News

(L-R): Sharon Glassberg, Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona vice president; Rabbi David Wolpe; Brenda Landau, JFSA senior vice president; and Stuart Mellan, JFSA president and CEO, at “Together” event Feb. 12. (Martha Lochert)

A haimish (homey, folksy) Rabbi David Wolpe used humor and storytelling to entertain and enlighten a crowd of more than 500 at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s “Together” event on Feb. 12 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. “When I grew up Jewish schools were called parochial. I… Read more »

Devorah Halberstam honored Raymond Kelly, the former commissioner of the New York Police Department at a gala dinner at the Jewish Children's Museum in May 2013. (Jewish Children's Museum)

NEW YORK (JTA) – When a 16-year-old Lubavitcher named Ari Halberstam was gunned down on the Brooklyn Bridge on March 1, 1994 by a Lebanese livery cab driver, the killing seemed to be a cut-and-dried case. The shooter, Rashid Baz, was captured the following day and confessed to police.… Read more »

Alena Druzhynina of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, pictured above in white helmet, entered the tense Independent Square area of Kiev on Feb. 22 to bring a package of food to an 82-year-old pensioner who had been homebound since the worst of the violence began. (JDC)

(JTA) — The turmoil in Ukraine has left one of Europe’s largest Jewish communities on edge. After an outbreak of violence in Kiev last week that left dozens of protesters and policemen dead, President Viktor Yanukovych fled the capital and parliament installed an interim leader to take the still-contested… Read more »

Children with disabilities and their peers kayaking at the Conservative movement's Camp Ramah Wisconsin. (Courtesy National Ramah commission)

NEW YORK (JTA) — In the coming months, six young Jews with disabilities will start paid internships at major Jewish federations through a pilot program. If successful, the program will expand to communities throughout North America. In the fall, Manhattan’s first Jewish day school for children with special needs… Read more »

The protagonist of the Oscar-nominated "Omar" is on the run from Israeli agents who are pursuing the Palestinian murderer of an Israeli soldier. (Adopt Films)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — For cinematic observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this is a banner year, with both sides choosing Oscar submissions that center on the Israeli occupation. Israel’s “Bethlehem,” which pits Shin Bet agents against diverse Palestinian factions eager to blow up the Jewish state, was eliminated early… Read more »

Bucharest's Jewish State Theater served as a cultural refuge for Romanian Jews during the Holocaust. (Wikimedia Commons)

BUCHAREST, Romania (JTA) — When secret police opened fire on protesters near her home, Maia Morgenstern headed for the Jewish State Theater. It was 1989 and Morgenstern, then 27, and a few of her friends took refuge in the theater as protesters outside clashed with forces loyal to Romanian… Read more »

Members of the National Socialist Movement rally near Los Angeles City Hall on April 17, 2010. (David McNew/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — When Abraham Foxman steps down next summer from his longtime post as national director of the Anti-Defamation League, he’ll be leaving his successor with a much brighter picture on anti-Semitism in America than when Foxman joined the organization in 1965. In an age when anti-Semitic… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Presbyterians who engage in dialogue with Jewish groups are scrambling to undo what they say is the damage caused by a congregational study guide assailing Zionism distributed by a group affiliated with their denomination. The guide, “Zionism Unsettled,” posits that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is fueled by… Read more »

Chris Mutune, a geenhouse caretaker for Amiran Kenya, working in one of the company's sample greenhouses. (Ben Sales)

NAIROBI, Kenya (JTA) — Bags of seeds from the Israeli seed company Hazera Genetics line the shelves of one warehouse. Another houses rolls of plastic from StePac, an Israeli firm whose bags can keep vegetables fresher for longer. In a third warehouse are rows of coiled hoses, each pricked… Read more »

Tucsonan Gabe Lehrer, left, and Sheldon Donenberg at Camp Ramah in Ojai, Calif., in 2011

Tucsonan Gabe Lehrer is not quite 16, but he is already working on his second professionally recorded CD, as half of the singer-songwriter duo Sheldon and Gabriel. Gabe met Sheldon Donenberg at Camp Ramah in Ojai, Calif., in the summer of 2011. Gabe, the son of Mimi Algazi and… Read more »

Jamie Klein

While many college students see summer as an opportunity to take on internships or find a summer job that can help pay for their expenses during the academic year, University of Arizona communications sophomore Amanda Silverman only sees summer as one thing: time to go to camp. “I don’t… Read more »

Sid Caesar on “Your Show of Shows” with co-star Imogene Coca (Wikimedia Commons) Read more: http://www.jta.org/2014/02/13/news-opinion/sid-caesar-tv-and-comedy-pioneer-dies-at-91#ixzz2tEslJNrS

NEW YORK (JTA) — Sid Caesar, regarded as the founding father of American Jewish comedy and live original sketch comedy, has died. Caesar, who reportedly has been in failing health for a year, died Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 91. He is best known… Read more »

JCC Camp Interlaken has given me many memories, from the Maccabiah games to the beauty of Lake Finley. I truly love every moment I am there. I know that I have made long lasting friendships and my best friend is from Interlaken. Camp Interlaken is my home away from… Read more »

The Invisible Theatre will present “My Buddy,” a tribute to comedian Buddy Hackett — starring his son, Sandy Hackett — on Saturday, March 8 and Sunday, March 9 at the Berger Performing Arts Center, 1200 W. Speedway Blvd. This musical production will reveal stories about Hackett’s relationships with myriad… Read more »

Lori Hunt as Rosalind Franklin in ‘Photograph 51’ at Live Theatre Workshop

“Photograph 51,” a play about Jewish scientist Rosalind Franklin, will be staged at Live Theatre Workshop, 5317 E. Speedway Blvd., from Feb. 20 to March 22. Written by Anna Ziegler and directed by Sabian Trout, the production takes on the puzzle of DNA. Franklin, born to an affluent London… Read more »

"Spiraling" by Ira Wiesenfeld

Twelve additions to the Tucson Jewish Community Center’s Sculpture Garden will be unveiled on Sunday, March 9, 1-3 p.m. at the opening of the 5th annual Sculpture Garden exhibition, which features the work of artists from Tucson and across the country. “The goal was to find sculptures that would… Read more »

Handmaker Youth Lea­dership Team will hold a multi-generational event with a disabilities awareness theme on Sunday, March 2 at 2 p.m. Youth volunteers and Handmaker residents will learn strategies for communicating with people who have hearing loss, how daily life is affected by vision loss and how daily life… Read more »

Rita Rudner

Rita Rudner is your typical housewife. She washes dishes, makes beds, folds laundry … then she dashes off to her sold-out show in Las Vegas. “Actually I am making the beds right now,” said Rudner, from her beach home in Dana Point, Calif., which is currently for sale. “We… Read more »

Jeannie Smith

“From Darkness to Light,” the theme of the 2014 Connections brunch, raises the question of individual responsibility to others — a Jewish value — regardless of the risk. Jeannie Smith, the daughter of Polish Righteous Among the Nations rescuer Irene Gut OpDyke, will be the keynote speaker at this… Read more »

Rabbi Eric Yoffie

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president emeritus of the Union for Reform Judaism, supports what he calls “passionate pluralism” in the Jewish world — not one right way of being Jewish. He’s coming to Tucson as Temple Emanu-El’s scholar-in-residence from Thursday, Feb. 27 to Saturday, March 1 “to combat stereotypes that… Read more »