(JTA) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sissi to discuss how to revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, along with other shared concerns. Meeting in Cairo Wednesday, Kerry “expressed his appreciation for recent statement of strong support for advancing Arab-Israeli peace,” State Department spokesman… Read more »
News
New hard-line defense minister said to join Israeli government in surprise turn to right
Avigdor Liberman speaking at a news conference in the Israeli parliament, May 18, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — The unity government was about to form: Likud and Labor, right and left, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Isaac Herzog. Then, according to media reports, Netanyahu swung to the right and instead embraced an old partner: Avigdor Liberman, head of the hard-line… Read more »
JWI Interfaith Coalition urges Congress to protect domestic violence and stalking victims
Washington, D.C. – Today, people from diverse spiritual backgrounds will call, email, and tweet congressional representatives and senators, urging them to close a dangerous loophole in current gun laws. This call to action was spearheaded by Jewish Women International’s Interfaith Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence — a group of 36 faiths… Read more »
Detroit Jews ask: Are targeted Israel boycotts the same as BDS?
The Detroit skyline (Wikimedia Commons)
(JTA) — For the second year in a row, the Detroit area’s Walk for Israel has rebuffed the sponsorship of left-wing pro-Israel groups because of their support for boycotting settlements. At the heart of the dispute is a question of definitions: Is support of a boycott targeting Jewish enterprises beyond… Read more »
Beating health scares, Jonathan Sarna seals status as rock star Jewish historian
Jonathan Sarna at Brandeis University, his undergraduate alma mater and where he has taught for more than 25 years, May 10, 2016. (Uriel Heilman)
WALTHAM, Mass. (JTA) – When Jonathan Sarna was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 1999 at the age of 44, it changed his life. Already a highly regarded historian at Brandeis University, Sarna was in the midst of writing his seminal study of American Jewish history when he realized with… Read more »
Netanyahu keeps calling for talks with Abbas. Is he serious?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, shaking hands with Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Yair Golan, and standing with President Reuven Rivlin, at an Israeli Independence Day ceremony honoring soldiers, May 12, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — For a leader often accused of not wanting to talk peace with the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sure does a lot of talking about wanting to talk to the Palestinians. In a series of three statements this month, Netanyahu repeatedly stressed the need… Read more »
In D.C., Tucson’s unique Jewish-Latino Teen Coalition advocates for the poor
Members of Tucson’s Jewish-Latino Teen Coalition with Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) in her office on April 13, 2016. (L-R): Samantha Ybarra, Sayanna Molino (chaperone), Emma Galligan, Slaughter, Zoe Holtzman, Michael Artzi, Sophie Gootter, Joshua Cohen, Aaron Gomez, Shari Gootter (program coordinator), Alexander Senti, Daniel Vogel, David Bracamonte (Courtesy Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona)
“For me, it all came together when we were sitting in Sen. Cruz’s office, speaking to his chief of staff, and I realize that it’s this clash of strong opinions, this is why solutions to our most pressing social problems are so hard to find.” Strong words coming from… Read more »
Hadassah to celebrate Jerusalem Day with wine tasting, Iran nuclear update
Carolynn Scherer Katz Hadassah Southern Arizona will celebrate Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) with “A Taste of Gold,” a kosher wine tasting with snacks on Sunday, June 5, 4-6 p.m. at Catavinos, 3063 N. Alvernon Way. Carolynn Scherer Katz, regional advisor for Hadassah, will speak on the recent Iran nuclear agreement and its… Read more »
Art, video at Handmaker to mark success of ‘Tracing Roots’
Sharon Glassberg, left, director of the Coalition for Jewish Education at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, views internet research with Natalie Feldman, a Tucson Hebrew High student, and Gloria Lindsman, a resident at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, as part of the “Tracing Roots and Building Trees” program, April 17 at Handmaker. (Karen Schaffner/AJP)
On a recent Sunday afternoon, 15-year-old Erika Spivack sat next to 93-year-old Betty Light, searching online for any information she could find about Light. First stop: ancestry.com, where she unearthed an item as valuable as any buried treasure. “Did you go to East High School in Denver?” Spivack asked… Read more »
SEEKING KIN 3 decades later, remembering some special Sabbaths
Hillel Kuttler, right, and Avraham Rechtshafer meeting at a Jerusalem pizza shop for the first time since the mid-1980s. (Hillel Kuttler)
The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends. JERUSALEM (JTA) – On a pleasant evening in this capital city, through the near darkness, I caught his wave from a half-block away. Soon we were standing together, smiling and clasping hands, two men who hadn’t seen… Read more »
