News

Special abilities coordinator offers resources for local families

Members of the Sparks club, aa new group for youngsters with special needs, with residents of Handmaker. The kids and senior citizens played board games together on Sunday, June 4. (Allison Wexler)

Caring for a child or young adult with physical or mental challenges means negotiating a world geared primarily for a differently-abled majority. So where do you start in locating a therapist, a school for a child with learning disabilities, a supervised social environment, or simply a salon to give… Read more »

Jared Kushner’s family is a legend in this Belarus town

Marina Yarashuk, director of the Museum of Jewish Resistance of Novogrudak, at the museum on June 1, 2017. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

  NOVOGRUDOK, Belarus (JTA) — People in Jared Kushner’s ancestral town tend to speak very highly of President Donald Trump. That’s generally the norm in the former Soviet Union. After all, Trump’s style goes over well in this part of the world — a survey conducted in November in… Read more »

Arab countries are turning on Qatar. What does it mean for Israel?

President Donald Trump meets with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani at a bilateral meeting at a hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 21, 2017. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Five Arab nations cut ties with Qatar on Monday, escalating a long-simmering competition for preeminence in the region into actions that could set the stage for war. Saudi Arabia, which is leading the charge, has cut off Qatar’s only land crossing – and what one Saudi-friendly… Read more »

ANALYSIS Trump’s post-London attack tweets are chilling — and counter-productive

President Donald Trump speaks at the Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., June 4, 2017. (Olivier Douliery/Pool/Getty Images)

  BOCA RATON, Florida (JTA) — In popular myth, South Florida was ground zero of the Great Email Explosion of 2008. That was the year your great-uncle or long-lost cousin couldn’t resist passing on rumors, hoaxes and conspiracy theories about Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, the true causes… Read more »

5 reasons why some British Jews are supporting the Labour Party, despite charges of anti-Semitism

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, second from right, speaking with guests during a National Holocaust Memorial Day event at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London, Jan. 26, 2017. (Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Relations between British Jewry and the country’s Labour Party, which used to be their political home, appear to be at a historic low point. Ahead of the June 8 general elections in the United Kingdom, a Jewish Chronicle poll from last week put support for the center-left… Read more »

Israel’s government is right-wing. But it’s taking climate change seriously.

Solar panels in the Bedouin Arab village of Darajat in Israel's Negev desert seen on Nov. 23, 2009. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

(JTA) — One of Israel’s strongest condemnations of Donald Trump wasn’t about the peace process. It didn’t concern Trump’s broken promise to relocate the U.S. embassy, or his reported leak of Israeli intelligence. It was about climate change. After President Trump announced the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris… Read more »

Trump’s Hebrew translator lets the president’s words speak for themselves

President Donald Trump speaks at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, May 23, 2017. (Issac Harari/Flash90)

  SAN FRANCISCO (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — A San Francisco teacher hired to translate into Hebrew President Trump’s “not very eloquent” (as she puts it) speeches last week in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem said she isn’t proud to be working for this administration and… Read more »

An Israeli’s alphabet combines Hebrew and Arabic to promote understanding

Liron Lavi Turkenich compares produce in a video for her Aravit writing system. (Screenshot from YouTube)

  TEL AVIV (JTA) — Middle East peace may remain out of reach, but at least the Hebrew and Arabic languages have found a compromise. Israeli typography designer Liron Lavi Turkenich has created a stylized writing system that merges the two ancient alphabets, allowing Hebrew and Arabic speakers to… Read more »

Rod Rosenstein: 5 things to know about the man who helped Comey get fired

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., March 7, 2017. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Until this year, Rod Rosenstein was an unassuming U.S. attorney with a reputation for fairness. Now he’s at the center of the controversy over President Donald Trump’s snap firing of James Comey, the FBI director. Rosenstein, 52, whose appointment by Trump as deputy attorney general was confirmed… Read more »

Jared Kushner: What you need to know about the scandal engulfing Donald Trump’s son-in-law

Jared Kushner at a luncheon with President Mauricio Macri of Argentina at the White House, April 27, 2017. (Olivier Douliery/Pool/Getty Images)

  (JTA) — Jared Kushner was once hailed as the key to Donald Trump’s surprise election victory. Now Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser is at the center of the biggest controversy plaguing the administration: its ties to Russia. Kushner is facing heat following reports of two meetings with figures… Read more »

JHM to host candlelight vigil for refugees past and present

On June 6, Jewish communities across the country will hold candlelight vigils to commemorate the anniversary of the day that the MS St. Louis began its return journey to Europe, with over 900 Jewish refugees on board after being denied entry to the United States. The Jewish History Museum will… Read more »

Trump wants to sell lots of weapons to Saudi Arabia. Why are Israel (and its friends) keeping quiet?

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump with Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, second from right, at the inauguration ceremony of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 21, 2017. (Bandar Algaloud/Saudi Royal Council/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – The year was 1981 and the director of AIPAC was calling for a “showdown” with the Reagan administration, saying “This country is being held hostage to the whims of the Saudis.” At issue was the sale to Saudi Arabia of AWACS, aircraft with radar-enabled surveillance capabilities that… Read more »

Business briefs 5.26.17

TUCSON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA has named KIMBERLY D. ELY as vice president of development. Before joining TSO in 2015 as director of charitable giving, she spent 20 years in Nashville, Tenn., where she served as vice president of development for Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, director of development… Read more »

Born in Romania, Tucson man says Six-Day War made him forever an Israeli

Devy Wolff served in the Israel Defense Forces after the Six-Day War. This photo is from December 1967. Devy Wolff served in the Israel Defense Forces after the Six-Day War. This photo is from December 1967.

Fifty years ago Israel won a war that no one expected it to win. The Six-Day War took place from June 5-10, 1967 when Israel fought against Egypt, Syria and Jordan, and captured the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, Old City of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. For… Read more »

Local woman remembers euphoria of Six-Day war victory

Margo Gray, a member of Hadassah Southern Arizona, wrote the following recollection of the Six-Day War period for Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America: I was 18, had completed my first university semester and had just returned to Chicago. I am a first-generation American whose father had escaped… Read more »

Covenant House grateful for assistance from Handmaker

B’nai B’rith Covenant House of Tucson is a low-income HUD housing community for seniors that provides safe, affordable housing for 120 older adults in mid-town. Early in the morning on Sunday, May 14, which was Mother’s Day, 40 residents living in building one were awoken to a blaring fire… Read more »

Tucson J creates week of day camp for adults

The Tucson Jewish Community Center will hold a weeklong day camp for adults, “Around the World,” June 12-16. The camp will explore the languages, cultures, and cuisines of Mexico, China, Italy, France and Israel, with each day devoted to a different country. Participants can register for the entire week… Read more »

Prescott is site for Jewish outdoor club event

The Mosaic Outdoor Club is planning a hike on Thumb Butte in Prescott during its Labor Day weekend ‘escape.’ (Courtesy Mosaic Outdoor Clubs of America)

The Mosaic Outdoor Clubs of America, the nation’s oldest and largest Jewish organization dedicated to fun and adventure in the outdoors, will hold its annual five-day international event in Prescott, Ariz., Aug. 31-Sept. 4. . The 27th annual Jewish Outdoor Escape, dubbed “r-AZ-ma-t’AZ: An Arizona Adventure,” will be based… Read more »