News

JTA: Messianic San Bernardino victim was ‘gentile’ supporter of Israel, the Jewish people

Nicholas Thalasinos renewing his marital vows with his wife at a Jewish-style ceremony, 2013. (Facebook)
December 9, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

(JTA) – While America puzzles over the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, many American Jews are puzzling over an additional element: the religious identity of victim Nicholas Thalasinos. Pictured on his Facebook page wearing a scarf-style tallit prayer shawl, Thalasinos, who was killed along with 13 others in… Read more »

5 questions to ask after San Bernardino

Law enforcement officials investigating the Ford SUV at the scene where suspects of the shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Calif., were killed in a shootout with police, Dec. 3, 2015. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
December 9, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

(JTA) – Since last week’s mass shooting in the California city of San Bernardino, U.S. authorities have been piecing together what might have led Syed Farook and his wife, Tafsheen Malik, to gun down 14 of Farook’s colleagues at a holiday party for county health department employees. The attack raises… Read more »

Republican presidential hopefuls make their pitch to GOP Jews

Donald Trump speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition Presidential Candidates Forum in Washington, D.C., Dec. 3, 2015. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
December 9, 2015 / Sarah Wildman, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — In carefully tailored stump speeches that ranged in tone from apocalyptic to chummy, all but one of the Republican presidential candidates showed up in an attempt to woo Jewish voters. Many of the speeches at the Republican Jewish Coalition Presidential Candidates Forum, held Dec. 3 at… Read more »

Kerry, at contentious U.S.-Israel confab, asks Israel to consider perils of single state

Secretary of State John Kerry addressing the Saban Forum in Washington, D.C., Dec. 5, 2015. (Courtesy of Brookings Institution)
December 7, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking at an annual U.S.-Israel confab, said Israel’s government must consider the consequences of evolving toward a single state incorporating the Palestinian areas. “How does Israel possibly maintain its character as a Jewish democratic state?” Kerry said Saturday at the Saban Forum in Washington,… Read more »

Boy Scouts of America seeking more Jewish troops

A Boy Scout saluting the American flag at Camp Maple Dell outside Payson, Utah, July 31, 2015. (George Frey/Getty Images)
December 7, 2015 / Melissa Apter, Washington Jewish Week via JTA

WASHINGTON (Washington Jewish Week via JTA) — With the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on gay employees lifted this summer, it’s a good time to be pitching scouting to the liberal American Jewish streams. So says Bruce Chudacoff, the chair of the National Jewish Committee on Scouting. A representative… Read more »

Israel trip gives Tucson J staff new insights, ways to connect with community

Tucson Jewish Comunity Center staff members and Israeli chefs prepare a communal meal Nov. 16. Guests include the staffs of the Kiryat Malachi and Hof Ashkelon community centers and members of the Partnership2Gether steering committe. (L-R) Todd Rockoff, Abby Gettinger, Lisa Delyria, Stacy Ramsower, Christina Pugh, Denise Wolf, Chef Yael Shamir, Chef Maya Klein, Travis Fischer, Chef Sahar Rafael, Lynn Davis, Sue DeBenedette, Oshrat Barel. The Israeli chefs, joined by Chef Orly Varon Shushan, will visit Tucson in May for the Israel Festival.
December 4, 2015 / Michael Miklofsky, Special to the AJP

Jewish culture and connection were the focus of a recent Tucson Jewish Community Center staff trip to Israel. The group of 10 returned to Tucson from their 12-day trip on Nov. 19 with a renewed sense of purpose. The Tucson J staff joined with delegations from the Shimon and… Read more »

Culture Shuk adult ed classes inspire learners

Bob and Jere Moskovitz, newcomers to Tucson, toast the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Jewish Culture Shuk at Tucson Hebrew Academy on Nov. 15. (Korene Charnofsky Cohen)
December 3, 2015 / Korene Charnofsky Cohen, Special to the AJP

The Jewish Culture Shuk, a one night smorgasbord of adult education classes, brings the community together through learning. Teaching from a Jewish perspective, instructors strive to help us understand and respect ourselves and others, and to deal with difficult situations at home and in the world. On Sunday, Nov.… Read more »

Grant spurs relationships between Hebrew High teens, Handmaker residents

(L-R): Aaron Green, Nathan Shapiro, Peggy Simon and Haley Dveirin share lunch at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging on Nov. 8. (Courtesy Tucson Hebrew High)
December 3, 2015 / Kate Mailliard, AJP Intern

Tucson Hebrew High students are creating relationships with residents of Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, aided by a recent “Better Together” grant from an anonymous donor. The grant supports programs for young Jewish students to engage with the elderly in a hands-on fashion, encouraging the students to live out Jewish… Read more »

Menorah sculpture will light up Tucson nights

Tucsonan Danny Levkowitz finished his steel menorah in time to celebrate Chanukah 2015.
December 3, 2015 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor

Tucsonan Danny Levkowitz recently finished building this 15-foot tall menorah, his first attempt at sculpture, at his east side home. Made of steel rebar with LED lights, the menorah took over two months to create, but it is something Levkowitz, the owner of Sun Lighting, has been dreaming about… Read more »

