JERUSALEM (JTA) — The idea came to Yotam Gross as a commander in the Givati Brigade following 2014’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza: Instead of heading back to school after his Israeli military service, he wanted to spend his days bringing people together over warm plates of hummus… Read more »
News
Ten writers not named Roth capturing the female American Jewish experience
Philip Roth, a literary giant, passed away May 22 at age 85. As Charles McGrath wrote in his obituary in The New York Times, “he was drawn again and again to writing about themes of Jewish identity, anti-Semitism and the Jewish experience in America.” But what Roth provided, of… Read more »
Tucson chefs reveal the spices and condiments that make their dishes sing
In celebration of all that makes Tucson’s food scene sizzle, the AJP recently asked several local chefs and restaurant owners to talk about their favorite spices or condiments. Turmeric, which gives dishes a lovely golden color and a delicious, pungent flavor, also is good for you, says Mintu Sareen,… Read more »
Evenchik-Brav to be honored as woman of valor at Lion of Judah conference
Deanna Evenchik-Brav will be the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona recipient of the 2019 Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award, which will be presented at the International Lion of Judah Conference in January 2019 in Miami, Florida. The award honors women who have set a high standard for philanthropy and volunteerism. It was… Read more »
‘No need to say I’m sorry’
The Weintraub Israel Center, in partnership with Tucson Hebrew Academy and local synagogues as part of its school twinning program, sent a group of educators to Israel this week. On Tuesday, the group was visiting the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s partners in Hof Ashkelon and Kiryat Malachi, which… Read more »
‘Garden of Hope’ plan blossoms at Tucson Jewish Community Center
It is forbidden to live in a city that does not have a garden or greenery – Mishnah Kiddushin 4:12 Gan Tikvah, the Garden of Hope, will be a contemplative oasis designed with the concept of intentionality, and a healing extension from the Tucson Jewish Community Center Sculpture Garden.… Read more »
Free JFCS seminars will examine effect of traumatic memories on older adults
Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona will present a free two-part training series this month for all those who care for older adults and want to understand how past emotional experiences affect both the people in their care and themselves. The target audience for “Person Centered Trauma… Read more »
Israel Scouts show coming to Tucson Jewish Community Center
The Tzofim (Israel Scouts) Friendship Caravan national tour will stop in Tucson with a free concert of song and dance on Monday, June 18 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The scouts also will perform at Camp J on the morning of June 18 and at… Read more »
Jewish community agencies tap top volunteers for honors at awards event
This is part two of a series on the Jewish agency volunteers who received 2018 Special Recognition Awards at the Jewish Community Awards Celebration, organized by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, held May 10 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Ellis Friedman, Tucson Hebrew Academy A native of… Read more »
Tucson’s Lions of Judah explore the Jewish side of Italy
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Lion of Judah women’s group spent an action-packed nine days visiting the highlights of Italy on a recent tour. Tandy Kippur was instrumental in planning the late-April trip. “Italy was chosen because of the welcoming atmosphere, the beautiful people . . . and… Read more »
FIRST PERSON Elaine Holstein, last surviving parent of the four Kent State shooting victims, dies at 96
(JTA)– For nearly half a century, Elaine Holstein was periodically confronted with one of the most haunting images in modern American history: the bone-chilling picture of Kent State University student Jeffrey Miller lying on the pavement seconds after being fatally shot in the mouth by an Ohio National Guardsman… Read more »
For reporters covering Gaza, charges of bias overshadow the stories they witness and tell
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Of the more than 60 deaths that occurred during the recent clashes between Israel and Palestinians at the Gaza border, none was as divisive as that of Layla Ghandour. Ghandour, an 8-month-old girl, died after an uncle, himself only 12, brought her to the edge of the… Read more »
Who killed a Polish Holocaust hero? His family may be close to finding out.
(JTA) — Josef Kopf survived Sobibor by killing a guard and staging the first successful escape from that death camp in Poland, where the Nazis murdered 250,000 Jews. But Kopf, whose unlikely escape in 1943 preceded by several months a full-scale uprising at Sobibor, did not live to see Nazi… Read more »
NY hospital says Hasidic group sought inappropriate role in health care decisions
NEW YORK (JTA) — One of this city’s largest hospitals has accused a Hasidic group that visits sick patients of lying about the hospital’s policy to limit access by volunteers to patient floors and rooms. Dr. Andrew Brotman, senior vice president and vice dean for clinical affairs at… Read more »
Congress wants to define anti-Semitism for you. Here’s how that can get messy.
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Republican and Democratic lawmakers are lining up behind a bill that would define anti-Semitism. The measure introduced Thursday by Reps. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., who is Jewish, and Pete Roskam, R-Ill., a leader on pro-Israel issues in the U.S. House of Representatives, at first looks like a… Read more »
Hasidic volunteers, kicked out of a major NY hospital, blame a clash over medical ethics
NEW YORK (JTA) — For years, volunteers from the Satmar hasidic movement have fanned out daily across the city, boarding private buses and carrying bags full of kosher food cooked each morning (except Saturday) at the organization’s commercial kitchen in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Members of the Satmar Bikur Cholim go to a… Read more »
Know your oligarch: A guide to the Jewish machers in the Russia probe
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The special prosecutor’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election offers an unsettling journey for anyone steeped in Russian Jewry, and the transition from the repression of the former Soviet Union to the relative freedoms of the Russian Federation. Of 10 billionaires with Kremlin ties… Read more »
Banned from marrying interfaith couples, Conservative rabbis are finding other ways to celebrate them
NEW YORK (JTA) — Emily Schorr Lesnick and Jamila Humphrie always knew that Judaism would play a part in the life they wanted to build together. But experiences with Conservative Jewish institutions had made the couple feel less than welcome. Schorr Lesnick, 28, remembers encountering homophobia at her Jewish… Read more »
As night falls, Jerusalem’s old-school Jewish market transforms into a hipster hangout
JERUSALEM (JTA) — In another life, Kobi Frig would have been sitting behind vats of spices in Jerusalem’s bustling, labyrinthine Mahane Yehuda market, hawking paprika, zaatar and cinnamon like his grandfather and father did before him. Instead, Frig obeyed his father’s wishes, went to college, and started a chain… Read more »
Philip Roth, enfant terrible turned peerless chronicler of American Jewish life, is dead at 85
(JTA) — Philip Roth, whose notorious novels about the sex drives of American men gave way to some of the most probing examinations of the American Jewish condition in the 20th and 21st centuries, has died. He was 85. His death was confirmed to The New York Times by… Read more »