Shelly Silverman The 2016 Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Community Campaign is now underway. “Do More Than Before, Give With Your Heart” is the theme of this year’s effort, which seeks to connect personally with community members about the future of Jewish social and educational services in Tucson and beyond. The… Read more »
Buzz Aldrin arriving at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., Jan. 17, 2014. (Gabriel Olsen/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israelis seeking an escape from this week’s daily terror attacks couldn’t fly to the moon, but they had a chance to hear from someone who did — Buzz Aldrin. In Israel’s terror-riven capital, the Israel Space Agency — the country’s version of NASA — is hosting this year’s… Read more »
Ivanka Trump speaking at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C., Oct. 14, 2015. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Fortune/Time Inc)
(JTA) — Ivanka is to Donald Trump as Lisa is to Homer Simpson: brainy, composed and unflinchingly loyal to her outrageous and unpredictable father. At least that’s the portrait painted in a Politico article published Thursday. The article explores the relationship between the Republican presidential front-runner and the daughter who… Read more »
Matisyahu performing in Moscow, Dec. 7, 2014. (Shutterstock)
(JTA) — With his clean-shaven face and hip clothing, it’s easy to forget that Matisyahu was a Hasidic icon before he was just a Jewish one. But on a segment of HuffPost Live on Tuesday, the Jewish reggae singer called leaving the Hasidic community “one of the hardest things… Read more »
Ilsa and Lisa Klinghoffer tell their story at the Center for Jewish History in New York City, Oct. 8, 2015. (American Jewish Historical Society at the Center for Jewish History)
NEW YORK (JTA) – I first met Leon Klinghoffer’s daughters in 2004, shortly after my father and stepmother were murdered in a robbery. Back then I was a TMI machine, telling my story not only to friends but also to anyone in my line of vision. One Shabbat, after going to the… Read more »
Gilad Millo, left, with DJ HYPNOTIQ and Kiptoo 'k4' Kirwa at a Nairobi recording studio, Oct. 14, 2015. (Courtesy of Gilad Millo)
(JTA) — Zipping between meetings at Nairobi’s five-star hotels wearing a suit and tie, Gilad Millo looks every bit the ex-diplomat he is. But looks can be deceiving: Though he may be balding and slightly pudgy, Millo is one of Kenya’s hottest pop stars. He’s so popular, in fact,… Read more »
African asylum seekers protest outside the US embassy in Tel Aviv, 06 January 2014. Thousands of African migrants, including many from Eritrea and Sudan, held a protest outside European and North American embassies in Tel Aviv against Israel's refusal to grant them refugee status and the opening of 'Holot', the new detention facility in the country's south. Thousands demonstrated outside the US embassy at Tel Aviv's beach front on the second day of a three-day strike and protest campaign. Photo by Tomer Neuberg/FLASH90
TEL AVIV (JTA) — In the days since an Eritrean migrant was shot to death by an Israeli security guard and then beaten by a mob at Beersheba’s central bus station, a fellow migrant named Awat Ashever has insisted to other Eritreans that the killing was just a terrible mistake. It’s… Read more »
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders speaking at a campaign fundraising reception at the Avalon Hollywood nightclub in Los Angeles, Oct. 14, 2015. (David McNew/Getty Images)
MANCHESTER CENTER, Vt. (JTA) – Bernie Sanders reads from the Passover Haggadah in Hebrew and jokes with his seder hosts about finding hametz, traces of leavening, after they have thoroughly cleaned the house in preparation for the holiday. The presidential candidate, a socialist competing for the Democratic nomination, also follows… Read more »
Raed Salah, leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, in Jerusalem, March 26, 2015. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) – In assigning blame for the recent wave of violence in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has turned to the usual suspects – Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. But he has also accused a lesser-known group that operates within Israel’s borders: the Islamic Movement, a religious political… Read more »
Money: Some of the Holocaust money in the collection at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University. (Courtesy of Clark University)
WORCESTER, Mass. (JTA) – In the 70 years since the fall of the Third Reich, the trappings of Nazi power have become infamous icons of evil — think of the swastika flag, the yellow badge or the striped concentration camp uniform. But have you ever heard of “Holocaust money,” the currencies that the… Read more »
Israeli Border Police guard a checkpoint in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, Oct. 15, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — “No pepper spray, no tear gas, no nightsticks,” sighed Itzhak Mizrahi to three disappointed men, as if it were a mantra he’d recited dozens of times. The glass-topped display case in Magnum, the central Jerusalem gun shop that Mizrahi has owned for three decades, featured a… Read more »
Rabbi Bob Alper The Pope has a new comedic advisor… and he’s a rabbi. Rabbi Robert Alper, who prefers to go by Bob, is 70 years old and lives with his wife in the rural town East Dorset, Vermont. “It used to be Alpert, but we dropped the T at a party… Read more »
WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 22: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) (L) speaks while flanked by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) during a news conference at GOP headquarters on Capitol Hill July 22, 2015 in Washington, DC. The GOP leaders spoke on various topics before Congress. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – “Do I know this person?” has been a common refrain in the Washington offices of national Jewish organizations since Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, resigned as House speaker last month and his chosen successor, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the majority leader, flamed out last week. Every day sees a new… Read more »
Simon Plosker, top left, managing editor of HonestReporting.com, directing his monitoring team at his organization's Jerusalem headquarters, Oct. 13, 2015. (Joe Hyams/HonestReporting)
(JTA) — At an Israeli bus station, several uniformed officers surround an Arab woman before opening fire on her, dropping her to the ground. Standing over her motionless body, a Border Police officer toting an automatic rifle speaks into a radio while another officer chases away a bystander documenting… Read more »
Steve Gutow, right, with Michele Jawando, vice president of legal process at the Center for American Progress, and her husband, Will Jawando, a Democratic candidate for Congress. Michele Jawando took part in an Oct. 12 discussion about race relations organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis. (Jewish Council for Public Affairs)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – For the past 10 years, Rabbi Steve Gutow has been trying to get American Jews to be more civil to each other, especially in debates about political issues. But a decade on, as he prepares to step down from the helm of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the community seems… Read more »
A Palestinian protester during clashes with Israeli security forces in the West Bank, Oct. 8, 2015. (Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israelis have become accustomed to dismal news in the past few weeks – mornings and evenings punctuated by stabbings, car attacks and rock throwing. The cycle of random violence has left dozens of Israelis and Palestinians dead, and many fearing the worst: The start of a third… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — At least three Israelis have been killed and more than 20 wounded in a rash of terrorist attacks throughout the country. In the wake of two of the attacks on Tuesday morning in Jerusalem, roads into eastern Jerusalem were closed. Three people were killed in two… Read more »
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaking at an event at the University of Chicago, Sept. 28, 2015. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
(JTA) — I interviewed Bernie Sanders a couple years ago when word first circulated that the Vermont senator might seek the presidency. Though he knew about JTA going in — and must have known questions about his Jewish background were coming — he didn’t want to get into it. I wrote at… Read more »
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, greeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Moscow, Sept. 21, 2015. (Israeli Embassy in Russia/Flash90)
(JTA) — As a defiant Russia again flexes military muscles in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, Cold War analogies are, perhaps, unavoidable. The deployment last month of Russian warplanes in Syria laid bare Moscow’s readiness to use force to punish leaders who would challenge its authority — as in… Read more »
Anna Greenberg Tucson Hebrew Academy has been selected to participate in the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Tikkun Middot Project, an initiative to integrate mindfulness practice and character development in 28 Jewish communities across America. Loosely translated, tikkun middot means the cultivation or refinement of ethical traits or measures of character. The… Read more »