‘No-shush’ Shabbat to cater to special needs
December 3, 2015 /

Families with special needs children of any age (infant to adult) are invited to a “no-shush” Shabbat service and potluck lunch hosted by Congregation Or Cha­dash on Saturday, Dec. 12 at 10 a.m. The event is organized by the Jewish Special Needs Moms group. The Dec. 12 gathering “is… Read more »

Ross to JFSA crowd: U.S.-Israel complexities go back 60 years

Dennis Ross speaks at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona “Together” event Nov. 18 at Congregation Anshei Israel. (Martha Lochert Photography)
December 3, 2015 / Nancy Ben-Asher Ozeri, Special to the AJP

“I was a political appointee for two Republican presidents and two Democratic presidents. … What that makes me is an extinct species,” Ambassador Dennis Ross told a crowd of more than 850 at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s “Together” campaign kickoff on Nov. 18 at Congregation Anshei Israel.… Read more »

For Jewish groups, Syrian refugees are a reminder — not a threat

Migrants wait to be processed at the increasingly overwhelmed Moria camp on the island of Lesbos in Greece, Oct. 21, 2015. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
December 3, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – American Jewish organizations don’t see the Syrian refugees as a threat; they see them as a reminder. With rare unanimity on an issue that has stirred partisan passion, a cross-section of the community has defended the Obama administration’s refugee policy in terms recalling the plight of Jews fleeing… Read more »

With Israeli-EU relations strained, Netanyahu looks toward Asia

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting with President Xi Jinping of China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, May 9, 2013. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Getty Images)
December 2, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, sat kiddy-corner in armchairs at this week’s international climate summit near Paris, talking and laughing. “We have the best of relations, and they can be made even better,” Netanyahu told Modi at the meeting. To which Modi… Read more »

Why Shelly Silver won’t be sharing a prison cell with Willie Rapfogel

Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver arrives at the courthouse in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015. A jury heard Silver's corruption case boiled down to two conflicting portrayals of the once-powerful Democrat: one as a greedy lawmaker who enriched himself with bribery and another as a seasoned politician who played by the rules regarding outside income. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
December 1, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) – The two men used to share the same synagogue pew. One’s wife was the other’s chief of staff. Now both share an ignoble distinction: guilty of accepting millions through illegal kickback schemes. There is one thing Sheldon Silver and William Rapfogel won’t share, however: a… Read more »

For Jimmy Carter’s chief of staff, being Jewish was a family secret

Hamilton Jordan, left, then the White House chief of staff, speaking with President Jimmy Carter at the White House, July 19, 1979. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
November 29, 2015 / Sarah Wildman, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Hamilton Jordan, President Jimmy Carter’s wunderkind adviser and chief of staff, discovered at age 20 that his family’s story wasn’t a straightforward Christian Southern experience. At the cemetery service for his maternal grandmother, Helen, Jordan was puzzled to discover her plot was nestled alongside that of… Read more »

Aly Raisman has her eyes on Rio

Aly Raisman competing in the floor exercise at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, Oct. 24, 2015. (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
November 24, 2015 / Dvora Meyers, JTA

GLASGOW, Scotland (JTA) — Once the music started playing — not the “Hava Nagila” tune that made her the Jewish poster child of the London Games, but something equally folksy — Aly Raisman tumbled right out of bounds. On her first bit of gymnastics at her comeback World Championships here… Read more »

Rare numbing disease that plagues Jews has diagnosis, but no cure

David Epstein, left, and his brother, Howard Epstein, both have APBD, which is more prevalent among Ashkenazi Jews than in the general public. (Courtesy of David Epstein)
November 24, 2015 / Suzanne Pollak, JTA

SILVER SPRING, Md. (Washington Jewish Week via JTA) — David Epstein went to his doctor in 1997 to see why he was going to the bathroom so frequently and what was causing his fingers to go numb. Years of doctor visits, medical testing and prescription medications led nowhere. Meanwhile,… Read more »

Israel just approved immigration for 9,000 Ethiopian Jews — here’s who they are

Falash Mura arriving in Israel from Ethiopia, Aug. 28, 2013. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
November 23, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) – The Israeli government has approved entry of the “last” group of Ethiopian Jews awaiting immigration to Israel. The move comes two years after the arrival of 450 Ethiopian Jews then deemed to be the “last” such group. Indeed, there have been several groups said to… Read more »

In Israel, slain American teen remembered for his energy and glowing smile

Friends of Ezra Schwartz grieve over the coffin of the American terror victim at a service at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel before the body was repatriated to Boston for his funeral the following day, Nov. 21, 2015. (Ben Sales/JTA)
November 23, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

  TEL AVIV (JTA) — His best friend remembered him starting up a children’s game on their senior school trip. His teacher retold the time he made Hebrew jokes on a whiteboard during class. His rabbi recalled him committing to study the entire Bible this year. His parents wrote… Read more »

Pumpkin dishes with panache among fall delights at local eateries
November 20, 2015 / Kate Mailliard, AJP intern

Cooler weather isn’t the only thing Tucsonans can look forward to this fall. Local kitchens are heating up with all new menus and pumpkin-flavored treats galore. Gourmet Girls’ Susan Fulton says she and co-owner Mary Steiger “are in our full pumpkin mode.” The gluten free bakery is offering pumpkin… Read more »