News

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 »

Some of Lincoln’s best friends were Jews

The cover of "Lincoln and the Jews: A History," by Jonathan Sarna and Benjamin Shapell. (Courtesy of Thomas Dunne Books)
March 27, 2015 / Beth Kissileff, JTA

(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 »

Meet Ruth Porat, Google’s new CFO

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)
March 25, 2015 / Anthony Weiss, JTA

(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 students describe emotional, polarized Israel climate on campus

J Street U studentsparticipating in a protestagainst Hillel International on the sidelines of the J Street conference in Washington, March 23, 2015. (Moshe Zusman)
March 24, 2015 / Sarah Wildman, JTA

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 »

After Brooklyn blaze kills 7 kids, grief spans an ocean

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)
March 24, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

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 »

In Focus: Purim 2015
March 23, 2015 /
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 »

Netanyahu facing challenges, criticism from Jewish liberals

J Street Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami addressing the group's conference in Washington, D.C.,March 21, 2015. (Courtesy of J Street)
March 23, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

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 »

UA Hillel will sponsor annual Holocaust vigil
March 19, 2015 /

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 »

Families embrace Shabbat at The J’s class
March 19, 2015 /

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 »

Jewish understudy hopes to enliven Tony Award-winning play

Zander Meisner
March 19, 2015 / Craig S. Baker, Special to the AJP

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 »