News

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 »

An eye doctor who moved to Israel is now making a difference in Africa

Dr. Morris Hartstein, center, frequently travels to Gondar, Ethiopia, to run clinics where he sees up to 500 patients at a time and performs some surgeries. (Courtesy of Hartstein)
May 2, 2018 / Renee Ghert-Zand

RAANANA, Israel — In August 2014, Dr. Morris Hartstein went on a trip to Gondar, Ethiopia, where thousands of Ethiopians seeking to immigrate to Israel live and wait while Israel considers their eligibility to make aliyah. On his second day there, Hartstein showed up for the afternoon mincha service and… Read more »

An exhibit shows ordinary Americans knew a lot about the Holocaust as it was happening

The "Americans and the Holocaust" exhibition is on display at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)
May 1, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — When Holocaust historians ask what Americans knew at the time, the focus often is on the politicians and lawmakers whose votes and initiatives may have mitigated the Nazi genocide against the Jews. An exhibit opening this month at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum here asks the… Read more »

This British Jewish school has mostly Muslim students

Students at the King David Elementary School in Birmingham celebrate Israel's 70th anniversary, April 19, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
May 1, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom (JTA) — Like hundreds of Jewish institutions in the Diaspora, the King David School celebrated Israel’s 70th Independence Day with blue-and-white flags and group singing of the “Hatikvah” national anthem. But the King David is not like most other Jewish schools. Most of the dozens of… Read more »

OP-ED Why Israel is investing in Diaspora Jewish education

Millions of Jews, mainly in North America, are drifting away from Judaism, writes Israel’s minister of education and Diaspora affairs. (David Whelan/Flickr Commons)
April 30, 2018 / Naftali Bennett, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — For decades, world Jewry helped Israel. Organizations gathered and sent funds to the feeble, small state; our Air Force and Navy were formed and trained by Jewish volunteers from around the globe. As we celebrate our 70th Independence Day, we should thank the previous generations while… Read more »

‘RBG’ filmmakers hope to inspire Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s millennial fans

Ruth Bader Ginsburg has attained pop culture icon status in the last decade. (Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)
April 30, 2018 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — One of the first scenes in a new documentary about Ruth Bader Ginsburg features the Supreme Court associate justice, then 84, vigorously lifting weights, doing leg exercises and holding herself in a plank position. The much buzzed-about workout routine has only added to her status… Read more »

What a new memorial for black lynching victims learned from Holocaust commemoration

The names of lynching victims are inscribed on weathering steel columns that hang from the ceiling at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala., seen on April 20, 2018. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
April 27, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

(JTA) — When Bryan Stevenson set out to build a memorial to the thousands of black people lynched in the United States, he thought about Germany and Poland. Those countries, where millions of Jews died at the hands of the Nazis, have made sure to preserve the memories of… Read more »

The Kennedy Center wants to revive the Israel room you didn’t know it had

A view from the Israeli lounge within the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. (Alain Jaramillo)
April 27, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — It’s like finding out that the White House has a mikvah in its basement and no one knows about it. Up an elegant stairway next to the concert hall at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is the “Concert Lounge dedicated by the… Read more »

Mikvah-peeping Rabbi Barry Freundel’s jail sentence reduced by over a year due to good behavior

Rabbi Barry Freundel exits a courthouse after entering his guilty plea, Feb. 19, 2015. (Dmitriy Shapiro/Washington Jewish Week)
April 27, 2018 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

(JTA) — The jail sentence of Rabbi Barry Freundel, a once-prominent Modern Orthodox rabbi in Washington, D.C. who secretly filmed women in his synagogue’s mikvah, has been shortened by over a year due to good behavior, his lawyer said. Freundel’s 6 1/2-year sentence also was reduced because he participated as… Read more »

Remembering ‘Aunt Bertie,’ the longest-serving Jewish staffer in White House history
April 27, 2018 / Steve North, JTA
Bertha Reynolds was born Bertha Hurwitz in Poland. (Courtesy of Shirley Thaler)

(JTA) — When Eleanor Roosevelt or Bess Truman sent a formal invitation to one particular White House staff member, they often addressed it in the customary form of days gone by: “To Mrs. William Reynolds,” the envelope would read. Mrs. Reynolds, a dark-haired beauty who handled presidential correspondence, lived… Read more »

Over 2,000 Germans attend kippah rallies in Berlin and other cities
April 27, 2018 /

(JTA) – More than 2,000 Jews and non-Jews attended “Wear a Kippah” rallies in Berlin and other German cities to protest anti-Semitism. The protests on Wednesday come in the wake of a Syrian asylum seeker’s attack on a non-Jewish man wearing a skullcap in the German capital last week. Jews were… Read more »

Why Jewish organizations are mostly playing it safe on issues like gun control and refugees

Participants in the National Walkout to protest gun violence marching toward the U.S. Capitol, April 20, 2018. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
April 26, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — As Senate Republicans worked to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act last summer, the American Jewish establishment sent an unequivocal message: Kill the bill. “The Senate’s ‘Better Care Reconciliation Act’ would be devastating for millions of Americans and irreparably harmful to Jewish social service… Read more »

Does Natalie Portman’s snub of Netanyahu make her the face of liberal Zionism?
April 25, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA
Natalie Portman speaking at the Environmental Media Association's 27th Annual EMA Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., Sept. 23, 2017. (Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Environmental Media Association)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Natalie Portman’s statement explaining why she declined to attend an award ceremony in Israel in her honor was a pointed rebuke, and of a particular individual. “I did not want to appear as endorsing Benjamin Netanyahu,” she said of the Israeli prime minister. But it also… Read more »