Camp JRF has embraced inclusivity since its founding, with activities that rarely divide up the boys and the girls. (Courtesy of Camp JRF)
WHIPPANY, N.J. (New Jersey Jewish News via JTA) — Bathrooms accessible for transgender children and staff are old news at Camp JRF, the Reconstructionist movement’s summer camp in South Sterling, Pa. Five years ago the camp posted signs on bathroom doors stating “This bathroom may be used by any… Read more »
Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders greet each other at the CNN presidential debate in Brooklyn, N.Y., April 14, 2016. (Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Acknowledging for the first time that he will not be the Democratic presidential nominee, Bernie Sanders said he was not yet ready to endorse Hillary Clinton. In an expansive interview aired June 22 on C-Span, Sanders said he hoped to speak at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia… Read more »
Writer Calvin Trillin, center, interviewing John Lewis in Birmingham, Ala., as the Freedom Riders were boarding the bus for Montgomery in 1961. (LIFE Images Collection)
(JTA) — Writer Calvin Trillin may be most famous today for his humorous musings on food, family, travel and love. But before he won the Thurber Prize for Humor in 2013; before “Uncivil Liberties,” his humor column for The Nation — he has lovingly called it “a pinko magazine published… Read more »
Rep. Jerry Nadler speaking at a town hall in New York City, Oct. 14, 2015. (Mike Coppola/WireImage for NARAS)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Rep. Jerry Nadler, a graduate of the Crown Heights Yeshiva who represents one of the country’s most Jewish congressional districts and is the co-founder of the congressional Israel Working Group, likely never expected to be called anti-Israel. But the 12-term incumbent’s Democratic primary challenger, Oliver… Read more »
Eve Goldberg, whose son died of an opioid overdose in 2013, now runs an organization in his memory that seeks to create a community of young adults recovering from addiction. (Ben Sales)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Eve Goldberg’s son, Isaac, was in a panic. He had to get out of college. Isaac Goldberg Volkmar had been at the University of Rhode Island for less than a semester in 2009 when he called his mother desperate to escape. He had joined a… Read more »
A slim majority of British citizens have voted to leave the European Union. (Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images)
Great Britain and the rest of Europe woke up to a new reality Friday as a slim majority of British voters said their country should leave the European Union. Markets trembled, British currency crashed and British Prime Minister David Cameron announced his pending resignation. It was a major blow to an alliance… Read more »
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in London after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, June 24, 2016. (Rob Stothard/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Only a week ago, Jeremy Corbyn seemed to have survived his biggest public relations debacle as the leader of Britain’s Labour Party: the proliferation of anti-Semitic rhetoric among its members. Yet this week, the British vote to leave the European Union achieved what Corbyn’s opponents failed to… Read more »
Israel Biton and Danit Yona, camp counselors from Israel, at the Tucson Jewish Community Center (Courtesy Weintraub Israel Center0
Danit Yona, 22, one of two Israelis working as counselors at the Tucson Jewish Community Center’s Camp J this summer, says she learned her nearly flawless, American-accented English from watching TV shows like “Full House,” “Family Matters” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” after school. “I also had a… Read more »
Maury Lipowich tends his plot at the Shay-Shay Community Garden at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. (Courtesy Maury Lipowich)
At the Shay-Shay Community Garden at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, enthusiastic amateur gardeners tend sunflowers, enormous squash, cherry tomatoes, spiky artichokes and other bounty. The 23 plots opened for use in mid-March, says site coordinator Susanne Kaplan, who has served on the board of the nonprofit Community Gardens… Read more »
Barbara Mannlein and her husband, Martin, use color-coded kitchen tools: red for meat, blue for dairy and green for pareve. (Martin Mannlein)
The Jewish dietary laws, termed kashrut, are many and complex. According to the Torah and the Talmud, Jews may not mix meat and dairy, and may eat only fish with scales and fins, and meat from ruminants with cloven hooves. Pareve — foods containing neither meat nor dairy, including… Read more »
