Fifty-eight Israeli lawmakers marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day at Auschwitz, Jan. 27, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz) OSWIECIM, Poland (JTA) — Watching thousands of Poles dance to Klezmer music just 50 miles from the Auschwitz death camp, Johnny Daniels could feel an ambitious plan taking shape. The experience last year at Krakow’s annual Jewish Culture Festival prompted Daniels, a 28-year-old Israeli and Holocaust educator, to organize… Read more »
BUCHAREST, Romania (JTA) — Touring the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005, Romanian President Traian Basescu was unprepared to confront some painful truths. Facing a photograph showing pro-Nazi Romanian troops offloading their Jewish countrymen from cargo trains, Basescu was shocked and saddened. For decades, his country’s educational system had… Read more »
The first fuel is loaded at Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant on Aug. 21, 2010. (Iran International Photo Agency via Getty Images) WASHINGTON (JTA) — A loose coalition of advocacy groups and policy experts, including a pair of dovish Jewish organizations, have been coordinating messaging in support of the Obama administration’s Iran strategy. The coalition was convened by the Ploughshares Fund, which advocates for a nuclear-free world. Coalition participants — J… Read more »
Examples of Anne Frank abound in Japanese popular culture. (Courtesy of Alan Lewkowicz) AMSTERDAM (JTA) — She speaks only Japanese and is not entirely sure what country she’s in, but 18-year-old Haruna Matsui is happy to stand in the rain for an hour with two friends to see the home of a person she has never met yet nonetheless considers her soul… Read more »
Mosab Hassan Yousef, right, is the subject of "The Green Prince" by filmmaker Nadav Schirman, left, a documentary about Yosef's work spying for Israel and his friendship with his Israeli handler Gonen ben Itzhak, center. (Larry Busacca/Getty Images) PARK CITY, Utah (JTA) — Perhaps the most difficult thing about watching the new documentary “The Green Prince” is feeling that you should not be there, that everyone in the theater should be asked to leave before any more Israeli intelligence secrets are divulged. When the Israeli newspaper Haaretz… Read more »
The Taglit-Birthright Israel program has expanded eligibility for its free 10-day trips to Israel for Jewish young adults ages 18-26, JNS.org has learned. Teenagers who went on an educational trip to Israel during high school were previously not eligible for Birthright trips, but can now participate, confirmed Noa Bauer,… Read more »
The 2006 kidnapping and murder of Ilan Halimi, who is pictured here, is the subject of a forthcoming feature film from the director Alexandre Arcady. (Courtesy of Stephanie Yin) SAINTE-GENEVIEVE-DES-BOIS, France (JTA) — The phone calls from Africa, the calm demeanor of the suspects and their extreme caution left no doubt in the minds of detectives working the Ilan Halimi case: They were up against an international ring of professional kidnappers. It would be more more than three… Read more »
Sen. Robert Menendez WASHINGTON (JTA) — In previous AIPAC vs. White House dustups, the pro-Israel lobbying group’s strategy was to speak softly and let Congress carry the big stick. But in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s face-off with the Obama administration over new Iran sanctions, congressional support may not be so… Read more »
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Ottawa in 2012. TORONTO (JTA) — It took seven years, but one of Israel’s staunchest allies among world leaders has made his maiden voyage to the Jewish state. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Israel on Sunday with his wife, Laureen. On Tuesday, Harper and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed… Read more »
Steven Weitzman will present “King Solomon’s Mines Revisited: A Misadventure Story,” the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies 2014 Marcus Breger Memorial Lecture, on Tuesday, Jan. 21. Weitzman, the Daniel E. Koshland Professor of Jewish Culture and Religion at Stanford University, will speak at noon at the University of Arizona… Read more »
(L-R) Nina Isaac, Randi Levin, Cheryl Wortzel, Shaun Kozolchyk and David Plotkin at a past Hava Tequila event. Hava Tequila, a party with a 1920s theme sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Young Leadership department, will be held Saturday, Feb. 8, 8 to 11 p.m. at Hotel Congress. The event, for ages 21 and over, will include a DJ, dancing, photo booth, hors d’oeuvres, signature… Read more »
Scholarships for Jewish overnight camps, funded by the Moe and Frances Beren Family Scholarship Fund, are available through the Coalition for Jewish Education of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. “As in past years, these funds are critical in both showing the community’s recognition of the positive impact Jewish… Read more »
The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona has announced the fifth annual Goldman Family Israel Scholarship Grant, with available funding of $2,500. The deadline for application is 5 p.m. on Feb. 7. The Elliot S. Goldman Israel Scholarship Fund and the Goldman Family Scholarship Fund are endowment funds held… Read more »
Gavin Cohen watches a shot. Tucson is a golfer’s paradise — and not just for retirees and sun-seeking vacationers. Many Tucsonans develop a love of the game at an early age, including several teens in the Jewish community, such as 15-year-old Gavin Cohen. “Gavin Cohen is a pretty good stick,” says Scott Gregoire, general… Read more »
Adisa Ayaso Adisa Ayaso arrived in Israel in January 1984, but her family’s aliyah wasn’t the typical airplane flight of so many modern-day Jews. Ayaso, now 33, was born in the village of Gedlia Murim in Ethiopia. She was 3 when her family began the 1,000-mile trek across the mountains of… Read more »
Enriqueta Fassler Enriqueta “Neneng” Fassler is a 71-year-old dynamo who earned her third college degree in May. She was the oldest graduate of Pima Community College, earning her post-graduate certificate — with honors — as a paralegal. Fassler holds two college degrees in education: one in physical education from her native… Read more »
J. Edward Wright, director of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies and the J. Edward Wright Endowed Professor of Judaic Studies, will lead “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow — Israel and Palestine,” a Magellan Circle excursion to Israel from May 25 to June 4. The Magellan Circle excursions are group… Read more »
A scene from 'Out in the Dark' The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s LGBT Jewish Inclusion Project is sponsoring a film, “Out in the Dark,” at the Tucson International Jewish Film Festival on Jan. 23. What begins as a tender romance between a privileged Israeli lawyer and a Palestinian student becomes an edge-of your-seat thriller, says… Read more »
Super Sunday co-chairs Kris and Ben Silverman The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will hold its annual fundraising phone-a-thon, Super Extraordinary Sunday, on Jan. 26 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Several mitzvah projects, including a Red Cross blood drive and a Gift of Life bone marrow registry, will help make the day special. “Arizona is… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — More than half the United States Senate has signed on to a bill that would intensify sanctions against Iran. But in a sign of the so-far successful effort by the White House to keep the bill from reaching a veto-busting 67 supporters, only 16 Democrats are… Read more »
