News

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Though it’s been more than a year since Rabbi Barry Freundel was hauled away in handcuffs for installing secret cameras at his synagogue’s mikvah, his crime still casts a shadow over his longtime Orthodox congregation, Kesher Israel. Three civil lawsuits are pending against Kesher by women… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — It has the highest poverty rate among affluent democracies, the fourth-worst income inequality and the seventh-lowest government spending on social services. Those are among the dismal conclusions of the State of the Nation report, an annual set of papers on Israel’s economy and society released… Read more »

(Washington Jewish Week via JTA) – Since being imprisoned in Cuba six years ago, Alan Gross says his life has been “surreal.” He feels disassociated from the causes of his five-year incarceration and from the resulting fame. He was locked up largely because of U.S.-Cuba relations, he says, and… Read more »

(Washington Jewish Week via JTA) — Maybe it’s the centuries of living under Christian and Muslim rule. Maybe it’s the history of forced conversion. Maybe it’s that there’s no religion requirement for the Jewish afterlife. Whatever the reasons, Jews have traditionally been uncomfortable proselytizing. But a Maryland foundation is flouting… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – The issue of torture in Israel has received unusual attention in recent weeks because of the identity of the alleged victims. Human rights groups say nothing is new in the allegations that Jewish youths, arrested in connection with an arson attack over the summer that killed… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Its backers call it a victory for transparency. Opponents say it smacks of dictatorship. Either way, a new bill requiring certain Israeli nongovernmental organizations to publicly declare their foreign government funding is moving toward passage after it was approved by a Cabinet committee on Sunday. Justice… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Ted Cruz wants to make sure you understand: “Republican” and “neoconservative” are no longer synonymous. The Texas senator, inching up to second place behind front-runner Donald Trump in the polls just weeks before the Iowa caucuses, has launched a broadside against the “crazy” movement that not… Read more »

Actor Theodore Bikel arrives at the 55th Annual Drama Desk Awards in New York City, May 23, 2010. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

(JTA) — As 2015 winds to a close, we’d like to take a moment to honor the memories of those who we lost over the past 12 months. From remembering lives cut short by senseless, dark tragedies to tributes to revered icons who lived life to the fullest, here are some Jews… Read more »

(JTA) — Miriam Adelson and her husband, Sheldon, reportedly are at odds over which Republican presidential candidate deserves backing. But this isn’t a typical marital spat — it’s about which candidate most deserves to be showered with their money. Miriam Adelson, an Israeli-born physician, favors Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, while casino… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The hardest part was loading the assault rifle. That’s not because he was a newbie, unaccustomed to the workings of a Tavor rifle. Rather, 1st Sgt. Izzy Ezagui had lost an arm in combat. He’d overcome seemingly insurmountable bureaucratic hurdles and got a posting on a… Read more »

  (JTA) – Out of baseball after four years playing in the minor leagues, Brent Powers, a Christian from Texas, took a tour of Israel last year with his wife. He was smitten with the country and considered how to return. The Masa Israel Journey will provide his path.… Read more »

TZUFIM, West Bank (JTA) — The father of Elisha Odess, the American-Israeli Jewish teen held by Israel’s internal security service, says his son is innocent and that any confession he might have made in connection with a July arson attack that killed three Palestinians was elicited through torture. “We… Read more »

Tom Doherty

Professor Tom Doherty, Ph.D., chair of the American studies program at Brandeis University and author of “Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939,” will present a University on Wheels lecture, “Jews, Nazis and Hollywood Cinema,” on Thursday, Jan. 7 from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The Tucson… Read more »

The inaugural exhibition of the expanded Holocaust History Center on the campus of the Jewish History Museum will feature an exhibit displaying portraits of individuals who perished in the Holocaust, whose relatives live or have lived in Southern Arizona. The Center is issuing a public call for photos and… Read more »

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Northwest Division and Chabad of Oro Valley will present local Holocaust survivor Willy Halpert on “The Hidden Child During the Holocaust” on Sunday, Dec. 27 at 4 p.m. at the JFSA Northwest office, 190 W. Magee Road. Halpert recalls walking with his father… Read more »

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Tucson resident Beth Surdut will present “The Modern Tallit” at a Hadassah Southern Arizona luncheon on Sunday, Jan. 10. Surdut, who creates hand-painted silk prayer shawls, will discuss how personal stories and prayers become essential elements in her designs. Whether for pre-teens or adults, she says, each tallit becomes… Read more »

The 25th annual Tucson Jewish International Film Festival is dedicated to the memory of Bob Polinsky, a longtime volunteer.

Every time I go to a movie, it’s magic, no matter what the movie’s about. —Steven Spielberg The Tucson International Jewish Film Festival uses that “magic” to promote the preservation of Jewish culture and celebrate cultural diversity. For 10 days, Jan. 14 - 23, the 25th annual festival… Read more »

When New York choreographer Tamar Rogoff invited Gregg Mozgala, an actor with cerebral palsy, to dance the role of the faun in an original production, they had no idea that their collaboration would lead to a profound and unexpected physical transformation. At the time they met in 2008, Mozgala… Read more »

Netanel and Eden Achituv are the first Israelis to join Tucson Hebrew Academy as part of the World Zionist Organization’s Morim Shlichim (teacher-emissary) program. WZO and the Weintraub Israel Center helped THA recruit the Achituvs, who bring rich experience to the day school’s Hebrew and Judaic studies programs. Coming… Read more »

So what’s your Yiddish IQ, bubbeleh? Don’t be too quick with your answer because truth is, lots of the mamaloshen (mother tongue) has entered into common English usage; think kibbitz, bagel, klutz, kosher and chutzpah. But should you want to think of more than the commonly known terms, then… Read more »