News

(JTA) — A day after witnessing her mother’s brutal murder, Dafna Meir’s teenage daughter spoke before hundreds who had come to mourn her. Dafna Meir, 38, a mother of six, was stabbed to death on Sunday near the entrance of her West Bank home. “It’s hard for me to think… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – The collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process a year ago has led to an accelerating war of words over Israeli settlements, with Israel accusing its growing chorus of foreign critics of prejudging the final terms of a peace deal at best – and anti-Semitism at worst.… Read more »

Ramat Aviv (TPS) – Israeli President Reuven Rivlin addressed the significant level of support for Islamic extremism among many Arabs in Israel and discussed various ways to solve the problem at the ninth annual international conference of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) on Monday evening. “The Islamic… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Talk of a Bernie Sanders presidency has suddenly become a lot more serious. Recent polling shows the independent Vermont senator and Democratic presidential hopeful dramatically improving his prospects in the first two primary states against front-runner Hillary Clinton. Two polls out last week — by the Des… Read more »

Tucsonan Lisa Goldberg’s connections to Camp Ramah in Ojai, Calif., run deep. She’s been a Ramahnik since she first attended camp when she was 8 years old, having “inherited” Ramah from her mother, Mimi Dinin Sisk, who was one of the first campers at the California location, and her… Read more »

As thousands continued to flee civil war in Syria, the Tucson Board of Rabbis sent a letter to Gov. Doug Ducey last month asking him to reverse his stand on barring refugees from entering Arizona. Citing the attacks in Paris on Nov. 13 by terrorists from the Islamic State,… Read more »

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will hold its Super Extraordinary Sunday fundraiser and Mitzvah Day on Sunday, Jan. 31, 8:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m., at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The event will include a phone-a-thon with volunteers seeking donations to the Federation’s 2016 Community Campaign to support humanitarian and… Read more »

Sassy Reuven

Veteran Israel Defense Forces elite Red Beret paratrooper Sassy Reuven will share his role in the famed hostage-rescue mission code-named “Operation Thunderbolt” when Cha­bad Tucson and the Weintraub Israel Center commemorate the 40th anniversary of Operation Entebbe on Sunday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. Reuven and 100 commandos flew… Read more »

Lisa Belkin

Lisa Belkin, a former New York Times reporter and author of “Show Me a Hero,” the basis for the HBO miniseries, will speak at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona- Northwest on Sunday, Jan. 17 at 3 p.m. Belkin is senior national correspondent for Yahoo News, covering American social… Read more »

The Women’s Philanthropy Advisory Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is seeking nominees for its 10th annual Bryna Zehngut Mitzvot Award. The award, honoring the late Bryna Zehngut, recognizes the outstanding achievements of a Jewish teenage girl in Tucson. Nominees must be current high school juniors or… Read more »

Congregation Anshei Israel’s Esther B. Feldman Preschool/Kindergarten will hold a casino night fundraiser on Saturday, Jan. 23. The adults-only evening will begin at 7:30 p.m. and include casino gambling (for fun and entertainment), hors d’oeuvres and dessert, a cash bar, live music and dancing, and a raffle. Among the… Read more »

The Coalition for Jewish Education of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is accepting applications for scholarships to Jewish overnight summer camps for the summer of 2016. The need-based scholarship assistance is funded by the Mo and Frances Beren Family Scholarship Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern… Read more »

After an intensive process that began more than two years ago, the Congregation Or Chadash Religious School has won accreditation from the Association of Reform Jewish Educators. It is the only school in Arizona, and one of the smallest congregations nationwide, to currently hold that distinction. Rina Liebeskind, director… Read more »

Bryan Davis

This past year, 2015, has been an historic year for an institution whose focus is the preservation of history. In December 2014 the Jewish History Museum received a lead gift that propelled our organization and our community into a yearlong effort to transform the Jewish History Museum campus. On… Read more »

LimmudAZ will hold its second annual day of Jewish learning on Sunday, Jan. 31 at Arizona State University in Tempe. Was the real writer of Shakespeare’s plays a Jewish woman? Is there an answer to the water wars in the Middle East? What are the top 20 Jewish books… Read more »

Gil Mann

JFSA-NW to host ‘Jewish Dear Abby’ If you’re on the fence about attending “Sex, G-d, Christians and Jews: Struggling with Jewish Identity Today,” keynote speaker Gil Mann makes this promise: “I pretty much am positive that anyone who comes to this program will come out thinking a little differently… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the site of a deadly attackhere the night after the shooting, his words were perceived by some as more offensive than comforting. After expressing condolences to the families of the victims and welcoming condemnations from the Arab-Israeli community,… Read more »

The National Council approved a suggestion to construct a new community for the Druze in Israel on Tuesday morning, January 5. The initiative has been greatly supported by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since November 2012 when a decision was taken to establish such a community. The town, the first… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — At first blush, it appears like a bombshell: The United States listened in on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s phone calls. But on closer examination, the revelations reported Dec. 29 by The Wall Street Journal might not be so far reaching. Spying on allies is both routine and… Read more »

MOSCOW (JTA) — Like many tourists in Red Square, I have often wondered what lies beyond the tall walls that separate this Moscow attraction from the Kremlin, the official residence of Russia’s president and the nerve center of the state. As a journalist long obsessed with Russia, I’ve wanted… Read more »