News

SEEKING KIN The Seeking Kin column aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends. NIR GALIM, Israel (JTA) – On a recent afternoon in a museum in this moshav community near the port city of Ashdod, Hodaya Gadba held up a black-and-white photograph of a three-story building and pronounced,… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — He’s crude. He’s blunt. He’s inauthentic. He is not a man of peace. Left and right, religious and secular, Arab and Jew, Israelis don’t have many kind words for Donald Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner. In interviews this week, several prominent Israelis described Trump as an… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – AIPAC’S smartphone app, downloadable for the expected 18,000 participants at its conference this week, has a nifty little feature for lobbying day, the conference finale on Tuesday when thousands of pro-Israel activists ascend to Capitol Hill. Activists comfortably seated in a Congress member’s office can use the app to call… Read more »

HAIFA, Israel (JTA) — Tamim Zoabi knew that if he and his classmates could win at the Young Engineers’ Conference, it could mean a ticket to a better life – a coveted university scholarship for this truck driver’s son from a poor village in northern Israel. But no Arab team… Read more »

  WASHINGTON (JTA) – Here are five things to watch for at this year’s annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is taking place here March 19-22: It’s Yoooooooooge. Organizers are expecting 18,000 activists, 3,000 more than last year, the largest number ever. So large, for… Read more »

(JTA) – Americans have heard a lot about Merrick Garland since President Barack Obama nominated him to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court. But there’s a lot we still don’t know. What are his views on abortion? Will the Republican leadership give him a hearing in the Senate? What… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Citing his campaign schedule, Bernie Sanders said he would not address AIPAC’s conference next week, making him the only presidential candidate that will not attend the large annual pro-Israel gathering this year. “I would very much have enjoyed speaking at the AIPAC conference,” Sanders said in a… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Walk in wearing stickers. Stay out bearing placards. Get up and walk out when Trump walks in. Just don’t go. Go but don’t clap. Blame AIPAC. Don’t blame AIPAC. And whatever you do, hit the Jewish texts. Donald Trump’s scheduled appearance on Monday at the American Israel Public… Read more »

Dan Shapiro

Dan Shapiro, Ph.D., was 20 years old when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. For the next five years, he says his treatment spanned more than a dozen hospitals across four states, nine individual surgeries and “more chemotherapy and radiation than one person should be able to enjoy.” And,… Read more »

Amy Hirshberg Lederman

When her husband, Ray, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in late 2011, award-winning local author and columnist Amy Hirshberg Lederman says that they decided as a family to live with “no regrets.” It was three years, seven months, and six days later that Ray passed away as a result… Read more »

Rabbi William Cutter

An information fair for Jewish seniors, families and friends will be held Sunday, April 3, 1-5 p.m. at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging. The fair will cover topics from health and wellness to financial and legal matters, says Rabbi Sandy Seltzer, chair of the Senior Task Force, which… Read more »

Bernie Sanders, the first Jewish presidential candidate to win a primary contest, will hold a rally tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave. His visit comes days before the Arizona Presidential Preference election on Tuesday, March 22. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. Tickets… Read more »

Purim is one of the most joyous holidays on the Jewish calendar, commemorating Queen Esther’s triumph, with the help of the wise Mordechai, in saving the Jews of ancient Persia from the wicked plot of Haman, evil adviser to the king. The holiday begins on March 23 this year… Read more »

Rabbi Eliezer Eidlitz

Rabbi Eliezer Eidlitz, the Kosher Information Bureau’s rabbinic administrator, will return to Tucson on Sunday, April 3 for the “Is It Kosher?” supermarket tour from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at Albertsons, 6600 E. Grant Road (at East Tanque Verde Road). Attendees will learn what foods and beverages are kosher… Read more »

An exhibition of small sculpture and works on paper by international artist and sculptor Rotraut (Rotraut Klein Moquay) is on display at the Tucson Jewish Community Center Fine Art Gallery through April 13. Born in East Germany in 1938, Rotraut spent much of her life and career in France.… Read more »

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, will be honored with the Rabbi Samuel S. and A. Irma Cohon Memorial Foundation Award at Temple Emanu-El’s Shabbat service on Friday, March 18 at 7:30 p.m. The annual award honors individuals for outstanding service to… Read more »

Students at the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation will hold the 25th annual Holocaust vigil from 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 30 to 10 a.m. Thursday, March 31 on the UA Mall. Dedicated to remembrance, the vigil includes the reading of Holocaust victims’ names throughout the 24 hours. Holocaust survivors… Read more »

Tucson Hebrew Academy will hold its second annual family-friendly STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Festival on Sunday, April 3, with expanded hours from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the THA campus, 3888 E. River Road. Presented by THA’s STEM program, led by science teacher Jennifer Lehrfeld, the… Read more »

Tucson Jewish Singles Over 40, for ages 40-65, will hold its inaugural meeting on Sunday, March 27 at 4 p.m. at Five Palms Restaurant, 3500 E. Sunrise Drive, with a free dinner (no-host beverages available). The group will meet on the fourth Sunday of every month for dinner, happy… Read more »

When Tucsonan Nora Navarro-Hernandez, who is not Jewish, visited the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem for the first time, she had a real awakening. She was there for Shabbat. “I thought it was going to be quiet and really solemn,” she says. “I didn’t think there was going to be… Read more »