Gil Mann JFSA-NW to host ‘Jewish Dear Abby’ If you’re on the fence about attending “Sex, G-d, Christians and Jews: Struggling with Jewish Identity Today,” keynote speaker Gil Mann makes this promise: “I pretty much am positive that anyone who comes to this program will come out thinking a little differently… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting the scene of a deadly shooting in Tel Aviv the night after the attack, Jan. 2, 2016. (Haim Zach/GPO)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the site of a deadly attackhere the night after the shooting, his words were perceived by some as more offensive than comforting. After expressing condolences to the families of the victims and welcoming condemnations from the Arab-Israeli community,… Read more »
The National Council approved a suggestion to construct a new community for the Druze in Israel on Tuesday morning, January 5. The initiative has been greatly supported by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since November 2012 when a decision was taken to establish such a community. The town, the first… Read more »
The United States reportedly eavesdropped on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials in part because of the Iran nuclear deal. (Marc Israel Sellem/Pool)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — At first blush, it appears like a bombshell: The United States listened in on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s phone calls. But on closer examination, the revelations reported Dec. 29 by The Wall Street Journal might not be so far reaching. Spying on allies is both routine and… Read more »
Rabbi Berel Lazar speaking at the Kremlin, Dec. 8, 2015. (Courtesy of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia)
MOSCOW (JTA) — Like many tourists in Red Square, I have often wondered what lies beyond the tall walls that separate this Moscow attraction from the Kremlin, the official residence of Russia’s president and the nerve center of the state. As a journalist long obsessed with Russia, I’ve wanted… Read more »
Rabbi Avidan Milevsky, gesturing, leads a Sunday morning Talmud class after services at Kesher Israel in Washington, D.C., Dec. 20, 2015. (Uriel Heilman)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Though it’s been more than a year since Rabbi Barry Freundel was hauled away in handcuffs for installing secret cameras at his synagogue’s mikvah, his crime still casts a shadow over his longtime Orthodox congregation, Kesher Israel. Three civil lawsuits are pending against Kesher by women… Read more »
An Israeli man scavenging for food, June 24, 2015. Israel has among the highest food prices among advanced democracies, a recent study found. (Nati Shohat/Flash 90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — It has the highest poverty rate among affluent democracies, the fourth-worst income inequality and the seventh-lowest government spending on social services. Those are among the dismal conclusions of the State of the Nation report, an annual set of papers on Israel’s economy and society released… Read more »
Alan Gross opens up about surviving Cuban prison, selfies
Alan Gross displaying his Cuban cigars at his apartment in Washington, D.C., Dec. 23, 2015. (Suzanne Pollak/Washington Jewish Week)
(Washington Jewish Week via JTA) – Since being imprisoned in Cuba six years ago, Alan Gross says his life has been “surreal.” He feels disassociated from the causes of his five-year incarceration and from the resulting fame. He was locked up largely because of U.S.-Cuba relations, he says, and… Read more »
Ellen Gerecht, executive director of the National Center to Encourage Judaism, at her office in Silver Spring, Maryland, Dec. 29, 2015. (Suzanne Pollak/Washington Jewish Week)
(Washington Jewish Week via JTA) — Maybe it’s the centuries of living under Christian and Muslim rule. Maybe it’s the history of forced conversion. Maybe it’s that there’s no religion requirement for the Jewish afterlife. Whatever the reasons, Jews have traditionally been uncomfortable proselytizing. But a Maryland foundation is flouting… Read more »
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, at a protest in New York organized by the right-wing Americans for a Safe Israel, Dec. 22, 2015. (T'ruah)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – The issue of torture in Israel has received unusual attention in recent weeks because of the identity of the alleged victims. Human rights groups say nothing is new in the allegations that Jewish youths, arrested in connection with an arson attack over the summer that killed… Read more »
Activists protesting a proposed law governing NGO financial disclosure outside the Tel Aviv home of Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Dec. 26, 2015. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash 90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Its backers call it a victory for transparency. Opponents say it smacks of dictatorship. Either way, a new bill requiring certain Israeli nongovernmental organizations to publicly declare their foreign government funding is moving toward passage after it was approved by a Cabinet committee on Sunday. Justice… Read more »
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington, D.C., Dec. 3, 2015. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Ted Cruz wants to make sure you understand: “Republican” and “neoconservative” are no longer synonymous. The Texas senator, inching up to second place behind front-runner Donald Trump in the polls just weeks before the Iowa caucuses, has launched a broadside against the “crazy” movement that not… Read more »
Actor Theodore Bikel arrives at the 55th Annual Drama Desk Awards in New York City, May 23, 2010. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images) (JTA) — As 2015 winds to a close, we’d like to take a moment to honor the memories of those who we lost over the past 12 months. From remembering lives cut short by senseless, dark tragedies to tributes to revered icons who lived life to the fullest, here are some Jews… Read more »
Miriam and Sheldon Adelson in Jerusalem to hear 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney deliver foreign policy remarks, July 29, 2012. (Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Miriam Adelson and her husband, Sheldon, reportedly are at odds over which Republican presidential candidate deserves backing. But this isn’t a typical marital spat — it’s about which candidate most deserves to be showered with their money. Miriam Adelson, an Israeli-born physician, favors Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, while casino… Read more »
Izzy Ezagui, center, and fellow reserve soldiers in 2014. (Courtesy of Izzy Ezagui)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The hardest part was loading the assault rifle. That’s not because he was a newbie, unaccustomed to the workings of a Tavor rifle. Rather, 1st Sgt. Izzy Ezagui had lost an arm in combat. He’d overcome seemingly insurmountable bureaucratic hurdles and got a posting on a… Read more »
Nate Fish, director of the Israel Association of Baseball, demonstrating pitching to Israeli kids. (Margo Sugarman/IAB)
(JTA) – Out of baseball after four years playing in the minor leagues, Brent Powers, a Christian from Texas, took a tour of Israel last year with his wife. He was smitten with the country and considered how to return. The Masa Israel Journey will provide his path.… Read more »
A house in the West Bank village of Duma, near Nablus, where three members of a Palestinian family, including an infant, were killed, July 31, 2015. (Flash90)
TZUFIM, West Bank (JTA) — The father of Elisha Odess, the American-Israeli Jewish teen held by Israel’s internal security service, says his son is innocent and that any confession he might have made in connection with a July arson attack that killed three Palestinians was elicited through torture. “We… Read more »
Tom Doherty Professor Tom Doherty, Ph.D., chair of the American studies program at Brandeis University and author of “Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939,” will present a University on Wheels lecture, “Jews, Nazis and Hollywood Cinema,” on Thursday, Jan. 7 from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The Tucson… Read more »
The inaugural exhibition of the expanded Holocaust History Center on the campus of the Jewish History Museum will feature an exhibit displaying portraits of individuals who perished in the Holocaust, whose relatives live or have lived in Southern Arizona. The Center is issuing a public call for photos and… Read more »
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Northwest Division and Chabad of Oro Valley will present local Holocaust survivor Willy Halpert on “The Hidden Child During the Holocaust” on Sunday, Dec. 27 at 4 p.m. at the JFSA Northwest office, 190 W. Magee Road. Halpert recalls walking with his father… Read more »
