News

Autumn menus at local restaurants emphasize fresh flavors, local sources

From Italian to Greek, bars to bakeries, here’s a look at what’s on the menu across the area this fall. Braised lamb at Athens on 4th Avenue is the house special, browned with extra virgin olive oil, tomatoes, caramelized onions, and special herbs and spices. Jeannie Delfakis-Benavente, daughter of… Read more »

JFSA women plan Mystery Mitzvah Morning

Updated 11.12.18: This event has been cancelled. Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Women’s Philanthropy will host a Mystery Mitzvah Morning for newcomers and longtime residents on Sunday, Nov. 18, from 9:30-11:30 a.m. The event will begin with a light breakfast at the Harvey and Deanna Evenchik Center for Jewish… Read more »

Business briefs 11.9.18

PAWS Veterinary Center celebrated its 10th anniversary with an open house party on Oct. 27. Owned by Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, and his wife, Geren Thurston, DVM, the facility offers holistic, integrative care, blending conventional and complementary veterinary therapies.   Bruce D. Greenberg, real estate consultant and analyst has… Read more »

People in the news 11.9.18

Beth Braun and the University/Rincon High School Primaveras dance group have been invited to perform at the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France, in June 2020. As official representatives of  the United States, the Primaveras will perform at the D-Day Anniversary Parade, the International Salute to Liberation, and… Read more »

#WeAreAllJews: The American Jewish media stand with Pittsburgh

Earlier this year, our colleagues at the three leading Jewish newspapers in the United Kingdom published the same front-page headline and joint editorial voicing concern over rising anti-Semitism in Britain’s Labour Party. Today we have found a mournful occasion to follow in their footsteps. For many Jews, the United States… Read more »

LFA helps local businesses save money, energy

Instructor Virgil Jones, left, works on a piece in the Sonoran Glass School’s hot shop. (Courtesy Sonoran Glass)

This spring, 11 locally owned businesses began learning how they could become more sustainable through a Local First Arizona pilot program called SCALE UP, which stands for Sustainable Communities Accessing Lending and Expertise Upon Performance. Representatives of these businesses met weekly for six weeks with local experts to learn… Read more »

Is this the last stand for Amsterdam’s Jewish market?

Nissim Kol shows off his merchandise to a prospective shopper at Amsterdam's so-called Jewish market, Oct. 26, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Growing up, Jaap Soesan would count the days until his parents would take him to Waterloo Square, a central area that many people here call the Jewish market. “It was a treat to go there,” recalled Soesan, a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor from the Amsterdam suburb of… Read more »

Israeli lawmakers debate American anti-Semitism without American Jewish input

Israeli parliament member Avraham Neguise, shown in 2015, chairs the Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee, which recently held a meeting about anti-Semitism in America. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — In the wake of the deadly shooting Oct. 27 at a Pittsburgh synagogue, Israeli lawmakers gathered for a special meeting for a discussion of anti-Semitism in America. It was dialogue that at times grew heated: Politicians yelled at each other and argued about the definition of… Read more »

Did Angela Merkel pay the price for seeking a kinder, gentler Germany?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a joint news conference in Jerusalem, Oct. 4, 2018. Merkel spoke of Germany's "everlasting responsibility" to oppose anti-Semitism during the visit. (Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images)

BERLIN (JTA) — Israeli author Eldad Beck regards Angela Merkel‘s engagement with Israel and Judaism as “spectacular.” Germany’s chancellor has “developed a very personal connection to the State of Israel and the Jewish people, one of the rare German politicians who – when speaking about lessons learned from the past – really knows what… Read more »

The Jewish women who won midterm elections

Jacky Rosen is interviewed after rallying supporters at a get-out-the-vote event at a Nevada state Democratic Party field office in Las Vegas, Nov. 4, 2018. Rosen won her Senate race. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Tuesday night’s midterm elections were hailed as a victory for gender parity, as an unprecedented number of women won bids to serve in Congress. More than 100 women were elected to serve in the House of Representatives and the Senate, according to final vote tallies and projections. It’s a… Read more »

