News

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Jair Bolsonaro, an ardently pro-Israel candidate who is highly divisive among Jews for his sometimes politically incorrect rhetoric, won the first round of Brazil’s presidential election and remains the front-runner to lead the Latin American nation. Bolsonaro, a 63-year-old conservative Christian congressman, won 46… Read more »

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The scribbled, shorthand note is faded, but the formal origins of the first modern Jewish state are clear: “H(is) M(ajesty’s) G(overnment) accepts the principle that P(alestine) shld. reconstitute as the Natl. Home of the J(ewish) P(eople) …” Jotted on stationery from London’s Imperial Hotel, the memo… Read more »

Steeped in anti-Semitism accusations involving him and his supporters, British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has made many Jewish enemies — including inside his own party. But one of his most effective critics is not Jewish. He is a meteorology student at the University of Reading who describes himself… Read more »

Oh, if I could count the many discussions my husband and I have had on this topic — multiple times a day on some days. Pros, cons; the list begins. Our house fit us well enough and served its purpose well enough when we bought it 12 years ago.… Read more »

(JTA) — Barring unexpected delays, Silvia Foti is months away from fulfilling an old promise that’s become her life’s work: to write a biography of her late grandfather, who is a national hero in his native Lithuania. Foti, a 60-year-old high school teacher from Chicago, made the pledge to… Read more »

A national expert in multigenerational fundraising will be on hand for the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona 2019 Campaign training next month, dubbed “Inspire and Inquire.” Dirk Bird is a former Wexner Graduate Fellow and a certified trainer at 21/64, a nonprofit practice providing advising, facilitation, and training for family… Read more »

Daniel Asia

The 11th annual Music + Festival at the University of Arizona will focus on the music of Claude Debussy, in commemoration of  the 100th anniversary of his death, and Daniel Asia, in honor of his 65th birthday and 30 years in residence at the UA’s Fred Fox School of… Read more »

An evening of Israeli guitar music and song makes for a great night out. “Something Israelis love to do is sing together. So we’re bringing that Israeli spirit here,” says Tucson’s Weintraub Israel Center Director Amir Eden. The Oct. 7 event is open to the public. Local guest singer… Read more »

Healing literally surrounds you upon entering Tucson Medical Center. The largest single-story hospital in the U.S. has nearly eight miles of hallways that have transformed into an expansive art gallery through the TMC Healing Arts Program, curated by Lauren Rabb who, like many in this story, is a member… Read more »

Not only does Ilene Rosenheim feel like royalty, she was also selected the Arizona State Queen for 2018 by the international weight loss support group Take Off Pounds Sensibly. TOPS founder Esther Manz felt members who achieved weight goals should be treated like royalty. Each year the biggest losers… Read more »

Judith S. Gordon, Ph.D.

The University of Arizona is launching a new guided imagery-based smoking cessation program called the Be Smoke Free program. Led by Interim Associate Dean for Research Judith S. Gordon, Ph.D., the study focuses on retraining a participant’s brain both in the need for nicotine and the habit of smoking… Read more »

The Rose Petal Foundation, in cooperation with the Tucson Jewish Community Center, will present a reading of “Under Midwestern Stars” by local playwright Esther Blumenfeld as the first performance of the Jewish Community Theater of Tucson. Auditions will be held on Sunday, Sept. 30 from 2-6 p.m. in the… Read more »

It’s thrilling to be part of a historical moment when women are stepping into the political arena in record-breaking numbers. They’re tossing their hats into the ring — left, right and center — in national, statewide and local races. It’s an auspicious lead-in for next year’s 100th anniversary of… Read more »

Brandeis National Committee Tucson Chapter kicks off its new year with a fall luncheon and annual book sale in October. The lunch features speaker Billy Russo, managing director of the Arizona Theatre Company. The event, Sunday, Oct. 16 at 11:30 a.m. at the Lodge at Ventana Canyon, is $39… Read more »

The fifth annual Mega Challah Bake, bringing together hundreds of women for an evening of community and instruction in the art and mitzvah of baking challah, a staple of the Shabbat table, will be held Thursday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The event, for… Read more »

Rep. Eliot Engel

The Desert Caucus launches its fifth decade of supporting a strong U.S.-Israel relationship with seven events in Tucson, featuring members of Congress from outside Arizona, planned for 2018-19. The opening fall brunch will feature Rep. Eliot Engel of New York. Founded under the leadership of Tucson businessman Jack Sarver… Read more »

This summer my son Boaz and I traveled to Poland for the great pleasure and privilege of participating in the Ride for the Living, a 55-mile bicycle ride from Auschwitz-Birkenau to the Jewish Community Center of Krakow, Poland, from the scene of the greatest destruction of our people to… Read more »

Allen Langer keeps a photo on his desk of the ship that brought him and his parents from Germany to the United States in 1949, when he was 21 months old; his parents, survivors of the Holocaust, spent four years in the Bergen Belsen Displaced Persons Camp, waiting for… Read more »

(JTA) — Moshe Zonder noticed it quickly: “My students are completely serious. They are writing. They are doing the assignments. All of them. It’s great teaching here.” Zonder shouldn’t be that surprised. For an aspiring screenwriter, who better to study with than the man who wrote the entire first… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) – In the summer of 2011, Yuval Fenta saw two guys tossing a football on the beach in Herzliya. He asked to participate. “You’re too small,” they responded. A dejected Fenta retreated, but not before hearing them mention an American football league that played in Israel.… Read more »