Avi Szychter rallies campers during the Camp J Maccabiah games in July. (Julie Zorn/TJCC) Sitting in the Tucson Jewish Community Center, surrounded by Jewish children and adolescents, French teenager Avi Szychter feels right at home. For the 18-year-old, spending the summer in the Camp J Bonim Leaders-in-Training program has been the perfect opportunity to escape the growing anti-Semitism in France and relax before… Read more »
Rabbi Robert Eisen speaks at a “We Stand With Israel” rally at Congregation Anshei Israel on Aug. 7. An air raid siren wailed through Congregation Anshei Israel. On the southern wall of the sanctuary, a video showed people scurrying for shelter and lying down in the middle of a plaza, covering their heads. “In Israel, you only have 15 seconds to save your life,” an announcer intoned… Read more »
Bonnie Golden at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem with Robert Indiana’s “Ahava” (Love) sculpture Jews of a certain age might share similar early impressions of Israel. In Chicago, where I grew up, the young congregants at Lawn Manor Hebrew Congregation were inculcated with a firm commitment to the Jewish state. We saved our dime tokens to plant our trees, circle danced Israeli style… Read more »
Holocaust memorial stars on the railroad tracks at Salonika, Greece We sang “Happy Birthday” in Hebrew to 9-year-old Miriam in the Athens Jewish Community School; we talked with teenagers Gala and Tal at a summer camp near Salonika; we listened in Tel Aviv as Yuval who lost both arms and Tzipi who was paralyzed told us how… Read more »
"Lights on Shadows" by Abigail Gumbiner The Jewish History Museum will present Temple of Shadows, a photography exhibit, from… Read more »
The Women’s Academy for Jewish Studies at Congregation Chofetz Chayim will present “Out of the Depths,” a brunch and book presentation, on Sunday, Sept. 21 at 11 a.m. “Out of the Depths,” the autobiography of Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, tells the story of the youngest survivor of the Buchenwald… Read more »
Congregation Bet Shalom is forming Cub Scout Pack 613. The pack will accept boys ages 6 to 10 and a half of any religious affiliation, but it will be a Jewish pack, observing all Jewish holidays and kosher laws. The pack will be directed by Frank Youdelman, who has… Read more »
Tucsonan Shoham Ozeri, left, and a fellow IDF lone soldier in May 2014, more than a month before Israel launched Operation Protective Edge. The intense fighting between Israel and Gaza has evoked mixed emotions for the parents of two local lone soldiers. Max Gan, 23, made aliyah in 2010 and was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces that November. He served as a paratrooper and is now in the army reserves. He… Read more »
(JTA) — It is now open season for those who would like a chunk of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s change and think they have a big idea up their sleeves. On Tuesday, the Genesis Prize Foundation announced the launch of the Genesis Generation Challenge, a competition offering 10 awards of… Read more »
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, left, founder of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, meets with Jews who fled eastern Ukraine, July 2014. (Olivier Fitoussi) (JTA) — Each time he dispatches a car into Lugansk, Rabbi Shalom Gopin readies himself for hours of anxious anticipation. The scene of brutal urban warfare between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists, this eastern Ukrainian city now has no regular power supply, running water or cell phone reception. Mortar… Read more »
On our recent trip to Israel with Temple Emanu-El my husband and I made a special trip to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. Special is indeed an understatement. Our mission was to deliver the adorable therapy dolls lovingly made by the women of Hadassah Southern Arizona, as well… Read more »
An Iron Dome missile defense battery near the southern Israeli town of Ashdod. Each interceptor missile cost Israel $50,000. (David Buimovitch/Flash 90) TEL AVIV (JTA) — After the missiles have stopped, after the troops have come home, even after most of the wounded are out of the hospital, Israelis will still be feeling the burden of Operation Protective Edge — this time in their pockets. With the recent expiration of a… Read more »
The relationship between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seen here after Obama's arrival in Israel on March 20, 2013, has been marked by reports of tensions. (Pete Souza/White House) WASHINGTON (JTA) – President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are not the best of friends — that seems pretty clear by now. But following reports during the Gaza conflict of cut-off phone calls, tough talk of “demands” and eavesdropping, it may be time for them to figure… Read more »
Oshrat Barel, director of the Weintraub Israel Center, and Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon of Temple Emanu-El at a Prayers for Peace in the Middle East multi-faith service on July 31, 2014. As the latest Israel-Hamas conflict raged on, Tucsonans of many faiths gathered Thursday, July 31 at Temple Emanu-El to share prayers for peace in the Middle East. More than 200 people attended the multi-faith service, organized by Temple Emanu-El and the Weintraub Israel Center. The mood of the evening… Read more »
Tearing cloth on erev Tisha b'Av to express grief over deaths in Gaza (L-R): Abby Okrent, Georgia Conroy (face obscured), Joyce Smith, Beth Lowry, Deborah Mayaan, John Heid Tucsonans held small interfaith gatherings to pray for peace in the Middle East on July 14 and Aug. 4. On Aug. 4, the evening of Tisha b’Av, 13 people from Jewish, Islamic, Christian, Baha’i, and Buddhist faiths gathered in my living room for an event Abby Okrent helped… Read more »
Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs and his wife, Bluma, by the glass window of their home damaged in an attack on July 17, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz) AMERSFOORT, The Netherlands (JTA) — After the latest attack on his home, Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs sat down on his couch, picked up the phone and made three calls. A chief rabbi of the Netherlands, Jacobs first phoned police and a Jewish community leader to tell them that late on… Read more »
Pro-Israel demonstration in Chicago, July 22, 2014. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) WASHINGTON (JTA) – If the results of a recent focus group and polls are any indication, the gap is growing between Congress and young Americans when it comes to support for Israel. Polls conducted in late July by Gallup and the Pew Research Center found that support for Israel… Read more »
Israeli soldiers leaving the Gaza Strip seen near the border between Israel and the Hamas-controlled coastal area, Aug. 4, 2014. (Flash90) (JTA) – Now that the latest Gaza conflict appears to be over — or nearly so — it’s time to take stock of the winners and losers. Who won the war? Perhaps more than the other two Gaza conflicts in the last six years, Israel is the clear winner… Read more »
Lisa Silverman with her chiildren (L-R), Yael, Jonah, Talia and Ruth Levin, in Modi'in, Israel
(Ingrid Muller) “Some days will be hard, but hope will prevail” were the words to a song on the radio as I headed home to Modi’in on July 17. So many thoughts, feelings, associations have been cascading through me ...… Read more »
A Palestinian man kissing a baby killed in an attack on a United Nations school in the northern Gaza city of Beit Hanoun, July 24, 2014. (Emad Nassar/Flash90) TEL AVIV (JTA) — Shortly after dawn on July 30, a bomb hit a United Nations school sheltering thousands of civilians displaced by the fighting in Gaza, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens. The attack on the Jabalia Elementary Girls School was the fifth attack on U.N.… Read more »
