018. (Arielle Kaplan)
PITTSBURGH (JTA) — Bernice and Sylvan Simon were married in the sanctuary of Tree of Life Congregation 62 years ago. Week after week they attended services there, chatting with the Holocaust survivor who sat a row in front of them. And on Saturday, hours before they were to gather with their… Read more »
Fred Guttenberg, left, and Andrew Pollack lost their daughters in the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. (Guttenberg photo: Michael Laughlin/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images; Pollack photo: Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images; background photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Jaime Guttenberg and Meadow Pollack shared many similarities. Both were brown-haired and bright-eyed girls, beloved by friends and family. Both were passionate about their hobbies. Jaime, 14, spent her free time dancing and volunteering with special needs children. Meadow, 18, was a girly girl who loved the… Read more »
Elaine Luria, a congressional candidate in Virginia, speaks at a Democratic committee meeting in Norfolk, Feb. 3, 2018. (Ron Kampeas)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Elaine Luria spent nearly 20 years in the U.S. Navy, the first female sailor to spend her entire career on combat ships. Her hitch included the first seven years of her daughter’s life — the former commander told JTA earlier this year that she communicated daily with her… Read more »
Genevieve Liu created SLAP'D: Surviving Life After a Parent Dies in the wake of her father's tragic passing. (Diller Foundation)
When Genevieve Liu was 13, an unimaginable tragedy dramatically changed her life. She was on the Lake Michigan shore on vacation with her family in Michigan on Aug. 5, 2012, when her father, a celebrated pediatric surgeon, spotted two boys drowning in the lake. He rushed into the… Read more »
Lior Barron, second from left, and Phillip Nussbaum, third from left, celebrate their recent bar mitzvah at Zichron Yisrael with Mike Walden and Keith Zauder. (Zichron Yisrael)
TORONTO (JTA) — In late October, Americans saw what happened when anti-Semitism rears its head in the most devastating way. But while a synagogue in Pittsburgh is the victim of a deadly hate-filled attack, one in Toronto is being rescued with kindness from unexpected quarters: an Iranian-American developer who… Read more »
(JTA) — Robert Bowers, the man held in the shooting deaths of 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh on Oct. 27, belonged to an online community where he frequently railed against Jews and immigrants. That social media site, Gab, came under closer scrutiny last week. Created two years ago as a… Read more »
Rose Mallinger was a member of the Tree of Life Congregation for more than 60 years. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Rose Mallinger, the oldest victim in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, was remembered Friday at her funeral as a loving and sharp-witted woman who was a fixture in the Jewish community. Hundreds of mourners attended the service at the Rodef Shalom synagogue. Mallinger was the final of the 11… Read more »
Rabbi Jonathan Perlman speaks to thousands at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Pittsburgh during a service to honor and mourn the victims of the mass shooting at the Tree Of Life synagogue, Oct. 28, 2018. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Six days ago, on Shabbat, Rabbi Jonathan Perlman was hiding in a pitch-black storage closet as one of his congregants was shot dead in front of him. The time since has been filled with funerals, counseling congregants and figuring out how to move forward as a community,… Read more »
A crowd of more than 1,200 turned out for the vigil at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on Monday, Oct. 29. Eleven candles on the stage were lit to honor the people killed in the shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday, Oct. 27. Standing on the stage, from left, are Rabbis Robert Eisen, Samuel M. Cohon, Avraham Alpert, Ruven Barkan, Helen Cohn and Batsheva Appel, and cantorial soloists Marjorie Hochberg, Diana Povolotskaya and Nichole Chorny. (Steven Braun)
Prayers for peace, kindness and love, for a better world for ourselves and our children, rang out at the Tucson Jewish Community Center Monday night, as more than 1,200 people of all faiths came together for a candlelight vigil in memory of the 11 Jews killed in an attack… Read more »
Activist Michele Freed, center, and other young professionals protest with HIAS in front of the White House, March 1, 2017. (Katie Jett Walls)
(JTA) — Before he shot dead 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue, Robert Bowers blamed one Jewish organization: HIAS, an immigrant aid group that has been helping refugees since the 1880s. “HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people,” he wrote on his website. “I can’t sit by and watch… Read more »
Caskets are carried out of Rodef Shalom Temple following the funeral of brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal in Pittsburgh, Oct. 30, 2018. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
PITTSBURGH (JTA) — Cecil Rosenthal would always ask after your sick mother or inquire about your marriage — or divorce. His brother, David, a jokester, loved the police and every year would buy the same sunglasses with mirrored lenses. At a moving ceremony Tuesday, relatives stood before a… Read more »
Michael Oren speaks at a conference in the Israeli parliament in 2016. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The deadly shooting at a Conservative synagogue in Pittsburgh has underlined tensions in Israel over the haredi Orthodox rabbinic establishment’s disenfranchisement of the Diaspora’s non-Orthodox Jewish streams. Following Saturday’s rampage by a gunman that left 11 worshippers dead, an Israeli government minister and the country’s opposition… Read more »
In the wake of the shootings at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh on Saturday, the Jewish Federation of the Southern Arizona, local synagogues and Jewish agencies are holding a multifaith vigil tonight at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center Sculpture Garden. An email announcement from… Read more »
This is a developing story. (JTA) — The chief medical examiner of Pittsburgh’s Allegheny County released the names of the 11 victims of the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh Saturday. The victims include two brothers, as well as a husband and wife. The youngest victim was 59 and the oldest… Read more »
A havdalah vigil organized by high school students after the shooting drew thousands of people, Oct. 27, 2018. (Ron Kampeas)
PITTSBURGH (JTA) — It is after all, as any local will tell you, Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. People here look out for one another. So when a group of students from Alderdice, a high school in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, emerged from their synagogues, their homes, their cafes after three… Read more »
(JTA) — The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting should be a turning point for the security of American Jewish institutions, a former leader of Belgian Jewry said. Joel Rubinfeld, a former president of the CCOJB umbrella group of Belgian Jewish communities and the current president of the Belgian League Against Anti-Semitism,… Read more »
(JTA) — The shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue that has left 11 people dead has been described as “horrific,” “heinous” and “devastating” by Jewish leaders, politicians and Israeli leaders. “Our hearts are broken,” the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh posted on Facebook, saying it was making an exception and using social media… Read more »
(JTA) — The alleged gunman who killed 11 people and injured six at a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday assailed the Jewish resettlement agency HIAS on his web page and said “I’m going in.” The shooting occurred shortly before 10 a.m. during a bris circumcision ceremony at The Tree of Life,… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Federal authorities arrested a man on Friday in Florida in connection with a series of mail bombs sent to figures who have been the target of President Donald Trump’s rhetoric. The media reported that the man was in his 50s. At least 12 explosive devices have… Read more »
Jon Simon Jazz composer and performer Jon Simon will headline an evening of music and dining on Tuesday, Nov. 27 to launch the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Northwest Division’s annual campaign. Simon tours North America performing selections from his ninth and latest album, “SOAR,” as well as five highly successful… Read more »
