Mark Halawa on the first night of Chanukah in Tel Aviv's Great Synagogue. (Anav Silverman/Tazpit News Agency) When Mark Halawa lights his family’s menorah during Chanukah, it is not without recalling his unique journey as a Kuwaiti Muslim to Orthodox Judaism. The 38-year-old businessman, who lives today in Jerusalem with his wife and family, keeping Shabbat and kosher dietary laws, began his journey 12 years ago… Read more »
Tucsonans can activate the Jewish concept of halbashat arumin, clothing the needy, this cold season by participating in a clothing drive to benefit Primavera Men’s Shelter. This social action effort running through Jan. 4 is sponsored by the Tucson Jewish Community Center and the Jewish Community Relations Council in… Read more »
Sheldon Metz Sheldon Metz thought he was retiring from a big-time career as an event producer when he came to Tucson in 2007. “Instead, I’m busier than ever,” says Metz, 69. “My doctor says that’s what keeps me going.” Soon after Metz and his wife, Linda Schulman-Metz, arrived here, he… Read more »
At United Synagogue Youth's 2014 convention being held in Atlanta, the board voted to relax the youth organization's ban on interfaith dating. (Courtesy of United synagogue Youth) NEW YORK (JTA) – United Synagogue Youth voted to relax its rules barring its teenage board members from dating non-Jews. The amendment was adopted Monday in Atlanta at the annual international convention of the Conservative movement’s youth group. The change affects the 100 or so teen officers who serve… Read more »
(JTA) — When Britain’s Parliament voted in favor of recognizing Palestine in October, Elie Barnavi, a former Israeli ambassador to France, dismissed the motion as mere symbolism. Reflecting many Israelis’ view of the string of nonbinding motions on Palestinian statehood adopted by European parliaments in recent weeks, Barnavi said… Read more »
The Wheel of Conscience monument commemorates the doomed Holocaust-era voyage of the M.S. St. Louis. (Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21) TORONTO (JTA) — Mere days after the Wheel of Conscience was unveiled in January 2011, it broke down — something that would happen to the Daniel Libeskind-designed Holocaust monument twice more within the year. In January 2012, the wheel broke again and was sent from its home at the… Read more »
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein arriving in Israel with the first group of immigrants brought by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Dec. 22, 2014. (International Fellowship of Christians and Jews) (JTA) — Citing failures by the organization traditionally responsible for bringing Jews to Israel, the founder of a Jerusalem-based interfaith charity said his organization would begin bringing more Jews to Israel from Europe — starting with Ukraine. Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, the founder of the International Fellowship of Christians and… Read more »
Aerial view of the December 2014 oil leak in the Arava area of southern Israel, near where an initiative is under way to reduce the world's reliance on petroleum for energy. (Israel Environmental Protection Ministry) TEL AVIV (JTA) – In the sun-parched fields near where the largest oil spill in Israeli history poured millions of liters of crude oil into the desert on Dec. 4, an ambitious effort is underway to help reduce global dependency on petroleum for energy. Known as the Eilot Belt,… Read more »
People stand outside the Little Havana restaurant in Versailles, as they absorb the news that Alan Gross was released from a Cuban prison and that U.S. President Barack Obama wants to change the U.S. cuban policy, Dec. 17, 2014 in Miami. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) (JTA) – For many Cuban Jews – the majority of whom now live in the United States – it has been a bittersweet week. Like countless Jews around the world, they cheered the release of Alan Gross, the American Jewish telecommunications contractor who had been held in a Cuban… Read more »
The Women’s Philanthropy Advisory Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is seeking nominees for its ninth annual Bryna Zehngut Mitzvot Award, recognizing an outstanding Jewish teenage girl. The award was created to honor the memory of Zehngut, a community leader who died in 2005. Award nominees must… Read more »
Melissa Kosinski-Collins, Ph.D. Melissa Kosinski-Collins, Ph.D., associate professor of biology at Brandeis University, will speak on “When Good Proteins Go Bad” at a University on Wheels breakfast cosponsored by the Tucson Chapter of the Brandeis National Committee and the Tucson Jewish Community Center on Jan. 8 from 9 to 11 a.m. at… Read more »
Adam and Dana Goldstein at Hava Tequila 2014 “Sequins & Bowties” will be the theme for Hava Tequila, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Young Leadership’s annual party. The Jan. 10 event, for ages 21 and over, will include a DJ, dancing, photo booth, dessert bar and signature drinks. “We are building on last year’s success while… Read more »
The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona has made its three 2015 requests for proposals open to the public. Visit www.jcftucson.org/grant-opportunities to learn about what grants are available, eligibility, funding priorities, and documentation and submission instructions. The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is partnering with the Foundation to fund… Read more »
"Joseph and His Coat of Many Colors" by Haya Gibly, age 9 An independent panel of judges has chosen the winners of the Arizona Jewish Post’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” art contest, in partnership with Broadway in Tucson. The winners each receive a pair of tickets to the show’s opening night on Jan. 7 at UA Centennial Hall. The… Read more »
Lacey Schwart'z film "Little White Lie" tells of her discovery in adulthood that her father was black. (JTA) The Tucson International Jewish Film Festival, featuring several international award-winning films, Arizona premieres, and special guests, will run Jan. 15-24, 2015. Now in its 24th year, the TIJFF is one of the longest running Jewish film festivals in the country. This year, it will include 19 films over nine… Read more »
Israeli cellist Amit Peled with perform on Jan. 12 at the University of Arizona. The second Shaol and Louis Pozez Jewish Fine Arts Symposium … Read more »
Tucsonan Kenneth V. Iserson. M.D., a specialist in emergency medicine, with a newborn under an improvised inclubator in Zambia. Kenneth V. Iserson, M.D., is a doctor, so he’s expected to help people — but he’s also a humanitarian pioneer. “I’m one of the grandfathers of emergency medicine,” Iserson, home from a two-month stint teaching doctors in Argentina, told the AJP. “I completed the first residency in emergency medicine… Read more »
Alan Gross, freed from a Cuban prison earlier in the day, waves after concluding his remarks with his wife, Judy, at a news conference in Washington shortly after arriving in the United States, Dec. 17, 2014. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) WASHINGTON (JTA) – Alan Gross was imprisoned while trying to connect Cuba’s isolated Jewish community to the wider world. The deal that got him released five years later may do just that and much more. Gross’ flight home to suburban Washington on Wednesday with his wife, Judy, was part… Read more »
Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog speaking in the Knesset in Jerusalem at a memorial ceremony for Yitzhak Rabin, Nov. 5, 2014. Herzog is faring well in the polls since new elections were called in December. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) WASHINGTON (JTA) – Come early next year, there might be yet another world capital that opposes Israeli settlement expansion and sees Benjamin Netanyahu as principally responsible for Israel’s isolation: Jerusalem. Isaac Herzog, the Labor Party leader, is faring well in the polls since Netanyahu called for new elections earlier… Read more »
Jake Rubin, the director of the University of Virginia Hillel, on Dec. 4, 2014 in front of the Hillel building in the vRugby Road neighborhood of Charlottesville, Va. (Ron Kampeas) CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (JTA) – Jewish campus groups were ready for the painful national dialogue that took place in the wake of murky rape allegations at the University of Virginia. That’s because organizations like Hillel and historically Jewish Greek houses such as Alpha Epsilon Pi, Zeta Beta Tau and Sigma… Read more »