Russia’s westernmost synagogue rebuilt 80 years after Kristallnacht destruction

Nehama Drober, 91, waits to enter the restored synagogue in Kaliningrad, Nov. 8, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

KALININGRAD, Russia (JTA) — Walking to school and back, Michael Wieck twice a day would pass by one of Europe’s largest and most spectacular Jewish places of worship: Koenigsberg’s New Synagogue. The mammoth shul was built in 1896 in the Aesopian style in the bustling port city that is… Read more »

Dining Out : Chef Bios 11.9.18

ECLECTIC CAFÉ MARK SMITH, owner Born and raised in Tucson, Mark Smith is a Catalina High School graduate. He started working in restaurants as a teenager and took that training to open the Eclectic Café in October 1980 when he was 24. Smith brings a variety of flavors to… Read more »

Election 2018 results that matter most to Jews

Jared Polis in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., May 24, 2016. Polis was elected the first Jewish governor of Colorado. (Al Drago/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images)

(JTA) —  Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections held Tuesday, with Jewish Congress members poised to take key leadership roles. Republicans looked to increase their majority in the Senate. Five Jewish Democrats are set to chair key House committees, including three representatives from… Read more »

As a black Jew, I am angry but defiant after Pittsburgh synagogue attack

Marcella White Campbell, on the right, at her son's bar mitzvah. (courtesy of Marcella White Campbell)

On Saturday, I received a text: “why do they hate us so much?” It was from my daughter, a first-year student at college who is thousands of miles away from home but, at that moment, was reaching out for comfort, wishing she was curled up on the couch beside… Read more »

6 Democratic candidates faced alleged anti-Semitic attacks. Here’s how they fared.

Kim Schrier won her race in the 8th District of Washington state. (Screenshot from YouTube)

(JTA) — In the final weeks of the midterm election campaign, Republicans in six states targeted their Democratic opponents with attacks many saw as echoing anti-Semitic tropes. The attacks — mostly involving pictures of Jewish candidates clutching money — were denounced and debated. But were they effective? Answer: Yes… Read more »

Pittsburgh remembers Bernice and Sylvan Simon, who built a loving family

Mourners walking at the funeral of Bernice and Sylvan Simon, Nov. 1, 2018. (Arielle Kaplan)

PITTSBURGH (JTA) — Bernice and Sylvan Simon were married in the sanctuary of Tree of Life Congregation 62 years ago. Week after week they attended services there, chatting with the Holocaust survivor who sat a row in front of them. And on Saturday, hours before they were to gather with their… Read more »

NY House candidate Antonio Delgado’s wife opens up about the couple’s Jewish involvement

Antonio Delgado for Antonio Delgado for Congress Kingston, New York - May 11, 2018 CREDIT: Matt Roth

NEW YORK (JTA) — In 2014, Lacey Schwartz Delgado made headlines around the world for a documentary in which she explored a shocking family secret. “Little White Lie” tells Schwartz Delgado’s real-life story of being raised in a white Jewish family in the upstate New York town of Woodstock. Though… Read more »

Yes, anti-Semitism is a problem again. No, it is not 1939.

A mourner wearing a Star of David around his neck at the Squirrel Hill memorial service for the victims of the shooting at the neighborhood's Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Penn., Oct. 29, 2018. (Matthew Hatcher/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

(JTA) — My father, whose own father changed his unpronounceable last name to Carroll when he came to America, would often tell a story about job hunting in the late 1940s and 50s. It was only after the interview that the men across the desk would ask, “And all… Read more »

2 Jewish fathers lost their daughters in the Parkland shooting. Now they’re fighting on different sides of the gun debate.

Fred Guttenberg, left, and Andrew Pollack lost their daughters in the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. (Guttenberg photo: Michael Laughlin/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images; Pollack photo: Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images; background photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Jaime Guttenberg and Meadow Pollack shared many similarities. Both were brown-haired and bright-eyed girls, beloved by friends and family. Both were passionate about their hobbies. Jaime, 14, spent her free time dancing and volunteering with special needs children. Meadow, 18, was a girly girl who loved the… Read more »