MK Isaac Herzog (Hillel Maeir/TPS)
Israeli Opposition and Zionist Union Chairman MK Isaac Herzog has been at the center of political outrage in Israel after being filmed saying at a meeting with Zionist Union party activists in Ashkelon on Tuesday about his own party that “we need to stop giving the impression that we… Read more »
The European Union released a statement earlier today in which it condemned the military courts in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip for sentencing to death five convicts accused of collaborating with Israel. “The EU Missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah condemn the five death sentences issued by military courts in the… Read more »
Egyptian amulet found in Temple Mount soil April 19, 2016 (Zachi Dvira)
Jerusalem (TPS) – Neshama Spielman, a 12-year-old Israeli girl, made a rare archaeological discovery while sifting earth illegally discarded from the Temple Mount. She found an ancient amulet, more than 3,200 years old, bearing the name of the Egyptian ruler Thutmose III, Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty who reigned from… Read more »
Millions of Jews throughout the U.S. and around the world face a challenge each year at Passover: how to connect the biblical story of their liberation from slavery to the daily experience of life today. Free the Slaves and a distinguished group of rabbis and Jewish educators have created… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at an unprecedented weekly Cabinet meeting held on the Golan Heights, April 17, 2016. (Effi Sharir/Pool/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — During the five-plus years of Syria’s civil war, Israel has striven to stay neutral — supporting neither the government of President Bashar Assad nor the rebels, and certainly not the Islamic State. But on one issue, senior Israeli politicians have gladly taken sides: Israel keeping the… Read more »
Firefighters and rescue personnel at the scene of a bus bombing in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem, April 18, 2016. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — At least 21 people were injured in a bus bombing in Jerusalem, police said, in the first such attack in Israel in years. A city bus exploded and went up in flames Monday evening on a major thoroughfare in the southern end of the capital. The blast… Read more »
“The Good Jew” explored at conference A meeting of the western branch of the American Academy of Religion was held at the University of Arizona April 1-3. A panel presentation April 3, “The Good Jew: Rabbinic Ethnographic and Historical Perspectives” was moderated by Max Strassfeld, assistant professor of religious… Read more »
Simone Zimmerman (Facebook)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Bernie Sanders’ campaign suspended its new Jewish outreach director over the tone of her past criticism of Israel. “She has been suspended while we investigate the matter further,” Michael Briggs, a campaign spokesman, said Thursday, referring to Simone Zimmerman. Zimmerman, a former J Street student activist,… Read more »
(Copyright Anne Lowe)
Tucsonan Anne Lowe created “Miriam Dancing With Her Timbrel” for the AJP, illustrating a poem she wrote some years ago. … Read more »
Brooklyn resident Charles Lenchner, left, and Rabbi Iris Richman, a founder of Rabbis for Bernie, were among those at a Jewish Sanders campaign event in Manhattan, April 10, 2016. (Uriel Heilman)
NEW YORK (JTA) – Phil Aroneanu is a second-generation American Jew whose parents came to America as immigrants seeking refuge from an oppressive Communist regime in Eastern Europe. Aroneanu himself was born in New York City and later moved to Vermont. It’s a biography that to some extent mirrors… Read more »
Isaak Koschland, director of Jewish Day School, Ichenhausen, Germany (Courtesy Holocaust History Center)
Child victims will be the focus of the annual community Yom HaShoah commemoration, sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, which will be held Sunday, May 1, at 2 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. This year’s program, “They Were Children… Read more »
(L-R) Cantorial Soloist Nichole Chorny, Rabbi Robert Eisen and Education & Youth Director Rabbi Ruven Barkan read the Megillah at Congregation Anshei Israel’s Purim Palooza party on March 23. Snapshots of some local Purim celebrations around Tucson. … Read more »
Estelle Darnault as Mary Lou in “Blind Date à la Juive”
The Arizona International Film Festival, running now through May 1, is celebrating its 25th year with films from 25 countries. Revolving around the theme “Bridging Cultures,” 30 full length features and 58 shorts in a variety of categories are scheduled at nine downtown venues. Among the films is “Blind… Read more »
Hollywood scriptwriter Herb Tucker (David Alexander Johnston) explains to his girlfriend Steffy (Susan Kovitz) why he doesn’t want to get married again. (Tim Fuller) Invisible Theatre will stage Neil Simon’s comedy, “I Ought to Be in Pictures,” April 19-May 1. Ticket information is available at 882-9721 or invisibletheatre.com.… Read more »
Two members of the Tucson Jewish Community Center’s department of children, youth and family engagement will lead a workshop on “active listening” at “Adolescence to Independence,” a conference on empowering youth sponsored by Arizona’s Children Association, which will be held at the Tucson J on Friday, May 6. Scott… Read more »
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s board development committee, chaired by Eric Schindler, has recommended the following slate of officers for the 2016-2017 program year: Tom Warne, chair of the board; Eric Schindler, vice chair/board development; Helaine Levy, vice chair; Jim Wezelman, treasurer/secretary; Kathryn Unger, immediate past chair. Also… Read more »
(L-R) Rachel Davenport, Max Baruch, Alyssa Silva, Julie Zorn and Avi Erbst at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona council meeting March 29 at Temple Emanu-El.
(Karen Schaffner/AJP)
For local Jewish community organizations to reach and attract new members, specifically young Jewish adults, leaders must learn to use the tools of social media, such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat. That was the message of “A Whole New World … Engagement of Young Adults and Young Families,”… Read more »
Simone Zimmerman says her fellow millennials "are angry" about what is happening in Israel. (Courtesy of J Street)
NEW YORK (JTA) – Simone Zimmerman, the Bernie Sanders campaign’s newly hired national Jewish outreach coordinator, is quite familiar with the American Jewish establishment. She is used to fighting against it. During the 2014 Gaza war, Zimmerman was one of the leaders of a group of young Jews that held… Read more »
Tel Aviv (TPS) – A torrent of Israeli taxes are about to hit the global tech giants Google, Facebook, Amazon, and eBay as new directives were announced on Monday by the Israel Tax Authority (ITA). The new policy follows civil protests against the tax rate paid by the large… Read more »
Ted Cruz at the Jewish Center of Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, N.Y., April 7, 2016. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS (JTA) – Ted Cruz came here to woo Republican Jews over the weekend, and in the absence of his opponents for the GOP presidential nomination came away with qualified support based not on who he is but who he is not — Donald Trump. Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich skipped… Read more »
