Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon with members of the Temple Emanu-El Youth Choir during the "Greatest Hanukkah on Earth XVI" celebration in December 2014.
My grandfather was an important Reform rabbi — he wrote one of the four platforms the movement has ever produced — and my father is a prominent cantor and rabbi, but I never thought about becoming a rabbi growing up. When I began singing in my teens I did… Read more »
Rabbi Helen Cohn, left, talks with Congregation M’kor Hayim congregants Ann Markewitz, Grace Hartman and Bob Chasan earlier this summer.
I grew up in a secular but Jewishly identified home. Once I left for college, and later married a man who wasn’t Jewish, my connection to Judaism was limited to occasional family seders. Years later, single again and on a business trip in New England, I decided on a… Read more »
Rabbi Israel Becker celebrates with young congregants at Congregation Chofetz Chayim’s Chanukah party on Dec. 16, 2014.
The triumph of my parents’ survival from the Holocaust was to raise a Jewish family and live a vibrant Jewish life. Their deep love of Judaism, their understanding of the need to protect it and their joy in sharing it proved to be formative influences in ways that I… Read more »
President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem, March 22, 2013. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Now that enactment of the Iran nuclear deal appears to be a sure thing, the profound and often personal disagreement between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Iran is not about to go away. In the contemplative spirit of the Days of Awe, we canvassed… Read more »
Migrants cross into Hungary as they walk over railroad tracks at the Serbian border, Sept. 8. (Dan Kirkwood/Getty Images
Editor’s note: For the local response, see JFSA facilitates gift for Syrian refugee aid (JTA) — When he looks into the tired eyes of the Syrian refugees now flooding Europe’s borders, Guy Sorman is reminded of his father, Nathan, who fled Germany for France just months before Adolf Hitler… Read more »
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona recently received a $25,000 gift from a donor advised fund at the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, which it forwarded to the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief to aid the swelling population of migrants and Syrian refugees in Europe and the Middle… Read more »
Iranians walk through Tehran's old main bazaar, March 18, 2014. (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – If you’re an American who likes Iranian caviar and pistachios, you’re in for a treat. Once the nuclear deal with Iran is implemented, the U.S. sanctions that until now have blocked the export of those Iranian foodstuffs into the United States will be lifted. Bon appetit.… Read more »
Tourists at Auschwitz photographing the "Arbeit Macht Frei" gate, July 2015. (Ruth Ellen Gruber)
(JTA) – Pawel Sawicki gets to his desk every morning by 7, but he works no regular office job. Sawicki is an information officer at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Memorial and Museum, the sprawling complex in southern Poland that encompasses the largest and most notorious Nazi death camp. More than 1.1 million… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — As 5775 winds to a close, here’s a look back on the highs and lows (and everything in between) of the year that was. September 2014 At the annual U.N. General Assembly, President Barack Obama focuses his speech on the ISIS, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likens… Read more »
The Vilnius Palace of Concerts and Sports, a complex that was shut down a decade ago, is the site of a proposed $25 million conference center. (Flickr Commons)
VILNIUS, Lithuania (JTA) – It’s one of the most intriguing sites in all of Vilnius: a massive Soviet-style sports complex built in 1971 that since its closure in 2004 has become a run-down haven for vagrants. Now the Lithuanian government has some grand plans to renovate the rotting behemoth and turn… Read more »
Hillary Clinton, then U.S. secretary of state, meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Jerusalem office, Nov. 20, 2012. (Avi Ohayon/GPO via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – As U.S. secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton spent plenty of time in daunting foreign territory. No, I’m not talking about Myanmar here. I’m speaking of the mind of Benjamin Netanyahu. A batch of emails released this week as part of the trove related to the… Read more »
Amna Farooqi, with megaphone, says she comes to the leadership of J Street U "because I care deeply about the people in Israel and the people in Palestine." (Courtesy of J Street)
POTOMAC, Md. (Washington Jewish Week via JTA) — J Street U’s new president Amna Farooqi has made no secret of being a “Pakistani American Muslim.” That’s how she described herself in a keynote speech this spring at J Street’s national convention in Washington, D.C., when she was a board member.… Read more »
Rabbi Shlomo Neeman, left, founder of the Kiev-based Zionist Seminary, and staff at the Tchelet summer camp in the Republic of Georgia, Aug. 19, 2015. (Eliyahu Yurovsky)
TBILISI, Georgia (JTA) — Until April of last year, Julia Podinovskaya felt like she had a pretty good handle on where her life was going. Born to a middle-class Jewish family in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, Podinovskaya, who is in her 20s, was volunteering with the local Jewish community… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — When Issamar Ginzberg enters his Jerusalem office on a sweltering summer day, he’s wearing a long black coat tied at the waist and a black hat. His long, scraggly beard and sidecurls, or payos, offer no relief from the heat. The office — thank God —… Read more »
(JTA) – Several years ago, Jessica Berman and her husband, Brad, bumped into her high school boyfriend. “If you aren’t working as a lawyer in hockey, I’d be amazed,” Berman recalled him saying. The ex had her pegged. Berman, 37, has been employed by the National Hockey League for… Read more »
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, left, shaking hands with his Israeli counterpart, Moshe Yaalon, before boarding a military aircraft at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, July 21, 2015. (Carolyn Kaster/Pool/AP Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – The moment the Iran nuclear deal becomes law, as seems increasingly likely given growing congressional support for the agreement, the focus of the U.S.-Israel conversation will shift to the question of what’s next. What more will Washington do to mitigate the Iranian threat and reassure… Read more »
Broadway in Tucson Centennial Hall 1020 E. University Blvd. 903-2929 broadwayintucson.com The season begins with America’s favorite redhead in a new incarnation of the iconic “Annie.” “The Phantom of the Opera” returns with new scenic and lighting designs, including the show’s legendary chandelier, followed by the 20th anniversary world… Read more »
Irving Berlin left an indelible mark on the classic American songbook with hits like “White Christmas,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “God Bless America.” Arizona Theatre Company will bring Berlin’s story to life in “Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin,” which opens ATC’s 2015-16… Read more »
Jewish Family & Children’s Services, in collaboration with experts from the University of Arizona Center on Aging, will present the Mel Sherman Institute on Mental Health lecture series this fall, with free talks on Fridays, Sept. 18 and Nov. 13, from 1-3 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center.… Read more »
Congregation Bet Shalom will hold its 12th annual Wine Tasting at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19 at CataVinos Wine Shoppe & Tasting Room, 3063 N. Alvernon Way. The event will feature tastings of kosher wines from around the world. Rosa Cohen, president of the synagogue, notes that in… Read more »
