News

Creating a legacy for future generations of compassionate community volunteers is an important part of being a member of the Maizlish family, which so far encompasses three generations in Tucson. Phyllis Maizlish started the Maizlish Family Foundation because she wanted to help others and inspire her family. “My husband… Read more »

Marlene Harris is a stage 4 lung cancer survivor. The staff at the University of Arizona Cancer Center call her their “miracle kid.” “Trust me, I am,” she says. Harris was diagnosed on Jan. 18, 2013 with stage 4 non-small cell adenocarcinoma, an advanced stage of cancer. “My very… Read more »

University of Arizona College of Medicine professor Paul Gordon, MD, MPH, is living a dream he’s held onto for 40 years. An avid cyclist since high school, Gordon has always wanted to bike across the continental United States. On April 22, his dream came to life when he put… Read more »

It was a mild evening in late January 2014 when Michael Chaison’s heart stopped beating. He was working as a referee at a high school soccer game between Sabino and Salpointe, he says, and “about 20 minutes in, I turned to run up the field and I basically just… Read more »

JFSA Pride, a program of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, will hold a celebration of the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on marriage equality on Sunday, June 26, 7-9 p.m. in the Jewish History Museum’s Einstein-Sim Memorial Garden. “It’s going to be a very simple… Read more »

Joel Feinman, left, and Barbara LaWall

Barbara LaWall, a Democrat first elected in 1996, is running for her sixth term as Pima County Attorney. Joel Feinman, who practiced criminal law as a Pima County public defender from 2007-2015 and who is also a Democrat, announced his candidacy for the county attorney position in October. Both… Read more »

Tel Aviv (TPS) – Two Palestinian gunmen in suits opened fire on a crowd of shoppers and diners in Tel Aviv’s central Sarona Market shortly after 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, killing at least four victims. “What we know so far is that two terrorists arrived at the Sarona compound while shooting at… Read more »

A mass shooting terror attack occurred in the center of Tel Aviv shortly after 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, claiming the lives of at least three victims. According to Magen David Adom (MDA), at least nine individuals have been injured in several locations surrounding Tel Aviv’s trendy Sarona Market. “MDA… Read more »

KRAKOW, Poland (JTA) – For the sixth year in a row, the seven synagogues in Krakow’s historic Jewish district, Kazimierz, opened their doors for 7@Nite – or the Night of the Synagogues, a one-night mini-festival aimed at bolstering Jewish pride and promoting Jewish awareness among the public. Each synagogue –… Read more »

(JTA) — Here a plan, there a plan, everywhere a peace plan. Conditions in Israel and the Palestinian Authority may not exactly seem conducive topeace — Israel just formed what may be its most right-wing government ever, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is aging and becoming less popular. Yet peace plans… Read more »

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (JTA) — A nascent Jewish community was officially born in Madagascar last month when 121 men, women and children underwent Orthodox conversions on the remote Indian Ocean island nation better known for lemurs, chameleons, dense rain forests and vanilla. The conversions, which took place over a 10-day… Read more »

KATZRIN, Israel (JTA) — David Zibell is busy testing the alcohol level of the liquid flowing out of his outdoor copper still. Then, touching his head to ensure his kippah is in place, he heads inside to carefully place labels on the whiskey bottles lined up inside his distillery.… Read more »

(JTA) — Alex Law is not your typical Jewish 25-year-old Bernie Sanders supporter. Instead of simply posting tweets with the hashtag #feelthebern or attending campaign rallies, the Collingswood, New Jersey, resident is running to be Sanders’ colleague in Congress. The aptly named Law, who if elected would become the… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) – Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is facing growing accusations that his campaign is countenancing anti-Semitism – if not encouraging it outright. Trump’s foreign policy slogan, “America First,” echoes the World War II-era noninterventionist movement championed by a notorious anti-Semite. During the height of the… Read more »

UNITED NATIONS (JTA) – It was an incongruous sight: The U.N. General Assembly hall filled to capacity with 1,500 cheering people waving miniature Israeli flags and singing “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem. No, hell hadn’t frozen over. The occasion was a one-day conference hosted by Israel’s U.N. mission devoted to… Read more »

(JTA) — Erin Schrode may not be a household name — yet. But if the 25-year-old Jewish activist lures enough of her millennial peers to the polls for California’s Democratic primary on June 7, she just may become the youngest person in the U.S. House of Representatives — and… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Boycott Trump? Mock Trump? Trump, the musical? Jewish liberals are ready to sow a summer of Donald Trump discontent in ways that aim both to bludgeon and entertain. Bend the Arc, an advocacy group, is convening its first national conference here next week aimed in part at… Read more »

Israeli race-walking champion, academic and Holocaust survivor Shaul Ladany celebrated his 80th birthday on April 1 by walking nonstop for 80 kilometers, one kilometer for every year of his life — almost 50 miles. Ladany walked a circular track on the streets of his home community of Omer, near… Read more »

Angela Salmon, a program coordinator at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, doesn’t mind if her clients don’t always remember her name. She doesn’t mind if they sometimes have to search for the right words. When she and her clients are together on the Adventure Bus, a program for… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El’s Kurn Religious School will implement a new distance learning strategy to increase Hebrew school engagement in the upcoming academic year. Called Hebrew@Home, it will allow students in third through eighth grades who live in remote locations or cannot make it to the school for other reasons to… Read more »