News

In an effort to ensure that every Jew in Southern Arizona has a seat at a seder table for Passover, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and local synagogues are joining forces for Operation Elijah, which pairs seder guests and hosts. All who are new to the community, single,… Read more »

Learning to read is part of any school curriculum but loving to read is another story. For the past two years, Tucson Hebrew Academy has been using the Great Books Foundation K-12 program from the University of Chicago, an established literature curriculum that promotes outstanding reading choices and shared-inquiry… Read more »

“A Small Act,” an award-winning documentary about a Holocaust survivor’s $15 a month contribution to educate a child in Kenya, will be screened Sunday, April 10 at 2 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. In the 1930s, Hilde Back’s parents sent her from Germany to Sweden to escape… Read more »

Rain Borchardt, CUFI at UA president, with Irving Roth

Holocaust survivor Irving Roth will be the keynote speaker when Christians United for Israel at the University of Arizona hosts its second Night to Honor Israel. The dinner event will take place on Monday, April 11, the 66th anniversary of Roth’s liberation from the Buchenwald concentration camp. It will… Read more »

The Jewish History Museum will exhibit “Discrimination Yesterday & Today: A Look at the Cause of the Holocaust,” April 3 through May 14. The exhibit will feature the FBI’s “Enduring Eyes” Holocaust posters and anti-Semitic literature and artifacts from the JHM permanent collection, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the… Read more »

Hadar Susskind

J Street, a pro-peace, pro-Israel lobbying group and political action committee, is often presented in the media as a left-wing counterweight to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. But that’s not J Street’s mission, Hadar Susskind, J Street policy and strategic planning director, told a lunch crowd of about… Read more »

Hershel Cohen with Israeli hip-hop violinist Miri Ben-Ari, who performed at the conference

Twenty-three young Jewish Tucsonans headed off to Las Vegas earlier this month — not to gamble, but to make up one of the largest delegations to Tribefest, the newly re-branded Young Leadership conference of the Jewish Federations of North America. “Connect, Explore and Celebrate” they did, along with more… Read more »

Rabbi Richard Jacobs of Scarsdale, N.Y. was tapped to be the new president of the Union for Reform Judaism. Union for Reform Judaism)

NEW YORK (JTA) — For the man tapped to lead American Jewry’s largest religious denomination, keeping the movement’s 900-plus synagogues welcoming to the unaffiliated, inspiring for members and a home for disaffected traditional Jews may require a high-wire balancing act. As a former dancer and choreographer, Rabbi Richard Jacobs… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Does President Obama need a “Shalom Chaver” moment a la Bill Clinton? More fraught back-and-forth between the organized Jewish community and the Obama administration again has brought to the fore the question of what the president feels in his gut toward Israel and the Jewish people.… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — When David Portowicz was a new immigrant to Israel from Brooklyn in the 1970s, he began research on poverty in Jaffa that would lead to his life’s work: the creation of a nonprofit organization that now serves thousands of disadvantaged children and their families. A… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — It’s time for the West to woo Latin America — some will say it’s about time. The United States and Israel appear to be heading toward increasing their focus on the area following years of neglect that has resulted in closer ties between Latin America and… Read more »

A rally in the suburban New York town of Massapequa, Long Island, protesting the stereotyping of Muslims is timed ahead of congressional hearings on Muslim radicalization convened by Rep. King, the local congressman, Feb. 22, 2011. (longislandwins via Creative Commons)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Are the congressional hearings on radicalization among American Muslims an instance of McCarthyism, or is the opposition to them political correctness run amok? Jewish groups may disagree on why, but there appears to be wide consensus that the congressional hearings led by Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.),… Read more »

Rabbi Shlomo Bentolila, right, dances with Congolese officials at a gala dinner celebrating 20 years of the Chabad of Central Africa in Kinshasa, March 1. (Israel Bardugo/lubavitch.com)

Congolese President Joseph Kabila probably had other things on his mind last week besides the celebration in his capital city of Kinshasa marking the 20th anniversary of the city’s Chabad center. On Feb. 27, about 100 fighters armed with assault rifles and rocket launchers staged two simultaneous attacks in… Read more »

ZAKA volunteer holds a body bag containing one of the victims of the terror attack in the West Bank settlement of Itama, March 11, 2011. (Courtesy of ZAKA)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Demonstrations in solidarity with settlers and a Cabinet committee’s approval for new housing in the West Bank are among the Israeli responses to the suspected terrorist attack that killed five members of a West Bank Jewish family. An estimated 20,000 people attended the March 13 funeral at a cemetery… Read more »

Chaim Potok’s widow, Adena Potok, center, advised the Arizona Jewish Theatre Company production of ‘My Name is Asher Lev.’ From left: Andrea Dovner, Layne Racowsky (director), Michael Kary, Ben Tyler (Mark Gluckman)

The Arizona Jewish Theatre Company in Phoenix will present the Arizona premiere of “My Name is Asher Lev,” written by Aaron Posner, and based on the novel by Chaim Potok, March 24-April 3. “My Name is Asher Lev” had its world premiere in Philadelphia in January 2009. Set in… Read more »

Women’s Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is organizing a team for the 13th Annual Southern Arizona Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, which will be held Sunday, April 10 at Reid Park. The event includes a one-mile walk at 7 a.m. and a five-mile walk/run… Read more »

Founded in 1912 by Henrietta Szold, Hadassah is celebrating its upcoming centennial by offering community members the opportunity to become a life member or male associate at a special price of $100. Hadassah is the largest women’s Zionist volunteer organization in the United States and has members in more… Read more »

Young Judaea, the national Zionist youth group of Hadassah, will hold its West Merchav Spring Convention for grades 3-8 at the Triangle Y Camp in Oracle, Ariz., April 1-3. Hosted by the Tucson Young Judaea youth group, it will feature a chocolate Seder, games, hiking, Shabbat services, songs and… Read more »

Congregation Or Chadash will host “An Affair to Remember,” an evening of dinner and dancing, on Saturday, March 26 from 7 to 11 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Klezmerkaba will provide the music, along with the debut of Quintessence, a new band fronted by Or Chadash’s Cantor… Read more »

The detractors of J Street, the “pro-Israel, pro-peace” lobbying organization, like to portray the organization’s leader, Jeremy Ben-Ami, as so far to the left of mainstream American Jewish opinion as to be out of bounds. If they think Ben-Ami is too much of a lefty on Israel, just wait… Read more »