News

New U.S. citizen Tommy Fred Taye, flanked by his wife, Bennetta Grant (left), and daughter, Secret Taye, displays his certificate of naturalization at the Evo A. Deconcini U.S. Courthouse in Tucson on Nov. 21. (Sheila Wilensky/AJP)

Amid kudos and controversy following President Barack Obama’s Nov. 20 directive stalling deportation for up to 5 million undocumented immigrants — allowing many to work legally — Tommy Fred Taye became a U.S. citizen. “I never knew that it was Jewish people who were bringing me here,” Taye, now… Read more »

Ahuvah (Amanda) Gipson, left, and other members of the Bet Januka congregation located at Naval Station Rota in southern Spain, July 30, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

ROTA, Spain (JTA) — While setting up a synagogue at the American naval base where she works, Ahuvah (Amanda) Gipson made something of a bitter-sweet discovery. Rifling through a storage area at the sprawling American-Spanish military complex Naval Station Rota in 2012, Gipson, a former naval outreach professional who… Read more »

Hillary Rodham Clinton, with Haim Saban, making a point at the entertainment mogul's eponymous annual forum, at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., Dec. 5, 2014. (Peter Halmagyi)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — From the drive for Israeli-Palestinian peace to nuclear talks with Iran, Hillary Rodham Clinton is endorsing President Obama’s Israel-related positions. Clinton, who was Obama’s secretary of state during his first term, spoke Friday night with Haim Saban, the Israeli-American entertainment mogul who through the Brookings Institution… Read more »

The Tucson Jewish Community Center will conduct a study about the service needs and challenges faced by families in the Jewish community who are caring for a young or adult child with special needs, including vision, movement, thinking, remembering, learning, communicating, hearing, mental health and social relationship disabilities. The… Read more »

Chicago, "The Blues" collage by Andy Burgess

Local artist Andrew Burgess will hold his first open studio event at 5634 E. Linden Street on Sunday, Dec. 14 from 2 to 7:30 p.m. “I grew up in North London in Golders Green, a strong Jewish area. My family celebrated all the Jewish festivals and my mum made… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El will dedicate the Rebecca Katz Family Library and Youth Center on Tuesday, Dec. 16 at 4:30 p.m. The facility honors the memory of Katz, who died at age 22 in 2010. Developing the library and establishing a fund for its upkeep and growth has been a labor… Read more »

The Velocity Circus/ Circus School of Arizona will headline Chabad of Tucson’s Cirque du Chanukah celebration on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 5:30 p.m. at Castlehill Country Day School, 3225 N Craycroft Road (The Gregory School entrance). Circus leader Rachel Stegman will be joined by local artists in presenting the event’s… Read more »

Raisa Moroz, JFCS Holocaust survivors program manager (left), talks with Yuliya Genina, a survivor from Ukraine. (Nancy Ben-Asher Ozeri/AJP)

Sitting at the kitchen table of her homey midtown apartment, Yuliya Genina offers cookies and then begins to tell her story. “People don’t know what it means, exactly, war. But we from the former Soviet Union know exactly what is war,” she says. “We are the last generation who… Read more »

Tucsonan Abe Rosin at a rest stop during the Jerusalem to Eilat 2014 Israel Ride

Abe Rosin saw a different side of Israel by bicycling 250 miles from Jerusalem to Eilat, Nov. 5 to 12. The retired engineer and dual American/Israeli citizen made aliyah in 1976 and lived in Israel for 20 years before moving to Tucson in 1999. “I’ve been an athlete all… Read more »

“Listening to Beauty,” watercolor by Marcie Feldman

The Tucson Jewish Com­munity Center Fine Art Gallery will present local artist Marcie Feldman with an exhibit of new watercolors, “Tell Me A Story,” Dec. 12-Jan. 18. A recent transplant to Tucson, Feldman says, “The need to create, to tell a story, comes from a place magical and primal.… Read more »

Julie and Nathanael Weill with their sons Eytan and Lior in 2013.

TORONTO (JTA)—When Dan Charbit and his wife, Gaelle Hazan, moved to Montreal from Paris two summers ago, it was meant to be a temporary fix — a yearlong attempt for Charbit to reboot his stalled career as a special-effects artist in Quebec’s thriving film and television industry. They agreed… Read more »

Revelers dancing at the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, one of many Jewish culture festivals in Poland. (Wojciech Karlinski)

KRAKOW, Poland (JTA) — Crowds have been streaming to Warsaw’s POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews since its core exhibition opened Oct. 28 at a high-profile ceremony led by the presidents of Poland and Israel. Thousands of visitors have toured the museum’s eight interactive galleries that tell… Read more »

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip celebrating an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue, Nov. 18, 2014. Israeli elections in March are expected to have a much greater focus on security than they did two years ago. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — This government was supposed to be different. During the last election campaign in 2012, Israelis seemed to tire of the existential issues that have plagued the country for decades. Barely anyone talked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Long-simmering social tensions over the rising cost of living… Read more »

BUDAPEST (JTA) — An anti-corruption whistleblower elected to head the Budapest Jewish community has sparked a crisis among the highest officials of Hungarian Jewry at a time of heightened tensions with the government. The conflict, one of the fractious community’s most vociferous and colorful fights in years, erupted shortly… Read more »

(JTA) — France’s parliament is calling for Palestinian statehood recognition. On Tuesday, the National Assembly voted 339 to 151 in favor of the largely symbolic motion that “invites the French government to use the recognition of the state of Palestine as an instrument to bring about a definitive resolution… Read more »

Ilana Kaufman: "My purpose in the world has always been to be a bridge." (Courtesy of Ilana Kaufman)

(JTA) — When Ilana Kaufman, a program officer at the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation, arrived at San Quentin State Prison for a meeting with the Jewish chaplain at California’s oldest correctional facility, the chaplain couldn’t seem to find her — even though Kaufman was standing in plain sight.… Read more »

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leading a Likud faction meeting at the Knesset, Dec. 1, 2014. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — For the second time in about two years, Israel appears to be headed toward elections. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s firing Tuesday of two key Cabinet ministers, Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni, increased the likelihood of a government collapse. “The people of Israel placed the… Read more »

Inside the Max Rayne Hand in Hand Jerusalem School. an Arab-Jewish school that was vandalized over the weekend, Nov. 30, 2014. Some opponents of Israel's nation-state bill cite the recent proliferation of attacks on minorities in Israel as evidence that democracy rather than Jewishness needs attention. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – It’s not unusual to hear U.S. Jewish groups speaking out against laws that discriminate and framing their protests as protecting Jewish interests. What’s unusual is that the target this time is the Israeli government and the proposed law emphasizes Jewish rights. At issue is Israel’s nation-state… Read more »

Zili Grossman, a former PR professional for Eilat's hotel scene, now runs an aid organization for the city's poor with an annual budget of $650,000. (Ben Sales)

EILAT, Israel (JTA) — Zili Grossman did public relations for “half the hotels” in Eilat, she says. She was the mayor’s press adviser. Her job took her to festivals, bowling alleys, theaters and miniature golf courses — the gamut of tourist attractions in Israel’s best-known resort town. After a… Read more »

Rabbi Yosef Mendelevitch at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport, Nov. 30, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (JTA) — Through the backseat window of a black KGB car, Yosef Mendelevitch could see university students his age hurrying to take their finals. It was June 15, 1970, and the 23-year-old Mendelevitch had just been arrested along with 11 accomplices for trying to hijack a… Read more »