News

KRIMPEN AAN DE IJSSEL, Netherlands (JTA) — For two years, the world’s only seaworthy life-size replica of Noah’s Ark has been wowing passengers traveling along Holland’s Maas River. Built according to the specifications detailed in the Hebrew Bible, the 390-foot-long vessel towers to a height of 75 feet. It… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is just one of 435 members of the incoming U.S. House of Representatives, but her youth, surprise primary win in her Bronx-area district, socialism and, above all, outspokenness have attracted outsize attention. So when Ocasio-Cortez, 29, likened the crisis at the U.S. border with… Read more »

(JTA) — Israel’s official Jewish religious authority has published a list of rabbis it trusts to perform Jewish conversions. They are all Orthodox. Advocates for religious reform in Israel said the publication of the list of 69 rabbinical courts was a mixed bag: While they are happy to see… Read more »

(Israel Hayom via JNS) In what was the first ever address by a Czech leader to Israel’s legislative body, President Miloš Zeman sent a message of “solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people” to the Knesset on Monday. Among those in attendance at the historic speech were Israeli President… Read more »

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(JTA) — Teresa Shook says she likes to work “behind the scenes.” But this week, the woman who co-founded the Women’s March thrust herself front and center by calling its leadership to step down. Shook, a grandmother from the remote Hawaiian town of Hana, posted the Facebook event that… Read more »

The Tucson Jewish Community Center is hosting a Chanukah Cantata on Dec. 8 at 7:30 p.m. that will feature cantors and other vocalists from multiple congregations across Tucson and the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra in a special telling of the Hanukkah story. Robert Lopez-Hanshaw, musical director at Temple Emanu-El,… Read more »

Congratulations to the winners of the 2018 Arizona Jewish Post Hanukkah art contest. All of the submissions were outstanding and conveyed the symbols of the holiday with warmth and love. First place winners Alex Erbst (age 6, Tucson Hebrew Academy), Luke and Hunter Meislin (twins, age 7, Manzanita Elementary… Read more »

A new program coordinated by the Tucson Hebrew Academy and the Tucson Jewish Community Center is crafting leaders out of fourth- grade students. In the Madrichim (leaders) program, the THA students visit the Tucson J to teach preschoolers about the importance of upcoming holidays. Gabby Erbst, THA director of admissions… Read more »

Netiv Ha’asara, a moshav (cooperative farming community) northwest of Israel’s Negev, in the Hof Ashkelon region, is part of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona partnership area. With pastoral charm and fragrant lemon trees, lush gardens hug its 250 cozy homes near the Mediterranean coast. In the shadow of… Read more »

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of four articles on how the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona allocates funds. The first, in the Oct. 12 issue, focused on youth and family education programs at synagogues. Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona applies a Planning and Allocation process… Read more »

Guitar virtuoso Estas Tonne makes his way to Tucson on Dec. 9 to perform at the Rialto Theatre as part of his first U.S. tour, hot on the heels of a 10-city international tour. Although Tonne has lived in America before, “The Breath of Sound” tour is his first… Read more »

Each year, Art City provides more than 200 youth in Kiryat Malachi and Hof Ashkelon, Israel, an opportunity for professional development in the performing arts. The program contributes to the community and region with cultural and social activities, empowering youth with a sense of belonging, and using creativity to… Read more »

The recent Weintraub Israel Center annual mission to Israel did not only build community bridges; it also mended a bridge between a local family and long-lost family members with origins in Russia. Bonnie Shore-Dombrowski, a Tucson attorney, was joined on the October trip by her two sisters, Debby Shore… Read more »

(JTA) — Linda Sarsour released a statement apologizing on behalf of the Women’s March for causing harm to the movement’s Jewish members and for being too slow to show its commitment to fighting anti-Semitism. “We should have been faster and clearer in helping people understand our values and our… Read more »

(JTA) — Less than one year after the election of Sebastian Kurz as Austria’s leader, he has taken his government to the forefront of the fight against Europe’s spiraling anti-Semitism problem. Frequently criticized for failing to own up to Nazi persecution, Austria with Kurz as chancellor has become an international… Read more »

The Jewish History Museum is currently showing “Call Me Rohingya,” an exhibition that illuminates the persecution of Rohingya people, an ethnic minority in Burma, through the photographic works of Andrew Stanbridge. Staged in the Allen and Marianne Langer Contemporary Human Rights Gallery in the Gould Family Holocaust History Center… Read more »

The 1st Rate 2nd Hand Thrift Store, Southern Arizona’s only Jewish thrift store, will hold its “Best Of” event on Thursday, Nov. 29, 6-8 p.m. The event will feature select merchandise, snacks and wine, and music by Birks Works. Held twice a year, the “Best Of” events are a… Read more »

Ian Merles

Hadassah Southern Arizona will honor its 2018 Woman of the Year, install officers for 2019 and recognize its annual supporters at a luncheon on Dec. 9. Ian Merles, the annual giving officer for Hadassah West Coast Region, will be the guest speaker. Honey Manson will install the new slate… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — The advance copies of Deborah Lipstadt’s new book, “Antisemitism Here and Now,” display a cover photo of white supremacist carrying a tiki torch. But that iconic image of the August 2017 white power rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, could now be replaced by another one: Police… Read more »