News

Hadassah to host tallit artist at luncheon

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Tucson resident Beth Surdut will present “The Modern Tallit” at a Hadassah Southern Arizona luncheon on Sunday, Jan. 10. Surdut, who creates hand-painted silk prayer shawls, will discuss how personal stories and prayers become essential elements in her designs. Whether for pre-teens or adults, she says, each tallit becomes… Read more »

At 25, Tucson International Jewish Film Festival going strong

The 25th annual Tucson Jewish International Film Festival is dedicated to the memory of Bob Polinsky, a longtime volunteer.

Every time I go to a movie, it’s magic, no matter what the movie’s about. —Steven Spielberg The Tucson International Jewish Film Festival uses that “magic” to promote the preservation of Jewish culture and celebrate cultural diversity. For 10 days, Jan. 14 - 23, the 25th annual festival… Read more »

Body Scripting, ‘Faun’ choreographer’s unique technique, to be Tucson J workshop

Gregg Mozgala (left) and choreographer Tamar Rogoff in a scene from ‘Enter the Faun,’ which will be screened as part of the 25th Tucson International Jewish Film Festival.

When New York choreographer Tamar Rogoff invited Gregg Mozgala, an actor with cerebral palsy, to dance the role of the faun in an original production, they had no idea that their collaboration would lead to a profound and unexpected physical transformation. At the time they met in 2008, Mozgala… Read more »

Israeli couple brings ‘fountain of blessings’ to Tucson Hebrew Academy

Netanel (left) and Eden Achituv, Israeli teachers new to Tucson Hebrew Academy this year, at THA’s all-school Thanksgiving lunch on Nov. 24. (Alix Cramer/THA)

Netanel and Eden Achituv are the first Israelis to join Tucson Hebrew Academy as part of the World Zionist Organization’s Morim Shlichim (teacher-emissary) program. WZO and the Weintraub Israel Center helped THA recruit the Achituvs, who bring rich experience to the day school’s Hebrew and Judaic studies programs. Coming… Read more »

Yiddish links local man to roots — and Tucson community

Sheldon Clare teaches Yiddish at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. (Renee Claire)

So what’s your Yiddish IQ, bubbeleh? Don’t be too quick with your answer because truth is, lots of the mamaloshen (mother tongue) has entered into common English usage; think kibbitz, bagel, klutz, kosher and chutzpah. But should you want to think of more than the commonly known terms, then… Read more »

Elder Rehab at the J

Elder Rehab at the Tucson Jewish Community Center couples memory-impaired seniors with University of Arizona students who supervise them in physical exercise and memory and language stimulation activities. The research-tested program, developed by psychologist Sharon Arkin, is now enrolling participants for its third semester, which begins Jan. 25. The… Read more »

Former volunteer brings warm heart, extra spark to Handmaker residents

Nanci Levy and Handmaker residents braid challah. Seated, L-R: Peggy Simon, Betty Light and Anna Rogovin (Courtesy Handmaker)

Recently hired as community outreach coordinator at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, Nanci Levy says 20 years of volunteer work in the Tucson Jewish community was great preparation for her new role — along with a background in advertising, public relations, event planning and fund development. “Over the… Read more »

Absorption of Jews from Arab lands should be model for refugee crisis

Palestinian refugees line up for food at a camp in Amman, Jordan, in 1955. (Three Lions/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Every time Palestinian leaders sit down at the negotiating table, or give a public speech, they never fail to raise the plight of the 700,000 Arab-Palestinians displaced when they refused to accept Israel’s existence in 1948. For too long, the State of Israel and the… Read more »

Tucson social worker lends hand, finds joy in war-torn Ukraine

Rabbi Nachum Ehrentreu, left, and Tucsonan Ron Rosenberg with Jewish kindergarteners in Zaporozhye, Ukraine (Courtesy Ron Rosenberg)

Looking back at 2015, there is no question that the growing number of refugees worldwide has become a huge concern. The United Nations refugee agency reported this summer that there are more refugees in the world today than ever previously recorded. The agency labels Syria, Ukraine and South Sudan… Read more »

In an ultra-wealthy Moscow suburb, a luxurious JCC opens its doors

An exterior view of the Zhokuvka Jewish Community Center. (Courtesy of The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia)

