News

TEL AVIV (JTA) — For help facing its worst drought in centuries, California should look to a country that beat its own chronic water shortage: Israel. Until a few years ago, Israel’s wells seemed like they were always running dry. TV commercials urged Israelis to conserve water. Newspapers tracked… Read more »

(JTA) — After Russia invaded Ukraine in March 2014, Israel resisted pressure to join the United States and its European allies in condemning the move — citing in particular its concern not to antagonize Russia for fear it could provide Syria with a powerful anti-aircraft missile called the S-300.… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Election Day is 19 months away, but the campaign already has begun. Aside from Democrat Hillary Clinton, three Republican candidates with reasonable chances at the nomination have declared and several others are on the cusp. The Republican Party says it’s been making inroads with Jewish voters,… Read more »

Ed Harris’ suspenders celebrate his British heritage. (Sarah Chen/AJP)

Edward Harris still celebrates the day he arrived in New York from London with only $28 in his pocket: Feb. 8, 1954. A dual citizen of the United States and Britain, he feels fortunate to have slowed his globetrotting days here in Tucson. Harris was born in 1934, just… Read more »

“Cool,” says a student with the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation. “Lovely,” says a Handmaker resident. “Vital,” says another. They’re talking about a program that has been bringing Hillel students together with Handmaker residents, started by Adam Fox, Hillel’s engagement associate, with the help of Andrea Ramirez, Handmaker’s administrative… Read more »

For many aging Americans, traditional ideas of retirement are changing. On March 16, the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona hosted a funders forum with Chris Farrell, author of “Unretirement: How Baby Boomers Are Changing the Way We Think About Work, Community and the Good Life” (Bloomsbury Press). Speaking… Read more »

This week, the Tucson Jewish Community Center launched a new 12-week series, the BEST Protocol for Osteoporosis, with instructor Mary T. Maher, M.S., A.C.S.M.-C.P.T. The three-day-a-week program is based on the Bone Estrogen Strength Training study conducted by the University of Arizona between 1995 and 2001. The protocol’s goals… Read more »

Participants at Tucson Hebrew Academy’s STEM festival on Sunday, May 3 can drive award-winning robots, investigate a mock crime scene or play a giant video game with their feet. Presented by THA’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) program, the family-oriented festival will run 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.… Read more »

Donna Moser and Audrey Brooks

Women of the Year Audrey Brooks and Donna Moser and Man of the Year Steve Kippur head the list of 2015 award winners the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will honor at its annual meeting and awards celebration, which will be held Thursday, May 7 at 7 p.m. at… Read more »

Cantor Janece Cohen

To mark Cantor Janece Cohen’s 25 years of service as a congregational cantor, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is granting her a Doctorate of Sacred Music, Honoris Causa. On Saturday, May 9, Congregation Or Chadash will honor Cohen for this achievement with a gala dinner. Cohen has been… Read more »

Security was lax entering and leaving the 1972 Olympic Village in Munich. Barbara Berger knows this firsthand, because she was there on Sept. 3, 1972 to watch her 28-year-old brother, David Berger, an American, lift weights as a member of the Israeli Olympic team. The next morning, Berger and… Read more »

Rabbi Arthur Oleisky

You may not know this, but every anniversary is (according to a tradition probably created by Hallmark) associated with a particular gift — paper for the first, tin for the 10th, diamonds for the 60th. The 85th anniversary is the diamond and sapphire anniversary. Both stones because, let’s face… Read more »

Siddhartha Mukherjee, M.D., presented cancer’s story of major tragedy and future hope to more than 400 people at the Sixth Annual Cindy Wool Memorial Seminar on Humanism in Medicine at the Fox Tucson Theatre on March 31. The Pulitzer-Prize winning author of “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography… Read more »

David Siegel

Tech Parks Arizona will host the Consul General of Israel, David Siegel, on April 29 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation, 1245 E 2nd St. Siegel’s talk will be part of a briefing on the Tech Parks Arizona Global Advantage business attraction program… Read more »

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s board development committee, chaired by Shelly Silverman, has recommended the following slate of officers for the 2015-2016 program year: Tom Warne, chair; Eric Schindler, vice chair/board development chair; Helaine Levy, vice chair; Jim Wezelman, treasurer/secretary; Kathryn Unger, immediate past chair. Nominated as directors… Read more »

(J. weekly via JTA) — A junior at Stanford University who is running for the student senate says she faced anti-Semitic questioning from a student group whose endorsement she was seeking. During a March 13 interview in front of eight members of the university’s Students of Color Coalition, Molly… Read more »

(JTA) — Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, falls on April 23. In honor of the Jewish state’s 67th birthday, we present, in no particular order, 10 little-known aspects of its history. El Al used to fly to Tehran. Iran and Israel enjoyed mostly good relations up until the Islamic… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Hillary Clinton does not appear until 90 seconds into the two-minute video rolling out her campaign. No one among the bright and diverse array of everyday Americans in that video mentions foreign policy. Or Barack Obama. Jewish Democrats say the video released this weekend is emblematic… Read more »

(JTA) — At 27, David Rachline is the youngest senator in the history of France’s Fifth Republic and a rising force within the country’s third largest party. A university dropout and the son of a Jewish Socialist Party activist, Rachline crushed his opponents in the 2014 mayoral elections in… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Jewish leaders expected President Barack Obama to sell them hard on the Iran nuclear deal. Instead, participants in two White House meetings on Monday said he offered a softer pitch on how deeply he cares for Israel and the Jewish people. “He tried to explain he… Read more »