The cover of "Lincoln and the Jews: A History," by Jonathan Sarna and Benjamin Shapell. (Courtesy of Thomas Dunne Books)
(JTA) – A whopping 16,000 books have been written about President Abraham Lincoln. But a new book and an exhibit at the New York Historical Society tell a previously untold story about Lincoln: his relationships with Jews. Benjamin Shapell has been collecting documents relating to Lincoln and the Jews… Read more »
Ruth Porat, who will join Google as its chief financial officer, with the former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, left, and former House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank at a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution in Washington, March 2, 2015. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(JTA) — To the business press, the symbolism of Ruth Porat’s move from her position as chief financial officer of Morgan Stanley to her newly announced perch as Google’s CFO of the future couldn’t be more obvious — it represents a shift in power from Wall Street to Silicon… Read more »
J Street U studentsparticipating in a protestagainst Hillel International on the sidelines of the J Street conference in Washington, March 23, 2015. (Moshe Zusman)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — At noon Monday, several hundred students marched through the bright March sunshine from the J Street conference at the Washington Convention Center for a protest. “This is not a march!” organizers pleaded as the orderly group moved south from the Carnegie Library to the headquarters of… Read more »
A mourner near the fresh graves of the seven children from the Sassoon family during their funeral in Jerusalem, March 23, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
NEW YORK (JTA) – Even in a city accustomed to deadly fires, this one stood out for the sheer scale of the tragedy: seven children, ranging in age from 5 to 16, killed in the middle of the night after awakening from their Sabbath slumber to smoke and flames.… Read more »
On March 4, the Weintraub Israel Center held a Bechayed BePurim (Together on Purim) party with Chabad on River and the Israel American Council. The event included dinner, a Megillah reading and Israeli music. Enjoying the festivities are Shira Barel (center) with, from left, Tamar, Amit, Ofri and Lee Benjamin. Purim celebrations from around our community … Read more »
Jan Zabinski, the director of the Warsaw Zoo, helped shelter hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust. (Wikimedia Commons)
WARSAW (JTA) — In a carriage bound for the Warsaw Zoo, Moshe Tirosh could sense his parents’ fear and the strong odor of alcohol wafting from the direction of the driver and his horse. The trepidation that rainy night in 1940 was from the Nazi soldiers guarding the Kierbedzia… Read more »
J Street Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami addressing the group's conference in Washington, D.C.,March 21, 2015. (Courtesy of J Street)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing escalating criticism and pressure from the White House, he could use some help from Israel’s erstwhile allies in the American Jewish community — especially those with sway in liberal and Democratic circles. But several leading Jewish liberal critics of Netanyahu… Read more »
On Tuesday, Israeli voters gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a clear mandate to form the next government. To do that, he’ll need the support of at least 61 of the Knesset’s 120 lawmakers. Here are a few of his options, and for background, here’s an overview of the parties… Read more »
The University of Arizona Hillel Foundation will hold its 24th Annual Holocaust Vigil March 25-26. During this student-led event, thousands of names of people murdered in the Holocaust will be read aloud. This 24-hour reading will take place from noon on Wednesday, March 25 through noon on Thursday, March… Read more »
The Tucson Jewish Community Center has launched Shabbat & Me, a new program for families and children. The free weekly class meets Fridays at 10 a.m. Shabbat & Me encourages families to spend quality time together without the use of electronics, taking the opportunity to consider family priorities and… Read more »
Zander Meisner
Zander Meisner knows the Tony Award-winning musical “Once” inside and out. In fact, given his unusual position as an understudy for four of the eight male roles in the play, it’s possible that Meisner is more intimately familiar with the show than anyone else, period. Now that the current… Read more »
Chabad Tucson will host a Passover 101 event in preparation for the upcoming holiday, Sunday, March 22 from 2-4 p.m. at Congregation Young Israel. The event will feature a tasting and sale of a variety of kosher for Passover wines from the United States, Israel, France and Italy. Traditional… Read more »
Interested in being part of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Young Women’s Cabinet? There will be an opportunity to meet current participants on Wednesday, March 25, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Tucson Hebrew Academy’s art studio, 3888 E. River Road. Participants will paint ceramic tiles to send to the Federation’s… Read more »
Stuart Mellan, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin on Feb. 19. “The photo,” he says, “does not even begin to capture the power of walking through and finding the pillars dwarfing you as they grow to 15 feet in the center of the installation.”
I sat between Grandmother and Aunt Etta. I never had a chance. Grandmother would point to her forearm, the numbers tattooed there … and that’s how I learned to count. I sat between Grandmother and Aunt Etta. Between spoonfuls of regret they fed me: “From this you shouldn’t… Read more »
The outcomes of the Israeli elections are a great personal victory for Benjamin Netanyahu, who, a few days ago, was already dismissed by pundits as a relic of the past. Indeed, this is a double victory: Not only will Netanyahu be able to form a stable, right-wing government, but… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrates his Election Day victory at his Tel Aviv headquarters March 18. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
This city’s Rabin Square was full of young men wearing large knit kippahs and women in long skirts and long sleeves cheering as right-wing politicians declared their opposition to Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. On Sunday night, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ascended the stage to address the… Read more »
The Cindy Wool Memorial Seminar on Humanism in Medicine will take place on Tuesday, March 31 at 7 p.m. at the Fox Tucson Theatre. The keynote speaker will be Siddhartha Mukherjee, M.D., author of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.” In his… Read more »
Pinchas Zukerman
Tucsonans will have an opportunity to see and hear a giant of the classical music world on March 31 when the Tucson Symphony Orchestra welcomes world-renowned violinist Pinchas Zukerman. With a musical career spanning more than four decades, the Israeli-born Zukerman continues to delight audiences worldwide, playing nearly 100… Read more »
New treadmills in The J’s modernized sports and wellness center look out at the Tucson Mountains.
After several years of planning and fundraising and more than nine months of construction, the Tucson Jewish Community Center will hold the official grand opening of its new 15,000-square-foot sports and wellness center on Sunday, March 29, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The day will start with a… Read more »
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.
More than 250 Holocaust survivors have lived in Southern Arizona since the 1950s. Following decades of hoping for an institution that would archive the stories and memorabilia of survivors’ lives, the dream will become a reality when a greatly expanded Holocaust History Center opens in early 2016. “By creating… Read more »
