News

In Krakow, Jews celebrate their community’s ‘revival’ amid rising xenophobia

A participant at the 10th anniversary celebration of the Jewish Community Center in Krakow blows a shofar, April 22, 2018. (Jakub Wlodek)
April 23, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

KRAKOW, Poland (JTA) — At one of Poland’s plushest synagogues, leaders of this city’s small but vibrant Jewish community welcomed visitors from around the world to a celebration of what the hosts call their minority’s “revival” in this country. The occasion for the party Sunday at Tempel Synagogue was… Read more »

‘Three Billboards’-style campaign against anti-Semitism in Labour Party fails to sway Brits

Van-mounted billboards in central London were the latest escalation in British Jews' publicized row with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. (Courtesy of Jonathan Hoffman)
April 23, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

LONDON (JTA) — Keith Walker was having a sandwich in Parliament Square when he saw something that made him sit up straight and cut short his lunch. What did the 42-year-old activist for disabled people’s rights find so fascinating? It was three billboards on wheels that circled around the… Read more »

New sculpture honors Federation donors, symbolizes mission

‘Flame’ by local artist Tidhar Ozeri overlooks the Jane and Rabbi Lee Kivel Promenade between the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Tucson Jewish Community Center. (Ronen More)
April 19, 2018 /

A new glass and metal sculpture, “Flame” by Tidhar Ozeri, was installed late last month outside the Harvey and Deanna Evenchik Center for Jewish Philanthropy. The new work is part of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s intention to use architectural elements and art in the new building to reinforce… Read more »

Army dedicates plaque to survivors at Fort Huachuca Holocaust ceremony

Sarah Lichter admires the plaque dedicated to Holocaust survivors at Fort Huachuca on April 9. Behind her, from left, are her husband, Pawel Lichter; Teresa Dulgov; and Wanda Wolosky.
April 19, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Editorial Assistant

The Fort Huachuca annual Days of Remembrance Holocaust Observance has been a unique gathering of survivors, local dignitaries, U.S. military members and their families, and German Army officers for 15 years. The event educates about the past and protects the future, but also promotes face-to-face healing. On April 9,… Read more »

Crypto-Judaism to inform artist’s talk at JHM
April 19, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Editorial Assistant
Jônatas Chimen's 'In Thy Tent I Dwell' installation explores his family's 500-year diaspora story.

Brazilian-American crypto-Jewish artist Jônatas Chimen will make a Tucson stop on his North-American speaking tour sponsored by the U.S.-based grassroots nonprofit, Kulanu, Inc., which supports isolated, emerging and returning Jewish communities around the globe. Chimen’s presentation will be held Sunday, April 22 at the Jewish History Museum. Chimen’s heritage… Read more »

Film will honor Brazilian who saved Jews
April 19, 2018 /
Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas

The Latin American Studies department at the University of Arizona, in collaboration with the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies and the Jewish History Museum, will present a free screening of “Dear Ambassador” at the UA Center for Creative Photography, 1030 N. Olive Road, on Sunday, April 22, at 2… Read more »

Sites of Conscience speaker tapped for JHM
April 19, 2018 /

The Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center will hold its annual meeting on Thursday, April 26 at 7 p.m., as it formally accepts induction into the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. Guest speakers will be Dina Bailey, director of methodology and practice at the coalition, and Tucson Mayor Jonathan… Read more »

UA students ‘bake a difference’ with challah

Students in Challah for Hunger (from left) Michal Chetrit, Bridget Ott and Zevi Altus sell their homemade challah on the University of Arizona mall, April 13.
April 19, 2018 / Sara Harelson, AJP Intern

A group of students at the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation has come together to fight hunger, using skills they may have learned helping out in the kitchen at home. They are members of Challah for Hunger, a national organization that connects students to raise awareness for social justice issues… Read more »

Federation proposes 2018-19 slate of officers to be ratified
April 19, 2018 /

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s board governance committee, chaired by Eric Schindler, has recommended the following slate of officers for the 2018-2019 program year: Shelly Silverman, chair of the board; Deborah Oseran, vice chair/board governance; Ben Silverman, treasurer/secretary; and Tom Warne, immediate past chair. Also nominated are Jeff… Read more »

JFSA to mark mitzvah project at homeless women’s center

A new mural by local artist Michael B. Schwartz is part of the garden space at the Sister Jose Women’s Center, which the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona refurbished as its 70th Anniversary Mitzvah Project.
April 19, 2018 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will hold a dedication of its 70th Anniversary Mitzvah Project at the Sister Jose Women’s Center, 1050 S. Park Ave., on Sunday, May 6 from 11 a.m. to noon. Participants can tour the facility, learn how the outdoor space — the focus of… Read more »

