News

U.S. and Israel escalate war of words over Iran
April 7, 2015 / Ben Harris, JTA

(JTA) – Israel and the Obama administration have stepped up their war of words over the framework agreement that aims to limit Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for a gradual rollback of sanctions. President Barack Obama made his most detailed effort yet to persuade skeptics of the accord reached… Read more »

Obama and Netanyahu dig in for fight over Iran deal
April 3, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

(JTA) — For President Obama, the framework agreement reached Thursday with Iran is a “historic understanding” that does more to roll back Tehran’s nuclear program than any possible alternative and avoids the risk of a destructive war in the Middle East. But to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it’s… Read more »

Israel 67 fest will cap week of celebrations

A parade led by the University of Arizona marching band kicks off Tucson’s 2013 Israel Festival.
April 2, 2015 / Sheila Wilensky, AJP Associate Editor

Blue and white Israeli flags waving on the campus of the Tucson Jewish Community Center will soon signal “Tucson Celebrates Israel,” a week of community-wide commemorations and festivities. From April 19 to 26, Tucson community members are invited to participate in events ranging from a 7 p.m. screening of… Read more »

Liberation is focus for Tucson’s Yom HaShoah commemoration
April 2, 2015 / Bryan Davis, Special to the AJP

This year’s Yom HaShoah community-wide Holocaust commemoration, exploring the many dimensions of liberation from the perspective of liberators and the liberated, will take place on Sunday, April 19 at 2 p.m. at Congregation Anshei Israel. “May I see the other ladies?” he asked. “Ladies!” my brain repeated. He probably… Read more »

Hadassah lunch will feature chaplain’s talk
April 2, 2015 /
Pinchas Zohm

Pinchas Zohav, a Jewish chaplain and counselor, will present “Relationships Thrive Within a We-ality, not a Me-ality” at Hadassah Southern Arizona’s luncheon on Sunday, May 3 at noon at the Lodge on the Desert, 306 N. Alvernon Way. Zohav is the author of “Creating an Extraordinary Relationship: The Art… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El dinner to honor Dicksteins

Stephen and Ruth Dickstein
April 2, 2015 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor

Temple Emanu-El will honor congregants Ruth and Stephen Dickstein for their contributions to the synagogue and the Tucson community with a gala dinner on Saturday, May 16. The theme of the event is “Our World Rests on Three Pillars: Learning, Worship, and Acts of Lovingkindness.” Steve and Ruth met… Read more »

Pew study: Muslims to overtake American Jews by 2050

American Muslims are expected to be more numerous than American Jews by the year 2035, according to a new study. (Adam Berry/Getty Images)
April 2, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) – In 20 years, there will be more Muslims in North America than Jews, according to a new Pew Research Center report. The report, which was released Thursday, also found that more American Jews are leaving Judaism than non-Jews are joining the Jewish people. According to… Read more »

With matzah for racers, Everyone Runs to mark 10th year

Steve, Matt (in chicken suit) and Brenda Landau at a “Run With the Roosters Kinney Road 5 Miler at Old Tucson”
April 2, 2015 / Laura Etter, Special to the AJP

When Steve Landau started Everyone Runs, Everyone Walks 10 years ago, he hoped to provide runners of all levels with a race that they could finish and feel positive about. “I went to other races and I would hear runners say that they weren’t good enough to finish in… Read more »

Tucson Festival of Books wows readers for 7th year
April 2, 2015 / Sheila Wilensky, AJP Associate Editor
Eugene Yelchin

Who knew seven years ago that the Tucson Festival of Books would rank as one of the top celebrations of authors and reading in the United States? Kudos to its founders, Bill and Brenda Viner, members of the Tucson Jewish community, and Bruce Beach, Frank Farias and John Humenik.… Read more »

From pop icon to humanitarian: Henry Winkler to headline JFCS fundraiser

Henry Winkler will speak at Jewish Family & Children's Services Celebration of Caring dinner on Tuesday, April 14, 2015.
April 2, 2015 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor

