News

The U.S. State Department warns that travelers to Saudi Arabia have reported that Israeli entry stamps such as this one may result in a denial of entry. The Saudis deny having such a policy. (Matthew Wilkinson via Creative Commons)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Saudi government wants you to know: It doesn’t ban visits by Jews. Whether the Saudis make travel difficult for Jews, particularly when it comes to those who have Israel stamps on their passports or come carrying religious items like tefillin, is another question entirely. The… Read more »

Congregations Anshei Israel and Or Chadash will host a themed film series, “All God … And Only God,” Sundays, July 10 – August 7 at 7 p.m. at Congregation Anshei Israel. The series is free and will include complimentary popcorn and lemonade. A discussion with Rabbi Robert Eisen, Rabbi… Read more »

Michele Bachmann

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Michele Bachmann in a bathroom confronted by two lesbians and screaming for help, or Bachmann at the Western Wall surrounded by Jews and weeping with joy. Where your politics are likely will determine which incident involving Bachmann you’d highlight. But supporters of Bachmann, a presidential aspirant… Read more »

Lisa Jackson Pulver, a Jewish member of the Aboriginal tribe called the Wiradjuri. (From "Hand in Hand: Jewish and Indigenous People Working Together" by Anne Sarzin and Lisa Miranda Sarzin)

      SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) — Lisa Jackson Pulver is not your average Australian Jew. Yes, she is one of this country’s 110,000 or so Members of the Tribe, but she is also a member of another tribe: an Aboriginal clan called the Wiradjuri. Jackson Pulver says she’s… Read more »

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — It’s the nightmare of every parent — and every teacher, youth leader and camp director. When a child dies in an accident while in someone else’s care, the agonizing questions begin: Could we have done anything different? Were all the proper procedures followed? And above… Read more »

Supporters of the planned flotilla to Gaza participate in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Rome, Italy, on May 14, 2011. (Lucian via CC)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Navy is preparing to intercept the pro-Palestinian flotilla due to set sail for the Gaza Strip from Mediterranean ports later this week. Commandos from the Israeli Navy’s elite Shayetet 13 unit have spent weeks preparing to stop the flotilla from reaching Gaza, including practicing new ways… Read more »

Noam Shalit, father of captive Israeli soldier Gilad shalit, sits beneath a banner depicting his son and Ron Arad, the missing-but-assumed-dead Israeli airman, in a protest tent near the prime ministers residence in Jerusalem, June 2, 2011. [Miriam Alster/FLASH90/JTA]r

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Michal Naamani traveled to Jerusalem from her home near Kfar Saba to hand out yellow ribbons to passers-by and bumper stickers to motorists reading “Gilad is alive.”   Naamani, a high school teacher, felt that she wanted to do something to help captive Israeli soldier Gilad… Read more »

New Square Grand Rebbe David Twersky strongly encourages residents of the heavily Chasidic suburban New York village he leads to worship at his synagogue, pictured here. (Alex Weisler/JTA Photo Service)

For years, this leafy Chasidic village about an hour north of New York City has been a shtetl-like haven where residents could live their strictly Orthodox lifestyle far from the temptations and bustle of the nation’s largest city. Out of view of all but very few, life in this… Read more »

Monument fire view from Temple Kol Hamidbar parking lot in Sierra Vista (Ben Caron)

Usually a peaceful place, Dr. Samuel and Mary Caron’s house recently stood at the edge of a fiery maelstrom: the Monument wildfire, which as of Monday had burned 30,526 acres in Cochise County, but was considered 85 percent contained. The Caron home is at the bottom of Carr Canyon… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) – When it comes to passing a gay marriage bill in New York State, even many supporters acknowledge that wide-reaching religious exemptions are crucial. After all, this is the state with the nation’s second-largest number of Catholics and largest number of Orthodox Jews, and many say… Read more »

Reform movement leader Maurice Eisendrath, with Torah scroll, meets President John F. Kennedy, left, in the White House Rose Garden, along with several other leaders in 1961. (Photo courtesy Washington Jewish Week)

