News

(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 »

“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 »

Cherry Tomatoes And Salad Leaves ,Close Up

The Tucson Jewish Community Center will present a three-part Nutrition for Seniors series on Tuesdays, April 5, 12 and 19, 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m. in the demonstration kitchen. Led by Mary Atkinson, R.D., director of wellness at Tucson Medical Center and Laurie Ledford, M.S., R.D., wellness dietician at TMC, each… Read more »

The Tucson Jewish Community Center and Tucson Medical Center will host their second annual family triathlon on Sunday, April 17, starting at 8 a.m. The noncompetitive triathlon is designed for children and their adult mentors or families to enjoy together.  Parents or other adult mentors can register to swim,… Read more »

Three Tucson rabbis representing three streams of Judaism will participate in “This I Believe,” part of the  rabbi lecture series at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, on Sunday, April 10, from 3:30-5 p.m. in the great room at Handmaker. Rabbi Yossi Shemtov of Congregation Young Israel-Chabad, Rabbi Thomas… Read more »

When comedian Sam Morril encounters a heckler, something that happens when he performs on the road, he knows he has to tread carefully at first. He wants to make sure the crowd knows there’s a problem. “We notice the problem in the room way before the room does,” Morril… Read more »

Dennis Ross

As a former U.S. Middle East peace negotiator, Dennis Ross understands why ISIS continues to get recruits, even though those recruits know they will die soon and violently. “It appeals to those who feel completely disaffected; it appeals to those who are alienated, who feel left out. They create… Read more »

The Matza & More program sponsored by Jewish Family & Children’s Services brings Passover bags to Tucson-area residents who otherwise could not afford food and other items for a seder. From children to seniors, volunteers find significant connections in this longstanding program. Gary Cohen’s two sons, Grant, 11, and… Read more »

Vida and Eliot Barron have not wasted a minute since they started coming to Tucson 19 winters ago in 1998. Motivated by all of the blessings they have had in their 57 years of marriage, the bottom line for them is to share good things with people who need… Read more »

Mel Cohen

Volunteering to lead Shabbat and holiday services for the residents of Handmaker began as a way for Mel Cohen to give back to the assisted living facility where his father was a resident, but 22 years later, Cohen continues to lead services as a way to connect to Jewish… Read more »

Marlee Matlin made history in 1987 when she won an Academy Award for “Children of a Lesser God,” becoming the only deaf person to win an Oscar and, at 21, the youngest recipient of the Best Actress award. She owes much of that record-breaking achievement to her Jewish upbringing,… Read more »

ANTWERP (JTA) – The hundreds of rifle-toting police and soldiers who patrol Isaac Michaeli’s neighborhood have done little to improve his sense of safety. “When the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, the soldiers might as well be cardboard cutouts,” he said. A jeweler in his… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Hear out Donald Trump. Ignore Donald Trump. There were two distinct approaches to the Trump moment this week at AIPAC’s annual conference here, and there were mutual warnings that one or the other side would get burned. The burn came fast, and it came to those… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — I am trying to imagine a conversation between Donald Trump’s people and a delegation of Reform rabbis and lay leaders. Rabbi Jonah Pesner, the Reform movement’s man in Washington, told me that Trump’s people have agreed to a “staff-to-staff” meeting to discuss Jewish concerns about Trump’s… Read more »

  The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies and the University of Arizona School of Dance will present “An Evening with Yaniv Abraham & Guy Shomroni” at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 31 at the Stevie Eller Dance Theatre, 1737 E. University Blvd. The event is free and open to the… Read more »

KIEV, Ukraine (JTA) – On a muddy path in Babi Yar Park, Vladimir Proch negotiates deep puddles as he shadows two rabbis and a group of Ukrainian officials. An 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, Proch lives near the Kiev ravine where Nazis and local collaborators murdered more than 50,000 Jews starting… Read more »