News

How realistic is ‘no daylight’?

Michael Oren, shown speaking at the Holocaust Day of Remembrance ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in 2010, caused a stir with accusations against President Obama in an Op-Ed. (Astrid Riecken/Getty Images)
June 25, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Israel’s former ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, caused a stir last week by publicly accusing President Barack Obama of abandoning the two core principles that undergird the U.S.-Israel relationship: no public disagreements and no surprises. But should there be no public disagreements – “no daylight,” in diplomatic… Read more »

Jewish Community Foundation grants more than $360K to aid programs in Tucson, Israel

Therapist Zehava Baruch counsels Ethiopian immigrants Fanta (left) and Weinishe at the welfare department in Kiryat Malachi, Israel. A 2015 grant from the Jewish Community Foundation and Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona to the Kiryat Malachi welfare department will focus on preventing Ethiopian family violence. (AJP file photo)
June 25, 2015 /

The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona recently awarded 24 grants totaling $369,817 through its community grants program. These grants are made in three impact areas: Tucson Jewish community, Israel and global Jewry, and Tucson general community. The local Jewish and Israel grants are administered in alignment with the… Read more »

AHCCCS changes are opportunity for JFCS growth
June 25, 2015 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor
Carlos Hernandez

Upcoming changes in the way the state of Arizona will manage behavioral health services funded by Medicaid present an opportunity for Jewish Family & Children’s Services to expand its services, along with a challenge to “improve and enhance our infrastructure” to meet compliance requirements, says JFCS President and CEO… Read more »

Counselors bring Israeli fun, culture to Camp J

Dar Katz (left) and Shachaf Shahar with Camp J campers at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. (Julie Zorn/TJCC)
June 25, 2015 / Nancy Ben-Asher Ozeri, Special to the AJP

As Camp J shlichot (Israeli emissaries), Shachaf Shahar and Dar Katz are here to share their love and knowledge of Israel and Jewish culture with the campers at the Tucson Jewish Community Center this summer. Shahar, 22, is from Yad Morde­chai, a kibbutz in Tucson’s Partner­ship2Gether region in southern… Read more »

On Migrant Trail, connecting Jewish history with modern desert crossers

Eve Rosenberg at the Bureau of Land Management campsite at Ajo Way and San Joaquin Road, before setting out for the final day of the Migrant Trail, May 31. (Deborah Mayaan)
June 25, 2015 / Deborah Mayaan, Special to the AJP

When I joined the Migrant Trail for the last day of its 12th annual week-long solidarity walk from El Sásabe, Sonora, Mexico, to Tucson, we stepped single-file along Ajo Highway in a walking meditation. Periodically, we called out names of those who had died crossing our Sonoran Desert. Some… Read more »

In London’s Jewish heart, planned neo-Nazi rally provokes outrage

A view of a street in the Golders Green neighborhood of London, June 19, 2015. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
June 24, 2015 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

LONDON (JTA) — Like many European Jews, Stephen Lever has mostly stopped wearing his yarmulke on the street in recent years. A Londoner, Lever said he fears joining the hundreds of Jews accosted annually in his native United Kingdom, often by Muslim or Arab extremists seeking to exact retribution… Read more »

Throughout Hillary Clinton’s life and career, U.S. Jews have been close at hand

Hillary Rodham Clinton, then a U.S. senator from New York, with her husband, Bill Clinton, at a memorial dinner for Yitzhak Rabin at the center named for the slain Israeli leader in Tel Aviv, Nov. 14, 2005. (Pavel Wolberg/Pool/Getty Images)
June 23, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – From the man who married her grandmother to the man who married her daughter, from working a room full of bar mitzvah guests on behalf of her husband’s political career to headlining major pro-Israel events during her own, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s journey has never wandered far from Jews. Clinton’s Jewish encounters have… Read more »

For this U.N. report on Gaza War, Israel came prepared

A Palestinian child amid the rubble of buildings in Gaza City that were destroyed during the summer of 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, June 22, 2015. (Aaed Tayeh/Flash90)
June 23, 2015 / Ron Kampeas and Marcy Oster, JTA

(JTA) – This time, Israel and its supporters came prepared. Anticipating what they believed would be an unfair U.N. report on last summer’s Gaza War, the Israeli government and friendly groups in the United States were ready with at least three reports they say better reflects the reality of… Read more »

New PBS special examines ‘Seeds of Conflict’ in the Middle East

Collectives of European immigrants, soon known as kibbutzim, were an early building block of the Zionist movement. (Courtesy of Yad Yitzhak Ben Zvi)
June 23, 2015 / Tom Tugend, JTA

LOS ANGELES (JTA) – Conflict between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East now appears a permanent condition, but it didn’t have to be that way, according to a one-hour PBS special premiering on June 30. “1913: The Seeds of Conflict” traces the relationship between the two Semitic tribes… Read more »

In Britain, Jewish and Muslim women connect over Mitzvah Day

Muslim and Jewish participants in a new interfaith initiative during its launch at the Jewish Museum in the London Borough of Camden, June 9, 2015. (Yakir Zur)
June 22, 2015 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — Good deeds can be contagious. Just ask Laura Marks, a British Jew who is widely credited with creating one of her community’s most widely celebrated new traditions: an annual Mitzvah Day, now in its 11th consecutive year, in which thousands of British Jews perform charity work in retirement homes,… Read more »

Could an Israeli startup have prevented Charleston church massacre?