Temple Emanu-El eighth grade students tend one of the Gan Project garden beds. (Courtesy Temple Emanu-El WRJ)
Temple Emanu-El’s Gan (garden) Project is growing — thanks to a $2,000 incubator grant from the Women of Reform Judaism to the WRJ of Temple Emanu-El. Temple Emanu-El was among the first to receive these grants, which range from $500 to $5,000. They were awarded to “outside the box”… Read more »
Rocky Martinez painted the “Goddess of Agave” mural on the Benjamin Supply building at 440 N. 7th Ave. (Photo: David J. Del Grande ; Mural © 2016 Rocky Martinez/Tucson Arts Brigade)
Eight colorful new murals scattered around downtown will do more than beautify Tucson — they’ll provide an economic boost by helping to brand Tucson as an exotic, world class destination, and by reducing the money spent on graffiti abatement, says Michael B. Schwartz, director of the nonprofit Tucson Arts… Read more »
“A Creature That Doesn’t Understand What He Really Is” by Curt Kiwak Curt Kiwak will exhibit “Monsters Under the Bed,” works on paper, in the Fine Art Gallery of the Tucson Jewish Community Center, July 8-Sept. 6. An artist’s reception will be held on Sunday, Aug.28 from 2-4 p.m. Born in Chicago, Kiwak attended the Art Institute in Chicago. He moved… Read more »
The Greater Tucson Fire Foundation will host an information session about the Emergency Volunteer Project, an opportunity for professional volunteer opportunities in Israel, on Sunday, June 26, from 2-4 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The project’s mission is to recruit, train and deploy dedicated individuals who will… Read more »
THA trip participants head to the Dead Sea. Front row (L-R): Rabbi Billy Lewkowicz, Lulu Youngerman, Eva Prouty; back: Head of School Jon Ben-Asher, Moshe Rast, guide Yakov Lopez, Katie Kanter, Ana Rosman, Lucila Thal, Janae Newhouse-Waine, Danika Selmon (Courtesey Jon Ben-Asher)
As Louisa (Lulu) Youngerman waded effortlessly in the Dead Sea, making playful attempts to reach its bed, she was awestruck by the experience. “This is everything that I heard about and more,” says Lulu. “This is magical.” Lulu attended the Tucson Hebrew Academy from kindergarten through eighth grade, and… Read more »
Lt. Shachar, Israel's first transgender officer, addresses a pride event at Israel's embassy in Washington, D.C., June 20, 2016. (Ron Kampeas)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – When Shachar was 2 years old, she asked her parents to keep her hair short. When she was 5, she asked them to throw out every skirt in her closet. When Shachar was 16, he realized he was a boy, and when he was 19 he got… Read more »
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signing an executive order directing the divestment of public funds supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel, at the Harvard Club in New York City, June 5, 2016. (Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)
NEW YORK (JTA) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order opposing BDS shouldn’t have made a splash — but it did. A handful of states had already passed similar measures opposing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. So had the New York State Senate — though… Read more »
Akiva Neuman, an Orthodox Jew who is studying to be a rabbi, competes in the Philadelphia qualifying round of “American Ninja Warrior.” (Mitchell Leff/NBC)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Like his fellow competitors on “American Ninja Warrior,” 25-year-old Akiva Neuman pushed himself to his physical limits — climbing, jumping and running through an intense obstacle course — in the hopes of making it to the national finals in Las Vegas. But unlike the dozens… Read more »
(Courtesy Erez Kashi)
Orlando, FL (TPS) – An Israeli-American took to the sky over Orlando last Wednesday, just a few days after the massacre at a local gay club by a self-declared ISIS sympathizer, to fly an airplane banner reading: “America! Israel Feels Your Pain.” After hearing of the massacre that claimed… Read more »
Falafel wars in Paris: Who's got the better balls?
Yomi Peretz, right, approaching a line of tourists waiting to place their orders at L'As Du Fallafel in the historic Jewish quarter of Paris, April 2012. (WikiMedia Commons)
PARIS (JTA) — On a crowded sidewalk in the French capital, Yomi Peretz exchanges jokes and backslaps with customers who are waiting in a 20-yard queue in the rain to enter his falafel shop. This chummy interaction comes naturally to Peretz, a tall enthusiast of boxing and poker who… Read more »
