News

Last year, AARP Arizona conducted a telephone survey of adults 45 and older across Tucson in efforts to help make the city more age-friendly. AARP accepted the City of Tucson into its Network of Age Friendly Communities in October 2016 as the 122nd community. Tucson is the first Arizona… Read more »

The Women’s Philanthropy Advisory Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is seeking nominations for the 12th annual Bryna Zehngut Mitzvot Award, recognizing an outstanding Jewish teenage girl. The award honors Zehngut, a community leader who died in 2005. Nominees should be high school juniors or seniors who… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Among the 36 Jewish Democrats running for the U.S. House of Representatives in November, 18 are incumbents and an equal number are challengers. Three Jewish Democrats are leaving the House: Sandy Levin of Michigan is retiring, Jacky Rosen of Nevada is running for the Senate and… Read more »

Rep. Lee Zeldin speaks at an event hosted by the Zionist Organization of America on Capitol Hill, May 9, 2018. (Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) —  There are 16 Jewish Republican candidates running in U.S. House of Representatives races this fall. Two are incumbents and 14 are challengers. JTA is breaking down the races, assessing where the candidates stand on the political spectrum, noting their Jewish involvement and reporting what… Read more »

  WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, touring Israel on one of her final overseas trips as a congresswoman, is being feted as one of the Jewish state’s best friends in Congress. Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1989, met Monday… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — An unknown assailant sent bombs to at least four prominent targets this week, each with a notable return address: Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Jewish congresswoman from South Florida. The question arises: Why would the assailant want to implicate her in attacks on George Soros, the Jewish… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled that he supported a Palestinian “state-minus,” wherein Israel would maintain a military presence across Israel and the West Bank. Netanyahu also said in a question-and-answer session Wednesday at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America that… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — On Sunday, a day before thousands of American Jews descended on this Israeli city to air their differences with the nation’s government, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin had a listening session. Rivlin invited a select group of about 100 American Jews to his official residence in… Read more »

(JTA) — The Conservative movement’s rabbinical association will allow its rabbis to attend intermarriages. The policy change, which reverses a ban of four decades, was made last week in a vote of the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, which determines the centrist movement’s Jewish legal rulings.… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Ten Jewish-American baseball players gained Israeli citizenship and can now help the country’s national team in international competition leading up to the 2020 Olympics. The players together applied for and received citizenship on Wednesday at the Bureau of Population and Immigration office in Jaffa. They and… Read more »

(JTA) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is pulling out of a major economic conference being hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Mnuchin tweeted that he would withdraw from Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative conference next week, after a meeting with President Donald Trump and Secretary of… Read more »

(The Nosher via JTA) – If you haven’t been watching Jamie Oliver’s current television show, “Jamie Cooks Italy,” or at least read the accompanying cookbook, “Jamie Cooks Italy — From the Heart of the Italian Kitchen,” do so immediately. The Naked Chef has, happily, given all the healthy eating/culinary… Read more »

(JTA) — When one hears the name Rube Goldberg, one concept instantly comes to mind: those fun machines that complete simple tasks in overly complicated and humorous ways. Think a ball rolling down a long ramp that hits a series of dominoes, which hits something else, so on and… Read more »

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — When her classmates were sent from occupied Holland to death camps, Emmy Korodi and her Dutch-Jewish family were safe in Hungary — one of Nazi Germany’s closest allies. Her family were among some 90 Jews who, at the height of World War II, survived for the unlikeliest… Read more »

ENCINO, Calif. (JTA) — Curiosity about my ancestry spurred me to order an at-home genetic testing kit by mail earlier this year. Maybe my blonde hair was a result of some hidden Swedish genes? When the kit arrived, I quickly spit in the tube and sent it off, not… Read more »

(JTA) — In 1922, Harvard University President Abbott Lawrence Lowell had a problem: His school had too many Jews. At least that’s what he thought. As the country’s Jewish population ballooned in the early 20th century, the Jewish proportion of Harvard students increased exponentially, too. In 1900, just 7… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Fliers blaming Jews for the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh appeared in seeming random locations around the country last week. “Every time some Anti-White, Anti-American, Anti-freedom event takes place, you look at it, and it’s Jews behind it,” the fliers read. They showed an image of the… Read more »

  (JTA) — Food has always been a way for Deborah Benaim’s family to connect to its roots. A typical Shabbat dinner featured dishes such as traditional Ashkenazi braided challah bread, Moroccan-style whitefish with red pepper paste and a Venezuelan hearts of palm salad. “I think it’s in my… Read more »

(JTA) — The British soccer club Chelsea is planning to send fans who are caught chanting anti-Semitic songs on a tour of the former death camp Auschwitz rather than punishing them. The team’s owner, Roman Abramovich, who is Jewish, has spearheaded the initiative to combat anti-Semitism, according to a… Read more »

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Opposite the Dutch national bank here lies one of Europe’s least conspicuous monuments to a war hero. Titled “Fallen Tree,” the metal statue for resistance fighter Walraven van Hall looks so realistic that for months after its unveiling in 2010, the municipality would receive calls reporting… Read more »