News

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a much-anticipated press conference with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday afternoon, March 9, in which the two criticized Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for his failure to denounce the wave of terror. Following Netanyahu’s statement, Biden stated his disapproval of Abbas’ failure… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) – America’s political system is broken, and the last thing the country needs is another career politician at the helm. With money more than ever a corrupting influence in politics, the White House should be occupied by someone who isn’t beholden to well-funded lobbyists or super… Read more »

FLINT, Mich. (JTA) – At 86, Jeanne Aaronson is blind and lives alone, but she has seen a lot over the years. She lived in Flint when it was a manufacturing powerhouse, a center of the automotive business and a symbol of American industrial might and ingenuity. She lived… Read more »

(JTA) — A 29-year-old American business school student was killed in a stabbing attack in the Jaffa area of Tel Aviv. Taylor Force, a student at the Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management, was on a school trip to Israel when he was killed Tuesday evening, the university said. As… Read more »

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) – Despite recent summer temperatures here topping out at 42 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit), Milena Rozenbrah has become accustomed recently to dressing in pants and long sleeves when she leaves home. A Jewish mother in Brazil’s second-largest city, Rozenbrah is concerned not for the religious… Read more »

My whole body trembled as I tried to fight back the tears that were streaming down my face. “Wait!” I screamed. “One more, just one more photo … please?” I said meekly as I tried my best to swallow through a dry and swollen throat. The pre-op nurses nodded… Read more »

When local Jewish writer Joni Rubinstein’s children were babies, she began a birthday practice that became a cherished family tradition. “When my first daughter, who is 35 now, was born, I found this tiny little poem that was about birthdays,” says Rubinstein, an elementary school counselor in the Marana… Read more »

While the Tucson Jewish Community Center continues to build momentum and rosters for this summer’s Maccabi Games for Jewish teen athletes in Columbus, Ohio, another member of the community was able to experience Maccabi on an international scale. Martin Reichgott spent Dec. 26-Jan.5 in Santiago, Chile, as a coach… Read more »

When Mike Lex turned 13 he did not celebrate becoming a bar mitzvah. He grew up in a remote part of Wyoming, a place where he says as a Jew he was in a tiny minority and because his parents did not practice, his 13th birthday came and went.… Read more »

A Jewish section has been established at Marana Mortuary and Cemetery, with Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman of Chabad of Oro Valley overseeing religious aspects of the section. “Until now Jewish burial was available in Tucson in two cemeteries, Evergreen and East Lawn. figured I was the obvious… Read more »

Jewish Family & Children’s Services will hold a three-hour, community-wide ethical will writing workshop from 9 a.m.-noon on Tuesday, March 22, at the TMC Senior Services/El Dorado Medical Center, 1400 N. Wilmot Road. Ethical wills began as a Jewish oral tradition centuries ago, a way to pass on values… Read more »

About 125 people turned out on Saturday, Feb. 20, for Party Royale, the fifth annual Hava Tequila event hosted by Young Leadership of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. The James Bond-themed event, held at Playground Bar and Lounge, raised $6,000 for the Ethiopian National Project in Tucson’s partnership… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — As last Tuesday ended, it felt like Israel’s gay community had taken a major step forward. On Feb. 23, eight separate Israeli parliamentary committees convened to discuss a broad set of issues facing the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Lawmakers from a range of parties… Read more »

NIJKERK, Netherlands (JTA) — As a boy, Pieter van Oordt would often accompany his father, Karel, on the elder van Oordt’s weekly shopping excursions specifically seeking out products made in Israel. A Christian Zionist businessman in Amersfoort, some 25 miles east of Amsterdam, Karel van Oordt sought to strengthen… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Many Jewish Republicans look increasingly likely to face a dilemma in November unimaginable just a year ago: loyalty to party or community. Donald Trump’s surging candidacy has sent shivers through the ranks of the Republican elite and created deep anxiety among Jewish Republicans, some of whom… Read more »

Some men go fishing when they retire. Some play golf. When Wayne Gould sold his steel bar manufacturing company and retired, he opened a car museum. “It started out as a man cave in a smaller building,” Gould says. “I retired and I wanted to pick up a couple… Read more »

Amelia Saltsman

Amelia Saltsman, chef, teacher and author of “The Seasonal Jewish Kitchen: A Fresh Take on Tradition,” will offer a cooking demon­stration and tasting at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on Friday, March 11, from 2-4 p.m. Saltsman, whose first book was the “The Santa Monica Farmer’s Market Cookbook,” is… Read more »

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Two months before they were deported from the Netherlands to Auschwitz, Louis Barzelay and Flora Snatager invited a few guests to their wedding in Amsterdam. Instead of the yellow star he was legally required to wear, Louis wore a white flower on his lapel as he… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The controversy over whether laws protecting Israel from boycotts should include West Bank settlements found its way into a presidential signing statement last week, but President Barack Obama’s decision to ignore a trade law’s requirement to oppose boycotts of Israeli settlements likely won’t settle the argument.… Read more »

(JTA) — To many who know her story, Haben Girma is a hero. In 2013, this daughter of Eritrean immigrants became the first deaf-blind person to graduate from Harvard Law School. Two years later she was part of the legal team that helped score a major civil rights victory… Read more »