News

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Two years after his bill trying to negate all conversions outside of the state’s Chief Rabbinate stalled in the Knesset,  Shas party head Aryeh Deri is trying again. Deri, now the interior minister, has asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to float a bill to government coalition… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Knesset approved extending emergency measures targeting the spread of the coronavirus as the number of cases in Israel saw its largest one-day increase in the past two months. The legislation, which will remain in force for 45 days starting Wednesday, was approved late Tuesday night,… Read more »

(JTA) — The Auschwitz Memorial and the site of the former Nazi camp will reopen to visitors on July 1. The memorial and museum said it will open for guided tours and individual entry beginning on that date. Reservations must be made online. It closed to visitors in mid-March… Read more »

This story originally appeared on Kveller. What makes one person tick is totally subjective, but science confirms that people are hard-wired to respond to music. It lifts our moods, eases pain and triggers powerful emotions. Some songs become so popular that they transcend their original meaning. Take “I’ve Been… Read more »

(JTA) – As Orthodox lawmakers were brazenly cutting the locks off a New York City playground on Tuesday morning, Orthodox children were settling in for a school day just nine blocks away. The classes at Yeshiva K’tana Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn were the first held in the school building… Read more »

(JTA) — Amy Acton, the Jewish Department of Health director in Ohio who came under fire for the stay-at-home orders to stem the coronavirus crisis, including armed protesters carrying signs with anti-Semitic messages, has resigned. Acton, whose resignation was official on Thursday, will become the chief health adviser to… Read more »

(JTA) — Universal Music Group, one of the largest music corporations in the United States, has become the first major American music company to open a branch in Israel. UMG Israel will be based in Tel Aviv and be led by Yoram Mokady, a lawyer with no experience in… Read more »

(JTA) — The European Union’s foreign policy chief effectively rejected President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan and asked the United States to join a new international effort to broker a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. Josep Borrell said Monday that the Trump plan has created a… Read more »

(JTA) — The coronavirus pandemic has done something that no war, natural disaster or other calamity has been able to do for more than 50 years: It’s put a stop to stage performances of “Fiddler on the Roof.” The current North American tour of “Fiddler” was halted on March… Read more »

(JTA) – In the space of just 48 hours, Orthodox lawmakers in New York have gone from calling on the city’s mayor to open playgrounds, to threatening to open the parks themselves, to actually cutting the chains off a Brooklyn playground. State Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein, City Councilman Kalman Yeger… Read more »

(JTA) – When Ilana Goldberg scrolled through Instagram last Tuesday, much of her feed consisted of black squares as part of an initiative called #BlackoutTuesday to honor the Black Lives Matter movement. Then she saw a photo of student artwork posted by the Jewish Community High School of the… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli soldier rescued a Palestinian resident of Hebron from a mob of Jewish settlers and was attacked by the mob himself. By Monday morning, four people had been arrested in the attack, including a minor and two teens. The soldier from the Golani Brigade stationed… Read more »

(JTA) — A group of 37 members of the Peruvian Jewish community flew to Israel on a special charter flight amid high rates of COVID-19 in their native country and street riots that have broken out as a result of a scarcity of food and medical supplies. The group… Read more »

(JTA) — When Rabbi Capers Funnye attends a synagogue that’s not his own, he must brace himself for the reaction that he knows will follow after he walks through the door. Even though he comes in wearing a kippah and holding a prayer shawl, Funnye knows that if a… Read more »

(JTA) – Protesters have been a daily sight in Brooklyn over the last few weeks. But the protesters blocking traffic Thursday on the streets of the New York City borough’s Orthodox neighborhoods were a little younger than usual. Their shouting — “We want camp!” — quickly made their aim… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El staged a car parade on Sunday morning, May 31, for community members to say goodbye and thank you to Rabbi Batsheva Appel, who is leaving Tucson after seven years with the synagogue. Stephen Shawl, an Emanu-El board member, took photos of hundreds of carloads of people who stopped… Read more »

The Southern Arizona Jewish community has joined communities across the globe in expressing outrage at the murder of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. And it is grappling with how best to support the struggle for racial justice. On June… Read more »

Anne Hameroff

Retired attorney Anne Hameroff, the new chair of the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, wants to see the Foundation and the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona work together in ways that make them “more nimble and responsive” to meet the overall philanthropic desires of their donors. It’s a goal… Read more »

Groceries for distribution to the immigrant community are set outside the Jewish History Museum, June 7. (Courtesy Laurie Melrood)

Paisanos Unidos (Citizens United) is an immigrant self-defense organization that works to inform members of the immigrant community about their rights while living and working in the United States. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jewish History Museum has partnered with the organization to provide an outdoor space in which… Read more »

Matthew Schwartz of KVOA News 4 Tucson shares more than 40 behind-the-scenes stories from his 37-year career as a hard-hitting journalist in his newly published memoir, “Confessions of an Investigative Reporter” (Koehler Books). Hard hits come with the territory. He’s been swung at with a baseball bat, hit by a… Read more »