News

(JTA) — Supporters of Emmanuel Macron were not alone in cheering his victory Sunday in the first round of France’s presidential elections. Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, who finished second in the voting, saw it as excellent news. The two will face off in the final round next month after… Read more »

The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will hold a panel discussion on the immigration crisis in Southern Arizona at its Spring Leaders Forum on Friday, April 28. The breakfast event will begin at 7:30 a.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, with the… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Iran is not living up to the “spirit” of the nuclear deal, President Donald Trump said, the latest in a flurry of mixed messages on the deal his administration has relayed in recent days. “As far as Iran is concerned, I think they are doing a… Read more »

(The Nosher via JTA) — When I think of knishes, like most people, I think of New York Jewish deli-style discs of creamy potato or savory meat enveloped by a flaky crust. Potato knishes are my favorite because they act as a vehicle for as much good, grainy mustard… Read more »

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) – A few days before they read from the Passover Haggadah about how God split the Red Sea waters, Brazilian Jews have never felt so split between right and left. At the center of the divide, although hardly in the Moses role, is Jair Bolsonaro,… Read more »

JEWISH FAMILY & CHILDREN’S SERVICES OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA has named LIZ HERNÁNDEZ director of marketing and communications. Hernández was previously marketing manager and then director of public relations and communications at Jewish Family & Children’s Service in Phoenix.  Born in New York City and educated through high school in… Read more »

  (JTA) — Even before the communist candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon emerged as a serious contender for the presidency in France, the elections were shaping up to be a fateful moment for the country’s 500,000 Jews. Many of them are deeply worried about the rise in the polls of Marine… Read more »

  TEL AVIV (JTA) – Gaza is rebuilt. The West Bank is flourishing. And the trains run from Tel Aviv to Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital. This is the peaceful future being pitched by Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz. In recent months, he has been shopping around a pair of ambitious economic… Read more »

  NEW YORK (JTA) — At first glance, The New York Times’ hiring of another white, Jewish male opinion-page columnist is anything but news. But the arrival of Bret Stephens, formerly the foreign affairs columnist for The Wall Street Journal, may be especially resonant for American Jews. Stephens, 42,… Read more »

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Decades after her death at a Nazi concentration camp, Anne Frank’s restless spirit in heaven finally finds a soulmate in Zef Bunga, an Albanian teenager who was murdered in a revenge killing. Anne, whose world-famous diary recounts her two years in hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam with… Read more »

  LOS ANGELES (JTA) – A one-hour TV program airing tonight on PBS links an incredible Holocaust escape story to advanced scientific techniques. “Holocaust Escape Tunnel,” a “Nova” production to be shown April 19, sheds new light on the attempt by 80 imprisoned men and women — mostly Lithuanian Jews… Read more »

  Editor’s note: Democrat Jon Ossoff will face Republican Karen Handel in the June 20 runoff election. Ossoff won 48.1% of the vote April 18; Handel won 19.78% WASHINGTON (JTA) – One candidate has the endorsement of a civil rights giant. Another boasts that he changes his oil in… Read more »

In recent years, Tucson’s community-wide celebration of Israel’s Independence Day had grown from a one-day festival to a week of Tucson Celebrates Israel events. This year, in partnership with local congregations, the Weintraub Israel Center has orchestrated a month of events, beginning April 21, celebrating Israel’s 69 years of… Read more »

The Jewish community’s 2017 Yom HaShoah commemoration, which will include a survivor processional and candle lighting ceremony, will take place Sunday, April 23 at 2 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El. This year’s theme is “Art and Totalitarianism: 80 Years After the ‘Degenerate Art’ Exhibition.” The “Degenerate Art” (Entartete Kunst) exhibition… Read more »

Why shouldn’t we care about other people, Michael J. Rosenkrantz asks rhetorically, adding that he refuses to live a selfish lifestyle.  “I feel like it’s really important to think about the larger community, and it’s not just the Jewish community — it’s bigger,” says Rosenkrantz. “But in the Jewish… Read more »

Rina Paz has been visiting Hazel Rappeport, a resident at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, for three months. Once in a while Paz says something in English and Rappeport is quick to remind her that they are supposed to be speaking only Hebrew. Nanci Levy, community outreach coordinator… Read more »

Tucsonan Shari Gootter spends her time changing the lives of others in a wide variety of ways. Self-employed as a therapist and yoga instructor, she works daily to help people as they improve themselves emotionally and physically; however, her work as a volunteer for several organizations in Tucson is… Read more »

Cantor Avraham Alpert

Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona and the LEAH program will present two free talks in the Shalom in Every Home Healthy Family Lecture Series, April 23 and 30, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center.  On Sunday, April 23, Avraham Alpert, spiritual leader of… Read more »

  NEW YORK (JTA) — We interrupt this Passover to bring you two news bulletins: Bashar Assad is worse than Hitler. The Soup Nazi was almost a real Nazi. Let’s start with the second revelation, since Sean Spicer’s Hitler gaffe about Hitler is probably better known. Entertainment Weekly reported… Read more »

  (JTA) — Looking through the barbed wire of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, 14-year-old Nanette Konig could barely recognize her friend and classmate from Amsterdam, Anne Frank. Both girls had been caught by the Nazis in the Dutch capital and were sent to starve to death in a place Konig… Read more »