About 150 people attended Temple Emanu-El’s Hanukkah Spectacular on Sunday, Dec. 15, with students from the Kurn Religious School and Strauss ECE singing, dancing, acting, and playing music. Here, Kurn teacher Sarah Fire leads children in “I’m a Little Latke” and “Hanukkah is Here.”… Read more »
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, area synagogues, and community members recently conducted the annual Project Isaiah food drive, collecting more than 3,636 pounds of food and $512 in donations for the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona. Many other donations were collected directly from local synagogues.… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A U.S. airstrike killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force, which operates a number of regional militias and is allied with terrorist groups targeting Israel, including Hezbollah and Hamas. The strike early Friday morning hit a vehicle near Baghdad International Airport. The Quds Force… Read more »
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — The leader of the second-largest party in the Netherlands called for expelling from the country an International Criminal Court prosecutor for attempting to try Israelis for war crimes. Geert Wilders called Thursday for the expulsion of Fatou Bensouda over her Dec. 20 report alleging that both… Read more »
Dozens of Jewish figures had enormous impacts on the 2010s. (Getty Images/Photo illustration by Grace Yagel)
(JTA) — The 2010s were nothing if not turbulent. The decade brought us unprecedented political polarization, war and increasing conflict in Israel, dozens of horrific mass shootings, and a new age of election hacking and private data collection enabled by the proliferation of social media. It was capped by… Read more »
Police vehicles gather around the synagogue where a shooting took place in Poway, Calif., April 27, 2019. (Xinhua/ via Getty Images)
(JTA) — For many Jews around the world, there’s probably no love lost for 2019. As the year draws to a close, the Jewish community continues to grapple with the continued rise of global anti-Semitism — one major community in Europe is facing the possible election as prime minister… Read more »
Jewish Israelis seen in the West Bank settlement of Shavei Shomron, Nov. 19, 2019. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The list includes names like Peter Beinart, the liberal writer; Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of the liberal Middle East policy group J Street; and Sheila Katz, the CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women. No, it’s not an ad for a symposium on the Upper East… Read more »
(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has won his party’s leadership primary with 71.5 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll. A tweet by Direct Polls, an Israeli firm, showed challenger Gideon Saar with 28.5 percent.The poll had a margin of error of 3.2 percent, and… Read more »
The Iron Dome missile-defense system intercepts rockets that were fired from Gaza, Nov. 13, 2019. Congress is approving funds to continue financing this and other anti-missile systems. (Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — If where you spend your money is the clearest sign of your priorities, Congress seems to be saying that it remains invested in Israeli-Palestinian peace and in robustly supporting Israel’s defense systems. The House of Representatives threw its support this week behind a spending package that… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Thousands of immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union may have come only to receive an Israeli passport before moving back abroad. The Hebrew weekly Makor Rishon reported that a cottage industry of companies promising expedited Israeli citizenship, and the passport that comes with it,… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Wild boars are stalking the streets of Haifa these days, and some residents say they feel like they “live in a jungle.” It all started when the northern Israeli municipality halted efforts to keep down the pigs’ population. While some city residents told the French news… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Yosef Eshed, a 102-year-old Israeli who fought alongside the revered British soldier Orde Wingate to put down the 1936 Arab Revolt, can now register for kindergarten. Eshed, of the village of Motza, near Jerusalem, apparently was one of 20 Israelis over a century old to receive… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — The Genesis Prize Foundation has announced that Natan Sharansky, a Jewish refusenik, prolific leader in the Soviet Jewry emigration movement and former Israeli politician, will be awarded the 2020 Genesis Prize. The Genesis Prize, dubbed the “Jewish Nobel,” was started in 2013 and is financed through… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he discussed annexing the Jordan Valley with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo when they met in Portugal, but the State Department has denied the claim. On Thursday, a day after meeting Pompeo in Lisbon, Netanyahu told reporters that they… Read more »
Susan Kasle of Jewish Family & Children’s Services presents Yad Vashem docent Robert Eden with books of stories by Southern Arizona Holocaust survivors, Nov. 3. Photo: Jon Kasle
Susan Kasle is vice president of community services at Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona, which coordinates services for Holocaust survivors living in Southern Arizona. For Kasle, a highlight of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s recent interfaith mission was representing JFCS during the mission’s Nov. 3… Read more »
Graham Hoffman holds a challah for Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona interfaith mission participants celebrating their arrival in Jerusalem on Oct. 30. Photo courtesy Graham Hoffman
On a Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona interfaith mission Oct. 27-Nov. 5, dubbed “Connecting Cultures, Communities, and Hearts,” 28 participants got a taste of Israel’s diversity and complexity, coming away with a new appreciation for the nation’s challenges, but no easy answers. Members of the group “were touched so… Read more »
(JTA) — Iran is stockpiling short-range ballistic missiles in Iraq that can reach Israel, according to a New York Times report that cited American intelligence and military officials. The hidden rockets are part of a larger effort by Iran to intimidate countries in the region and assert its power,… Read more »
(JTA) — The United Nations General Assembly passed five resolutions against Israel, but for the first time, 13 countries switched their positions and voted against a pro-Palestine measure. The five resolutions passed Tuesday are among 20 against Israel that the international body will vote on during the 74th session… Read more »
(JTA) — Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour took to Twitter to clarify recent controversial comments she had made about Israel. Speaking Friday at the annual conference of American Muslims for Palestine in Chicago, Sarsour had criticized progressive Zionists. “Ask them this, how can you be against white supremacy in America… Read more »
(JTA) — Moshe Holtzberg, whose parents were killed in the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai when he was 2, was called to the Torah as a bar mitzvah. Holtzberg celebrated on Saturday in his hometown of Afula, in northern Israel, Chabad.org reported. A party was held on Sunday night in… Read more »
