A concrete security barrier at a light rail station in Jerusalem, Nov. 6, 2014. Four people have been killed at light rail stations in two separate attacks in recent weeks. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) JERUSALEM (JTA) — It’s 3 p.m. on a Thursday and the Jerusalem light rail is packed with secular and religious, Jew and Arab, as it heads east from the city’s Central Bus Station. From there it passes some of the city’s most crowded venues, stopping at the Mahane Yehuda… Read more »
IsraAid psychosocial trauma specialists Hela Yaniv, left, and Sheri Oz leading a counseling and training session for service providers in Sierra Leone, Oct. 27, 2014. (Courtesy IsraAid) (JTA) – Even amid the unceasing horrors of Sierra Leone’s Ebola epidemic, it was a case that stood out. A 5-year-old boy had been found in his home in a remote village, the lone survivor in a house riddled with the corpses of family members. He needed to be… Read more »
Since its opening almost 17 years ago, Pastiche Modern Eatery has donated almost $200,000 to local nonprofit organizations through programs such as “Philanthropy with Phlavor,” “Dine Out for Safety” and “Chicken Soup for Tucson’s Soul.” Pastiche now holds monthly fundraisers in place of Philanthropy with Phlavor, in addition to monthly painting classes… Read more »
Anna Gendler with a student at The Symphony Women’s Association For Alexander Tentser, music was as much a right of passage as his Bar Mitzvah. His father was a klezmer musician and entertainer with a conservatory education in Kiev, Ukraine, and since Tentser had been playing piano since the age of four, it was only natural that he began… Read more »
Tracy Salkowitz When we were little, my friends and I put our coins in a pushke, a little metal box with a slit in the top, to raise funds for the Jewish National Fund. I remember thinking that I was personally helping to plant trees in Israel. It filled me with… Read more »
Joyce A. Schroeder “There isn’t anyone who isn’t touched by cancer,” says Anita Kellman, who founded the Kellman Beat Cancer Boot Camp more than 10 years ago. The boot camp, offering twice-weekly exercise classes and monthly dinners with educational speakers, is now available at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The program is… Read more »
Rabbi Laibl Wolf (Cinemachines) Rabbi Laibl Wolf aims “to reroute your life back on the original track” with his lecture, “Be Strong In the Face of Crisis: Five Powerful Tools to Spiritual, Mental and Emotional Survival,” which he’ll present for Chabad Tucson on Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m. at Congregation Young Israel.… Read more »
Bob Harris Bob Harris, a former policy and management expert with the federal government, will lead a four-part, non-partisan government discussion series cosponsored by Hadassah Southern Arizona and the Tucson Jewish Community Center, beginning Thursday, Nov. 13. The topics will be “The State of the U.S. Economy Today” (Nov. 13); “Social… Read more »
Garden of Eden bowl - cut paper collage by Carolee Asia Tucsonan Carolee Asia will be the featured artist at the Tohono Chul Park Welcome Gallery Nov. 14 through Feb. 15. In her colorful cut paper collages, “I enjoy the play of images on all kinds of structures such as cubes and vases, platters and gourds,” Asia says in her… Read more »
Lee Zeldin, pictured, defeated Democrat Tim Bishop in New York's 3rd District to become the sole Jewish Republican in Congress. WASHINGTON (JTA) – Results late Tuesday showed Republicans winning control of the United States Senate as well as wins for fresh faces with close Jewish and pro-Israel ties. In Long Island, Lee Zeldin, a state senator, was set to become the sole Jewish Republican in Congress, ending a short… Read more »
Shoshana Elkins Hadassah Southern Arizona will hold a luncheon meeting on Sunday, Nov. 16 at noon at Skyline Country Club, 5200 E. Saint Andrews Drive. Shoshana Elkins, MSW, LCSW, vice president of clinical services at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, will speak on “Understanding the True Impact of Domestic Violence and… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) – The Anti-Defamation League’s new national director will be social entrepreneur Jonathan Greenblatt — a special assistant to President Obama who earlier in his career co-founded the bottled water brand Ethos. Greenblatt, 43, will succeed Abraham Foxman, who announced in February that he would be stepping… Read more »
Rabbi Hayim Herring sparked discussion at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona council on Oct. 22 with this illustration of social networks. (2014 Copyright. HayimHerring.com. All rights reserved.) An organization is “a container for meaning,” Rabbi Hayim Herring told more than 80 people gathered for the first Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona council meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 22. Herring, an organizational consultant specializing in synagogues and Jewish agencies, presented “Jewish Organization 3.0: New Generations, New Paradigm” to… Read more »
Joey Weisenberg Joey Weisenberg grew up in Milwaukee, performing in blues clubs at the same time he was preparing for his Bar Mitzvah. Now 33, Weisenberg has transferred his musical and spiritual passion to nigunim (wordless Jewish melodies), and will be musician-in-residence at Congregation Anshei Israel during the weekend of Nov.… Read more »
Lois Lederman and Noga Panai rehearse ‘Handle With Care’ at Invisible Theatre. (Tim Fuller) Tucson’s Invisible Theater will celebrate its 44th anniversary season with the Southwestern premiere of Jason Odell Williams’ comedy, “Handle With Care.” Described as the “Jewish ‘Christmas Carol’ play for all audiences” by the playwright, “Handle With Care” is the story of a young Israeli woman, with little command of… Read more »
Promoting global awareness — as well as culinary coexistence — played a part in the choice of Cholla High Magnet School’s 2014 fall presentation of “The Arab-Israeli Cookbook” by Robin Soans, directed by Julian Martinez, the play is produced in partnership with the Qatar Foundation International. Assembled from first-person… Read more »
Maria Jutasi Coleman began sculpting five years ago. Her work is “made of the dust of the earth, as my beloveds have since become,” she says. (Pat Wick, Sierra Vista Herald) Psychologist Maria Jutasi Coleman didn’t mean to revive her Holocaust images from childhood. When she and her partner moved from Phoenix to retire in Bisbee five years ago, she began taking ceramics classes at Cochise College. Creating sculptures depicting the Holocaust “just happened,” Coleman told the AJP. “I was… Read more »
On Wednesday, Border Guard policemen on routine patrol in the Hebron casbah identified a Palestinian boy lying unconscious on the floor. A police officer and a paramedic team quickly ran to the boy, while reporting the incident and calling for additional medical help. Early examination of the boy showed… Read more »
Muslims seen at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem's Old City, on their way to pray on the second day of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. Jun 30 2014. (Sliman Khader/FLASH90) TEL AVIV (JTA) – Tensions in Jerusalem have run high since last summer, but have recently crossed over into lethal violence. In the past two weeks, there have been three attacks, in which motorists have plowed into crowds of people — killing, among others, a 3-month-old baby and and… Read more »
Anna Varsanyi is considered Jewush by Israel's Chief Rabbinate but not by the country's Interior Ministry. (Courtesy Anna Varsanyi) TEL AVIV (JTA) — In 2012, Anna Varsanyi was married in an Orthodox Jewish ceremony conducted through Israel’s Chief Rabbinate. Two years later, the Hungarian immigrant has made a life in Israel, settling with her husband in the central city of Modiin and working a desk job in a… Read more »
