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 »
Phil Aroneanu, New York state director of the Sanders campaign, speaks at a Jews for Bernie event in Manhattan, April 10, 2016. (Uriel Heilman)
NEW YORK (JTA) – It might have been the last place you’d expect anger to erupt against the Bernie Sanders campaign. But at a Jews for Bernie brunch in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood on Sunday, the frustration seemed to boil over when some silver-haired Jewish supporters of Sanders began deriding… Read more »
Newly elected Argentine President Mauricio Macri, right, invited the family of the late prosecutor Alberto Nisman to his home in January. Clockwise to his left are Rabbi Marcelo Polakoff; Nisman's daughter Kala; Macri's wife Juliana and daughter Antonia, and Nisman's daughter Iara. (Courtesy of the Office of the President of Argentina)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — In January 2015, Rabbi Marcelo Polakoff was stuck in Buenos Aires when his phone rang. He’d been planning a trip to New York but a storm had canceled all flights, and Polakoff, the rabbi of Cordoba, a province in central Argentina, was cooling his… Read more »
Rapper Action Bronson, left, chowing down on some Frankel's fare with the Frankel brothers, Zach, right, and Alex. (Screenshot from Instagram)
NEW YORK (JTA) — The scene could easily have been mistaken for a rock concert at one of Brooklyn’s countless music halls.Smartly dressed 20- and 30-somethings crammed into a small corner building. The overflow crowd, clad in skinny jeans and black beanies, spilled onto the sidewalk, where they drank coffee… Read more »
A building funded by the European Union in the West Bank. EU-funded construction of some 1,000 buildings has stirred controversy. (Ben Sales)
MAALE ADUMIM, West Bank (JTA) — In a ramshackle village off a dirt road in the West Bank’s central hills, near an inhabited shack with a cloth roof and tin walls, stands an outhouse bearing a peeling sticker with the European Union flag. The text below the flag reads “Humanitarian… Read more »
Bob and Helene Fine meeting President Bill Clinton at the White House in December 2000, a few months after hosting first lady Hillary Clinton and daughter Chelsea for Passover seder. (Courtesy of Bob Fine)
NEW YORK (JTA) – How was Helene and Bob Fine’s family seder in 2000 different from every other Passover night? First lady Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea came. (President Bill Clinton would have joined, too, if not for Yasser Arafat, but we’ll get to that.) This was no… Read more »
(JTA) — The Israeli Supreme Court’s recent landmark ruling on conversion is a truly historic decision – for Israeli and American Jewry. While the case only concerns a few individuals, the general rules and unequivocal language have wide significance for both Israeli and American Jewry. The ruling represents another… Read more »
Campaigning in New York, clockwise from left: Donald Trump greeting the crowd in Bethpage, Long Island, April 6, 2016 (Washington Post via Getty Images); a sign at a Bernie Sanders event in Brooklyn, March 31, 2016 (D Dipasupil/WireImage/Getty Images); Ted Cruz signing an autograph in the Bronx, April 6, 2016 (Bryan Thomas/Getty Images); Hillary Clinton swiping a MetroCard at a Bronx subway, April 7, 2016 (Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images).
WASHINGTON (JTA) – For the first time in decades New York, politically, is about to live up to its “make it here, make it anywhere” promise. The vast state and its huge Jewish community –nearly 2 million, or just under 10 percent of the population — have not figured… Read more »
Jerusalem (TPS) ‒ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took advantage of his meeting with the Czech foreign minister to challenge Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday. “President Abbas said on Israeli television a few days ago that if I invite him, he’ll come,” Netanyahu told Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek,… Read more »
Participants in the San Francisco Pride Parade showing their Jewish and Israeli pride, too, June 30, 2014. (Wikimedia Commons)
NEW YORK (JTA) – Here’s a riddle: If a transgender Jew shows up at an Orthodox synagogue, on which side of the mechitzah barrier separating the sexes should the person be seated? That’s an easy one compared to more complex Jewish legal questions raised by people who don’t identify… Read more »
Zehava and Herzl Shaul have no definitive proof that their son Oron died after he was captured by Hamas on July 20, 2014 in Gaza City. (Ben Sales)
KFAR SABA, Israel (JTA) — One family lost their son in late July 2014. The other lost theirs on the first of August in the same year. One family has lobbied the United Nations and crossed an ocean in hopes of bringing their son’s remains back. The other mostly stays… Read more »
Seymour Rosenbloom ELKINS PARK, Pa. (JTA) — The Conservative movement’s leadership must drop its ban on Conservative rabbis officiating at interfaith weddings — before it’s too late. The Rabbinical Assembly’s unequivocal rule is that a Conservative rabbi may not officiate at an intermarriage. But after 42 years as an active rabbi, during which… Read more »
Tzipi Hotovely, Israel's deputy transportation minister, marrying Or Alon in central Israel, May 27, 2013. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash 90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — The Israeli Supreme Court decision on Jewish conversion changes almost nothing. But down the line, it could change a lot. Under the March 31 ruling, the state of Israel must recognize Jewish conversions performed in private Orthodox conversion courts not run by its Chief Rabbinate.… Read more »
The Tucson Jewish Community Center and the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Northwest Division will co-host a family outreach event, “Northwest Fun in the Sun Day,” on Sunday, April 10, from 1 p.m. to 4 , at Canada Del Oro Riverfront Park, 551 W. Lambert Lane in Oro Valley. The event will include… Read more »
Clockwise, starting from top left, Benjamin Netanyahu, HAIM, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and Lena Dunham. (Getty Images)
(JTA) — Ten years ago this week, Twitter was born. Never ones to miss a good conversation, Jews quickly adopted the social network, and they haven’t stopped kibitzing since. To celebrate the birth of this post-modern Talmud, we’ve updated JTA’s 2009 list of the “100 Most Influential Jewish Twitterers” (which helped a young woman… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — It might appear churlish to criticize the teaching of Islamic studies in America. After all, “Between Sharia and Democracy: Islamic Education in North America,” a just-released study by Impact-SE, finds that the most widely used Islamic textbooks published in the United States are generally free of imagery and… Read more »
Marilyn Heins, M.D. The Tucson chapter of the Brandeis National Committee will hold a high tea and installation of officers at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, April 6 at Skyline Country Club, 5200 E. St. Andrews Drive. Dr. Marilyn Heins will speak on “The Joy of Aging,” humorously addressing the disadvantages of growing… Read more »
Amy Ernst’s “In the Shadow of the Dreamers” featuring members of the UA Dance Ensemble. (Ed Flores)
“In the Shadows of the Dreamers,” a dance commemorating the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, will be part of a University of Arizona School of Dance concert later this month to benefit the Holocaust History Center at the Jewish History Museum. The concert and reception will be… Read more »
Talya Simha Fanger-Vexler Talya Simha Fanger-Vexler will be the featured speaker at a Hadassah Southern Arizona luncheon on Sunday, April 17, 11:30 a.m. at the Country Club of La Cholla. Fanger-Vexler will relate the story of courage and fortitude that took her from being injured as a passenger in a motorcycle crash… Read more »
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Young Men’s Group will host its sixth annual Men’s Poker Tournament on Sunday, April 17 from 5:30-8 p.m. at Reilly Craft Pizza and Drink, 101 E. Pennington St. Proceeds will benefit PJ Our Way in Southern Arizona, an extension of the PJ Library… Read more »
