Refugee children visit a fire station in Berlin, September 2015. (Judith Kessler)
BERLIN (JTA) — When supporters of the anti-immigrant PEGIDA movement and right-wing extremists in the former East Germany started demonstrating by the tens of thousands this year against foreigners and “American Zionist” policies, I got mad. When the first refugee homes in Germany were set on fire, I was shocked. When… Read more »
Rabbi Barry Freundel exits the courthouse after entering his guilty plea, Feb. 19, 2015. (Dmitriy Shapiro)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Writing from his jail cell last week, just days before the Jewish New Year, Rabbi Barry Freundel said he was sorry. It was the rabbi’s first public statement since his arrest almost a year ago and his subsequent sentencing to 6-and-1/2 years behind bars for secretly filming women undressing in… Read more »
Haredi Orthodox Israelis protest in Jerusalem against compulsory military service for men, Aug. 25, 2015. (FLASH90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Secular and haredi Orthodox Israelis differ on many things, but there’s one thing both sides agree on: When it comes to religious affairs, the government is failing. That’s one of the findings of an annual survey of Israeli religious identification and attitudes toward religious policy released… Read more »
The driver, Mohammed, holding an etrog. (Ben Sales)
ASSADS, Morocco (JTA) — We had to cross the gorge, and the only way was to walk single file on a narrow concrete gutter, maybe a foot wide, that bridged the two cliffs. Below us was a long, perilous drop onto the rocky depths. I was traveling deep into the rural communities of… Read more »
Don Francisco -- born Mario Luis Kreutzberger Blumenfeld -- celebrating the 50th anniversary of his record-making show "Sabado Gigante." (Courtesy of Univision)
(JTA) — On Saturday, the Spanish language television network Univision will host the final broadcast of “Sábado Gigante.” With 53 years on TV, the world’s longest-running variety show is an eclectic, strange mashup of a game show, a talk show and live entertainment. There are singing competitions — the poor-performing contestants are… Read more »
Merchants walk a dirt path between the coastal city of Agadir, Morocco, and the highland etrog groves in Assads, Sept. 8, 2015. (Ben Sales)
ASSADS, Morocco (JTA) — Why the Jews want etrogs, Mohammed Douch does not entirely understand. What he does know is that they are his main customers. Each August and September, Jewish merchants come from around the world to his remote grove in the highlands of Morocco — an hourlong hike through… Read more »
Migrants and refugees with temporary documents board a ferry to take them to Athens at the port of the Greek island of Kos on August 14, 2015. (Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)
ANAHEIM, Calif. (JTA) — Arab Americans advocating on behalf of Syrian refugees have found some unlikely allies in their effort to resettle families from the war-torn nation: influential Jewish groups. Over the last few days, HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, launched a petition drive calling on President… Read more »
Dr. Oliver Sacks speaks at Columbia University in New York City, June 3, 2009. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
(JTA) — On Aug. 30, at age 82, noted neurologist and author Dr. Oliver Sacks succumbed to a cancer that first plagued him nearly a decade ago, paused, and recently reappeared. One of his last essays, published posthumously, appears in the Sept. 14 issue of The New Yorker and… Read more »
(TAZPIT) – A statistical survey conducted by Smith Consulting Co. for the NGO, ‘Hiddush – For Religious Freedom and Equality’ has revealed the changes in the distribution of Israeli Jewish citizens according to the different religious denominations they identify with. The Hiddush NGO publishes its annual Religion-State Index every… Read more »
To meet the needs of the deaf and severely hearing-impaired, Temple Emanu-El is offering American Sign Language interpretation at all of its High Holy Day services this year. Rabbi Batsheva Appel organized a workshop for ASL interpretation in Jewish settings at the beginning of August. Thirteen interpreters attended the… Read more »
Asher Susser Asher Susser, Stein Professor of Modern Israel Studies at the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies, will lead a lunch and learn on “Iran, the Arabs and Israel” on Wednesday, Sept. 16, sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Weintraub Israel… Read more »
The Elder Rehab program for memory-impaired older adults at the Tucson Jewish Community Center will begin its second semester the week of Sept. 21. The first semester matched 21 senior participants with a University of Arizona intern or volunteer who supervised physical exercise, memory and language activities and interactive… Read more »
As the population of Holocaust survivors ages and dwindles, there is a growing urgency to ensure that both their eye witness accounts of the atrocities and the tales of their resilience are preserved in perpetuity. Earlier this year, Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona compiled the stories… Read more »
B’nai B’rith Covenant House residents display care packages made by children during the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Super Extraordinary Sunday on Jan. 25 . (Back row, L-R): Solomon Steklov, Iosif Beskin, Gregoriy Tselnik; (front row): Sima Biznichuk, Tsilya Lipkina (Courtesy Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona)
Many Tucsonans are surprised to learn that the Jewish community sponsors not one but two nationally recognized independent housing communities for low and very low income seniors: B’nai B’rith Covenant House of Tucson and the Gerd & Inge Strauss Manor on Pantano. Both properties were the vision and work… Read more »
The Jewish History Museum’s “Reclaiming Discourses” series will feature (clockwise from top left): Laynie Browne (Sep. 17), Sam Ace (Oct. 14), Hannah Ensor (Nov. 11), Kate Bernheimer (Dec. 16) and Rachel Zucker (Jan. 27, 2016).
The Jewish History Museum and University of Arizona Poetry Center will present a monthly series, “Reclaiming Discourses: Jewish Writers Today,” beginning Thursday, Sept. 17. The five contemporary authors, who write both poetry and prose, explore what it means to be human by delving into such diverse subjects as fairy… Read more »
"Chard" by Mara Aspinall
“Naked Food: Photography by Mara Aspinall” will be on display at the Tucson Jewish Community Center Fine Art Gallery from Sept. 17 through Oct. 20. A reception for the artist will be held Sunday, Sept. 20 from 2-5 p.m. Aspinall, the former CEO of Ventana Medical Systems, has traveled… Read more »
The High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) are prime time for rabbis. On these Days of Awe, above all others, sanctuaries are filled to overflowing with Jews seeking spiritual connection or simply to embrace timeless traditions. With all… Read more »
Rabbi David Ebstein, right, speaks to Congregation Bet Shalom members and friends at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in July 2014. From left, Kathy McGuire Rubin, Paul Araiza, Helena Lamb, Elinor Engelhard, tour guide (name unknown) and Bernard Engelhard.
There were three rabbis who deeply influenced me as a young man: my director at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, my Hillel director at Washington University and the rabbi of my hometown synagogue. All three were marvelous role models, learned men and righteous Jews. My hometown family rabbi, Rav Bill… Read more »
Rabbi Yossie Shemtov, regional director of Chabad Tucson, right, and Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild light the grand menorah at El Presidio Park in 2011.
My aspiration to become a rabbi and lead a Jewish community dates back to my childhood years in New York, having been raised in the Grand Central Station. I am not referring to the landmark train station in midtown Manhattan. “Grand Central” is what we called my parents’ home… Read more »
Rabbi Stephanie Aaron celebrates her birthday during a special oneg Shabbat with members of Congregation Chaverim on June 19.
A Reform rabbi and an Orthodox rabbi were my mentors, my guides and my inspirations to become a rabbi. Rabbi Joseph Weizenbaum, z’l, the Reform rabbi of my youth, my bat mitzvah, and my teenage understanding of Judaism, was certainly the rabbi who led the way, who motivated me… Read more »
