Kenneth Marcus (Screenshot from YouTube)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — If there’s overlap between Hillel and the National Council of Jewish Women, it’s in two areas: defending Israel and combating violence against women on campus. Leaders of the campus Jewish organization took a look at the record of Kenneth Marcus, President Donald Trump’s nominee to run… Read more »
The Orthodox Union is allowing Maharat Ruth Friedman, left, shown at her graduation from Yeshivat Maharat in 2013, and three other Orthodox women clergy to remain in their positions without their synagogues facing a penalty. (Joe Winkler)
NEW YORK (JTA) — The Orthodox Union will not penalize its member synagogues that already employ women as clergy, but it has reaffirmed a policy that prohibits other synagogues from hiring women in rabbinic positions. A statement adopted at the umbrella Orthodox synagogue association’s board meeting last night and… Read more »
Short track speed skater Vladislav Bykanov, lower left, leading the Israeli Olympic team at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Feb. 7, 2014. (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
(JTA) — The world is about to revolve around Pyeongchang, a mountainous county in the northern half of South Korea, for the upcoming Winter Olympics. Jewish fans won’t have quite as many standout athletes to cheer for this year as they did in 2016, when multiple American members of the… Read more »
President Donald Trump and Jared Kushner in the Oval Office of the White House, July 25, 2017.(Zach Gibson/Pool/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Donald Trump is just the man to get an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal done. Just ask Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli prime minister was gushing last week about Trump’s negotiating team, which is led by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. “The thing the people don’t realize is that these people… Read more »
Former President Barack Obama speaking at a Newark rally for then-gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy, Oct. 19, 2017. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(JTA) — “Nothing matters.” You hear that a lot these days. You hear it when The Wall Street Journal reports that the president’s personal lawyer paid a porn actress $130,000, at the height of the presidential campaign, so she would stay silent about an alleged affair she’d had with Donald Trump. Or… Read more »
South Korea is hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Though the Jewish community in South Korea is small, Jews visiting the country to compete in or watch the Winter Olympic Games won’t have to skimp on kosher food or Shabbat programming. The country’s Chabad emissary is setting up a pop-up restaurant in Pyeongchang County, the site of… Read more »
Couples who married in Abidjan after having undergone conversions to Judaism, Dec. 10, 2017. (Bonita Sussman)
(JTA) — Avraham Yago, a married father of five who works as a linguistics professor at the University of Abidjan in the West African nation of Cote d’Ivoire, has visited Israel four times to learn about Judaism and practice his Hebrew. Yago, 64, grew up without any religious affiliation.… Read more »
The main gate of the former Auschwitz extermination camp in Oswiecim, Poland. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
(JTA) — The Polish parliament’s bill to criminalize the use of the term “Polish death camps” prompted an avalanche of criticism in Israel by officials and individuals who warned that it is excessive and risks stifling research on the Holocaust. Following the bill’s passing Friday in the Sejm, or the lower… Read more »
Rexhep Hoxha, left, and Fatos Qoqja in a bar in Tirania, Albania, Nov. 8, 2017. Qoqja is pictured with a medal that his father received for saving Jews during the Holocaust. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
TIRANA, Albania (JTA) — Most anywhere else in Nazi-occupied Europe, an encounter with police would have likely sealed the fate of Jewish refugees like Nissim and Sarah Aladjem and their 10-year-old son, Aron. Instead, when the family was detained by police in the Muslim nation of Albania 75… Read more »
Stephen Miller, the White House senior adviser for policy, photographed at the White House, Dec. 15, 2017. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — During a combative news conference in early August, White House adviser Stephen Miller told reporters that the United States should prioritize immigrants who speak English. “Does the applicant speak English?” Miller asked, describing a bill to reduce the overall number of immigrants and reform immigration… Read more »