While driving through Miami in the early 1950s, Kivie Kaplan spotted a sign that would change his life and eventually alter America’s political landscape. It read:”No dogs, no niggers, no kikes.” That jarring discovery caused Kaplan, a wealthy Jewish American businessman, to declare, “I’m going to spend the rest… Read more »

Rabbi Sergio Bergman (with microphone) speaks as he stands with Buenos Aires Mauricio Macri (left) and two other politicians at a May 23 event introducing the PRO party’s candidates for municipal elections. (Eliana Krumecadyk/JTA Photo Service)

Rabbi Sergio Bergman, already one of Buenos Aires’ most prominent spiritual leaders, has become one of the Argentine capital’s most highly visible political candidates. Bergman was tapped by the city’s incumbent mayor, Mauricio Macri, to lead his PRO party’s list for the municipal legislature. As the top candidate on… Read more »

Laura Kafif, the house mother at Sava A Child’s Heart, visits with one of her charges, Zeresenay Gebru, as he recovers from heart surgery at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel, May 31, 2011. (Sheila Shalhevet/JTA Photo Service)

Just two days earlier, 8-year-old Salha Farjalla Khamis said goodbye to her parents and four siblings in her village on the African island of Zanzibar. Now, in a hospital in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon, tears roll silently down her cheeks as she watches an Israeli nurse attach… Read more »

Rep. Anthony Weiner, shown campaigning for New York mayor in August 2009, resigned from Congress adter being pressured by leading members of his Democratic Party. (Rep. Anthony Weiner)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — What happens when new media scandal meets ancient political calculus? Anthony Weiner, the Democrat from New York, found out on Thursday, when he delivered his resignation following intense pressure from party leaders. Top Democrats described for JTA the key factors that led to Weiner’s ouster: Their… Read more »

Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, pictured here addressing a Republican Jewish Coalition event in June 2011, has become a star in Republican circles after exposing Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner's lewd tweets. (RJC)

(Los Angeles) The TV cameras at the Beverly Hilton Hotel’s ballroom were there to cover a foreign policy speech by Newt Gingrich, but during the cocktail hour, all eyes at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Summer Bash were on Andrew Breitbart. While Gingrich was mingling privately at the June 12… Read more »

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (P.K.Weis/southwest photobank.com)

Photos of a smiling Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona congresswoman who was shot in the head in January, were released on her Facebook page. The photos show Giffords with close-cropped hair. According to a statement on the Facebook page, they were taken May 17, the day after her husband, Mark… Read more »

The Tzofim (Israel Scouts) Friendship Caravan national tour will stop in Tucson with a free concert of song and dance on Thursday, June 30, at 6 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The Weintraub Israel Center is seeking host families to house the Israeli teens for one night.… Read more »

Retired pediatrician Marilyn Heins serves on the board of the University of Arizona Humanities Seminar Program. (Sheila Wilensky/AJP)

Lifelong learning is often touted as an essential ingredient for aging gracefully, but for some Jewish Tucsonans the appeal goes far beyond that notion. The University of Arizona Humanities Seminars Program has filled a need “for something that gets into my brain and grabs me,” says Marilyn Heins, 80,… Read more »

Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin [Britta Van Vranken)

Congregation Young Israel appointed Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin as associate rabbi as of May 2011. He will work alongside CYI’s spiritual leader of 27 years, Rabbi Yossie Shemtov.   Ceitlin grew up in Montreal, where his parents are both educators. He studied in yeshivot in Bnei Brak and Kfar Chabad… Read more »

Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon of Temple Emanu-El in front of the Knesset, where 30 American rabbis were briefed during a ‘Rabbis Engaging with Israel’ mission last month

It’s not unusual for rabbis to frequently visit Israel, but last month Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon of Temple Emanu-El enjoyed the rare opportunity of traveling to the Holy Land as part of a select group from around the United States and Canada that included 10 Reform, 10 Conservative and… Read more »