News

Benjamin Netanyahu had a very, very good week

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shown after delivering a speech on Iran's nuclear program at his country's defense ministry in Tel Aviv, April 30, 2018. Some have said his speech helped sway President Donald Trump to leave the Iran deal. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
May 11, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) – On Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu began his week by meeting his Cypriote and Greek counterparts to finalize the commercial export to Europe of Israeli gas that he has pushed to exploit for about a decade. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from nuclear… Read more »

Why these Latin American countries support moving their embassies to Jerusalem

A woman walks across Israel square in Guatemala City, Dec. 27, 2017. (Orlando Estrada/AFP/Getty Images)
May 11, 2018 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

(JTA) — President Donald Trump’s decision in December to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital drew wide international criticism, with 128 countries including the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada voting in favor of a United Nations resolution condemning it. But several countries saw Trump’s decision in a different light: as an example to follow.… Read more »

A Dutch mosque says it converted a Holocaust survivor to Islam. Local Jews are skeptical.

A view of the Blue Mosque in Amsterdam. (Wikimedia Commons)
May 9, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — On the national day of mourning for Holocaust victims in the Netherlands, a major mosque in the kingdom’s capital celebrated the conversion to Islam of a Jewish survivor of that genocide. At least, that’s what Amsterdam’s Blue Mosque said. According to its Facebook, 87-year-old Sal van Coeverden… Read more »

Amid renewed talk of war, Israelis are keeping calm and carrying on

The front page of Yediot Aharonot, one of Israel's leading papers, on May 9, 2018 juxtaposed pictures of President Donald Trump withdrawing from the Iran deal and a family sitting in a bomb shelter. (Ben Sales)
May 9, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) — When war broke out on Israel’s northern border in 2006, Avigdor Guy remained calm. He lived in the northern port city of Haifa, but he didn’t think the war would hit home — until, that is, it did. “Twelve years ago, they asked me if… Read more »

Iran’s options now that Trump has pulled the U.S. out of the nuclear deal

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addresses the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York City, Sept. 22, 2016. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
May 8, 2018 / Behnam Ben Taleblu, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — An inflection point in American policy towards Iran came this afternoon, when President Trump announced he will re-impose nuclear sanctions on Iran and effectively withdraw the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal. Having done so, the administration should anticipate the range… Read more »

Op-Ed: I voted against the Iran nuclear deal. Withdrawing from it is a mistake.

Sen. Ben Cardin speaks at a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., introducing the Iran Policy Oversight Act of 2015, Oct. 1, 2015. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
May 8, 2018 / Ben Cardin, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the Iran nuclear deal, is bad policy and calls into question America’s international credibility. Mr. Trump has now set the international community on a slippery slope, imperiling the national security… Read more »

After pulling out of the Iran deal, Trump is open to Plan B — but no one knows what that is

President Donald Trump announces his decision to leave the Iran nuclear deal in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, May 8, 2018. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
May 8, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — When President Donald Trump teased and then announced he would be pulling the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal, the next obvious question was, what next? What was Plan B? “Congress has heard nothing about an alternative,” Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the chairman of the… Read more »

Rabbi Aaron Panken remembered as joyful leader who embodied the ‘best of the Reform movement’

Rabbi Aaron Panken teaching a Talmud class to Hebrew Union College students. (Courtesy of HUC)
May 8, 2018 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Rabbi Andrea Weiss, an associate professor of Bible at the New York campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and its incoming provost, remembered the joy that Rabbi Aaron Panken brought to his work. Weiss recalled how Panken would pop into his colleagues’ offices asking if… Read more »

OP-ED To fight anti-Semitism, first you have to define it

A Turkish demonstrator holding a banner with a Nazi swastika and Star of David in Istanbul, Jan. 2, 2009. (Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images)
May 8, 2018 / Andrew Baker, JTA

(JTA) — In recent years we have witnessed anti-Israel demonstrations that have turned overtly anti-Semitic and even violent, but police ignored initially as only political activity. We have seen prosecutors and judges rule that an arson attack on a synagogue is not anti-Semitic because the perpetrator was motivated by… Read more »

This Jewish lawmaker wanted to keep Chinese immigrants out. Should a park be named after him?