Mourners sing hymns during a community prayer service for the nine victims of last week's shooting at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, at Second Presbyterian Church June 18, 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
June 22, 2015 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

As Wednesday’s massacre in Charleston demonstrated,  houses of worship face a particularly difficult security challenge. Unlike schools, churches such as the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal, where nine people were gunned down by a lone shooter on Wednesday, need to stay open and accessible to carry out their mission of… Read more »

Op-Ed: An incentive for a two-state solution you can take to the bank
June 21, 2015 / Uri Dromi, Miami Herald

Last week, a team of the Santa Monica-based RAND Corporation came to Israel and to the Palestinian Authority to present a new study, calculating the costs of different Israeli-Palestinian scenarios. According to the study, in the case of a two-state solution, the Israeli economy would gain more than $120… Read more »

TripAdvisor CEO: A tech exec with a soft spot for Israel
June 20, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA
Though he's CEO of a major travel company, Stephen Kaufer says he doesn't really have wanderlust -- but he would like to revisit his favorite destination: Jerusalem. (Courtesy TripAdvisor)

NEW YORK (JTA) – When Stephen Kaufer, the CEO of TripAdvisor, an $11 billion company that runs America’s leading user-generated hotel review website, thinks back to all the places he has visited, one stands out as his favorite. Jerusalem. “Oh my gosh, looking at all of these amazing structures, the… Read more »

What will the ADL lose when Foxman leaves?

Abraham Foxman holds a replica of his Hollywood Walk of Fame Star as he is honored by the ADL's 2014 Annual Meeting at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, on November 7, 2014. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
June 20, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) – If there’s one thing that can be said of longtime Anti-Defamation League leader Abraham Foxman, who is stepping down this month after nearly 30 years at the helm, it’s that he never holds back from speaking his mind. In an age of canned, anodyne statements… Read more »

Growing Jewish presence supports Oro Valley businesses

Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman of Chabad of Tucson affixes the mezuzah at the grand opening of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona's Northwest office in October 2012. (Phyllis Braun)
June 11, 2015 / Sarah Chen, Special to the AJP

The Town of Oro Valley is running two campaigns to bolster local spending and keep dollars in the community. The first, Shop Oro Valley Summer Campaign, which runs through July 3, is open to anyone who shops at an Oro Valley business and spends at least $25. Participants are… Read more »

Rabbi touts holistic, kabalistic path to health
June 11, 2015 /
Rabbi Manis Friedman speaks at the Tucson Jewish Community Center May 26.

Good health and happiness can be achieved, says Rabbi Manis Friedman. During his talk, “A Healthy, Joyous and Fulfilling Life, A Holistic and Kabalistic Perspective,” attended by about 50 people on May 26 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, Friedman highlighted ways for people to look at life and… Read more »

Author of ‘Living the Secular Life’ to give Tucson talks
June 11, 2015 /
Phil Zuckerman

Phil Zuckerman, author of “Living the Secular Life,” will give two free lectures on Sunday, June 21 at the DuVal Auditorium at Banner-University Medical Center, 1501 N. Campbell Ave. He will present “The Rise of the Nones: Causes and Consequences of Rising Irreligion in the USA,” sponsored by Free… Read more »

Israel trip offer expands on ‘people to people’ connections

Members of a Partnership2Gether group celebrate together in Israel. (Jewish Agency for Israel)
June 11, 2015 / Craig S. Baker, Special to the AJP

The Weintraub Israel Center has embraced the mission of creating a “living bridge” between Southern Arizona and Israel since it was founded in 1997. At the forefront of this mission are the Israeli shlichim — Hebrew for “messengers” or “emissaries” — who serve as directors of the WIC during… Read more »

Expansion of local Holocaust museum garners broad support

A slideshow at the May 29 event to showcase plans for the Holocaust History Center expansion included this artist's rendering of an interactive testimonial wall (SBBL Architecture and Planning)
June 11, 2015 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor

Many local schoolchildren may never get the opportunity to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., or the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. But Tucson’s Holocaust History Center at the Jewish History Museum can put that kind of learning within reach, Bryan… Read more »