History museum seeks applicants for community engagement curator
April 19, 2018 /

Tucson’s Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center is seeking applications from candidates in the fields of arts and culture for the position of 2018-19 Zuckerman Fellow: Curator of Community Engagement. The application deadline is April 30. The 2018-19 Zuckerman Fellow will be awarded a 12-month fellowship, July 2018-June 2019, including… Read more »

Weintraubs fund new healthcare scholarships for staff at Handmaker

Maria Martinez, LPN, is one of the first Handmaker staff members enrolled in the Diane and Ronald Weintraub Scholarship Fund.
April 19, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Editorial Assistant

Staff at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging are being offered opportunities to improve their careers in healthcare through the generosity of community philanthropists Diane and Ron Weintraub. The couple recently collaborated with Handmaker President and CEO Arthur Martin to establish parameters for the grant. It offers individuals up… Read more »

Nazi SS veterans hold an annual march on this square in Latvia. This woman is fighting back.

A Holocaust commemoration ceremony at Riga's Freedom Monument, Nov. 30, 2017. (Courtesy of Lolita Tomsone)
April 17, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

RIGA, Latvia (JTA) — Each year on March 16, a macabre event unfolds on the square around this capital city’s most famous monument. Known as the Memorial for Latvian Legionnaires, it is the world’s only march by veterans of Nazi Germany’s elite SS unit. A handful of them, including… Read more »

Pro-Israel stalwart Ben Cardin aims fire at Trump and Netanyahu in J Street talk

An attendee at the J Street conference in Washington, D.C., Aprll 16, 2018. (J Street)
April 17, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Ben Cardin, a pro-Israel stalwart in the Democratic Party, lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a J Street conference, breaking with a party tradition of avoiding confrontations with Israel’s leaders. Cardin, D-Md., in his speech Monday stood by his bill that would… Read more »

Does Judaism allow torture? These college students think so.

Freshman Abraham Waserstein, right, who organized the Collegiate Moot Beit Din competition, shakes hands with the winning team at Princeton University, Sunday, April 15. (Courtesy of the Princeton Center for Jewish Life)
April 16, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

PRINCETON, New Jersey (JTA) — Does Jewish law allow — or even require — torture? That’s the question six teams of college students from across the country set out to answer at a moot Jewish court competition at Princeton University Sunday. And they came back with a unanimous response:… Read more »

An employee at the Anne Frank House asked to wear a kippah. He waited 6 months for an answer.

Tourists lining up outside the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam, June 15, 2015. (Lex Van Lieshout/AFP/Getty Images)
April 16, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — When Barry Vingerling asked his employers at the Anne Frank House whether it was okay for him to start coming to work wearing a kippah, he did it mostly as a courtesy. “I hadn’t expected this to be an issue,” Vingerling, 25, told the Dutch-Jewish NIW… Read more »

How Washington, D.C. got a bunch of new kosher restaurants

Maharat Ruth Friedman with the manager of Khepra's Raw Food Juice Bar, a vegan restaurant she and Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld recently certified kosher. (Courtesy of Friedman)
April 16, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

(JTA) — For years, the nation’s capital had only one full-fledged kosher restaurant. But as of this week, that changed. The clergy at Ohev Shalom-The National Synagogue, a Washington D.C. Modern Orthodox congregation, have given kosher certification to three vegan restaurants in the District (along with two others in the suburbs).… Read more »

51 NYU student groups pledge to boycott Israel and its pro-Israel backers

The New York University campus in downtown Manhattan (Jonathan71/Wikimedia Commons)
April 13, 2018 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — A pledge by 51 student groups at New York University to boycott Israel and two pro-Israel campus organizations is a sign of “animosity” at the private campus, a Jewish student leader said. In the resolution, which was released Monday, the student organizations express their support… Read more »

Separated by the Holocaust, old friends find each other 76 years later

Simon Gronowski and Alice Weit, who had a reunion 76 years after being separated by the Holocaust, were honored at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, April 12, 2018. (Bart Bartholomew/Simon Wiesenthal Center)
April 13, 2018 / Gabrielle Birkner, JTA

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — When Alice (Gerstel) Weit last saw Simon Gronowski, she was 13 and he was 10 and, by Alice’s recollection, “the most adorable boy ever.” When they reunited this week, 76 years later, “I opened the door and there he was, a frail, little old man,” she… Read more »