Rabbi David Saperstein Named America’s most influential rabbi by Newsweek in 2009, Ambassador Rabbi David Saperstein will be the scholar-in residence for Temple Emanu-El’s annual Rabbi Albert T. Bilgray Memorial Lecture Series, Feb. 8-10. Speaking on “Freedom and Justice in the World Today,” Saperstein will draw upon a career of service to… Read more »
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - JANUARY 22: US vice President Mike Pence (L) is seen with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an official welcome ceremony at the Prime Minister's Office on January 22, 2018 in Jerusalem, Israel. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence landed in Israel Sunday evening after visiting Egypt and Jordan. The Palestinian Authority is boycotting Pence's visit to the region, due to Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and announcement to move the embassy. (Photo by Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images)
When Mike Pence moved to Washington earlier this year, he and his wife took with them a framed phrase they had for years hung over their fireplace in their Indiana home, and then over the fireplace in the governor’s mansion in that state. Now it hangs over the mantle… Read more »
Brandeis professor Eileen McNamara, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, left, talks with Susan Cole, Myrna Silver, Ellen Adelstein and Judy Norris at the Brandeis University on Wheels event at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on Jan. 8. (Debe Campbell)
The best defense against today’s era of “fake news” is to counter misinformation with accurate information. That’s the remedy offered by two speakers at the recent Brandeis University on Wheels lecture hosted by the Tucson Chapter of Brandeis National Committee and the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Brandeis University professors… Read more »
Congregation Or Chadash’s fourth annual Tournament and Casino Night will be held Saturday, Feb. 10 at the historic Scottish Rite Cathedral. Along with a Texas Hold-Em tournament and other casino games, the evening will feature a buffet dinner, cash bar, DJ, dancing, and prizes. For a $100 registration fee,… Read more »
(L-R) Alejandra Baltazar-Molina, Melissa Landau, Matt Landau, Selim Cam and Heidi Steiner at the masquerade-themed Hava Tequila event on Jan. 21, 2017.
Hava Tequila and the Chocolate Factory” is the theme for the 7th annual Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Young Leadership party on Saturday, Feb. 3 at 8 to 11 p.m. at the Scottish Rite Cathedral, 160 S. Scott Ave. The golden ticket-themed event, for ages 21 and over, includes… Read more »
Shai Feldman of Brandeis University will present “A Year into the Trump Presidency: The U.S. & the Middle East” on Monday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson J. The free talk is part of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies Shaol & Louis Pozez Memorial Lectureship Series.… Read more »
Tucsonan Joel Alpert, in white shirt, in the Israeli studio of sculptor, left, David Zundelovitch, with a model of the Yurburg memorial and, from far left, Alpert’s cousins Itzhak Zarnitsky and Benny Naividel, and architect Anna Zundelovitch.
Those entering Tucson’s Holocaust History Center or the Tucson Jewish Community Center will notice a black and white film portraying life in turn of the 20th century Eastern Europe. In fact, it depicts life in the small western Lithuanian town today known as Jurbarkas. The majority of the population… Read more »
The late Jeffrey Plevan was a proud University of Arizona Wildcat.
The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona has received a new commitment of $1.5 million from Bettina B. and Kenneth A. Plevan, which will be combined with a previous gift of $500,000 to endow a chair in memory of their son Jeffrey B. Plevan. Plevan,… Read more »
Lorenzo Romar. The University of Arizona Hillel Foundation will host its annual alumni and friends basketball event on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 5:15 p.m. The pre-game dinner will feature Lorenzo Romar, UA associate head basketball coach under Coach Sean Miller, who will brief attendees on this year’s Wildcat team. A silent… Read more »
'Lichtenstein: Otiyot as Words,’ printed vinyl on acrylic, 43” x 30”, by Lynn Rae Lowe
The art gallery at Beth Shalom Temple Center is presenting an exhibit by award-winning Tucson artist Lynn Rae Lowe, “Ancient and Contemporary Symbolism of the Hebrew Alphabet,” through March 4. Lowe uses a variety of materials, two- and three-dimensional methods and the techniques of 20th century master artists to… Read more »
