News

Kahane’s widow: Jewish extremists ‘have nothing to do with’ Kahane’s ideology

Libby Kahane, wife of the slain extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane, now has a grandson in prison for heading an extremist group. (Courtesy of Libby Kahane)

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Her husband was assassinated and her grandson is in prison. But Libby Kahane, widow of the late far-right Rabbi Meir Kahane, has remained faithful to her husband’s ideology. She repeats his call for Israel to expel its Arab population. She believes the Israeli left, Jewish media… Read more »

New citizenship law has Jews worldwide flocking to tiny Portugal city

Turkish Chief Rabbi Ishak Haleva, right, talking to congregants outside Kadoorie - Mekor Haim synagogue in Porto, Portugal, Jan. 29, 2016 (Cnaan Liphshiz)

PORTO, Portugal (JTA) — Five years ago, this city’s tiny Jewish community was so strapped for cash it couldn’t afford to fix the deep cracks in its synagogue’s moldy ceiling. The Jewish Community of Porto was also too poor to hire a full-time rabbi because of its small size… Read more »

Why Bernie Sanders’ historic victory is no big deal to Jews – or America

Bernie Sanders making his victory speech in Concord after winning the New Hampshire Democratic primary, Feb. 9, 2016. (Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Bernie Sanders is having a month of historic firsts. In New Hampshire on Tuesday night, he handily won the Democratic Party contest, becoming the first Jew to win a presidential primary. In Iowa, he became the first Jewish presidential candidate — the first non-Christian, even… Read more »

Bernie Sanders wins New Hampshire primary, makes Jewish history

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., speaking at a Get Out the Vote rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, Feb. 8, 2016. (Meredith Dake-O'Connor/CQ Roll Call)

(JTA) – Bernie Sanders made history Tuesday night when he became the first Jewish candidate in U.S. history to win a presidential primary election. With the vote results in New Hampshire still trickling in, the Independent senator from Vermont was projected to handily defeat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in… Read more »

Did Bernie Sanders just steal Joe Lieberman’s Jewish crown?

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., waving on election day in Concord, New Hampshire, Feb. 9, 2016. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Maybe now that Bernie Sanders has become the first Jewish candidate to win a presidential primary he’ll start getting the Joe Lieberman treatment. Back in 2000, Al Gore’s decision to tap Lieberman as his running mate set off what felt like a months-long national bar mitzvah… Read more »

50 years on, Bernie Sanders still champions values of his Israeli kibbutz

A photo of Kibbutz Shaar Haamakim as it was in 1963, when Bernie Sanders volunteered there for several months. (Ben Sales)

SHAAR HAAMAKIM, Israel (JTA) — Every morning, Bernie Sanders would wake up at 4:10 a.m. to pick apples and pears. Leaving the cabin he shared with a few other American college student volunteers, Sanders would have a quick bite of bread before heading out to the orchard. After 2… Read more »

With a nod to Silicon Valley, new ADL chief courts digital natives

Jonathan Greenblatt, left, with the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, at the U.S. Embassy in Israel, October 2015. (Courtesy of the Anti-Defamation League)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Framed by a slide of two young guys in jeans and tees playing ping-pong on the Facebook campus, Jonathan Greenblatt described an event hosted by the social media behemoth in Palo Alto, California, the week before. “Some of the stuff we’ve done has been really exciting, like… Read more »

Tucson J to hold Maccabi recruitment events

The Tucson Jewish Community Center is recruiting young Jewish athletes, ages 13-16, for the 2016 JCC Maccabi Games to be held this summer in Columbus, Ohio. The Tucson J hopes to register 20-25 teens by March 11, with practice starting at the end of March. The games will feature… Read more »

JFSA Young Leadership plans Party Royale

Young Leadership of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will hold its fifth annual Hava Tequila event, “Party Royale,” on Saturday, Feb. 20 beginning at 8 p.m. at Playground, 278 E. Congress St. The James Bond-themed event for ages 21 and over will include hors d’ouevres, drinks, a DJ… Read more »

Three other faiths to be focus of CAI series

Congregation Anshei Israel will present its third annual “Wisdom of Jewish Tucson” adult education series on Wednesdays, February 10, 17 and 24, from 7-9 p.m. This year’s program, “What We Need to Know About … Islam, Mormonism & Catholicism” provides an opportunity for interfaith conversations and greater understanding of… Read more »

Tucson genealogist to be on hand as Holocaust History Center re-opens

Joel Alpert with the English translation of a Yizkor book memorializing a lost Jewish community in Ukraine

Have you been asking yourself when you are finally going to get around to researching your Jewish family roots? The opportunity to jump-start your genealogical quest will be available at the Feb. 21 re-opening of Tucson’s Holocaust History Center on the Jewish History Museum Campus. Joel Alpert will have… Read more »

Museums prep for grand re-opening Feb. 21

The new entrance of the Holocaust History Center, sharing a plaza with the Jewish History Museum, will allow for easy traffic flow from one museum to the other.

In just over two weeks, Tucsonans will get their first look at the Rose and Maurice Silverman Jewish History Museum Campus, home to the newly expanded Gould Family Holocaust History Center as well as the Friedman Family Jewish History Museum, which also has been refurbished. The grand re-opening on… Read more »

Buddhist, Jew to explore Auschwitz trips in talk at Tucson J

The Tucson Jewish Community Center will present “Why We Keep Going Back to Auschwitz-Birkenau,” a lecture exploring the confluence of the Jewish, Buddhist and human experience in song, story and silence, by the Rev. Francisco Genkoji “Paco” Lugoviña and Reb Shir Yaakov Feit on Thursday, Feb. 25, from 6-9… Read more »

Candy-making Holocaust survivor believed to be world’s oldest man

Yisrael Kristal

(JTA) — A Holocaust survivor in Haifa many now be the oldest man in the world. Yisrael Kristal, 112, achieved that status after Yasutaro Koide of Japan, also 112, died on Jan. 12, Haaretz reported. Kristal’s grandson, Oren, received an email from the Gerontology Research Group, an international organization… Read more »

Healthy cooking guru to speak at Hadassah

Certified health coach and author Freddi Pakier will present “It’s the Little Things that Create a Heart Healthy Life­style” at a Hadassah Southern Arizona luncheon on Sunday, Feb. 14. Pakier, a former Tucsonan, is the author of “52 Weeks of Food for the Soul,” a cookbook that features gluten… Read more »

Invisible Theatre to produce premiere of local playwright’s ‘Deelmayker’

Kathleen Erickson as Anne and Jack Neubeck as Bernie in Warren Bodow’s “Deelmayker” (Tim Fuller)

Invisible Theatre will stage the world premier of Tucson playwright Warren Bodow’s “Deelmayker” Feb. 9-21. “Deelmayker” (the spelling refers to an Internet account) tells the story of Bernie Harris, a charismatic 65-year-old wheeler-dealer living in Palm Springs with a wife he adores. Harris realizes that as he’s been getting… Read more »