News

Recently, Jon Ritzheimer, a former Marine and self-described “patriot” announced on Facebook that he was holding a “protest” and a “draw Muhammed” contest at the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix during their May 29 Friday night prayers. He invited bikers whom he encouraged to come armed. My husband heard… Read more »

Andrea Siemens

Even discussing domestic abuse can be controversial. Jewish women face cultural and religious stigmatization when they get out of their abusive relationships, said Andrea Siemens of Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona at a joint presentation with Robin Memel Fox of the Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse,… Read more »

Evelyn Varady

On Sunday, March 8, 18 Jewish women gathered at the Tucson Jewish Community Center for brunch, inspiration and guided schmoozing. Most of the women were not strangers. Some have been meeting regularly for nearly 13 years; others have joined the group more recently; two were attending for the first… Read more »

HERZLIYA, Israel (JTA) — When Israel’s coalition government formed last month, its constituent parties all but ruled out establishing a Palestinian state in the near future. But that doesn’t mean they can agree on what to do instead. Speaking at the Herzliya Conference this week, Israel’s premier diplomatic and security policy gathering,… Read more »

MOSCOW (JTA) – Rabbi Berel Lazar’s mother was eager for grandchildren. So she gave her 25-year-old son an ultimatum: He could return to his beloved Jewish outreach work in Russia if — and only if — he got married. His yeshiva classmates jokingly said he was already wed, “to the idea of… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – It’s early days for the White House’s latest charm offensive among American Jews, but a new poll suggests that the wooing effort is having little effect. The poll, published Wednesday by J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group that generally backs President Barack Obama’s Middle East policies, shows… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — On June 5, Agnieszka Kurant will become one of only a handful of artists to have their work adorn the famous curved facade of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum here. Kurant’s “The End of Signature,” a neon white projection created from the actual signatures of… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – When David Axelrod, then a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, first learned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly had referred to him and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel as “self-hating Jews,” he remembers feeling stung. “For people to suggest that I would… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Rochelle Shoretz was fond of saying, “There are no problems, only solutions.” Her approach to life was not to dwell on bad news, but to channel the energy that friends described as boundless into somehow making things better. It’s what drove her to establish the… Read more »

Ariella Youdelman, daughter of Donna and Frank Youdelman of Tucson, and Moshe Shor, son of Gittie and Kalman Shor of Las Vegas, were married Sept. 7, 2014 at Reflections at the Buttes in Oro Valley with Cantor Avraham Alpert of Congregation Bet Shalom and Rabbi Billy Lewkowicz officiating. Ariella… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — There’s no shortage of Israelis who want to reform the office of the Chief Rabbinate. Ranging from advocates of religion-state separation to leaders of Israel’s non-Orthodox movements to newspaper columnists, some want to end the Rabbinate’s monopoly over the country’s religious services; others want to dissolve… Read more »

(JTA) – Two synagogues and the homes of countless Jewish residents were damaged in the floods that swept through Houston on Monday and into Tuesday, inundating homes and businesses, sweeping away cars and leaving at least five people dead. Houston, America’s fourth-largest city and home to more than 40,000 Jews, was paralyzed… Read more »

Editor’s note: Lillian Fisher died June 7, 2015 due to complications from congestive heart failure, less than two weeks after this article was published.  The Honorable Lillian Fisher will be 94 on June 18. A retired Pima County Superior Court judge, she received the University of Arizona College of… Read more »

In April, I spent three weeks in Nepal as a volunteer for Elephant Aid International. Life for captive Asian elephants is a miserable existence of slavery, including painful iron chains around their legs. In cooperation with the government of Nepal, EAI and volunteers from all over the world built… Read more »

From Providence, R.I., to Santa Fe, N.M., to Tucson, with many stops in between, tallit maker Beth Surdut has always been an artist. Her approach to Judaism is as expansive as her art, always growing and changing. “Being brought up Jewish you’re brought up to have an inquiring mind,”… Read more »

As a teenager in Baltimore, Nechama Sonenthal had to grow up fast after her older sister fell into a coma and later needed life-saving brain surgery. That didn’t stop Sonenthal from serving her community while in high school and then traveling to Israel to train with first responders in… Read more »

This piece was written by Iris and Ori Ifrach, Rachelli and Avi Fraenkel, and Bat-Galim and Ofer Shaer, the parents of Eyal Ifrach, Gil-ad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel. (JTA) — One year ago, our families were thrust into a nightmare beyond anything we could have ever imagined. Our sons,… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Two months after questions about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to a two-state solution threatened to upend the U.S.-Israel relationship, tensions have abated, but not because peace with the Palestinians is any nearer. There has been no more talk recently from President Barack Obama’s White House about “reevaluating”… Read more »

What’s the best question to ask a person after a traumatic event? Hint: It’s not, “How do you feel?” Instead, ask “What do you want to do?” or “How did you react?” says Eyal Fruchter, M.D., former head of psychiatry for the Israel Defense Forces. Recounting feelings may get… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — “This was a woman,” the narrator explains, as the camera pans over a figure so emaciated and burnt that it’s barely recognizable as human. It’s one of the more arresting scenes in “German Concentration Camps Factual Survey,” a highly unusual Holocaust documentary shot and scripted 70 years ago,… Read more »