ZHUKOVKA, Russia (JTA) — On the only road connecting this affluent village on Moscow’s western outskirts, Russian secret service agents are blocking all inbound traffic. Drivers bound for Zhukovka pull over and step out to smoke while chatting with other motorists as a line of luxury cars grows on the shoulder… Read more »

What Jewish groups have (and haven’t) said about Donald Trump

Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Las Vegas, Dec. 14, 2015. (Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) – Donald Trump’s call last week to bar all Muslims from entering the United States “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on” has set off a deluge of criticism in America and around the world, from U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan to Israeli… Read more »

Climate activists welcome deal but rap Israel for ‘minimalist’ commitments

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, with his French counterpart, Manuel Valls, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Le Bourget, France, Nov. 30, 2015. (Thierry Orban/Getty Images)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — During last week’s climate summit outside Paris, the 195 delegate countries — including Israel — committed to implementing plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improving their goals every five years. The aim: Keep Earth from warming more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the 21st… Read more »

Fleeing recession and violence, Brazilian Jews moving to Israel in record numbers

Fabio Erlich, standing left, with his family and other Brazilian emigres in the Israeli city of Modiin. (Courtesy of Erlich family)

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) – For four years, llana Lerner Kalmanovich rode a hot and crowded bus three hours each day to reach the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where she was pursuing degrees in physical education and nutrition. Police raids into nearby slums, or favelas, often blocked… Read more »

Reform and Conservative leaders to Israeli president: We want equal rights

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, left, met U.S. Jewish religious leaders, including Union for Reform Judaism President Rabbi Rick Jacobs, in New York, Dec. 11, 2015. (Courtesy of the Union for Reform Judaism)

NEW YORK (JTA) – It was all hugs and smiles when Israeli President Reuven Rivlin met Friday with leaders of America’s three main Jewish denominations at an event hosted by UJA-Federation of New York. But when it came time to speak, the Reform and Conservative leaders made clear they… Read more »

Arab-Israeli lawmaker in US refuses to enter offices shared with Jewish Agency

Ayman Odeh, carrying one of his three children, casting his vote in Nazareth on Israel's Election Day, March 17, 2015. (Basal Awidat/Flash90)

(JTA) — Arab-Israeli lawmaker and political leader Ayman Odeh refused to meet with the umbrella foreign policy body for American Jews because it shares office space with the Jewish Agency, an abrupt and dissonant end to a trip that was aimed at promoting greater Arab-Jewish cooperation. “I came here… Read more »

3 centuries after excommunication, is it time to lift ban on Spinoza?

Circa 1660, Dutch philosopher Benedicto De Spinoza (1632 - 1677). (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

AMSTERDAM (JTA) – More than 350 years after this city’s Portuguese Jewish community excommunicated Baruch Spinoza and banned his writings for eternity, the philosopher’s books are for sale at the souvenir shop of the community’s synagogue. Spinoza, a Dutch-born Jewish philosopher who laid the intellectual foundations of the Enlightenment… Read more »

Gentrification — via gardening — slowly comes to derelict South Tel Aviv

The Onya Collective is behind the new garden in South Tel Aviv. (Gabi Berger)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — The teeming blocks around this city’s New Central Bus Station are anything but scenic. Packed with humanity at every hour of the day, they are dizzying monuments to urban blight: equal parts graffiti, chaotic traffic and bustling, black-market commerce. So on a sunny Friday last… Read more »

Why are Israelis protesting plan for natural gas fields?

An oil rig in the Tamar natural gas field off the Israeli coast, June 23, 2014. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — When Israel discovered two massive natural gas fields off its coast five years ago, it was billed as a goldmine that would shift the balance of energy exports in the Middle East and fill Israel’s coffers. Five years later, drilling in the biggest field, known as Leviathan,… Read more »

Deciphering satellite photos, soldiers with autism take on key roles in IDF

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Sitting in front of a computer at the center of Israel’s largest army base, a soldier stares at the screen, moving pixel by pixel over a satellite photograph, picking out details and finding patterns. A few years ago N.S., who has autism, thought the Israel Defense Forces wouldn’t take him.… Read more »