A view of the Julius Kahn playground in San Francisco. (Omunene/Flickr Commons)
May 8, 2018 / Joe Eskenazi, J. the Jewish News of Northern California via JTA

SAN FRANCISCO (J. the Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — Julius Kahn III grew up in San Francisco, playing in Julius Kahn Playground, named for his grandfather. The view from this clearing in the opulent Presidio Heights neighborhood is among the best in the city, meaning it’s… Read more »

How Israel’s tech scene is helping wounded combat veterans

Shoshi Rushnevsky, the founder of Restart, hopes "Makers for Heroes" will make the lives of wounded veterans a little easier. (Ben Sales)
May 7, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) – When Elad Horovitz was shot in the head during Israel’s 2014 war in Gaza, his first concern was survival, not how to maintain peripheral vision while driving. Horovitz, then 20, was shot through his left ear and right eye. Somehow he survived, losing half of… Read more »

At ADL, Rod Rosenstein praises Trump — and extols those who defend the rule of law

Rod Rosenstein speaking at the Anti-Defamation League's annual conference in Washington, D.C., May 6, 2018. (Ron Kampeas)
May 7, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rod Rosenstein came to the annual conference of the Anti-Defamation League with plaudits for Donald Trump despite being at the center of the president’s contentious relationship with his Justice Department. He extolled Trump’s call for unity in the wake of the Charlottesville white supremacist rally in… Read more »

OP-ED Ms. Diagnoses: Women’s Lives Are at Risk
May 7, 2018 / Ellen Hershkin, Hadassah
Ellen Hershkin

A national call to action for National Women’s Health Week (May 13–19) Women’s health is on life support. Inequities in insurance premiums, gender bias, treatment and care must end. Women’s health doesn’t advance itself, so it’s up to women to be their own healthcare advocates. Women have always been… Read more »

Local forum on response to sexual violence is eye-opening

Joan-e Rapine of Jewish Family & Children's Services speaks, flanked by Amalia C. Mora of the University of Arizona, left, and Alba Jaramillo of YWCA Southern Arizona. (Simon Rosenblatt)
May 3, 2018 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor

Alba Jaramillo, J.D., has worked for almost two decades in the field of human rights, particularly immigrant and women’s rights. She’s an expert on domestic and sexual violence, both as a professional and as a survivor herself. Yet none of that prevented her from being terrorized by a serial… Read more »

Jewish Latino Teen Coalition life-changing for local youth

At the United States Capitol on April 11, (L-R): Isabella Luna, Rebecca Dubin, Sophie Holtzman, Peris Lopez, Rachel Davenport, Senator Jeff Flake, Eric Brown, Yuval Barel, Jessica Hernandez, Rafi Zinman, Sophia Greenhill, and Manuel Barcelo (Courtesy Jewish Latino Teen Coalition)
May 3, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Editorial Assistant

“I don’t know what path I would be on right now without JLTC . . . everything has changed,” says Catalina Foothills High School junior and student body president Peris Lopez. The Jewish-Latino Teen Coalition is life-changing for the sophomores and juniors it brings together annually from high schools across Tucson.… Read more »

Growth, laughter to be Salkowitz’ legacy at JCF

Tracy Salkowitz, right, with her husband, Rick Edwards, at a Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona gala on Oct. 1. (Martha Lochert)
May 3, 2018 / Sara Harelson, AJP Intern

After six years of dedicated service as the president and CEO of the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, Tracy Salkowitz is moving on. Salkowitz and her husband, Rick Edwards, are heading to Mendocino, California, where the climate is kinder on her lungs. But her hands-on approach to community… Read more »

JFSA recognizing Glaze for community service
May 3, 2018 /
Leslie Glaze

Leslie Glaze, Ph.D., furthers the critical work of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona in both traditional and novel ways. That’s why the selection committee tapped her as the recipient of the JFSA’s 2018 Special Recognition Award. She will be honored next week at the 2018 Jewish Community Awards… Read more »

OP-ED Mahmoud Abbas’ remarks on the Holocaust explain why two-state solution is dying

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the Palestinian National Council in the West Bank city of Ramallah, April 30, 2018. (Flash90)
May 3, 2018 / Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Rabbi Donniel Hartman had some bad news for his audience on the largely liberal Upper West Side: The two-state solution might not be dead, but it’s not imminent either, and most Israelis don’t believe the two-state solution is “implementable in their lifetime.” It’s not a… Read more »

Starbucks denies speculation that it ‘demoted’ ADL in its anti-bias training
May 3, 2018 / Debra Nussbaum Cohen, JTA
A view of a Starbucks shop in Washington, D.C., April 17, 2018. The company announced that it will close more than 8,000 U.S. stores on May 29 to conduct "racial-bias education" following the arrest of two black men in one of its cafes. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Starbucks denied that it demoted the Anti-Defamation League from a lead role in its anti-bias training, saying it continues to view the Jewish group as a valuable partner in future training. Reggie Borges, a spokesman for the coffee giant, spoke to JTA on Wednesday following… Read more »