(Rachel Ringler)
This story originally appeared on The Nosher. You’ve probably heard of cheesecake or blintzes as traditional foods to enjoy for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, but get ready to fall in love with a cheese-filled carb treat you have never heard of: Bessarabian cheese buns. This family recipes come… Read more »
Newly ordained Rabbi Daniel Atwood is congratulated by Rabbi Daniel Landes at the Jerusalem Theater on May 26, 2019. (Sam Sokol)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A gay rabbinical student denied ordination by a liberal seminary in New York was welcomed into the rabbinate in Jerusalem, breaking a longstanding taboo against homosexuality in the Orthodox community. Daniel Landes, a prominent American-Israeli rabbi, granted semichah, Hebrew for ordination, to Daniel Atwood alongside a… Read more »
Updated with new date, July 14, on June 5, 2019. The Tucson Jewish Community Center will hold its “One Day Adult Summer Camp — Color War Edition” on Sunday, July 14, building off last year’s successful event. The camp, which will begin at 9:30 a.m. with check-in and a… Read more »
Maxwell Greenberg The Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center will welcome its first scholar-in-residence, Maxwell Greenberg of the University of California, Los Angeles, later this month. Greenberg, a doctoral candidate in UCLA’s Cesar E. Chavez Department of Chicano/a Studies, will discuss his research in the museum’s final gallery chat for the season,… Read more »
Phish performs on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," Oct. 10, 2016. The band members are, from left: Page McConnell on keyboard, Trey Anastasio on guitar, Jon Fishman (barely pictured) on drums and Mike Gordon on bass. (Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank)
(JTA) — Gary Stein remembers the first time someone played a Phish song for him in high school. It was “Divided Sky,” an intricate 11-minute tune that shows off the group’s diverse jam rock chops. Stein, who’s now a 30-year-old history doctoral student living in Los Angeles, quickly became… Read more »
Shalva Band with Eurovision Host Bar Refaeli
An emotional performance by the Shalva Band at Thursday’s Eurovision Song Contest semifinal earned widespread praise from viewers in Israel and abroad, who hailed the band for its message of inclusivity and acceptance. Last Thursday, the Shalva Band, as guest artists, performed the song A Million Dreams”. Following their… Read more »
Pantone’s color of the year, Living Coral, works equally well in fashion and home décor.
Whether in psychedelic hues or more muted pastel tones, tie-dye is one of the hot trends for summer 2019, according to Cosmopolitan magazine. Tie-dye hit the runway on sneakers, jeans, and even a breezy slip dress. Cosmopolitan also sees fringe popping up everywhere, whether on skirts or the straps… Read more »
Tots celebrate Israel’s 71st birthday with Tucson shinshiniyot (Israeli teen emissaries) Rotem Rappoport (left) and Ron Benacot.
More than 250 people attended a celebration of Israel’s 71st birthday on Sunday, April 28, at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, enjoying food, music, an artisan fair, kids’ activities and Israeli film shorts. The Weintraub Israel Center, a program of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Tucson… Read more »
Filmmaker Judy Ben-Asher and her Truthseeker alter-ego, Jude. (Photo courtesy Judy Ben-Asher)
Documentaries, feature films, and animation in production by native Tucsonan Judy Ben-Asher’s Starry Sky Films focus on her discoveries about health and wellness. “These are all passion projects with the cohesive thread to uplift and educate, resolve misinformation, and find answers,” she says. The “Truthseeker®” documentary film follows Ben-Asher’s… Read more »
Kate Stewart, the lead archivist at the Arizona Historical Society in Tucson, profiles the life of librarian Ruth Rappaport in her first biography, “A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport,” released this spring by Little A Publishing. Rappaport grew up in Nazi Germany, reading banned… Read more »
Ari Slater, left, and Sean Cronin after a Reveille Men’s Chorus outreach performance in November. (Photo courtesy Ari Slater)
Ari Slater will be lifting his voice as part of the Reveille Men’s Chorus when they present “Bless Our Show(tunes)” this weekend. Slater, office assistant at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, says he started out singing for fun at the Thursday night piano bar at the Dusty Monk,… Read more »
A new site offers mourners a way to have someone say Kaddish for their loved ones. (Screenshot from kaddish.com)
NEW YORK (JTA) — In his most recent novel, “kaddish.com,” Nathan Englander imagines a website that a character — encumbered by Jewish guilt — uses to hire someone to say the traditional mourner’s prayer for his late father. In interviews, the author has said the idea was inspired by the… Read more »
(Collage by Emily Burack/JTA)
This story originally appeared on The Nosher. It is rare that I do anything these days without a podcast for company: cooking, walking the dog and, yes, falling asleep. They are, I suppose, the millennial equivalent of having the radio murmuring softly in the background. And just like radio,… Read more »
"Ask Dr. Ruth" chronicles the life of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a Holocaust survivor who became America's most famous sex therapist. (Austin Hargrave)
(JTA) — Judging by all the media attention, the world loves short Jewish women named Ruth. One of them, Ruth Westheimer — better known as the renowned sex therapist Dr. Ruth — is on the phone to talk about her life and a new documentary about it. But first… Read more »
The logo of the Eurovision Song Contest is displayed during the 2019 national selection show, in Kiev, Ukraine, Feb. 23, 2019. (STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(JTA) —It’s glitzy. It’s kitschy. It’s like a musical Olympics or “American Idol” on steroids. Welcome to the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual pageant in which all of Europe (and some of its neighbors) send national representatives to compete for the best forgettable pop song and most unforgettable outfits.… Read more »
Workers build the stage of the Eurovision Song Contest at Expo Tel Aviv in the Israeli coastal city, April 15, 2019. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — When Israel won the right to host this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, the event was anticipated as a golden opportunity to showcase a side of the nation rarely seen in global coverage of the “conflict.” Then the rockets began to fall. Over the weekend, Hamas… Read more »
Amelia Bande, Jeanne Vaccaro
In the past year, the Jewish History Museum has continued conversations started by its “Invisibility & Resistance: Violence Against LGBTQIA+ People” exhibit, which was on display in the Holocaust History Center’s Contemporary Human Rights space from September 2017 through May 2018. Along with continuing to highlight violence, JHM programs… Read more »
Invisible Theatre Managing Artistic Director Susan Claassen, left (in hat) and Pastime Players students and teachers at their 2018 performance at Doolen Middle School. (Photo courtesy Invisible Theatre)
The Invisible Theatre’s Pastime Players, an award-winning, multi-disciplinary arts education program for mentally and physically challenged students, will present a free performance of “The Me Inside of Me” on Wednesday, May 8 at 7 p.m. at Doolen Middle School, 2400 N. Country Club Road. Pastime Players started as a… Read more »
Anne Lowe, left, and Elizabeth L. Fox Anne Lowe of Tucson and Elizabeth L. Fox of Boulder, Colorado, will present their recently published books at Hadassah Southern Arizona’s brunch on Sunday, May 5. In “A Touch of Torah,” Lowe shares reflections on being Jewish as she tries to grasp the intricacies of Torah. Inspired by the… Read more »
Orit Bashkin In the 1950s, 123,000 Iraqi Jews arrived in Israel. Harsh conditions and a shared background united them. Orit Bashkin, Ph.D., a University of Chicago associate professor of modern Middle Eastern history, will highlight this era in the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies’ 2019 Jeffrey Plevan Memorial Lecture, “Israeli Babylonians:… Read more »
