News

The Ohio Holocaust and Liberators Memorial, designed by Daniel Libeskind, on the lawn of he Statehouse, Columbus, Ohio, was dedicated June 2, 2014. (Marshall Weiss/ The Dayton Jewish Observer)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (The Dayton Jewish Observer) — Visibly moved by the testimony of a Holocaust survivor, Ohio Gov. John Kasich called for a monument at the Ohio Statehouse during the annual Governor’s Holocaust Commemoration three years ago. “Let’s construct something that can teach people about man’s inhumanity to man,… Read more »

Idit Klein, right, the executive director of Keshet, married Jordan Namerow under a chuppah at their 2011 wedding in Massachusetts, which was officiated by two rabbis. (Courtesy of Idit Klein)

BOSTON (JTA) — Ten years ago, shortly after midnight on May 17, 2004, a jubilant Arthur Lipkin and his longtime partner descended the stone steps of Cambridge City Hall clutching a marriage license application. It was a historic night of revelry and celebration, as Massachusetts became the first state… Read more »

Supporters of the Greek ultra-nationalist party Golden Dawn attend a pre-election rally on May 2, 2014 in Athens, Greece. (Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)

ATHENS, Greece (JTA) — The picture of Golden Dawn leaders being led away in shackles by masked policemen last September was supposed to be a defining image: Greek authorities cracking down on the country’s neo-Nazi party as a harbinger of its demise. Instead, soon there will be a new… Read more »

The chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Natan Sharansky, seen during the interview with the press at his office in Jerusalem on Sept. 12, 2013. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Its leaders call it a “historic development,” a “paradigm shift” and a “change in the relationship” between Israel and Diaspora Jewry. But when it comes to the details of the Joint Initiative of the Government of Israel and World Jewry, key questions have yet to be… Read more »

Agata Trzebuchowska as Ida Lebenstein, right, and Agata Kulesza as Wanda Gruz in the Polish film "Ida." (Courtesy photo)

(JTA) — After reburying the bones of her parents in a neglected Jewish cemetery, a soon-to-be Polish nun quietly crosses herself with earth-covered fingers. A devout and introverted young woman, Ida Lebenstein had learned only days earlier that her parents were Jews who were murdered by Polish Christians. As… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Which way will Presbyterians go this time? That’s a question Jewish groups and their Presbyterian allies are nervously asking as they work to head off divestment efforts within the church targeting Israel. The fear is the efforts could pass this time after a narrow defeat two… Read more »

Prime Minister Rami Al-Hamdallah, at head of table, attends his first meeting of the new Palestinian unity government cabinet in the West Bank city of Ramallah, June 3, 2014. (Issam Rimawi/Flash90)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The new Palestinian unity government brought together rivals Hamas and Fatah, but it has opened a divide between allies Israel and the United States. “I’m deeply troubled by the announcement that the United States will work with the Palestinian government backed by Hamas,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu… Read more »

Relatives and family members mourning in Tel Aviv during the funeral for Emanuel and Miriam Riva, the Israeli couple killed in the May 24 shooting attack at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels, May 27, 2014. (Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images)

(JTA) — It was the threat that European authorities dreaded — and Europe’s Jews suffered the first blow. The suspect arrested in the attack last month at the Jewish museum in Brussels that left four dead was a French-born jihadist who had returned home from fighting in Syria. Now… Read more »

Ukraine's president-elect, Petro Poroshenko, speaking to the media during a news conference in Kiev, May 26, 2013. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Imrages)

(JTA) — To many of his voters, President-elect Petro Poroshenko represented hope for fixing Ukraine’s ailing economy because of the billionaire candy company founder’s success in business. Others believed that Poroshenko, who won 54 percent of the vote in last week’s presidential race, was the best candidate for negotiating… Read more »

Likkud Knesset member Rerven Riv;in meets with children at a Jerusalem school on May 30, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — The front-runner in Israel’s presidential election has equated Reform Judaism with “idol worship” and refused to refer to Reform rabbis by their title. Former Knesset speaker Reuven “Ruby” Rivlin, considered a Likud party elder statesman, is one of six candidates running to succeed Shimon Peres in… Read more »

(Tucson, Arizona) May 23, 2014 – The Arizona chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America hosted a quilting bee May 24 in Tucson as part of The Mother’s Dream Quilt Project. This national campaign is bringing moms together to create a series of quilts from fabric submissions… Read more »

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, at far right, receives the Genesis Prize on May 22, 2014 at the Jerusalem Theater, where he is joined onstage by, from left, ceremony emcee and former "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; the chairman of the Jewish Agency, Natan Sharansky; and the chairman of the Genesis Prize, Stan Polovets. (Milner/Genesis)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — There were ballerinas, a full dance ensemble, soloists, a harpist, a video tribute to Jewish luminaries in multiple fields, a multimedia orchestra performance celebrating the enduring light of creation, a speech from the prime minister, stand-up from Jay Leno, and an audience packed with top Jewish… Read more »

Rabbi Thomas Louchheim

Rabbi Thomas Louchheim of Congregation Or Chadash was one of the 10 Tucson clergy who took part in an interfaith “Why Marriage Matters Arizona” event, voicing support for the freedom for all couples to be able to marry, on Tuesday, May 27 at 6 p.m. at Casas Adobes Congregational… Read more »

BRUSSELS (JTA) — The cold determination with which the shooter at Belgium’s Jewish museum murdered four people shocked many Belgians, but local Jewish leaders have long anticipated the possibility of such an attack on their community. The shooter who entered the Jewish Museum of Belgium on Saturday in central… Read more »

KIEV, Ukraine (JTA) — At an empty Chabad school near the banks of the Dnieper River here in Ukraine’s capital city, six uniformed Jews with handguns and bulletproof vests are practicing urban warfare. Leading the training last week is a brawny man who at irregular intervals barks Hebrew-language commands… Read more »

Pope Francis touches the wall that separates Israel from the West Bank on his way to celebrate a mass in Manger Square in Bethlehem, May 25, 2014. (Nour Shamaly/POOL/Flash90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Perhaps the most lasting image from Pope Francis’ trip to Israel and the West Bank will be the pontiff praying, eyes closed, with his head against a wall. It wasn’t the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest site and a necessary stop for visiting dignitaries. It… Read more »

Adults and children participating in a silent vigil outside the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels for the four victims of a shooting there by an unidentified gunman, May 25, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

BRUSSELS (JTA) — Hunched over a small island of memorial candles for the victims of the attack on the Jewish Museum of Belgium, Paul Ambach is lost in thought. “Once again, Jewish blood in Belgium, which is no longer Belgium,” said Ambach, a well-known Jewish musician from Antwerp, as… Read more »

The March of the Living Western region delegation approaches the memorial at the Majdanek concentration camp. In front, (L-R): Hallie Goldstein, Kelsey Luria and Gabby Levy (Tucson Hebrew High Facebook page)

The beauty of the Polish countryside was eerie, says Cameron Busby, one of 12 Tucson teens to participate in this year’s March of the Living, an annual education program that unites Jewish teens worldwide in Poland on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, to march between the Auschwitz and Birkenau… Read more »

One small step by Israelis could become a giant leap for the State of Israel. At a Tel Aviv University laboratory, a team of 20 Israelis is building a spacecraft they believe will make Israel only the fourth country — after the United States, Russia and China — to… Read more »

Jon Ben-Asher, Tucson Hebrew Academy’s new interim head of school, is off and running. He attended THA in the late 1970s and early ’80s and recalls being assigned to watch Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” as homework. “Cosmos” is back on TV, modernized and even more spectacular. So is Ben-Asher’s view… Read more »