At home in London, French Jews dread vote on leaving the EU
A menorah is lit in London's Trafalgar Square to mark the beginning of Hanukkah, Dec. 20, 2011. (Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images)
LONDON (JTA) — Less than two years after he moved his family from Paris to London, David Herz is already feeling at home in the United Kingdom. The co-founder of a communications agency, Herz is among thousands of French Jews who moved across the channel in recent years. He says… Read more »
Synagogue condos: If you lived here, you could be praying by now
The penthouse at 415 E. Sixth St., which will sit atop the historic Anshei Meseritz synagogue. (Courtesy of East River Partners)
NEW YORK (JTA) — If there’s one story that sums up the changes afoot on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a once heavily Jewish neighborhood, it’s the saga surrounding the Anshei Meseritz synagogue. The Orthodox shul at 415 E. Sixth St. is a relic of a time… Read more »
Smuggled out of ghetto, newly discovered photo trove turns out to be family of famous American scholars
After a documentary photographer stumbled upon Anushka Warshawski's photo album, it took some sleuthing to figure out who she was. (Courtesy of Richard Schofield)
NEW YORK (JTA) – When documentary photographer Richard Schofield stumbled upon a trove of unidentified prewar photographs in September 2013 in the storage room of the Sugihara House museum in Kaunas, Lithuania, he knew he had found something special. The photos, dating from about 1910 through 1940, were from a… Read more »
For Dutch property owners, Holocaust commemoration begins at home
Yvonne van Gennep-Bouma, left, tells visitors about a Jewish family that once lived at what is now her home in The Hague, May 1, 2016. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (JTA) — After Yvonne van Gennep-Bouma discovered that Holocaust victims used to live in what is now her home, she began to think about them constantly. At night, van Gennep-Bouma imagined the former occupants preparing to turn in. And in the morning, she wondered where they had… Read more »
Orthodox activists and victims asking NY to change sex abuse reporting laws
Orthodox activists, like these protesting outside a Brooklyn yeshiva, are asking institutions to do more to report and investigate allegations of child sexual and physical abuse. (Courtesy of Chaim Levin)
NEW YORK (JTA) – Advocates for sexual abuse victims in the Orthodox Jewish community will be descending on New York’s state capital on May 3 to lobby the legislature to eliminate the statute of limitations for child sex abuse offenses. A bill to change the statute of limitations… Read more »
‘Bad Jews’ probes identity with comic twist
(L to R) Shira Maas, Jeremy Vega, Beth May and Luka Vonier star in Arizona Onstage Productions’ “Bad Jews.”
Arizona Onstage Productions will present “Bad Jews,” a dark comedy by Joshua Harmon, at the Temple of Music and Art Cabaret Space for three weekends beginning Friday, May 6. “Bad Jews” pits Daphna Feygenbaum, a “real Jew” with an Israeli boyfriend, against her cousin Liam after the death of… Read more »
WWII film echoes role of Tucsonan’s parents
A scene from “Walking with the Enemy,’ directed by Mark Schmidt (Courtesy Liberty Studios)
The Tucson International Jewish Film Festival and the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will present a free screening of “Walking with the Enemy” on Thursday, May 5 at 6:30 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Tucsonan I. Michael Kasser will introduce the film, which is set in Hungary… Read more »
JFSA to hold ‘Platinum Edition’ of annual awards celebration
Shelly Silverman (left) and Stuart Shatken are the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona's Woman and Man of the Year
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will launch a year of 70th anniversary celebrations at its annual meeting and awards celebration on Wednesday, May 11. The “Feddys Platinum Edition” event will be held at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Heading the list of those who will… Read more »
Chefs bringing flavors of Israel to Tucson festivities
(L-R) Chefs Yael Shamir, Maya Klein, Orli Varon Shushan and Sahar Refael from the Weintraub Israel Center’s Partnership2Gether region in Israel will spend a week in Tucson. (Courtesy Weintraub Israel Center)
Four celebrity chefs from Israel will arrive in Tucson next month for the third annual Tucson Celebrates Israel Week, May 9-15. “Food is known to be a great bridge between people and cultures,” says Oshrat Barel, director of the Weintraub Israel Center, which organizes the festivities. Chefs Orli Varon… Read more »
Tucson students place in top 5 in Israeli tournament
(L-R) Gregory School students Daniel Leighou, Elaine Wright, Jaiveer Katariya, Moritz Gloesslein and Tianyi Zhu, with teacher Dennis Conner, took fourth place in the International Shalhevet Freier Physics Tournament at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel.
Earlier this month, a team of talented physics students from Tucson’s Gregory School placed fourth in the world in the April 5-6 International Shalhevet Freier Physics Tournament at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, where they displayed their outstanding skills in high-tech safecracking. Israel is an international leader in… Read more »
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