(JTA) The Israeli-American teenager accused of making hundreds of threats against Jewish community centers in the United States sold his bomb threat services. (The Tucson Jewish Community Center was among the facilities threatened, with one incident in February and another in March.) Michael Kadar, 19, from Ashkelon in southern… Read more »
News
Former top national security officials urge Trump to stick to Iran nuclear deal
(JTA) A bipartisan array of former top national security officials urged President Donald Trump to stick to the Iran nuclear deal, saying that war with Iran is “more imaginable” today than it has been in five years. The statement was published Tuesday on the website of the magazine of… Read more »
New Israeli ‘shinshinim’ bring youthful energy to Tucson
The Tucson Jewish community’s new shinshinim arrived July 31, and the two teen emissaries from Israel couldn’t be more excited. Chen Dinatzi and Tamir Shecory, both 18, were among 115 Israeli high school graduates, out of more than 2,000 applicants, selected for the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Shinshinim Young… Read more »
Tucson J hosts naturalization ceremony
Family and friends packed the Tucson Jewish Community Center ballroom on Wednesday, July 26 as 99 new U.S. citizens from 17 different countries took the oath of allegiance. “Having the honor to host this ceremony at the J is very meaningful,” Todd Rockoff, president and CEO of the Tucson… Read more »
Tucsonans enjoy unforgettable Israel experience at Maccabiah Games
Whether they made it to the medals podium or not, six participants with Tucson ties who went to Israel last month for the 20th Maccabiah Games, known as “the Jewish Olympics,” say the experience was priceless. “Softball is why I came to Israel, but Israel really came to me… Read more »
Mission to Ukraine, Israel shows power of JFSA giving
A few months ago, I accepted the daunting responsibility to chair the 2018 campaign for the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. I have been a staunch supporter of the Federation since I moved to Tucson 37 years ago, and having recently retired from Tucson Hebrew Academy as their director of… Read more »
In Tucson, JAFI partnership director discusses new P2G programs, Jewish unity
The Tucson/Kiryat Malachi/Hof Ashkelon partnership “is amazing,” says Andrea Arbel, director of the partnership unit at the Jewish Agency for Israel. “It has grown and developed over the past five years in ways, I would say, that I never dreamed of.” Arbel spent a day in Tucson last month… Read more »
Women to speak on matriarchs at Hadassah
Hadassah Southern Arizona will present “Shhh … Our Matriarchs Are Speaking II” with panelists Rabbi Helen Cohn and Rebbetzin Esther Becker on Thursday, Sept. 7 at 1:30 p.m. in the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The rabbi and rebbetzin will discuss the matriarchs who inspire them. Cohn is the spiritual… Read more »
The corruption scandals plaguing Benjamin Netanyahu and his family, explained
(JTA) — He has a firm grip on the government, but a mounting political scandal might bring him down. Officials from his own party have begun to distance themselves from him, but he remains defiant. Oh, and his son is in trouble, too. Just one more thing Benjamin Netanyahu has… Read more »
‘Producers’ is local group’s answer to modern times
If the woes of our country and the world are getting you down, perhaps you need a dose of something downright silly. Arizona Onstage Productions will provide the remedy with their production of Mel Brooks’ classic comedy, “The Producers,” which will be performed Aug. 19, 20, 26 and 27… Read more »
‘Balcony’ film avows a woman’s place is in the shul
Set among a congregation of observant Jews in a quiet neighborhood in the Old City, “The Women’s Balcony” begins with a bar mitzvah and ends with a wedding. But there’s plenty of tsuris (trouble) between the celebrations, triggered by a structural collapse just before the haftorah that shutters the… Read more »
Spirituality at heart of Congregation Or Chadash Israel trip
Friday, close to sunset in Jerusalem, a siren sounds heralding the start of the Sabbath. The Muslim call to prayer and Christian church bells echo across the city. Rabbi Thomas Louchheim, his wife, Marcia, and members of their family, along with members of Congregation Or Chadash, were awed by… Read more »
How volunteering becomes a way in for millennials distanced from the Jewish community
NEW YORK (JTA) — As a college student, Jake Max assumed he would work in banking or consulting after graduation. That was the path favored by many of his classmates. But after experiencing the 2016 presidential campaign his senior year at Emory University, Max was spurred to action and… Read more »
Trump is thinking of breaking the Iran deal. Here’s how he could do it.
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Campaigning last year for the presidency, Donald Trump said the Iran nuclear agreement was the “worst deal” he had ever seen. It was never exactly clear, however, what he intended to do about it: Appearing at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s policy conference in… Read more »
Jared Kushner on Israeli-Palestinian peace: ‘There may be no solution’
NEW YORK (JTA) — If Jared Kushner is the only person who can deliver Middle East peace — as his father-in-law Donald Trump said — he comes off as a reluctant savior. In a speech delivered Monday to a group of congressional interns and leaked to the media, Kushner expounded… Read more »
Wheelchair-bound Bedouin man is Israel’s newest doctor of physics
Among the graduates receiving their doctoral degrees at Ben Gurion University of the Negev on June 28, one stood out above the rest. Ramadan Abu-Ragila, 34, has muscular dystrophy, a disease that causes progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass, is wheelchair bound and relies on an oxygen machine… Read more »
A Jewish professor taught at a Catholic school in a Muslim country. Here’s what happened.
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Near the end of his first year teaching American studies at the Georgetown University campus in Qatar, Gary Wasserman introduced a dozen Israelis to a dozen undergraduates from across the Middle East. Then he left the room so the students could have an unfiltered discussion.… Read more »
Why more Israelis are moving to the US
NEW YORK (JTA) — Six years ago, the Israeli government released a series of controversial ads to show its expatriates that they would never feel at home in the United States. But last year, Israeli Cabinet members lined up to address a Washington, D.C., conference celebrating Israeli-American identity.… Read more »
Uganda’s Jews are down to one meal a day because of East Africa’s famine
(JTA) — Uganda’s 2,000 Jews have long maintained a modest existence. They live in the east of the country in a hilly, rural area that lacks paved roads, consistent electricity and freely running water. But this year, the situation for Uganda’s Jewish community, called the Abayudaya, has worsened. Twenty million people… Read more »
OP-ED Jews once fought — and died — for voting rights. Here’s why some are still at it.
NEW YORK (JTA) — Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner are about the closest American Jews have to secular saints. The two Jewish civil rights workers traveled south for the Freedom Summer campaign of 1964, joining the African-American activist James Chaney in canvassing black churches. All three were kidnapped and murdered by… Read more »