Known to the world as “The Fonz,” the character he played for a decade on TV’s “Happy Days,” Henry Winkler fulfilled a childhood dream by becoming an actor. He won two Golden Globe Awards, received three Emmy nominations and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Fonzie’s… Read more »

At historic L.A. synagogue, songwriter pushes interfaith harmony and urban renewal

Craig Taubman has opened the Pico Union Project in a historic synagogue building in downtown Los Angeles as a home for culutral, religious and community events. (Anthony Weiss)
April 1, 2015 / Anthony Weiss, JTA

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — On the first floor of the Pico Union Project, members of the Women’s Mosque of America are preparing the historic sanctuary for prayers, spreading long bolts of cloth on the floor, hanging a banner from the organ loft and placing an open copy of the… Read more »

Riskin’s Haman remark reflects broad Israeli distrust of Obama
April 1, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) — For years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has compared Iran to the biblical Persia, the ancient kingdom where the Jewish people were nearly annihilated through the evil designs of the arch-villain Haman. But when an American-born rabbi, widely seen as a religious moderate who… Read more »

Aliyah debate exposes French Jewry’s internal fault lines

Mark Halter, second from right, and Hassen Chalghoumi, in white cap, at a mass rally in Paris following the shootings at the Charlie Hebdo magazine and the Hyper Cacher supermarket, Jan. 11, 2015. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
March 31, 2015 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

PARIS (JTA) — A burst of applause greeted Holocaust survivor Marek Halter and his close friend, Imam Hassen Chalghoumi, as they entered the Synagogue de la Victoire together in January. Halter, a celebrated author and friend of French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, is known for his outreach to moderate… Read more »

After the nuclear negotiators go home, what happens next?

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, thir from left, in Lausanne, Switzerland, with his counterparts from the other world powers negotiating with Iran before the nuclear talks resumed, March 30, 2015. (U.S. State Department/Flickr)
March 31, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

(JTA) – Diplomats in Lausanne, Switzerland, have extended their deadline on a framework accord on Iran’s nuclear program. But even if an agreement is reached this week, it’s merely a way station toward a comprehensive deal that is due by June 30. If a deal is reached, who needs to approve… Read more »

Jewish-Christian charity bringing Ukrainians to Israel — and aiming to keep them there

A Ukrainian couple at pre-flight briefing for immigrants to Israel in Kiev, March 23, 2015. (Ben Sales)
March 31, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

KIEV (JTA) — Tatyana Orul would have moved to Israel years ago if not for her job as a television journalist in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, which interested her too much to give up. But when bombs started falling next to her house last year, she reconsidered.… Read more »

Jewish refugees safe from war, but facing economic crisis in Kiev

Ilya and Luba Tolkachov and their 22-month-old son in the tiny one-room apartment they share with Ilya's mother. (Ben Sales/JTA)
March 30, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

KIEV (JTA) — In a crowded room of the Tolkachov family’s tiny apartment here, a couch and twin bed sit kitty-corner from each other, sandwiching a small crib. In another corner, a wooden table is cluttered with a computer and some toys. Since October, three generations of the Tolkachov… Read more »

Will Netanyahu join partners’ push for the poor?

A homeless man in Jerusalem. Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has emerged as one of the developed world's most economically unequal countries. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
March 30, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel got his wish in last week’s elections: a larger and more stable right-wing government marching in lockstep on security and diplomacy. But while the coming coalition may be more unified when it comes to the conflict with the Palestinians, it… Read more »

Is U.S.-Israel crisis a speed bump or sign of a long-term conflict?
March 30, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Barack Obama’s refusal to accept Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ostensible recommitment to a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has watchers of the U.S.-Israel relationship wondering if the recent crisis is a mere speed bump or a sign of a deeper shift in ties… Read more »