News

70 years on, Hitchcock Holocaust doc finds an audience

A still from "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey" showing children smiling through barbed wire as Allied troops approach, April 1945. (Imperial War Museum)
May 27, 2015 / Gabrielle Birkner, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — “This was a woman,” the narrator explains, as the camera pans over a figure so emaciated and burnt that it’s barely recognizable as human. It’s one of the more arresting scenes in “German Concentration Camps Factual Survey,” a highly unusual Holocaust documentary shot and scripted 70 years ago,… Read more »

Obama: I have same high expectations of Israel as I do of U.S.

Adas Israel Congregation’s Rabbi Gil Steinlauf greets President Obama, May 22, 2015. (Ron Sachs)
May 22, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – President Barack Obama has a message for American Jews: I don’t shy away from disagreeing with Israel publicly, because I care about Israel and our shared values. The president marked Jewish American Heritage Month with a speech Friday at Washington’s oldest Jewish congregation, Adas Israel. His… Read more »

BDS on campus: When does ‘anti-Israel’ become anti-Semitic?

BDS demonstration at the White House in 2010 (Creative Commons)
May 22, 2015 / Dan Pine, J weekly of Northern California

(J) — Liana Kadisha, a senior at Stanford University, says some Jewish students on her campus feel they have to hide who they are. The 22-year-old knows of several who tuck their Star of David necklaces inside their shirts, self-conscious about drawing attention to their Jewish identity. That’s not… Read more »

In Tel Aviv, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales likes Israel but stays neutral
May 21, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA
Jimmy Wales on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: "You present what all sides have said and leave it to the reader to come to the answer." (Wikimedia Commons)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — In 2003, two years after the website was founded, the editors of Wikipedia faced a dilemma: How should they refer to the part-fence, part-wall Israel was building along the West Bank border? The article’s first iteration — published amid the bloody second intifada, or Palestinian… Read more »

For Shavuot, try this super easy strawberry rhubarb trifle
May 20, 2015 / Shannon Sarna, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Forget fancy pastries, cakes or tarts: Trifles are the best dessert you can make for entertaining. They are delicious and look beautiful and impressive, but are actually one of the easiest desserts you can make. The first time I made a trifle was actually after… Read more »

Will Vatican’s Palestine reference impact Jewish-Catholic ties?

Pope Francis greeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as the pope leaves St. Peter's Square at the end of a canonization ceremony in Vatican City, May 17, 2015. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
May 20, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – When considering the Vatican’s creep toward recognition of Palestinian statehood, think “Israel-Vatican” and not “Jewish-Catholic,” say Jewish officials involved in dialogue with the church. A May 13 announcement on an agreement regarding the functioning of the church in areas under Palestinian control raised eyebrows in its reference… Read more »

Two Jews among confirmed dead in Amtrak crash
May 14, 2015 / JTA Staff

NEW YORK (JTA) – A 39-year-old executive with an education startup and a 20-year-old naval academy student were among the seven people confirmed dead from an Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia. Rachel Jacobs, the executive, who also is the daughter of former Michigan State Senator Gilda Jacobs, and Justin… Read more »

Katz brings marathon runner’s energy to Federation as new senior vp
May 14, 2015 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor
Fran Katz

For longtime community volunteer Fran Katz, working at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is “like coming home.” “This is where I want to be. I’ve been so passionate about Federation for almost 30 years — since Jeff and I got here, we have been volunteering,” says Katz, who… Read more »

Event to feature Holocaust History Center expansion plans

The new entrance of the Holocaust History Center, sharing a plaza with the Jewish History Museum, will allow for easy traffic flow from one museum to the other.
May 14, 2015 /

On Wednesday, May 20, designs for the expanded Holocaust History Center at the Jewish History Museum will be presented to the public. The event, “A Beacon and a Hope,” is an opportunity to learn about conceptual approaches that will be implemented in the expanded exhibition prior to the June… Read more »

Local Jewish camps offer varied opportunities for summer adventures
May 14, 2015 /

CAMP J Grades K-12 • 1 and 2 week options, May 26-July 31 At the Tucson Jewish Community Center; now open to nonmembers. ACA accredited. Around the world theme with field trips, friendship projects, swimming, games, arts and crafts, music, dance, drama, sports, community service, science and Friday parties. Information:… Read more »

JCRC forum on poverty in Tucson highlights needs, progress
May 14, 2015 / Sheila Wilensky, AJP Associate Editor
Mayor Jonathan Rothschild

Judaism advises us to “clothe, feed and shelter ones in need as if our own bodies.” So said Rabbi Stephanie Aaron of Congregation Chaverim in her welcome to around 100 people at the “Poverty in Tucson: Local Leaders Forum,” sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation… Read more »

With White House set to approve Iran deal, options to shape outcome remote

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), left, shakes hands with ranking member Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) during a committee markup meeting on the proposed nuclear agreement with Iran on April 14, 2015. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
May 14, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – The Iran deal may not be done, but bids by its opponents to shape it are all but buried. Skeptics of the nuclear negotiations have all but given up on a congressional role before the June 30 deadline for an agreement between Iran and the major… Read more »

In Arab-Israeli city, a women’s party is challenging the status quo
May 12, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

TAIBEH, Israel (JTA) — To get to her assigned kindergarten, Biyan Azam, then 5, would have had to walk alone through a bustling commercial district and cross a busy intersection. This Arab-Israeli city does not provide school buses and would not transfer Biyan to a school nearer to her home here.… Read more »

Israeli Air Force, particularly its scrappy beginnings, inspires 3 films

Al Schwimmer, who guided the vast operation to build Israel's air force, with Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. (Courtesy of Boaz Dvir)
May 12, 2015 / Tom Tugend, JTA

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — The Israeli Air Force is getting its moment in the spotlight, with two documentaries airing on television stations and at film festivals, while a feature movie waits in the, ahem, wings. The focus of the films is not on today’s highly professional IAF or its astonishing… Read more »

1 in 6 Jews are new to Judaism – and 9 other new Pew findings
May 12, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) – The Pew Research Center’s newly released 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study offers a trove of data on American Jews based on interviews with 35,071 American adults, 847 of whom identified their faith as Jewish. Here are some of the more interesting findings about the Jews. … Read more »

For Netanyahu and Obama, mistrust is personal — and cynical
May 12, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Obama administration officials have long contended that the friction between the U.S. president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not personal and that American support for Israel remains as robust as ever — and arguably even more robust by some metrics. But a year of… Read more »

Back in power, haredi parties aim to roll back religious reforms
May 11, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israel’s last governing coalition — divided on war, peace and economics — did agree on one thing: Israel’s religious policies needed to change. Now it appears that the incoming coalition will be organized around the opposite principle: Those changes must end. A coalition agreement signed… Read more »