News

Bitcoin makes aliyah: Cryptocurrency finds Israeli fans

Nimrod Gruber uses Israel's first Bitcoin ATM in Tel Aviv, June 12, 2014. (Ben Sales/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Blocks away from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the headquarters of two major banks, in the corner of the lobby of a boutique hotel, Nimrod Gruber sticks his hand into an ATM. A few seconds later, a QR code prints out. Gruber takes the… Read more »

Boycotting government Holocaust commemorations, Hungary’s Jews forge new path

Passersby look at the Holocaust-related and other memorabilia left by citizens protesting the monument to the 1944 German occupation, under construction behind sheeting across the street in downtown Budapest. (Ruth Ellen Gruber)

BUDAPEST, Hungary (JTA) — It isn’t every day that Jewish organizations reject funding for Holocaust commemorations. But that’s what happened in Hungary this spring when Jewish groups refused nearly $1 million in special state grants to protest what they see as the government’s whitewashing of Hungarian complicity in the… Read more »

As state shifts rightward, North Carolina Jews raise their voices

Members of Carolina Jews for Justice and other demonstrators gather on the mall outside North Carolina's State Capitol in Raleigh for a Moral Mondays protest, June 2, 2014. (Anthony Weiss/JTA)

RALEIGH, N.C. (JTA) — It was a hot Monday afternoon, but Judy Katzin was standing on the grassy mall outside the North Carolina State Capitol beside the Carolina Jews for Justice banner, as she has many times. Katzin was among hundreds of activists of diverse backgrounds who had come… Read more »

Cantor’s loss leaves Jewish Republicans bereft

Rep. Eric Cantor, then-House majority leader, delivers an address at the Virginia Military Institute, Feb. 17, 2014. (Courtesy of House Majority Leader)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Eric Cantor’s defeat in one constituency, Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, triggered mourning among another: Republican Jews. Since 2009, Rep. Cantor (R-Va.) has been the only Jewish Republican in Congress. After the 2010 GOP takeover of the House, he became the majority leader. He is the highest-ranking… Read more »

Abbas invokes sovereign state at peace prayer with Pope Francis and Israeli President Shimon Peres

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli President Shimon Peres and Pope Francis plant a tree together at the Vatican Gardens during a joint peace prayer initiated and hosted by Pope Francis, in the Vatican, on June 8, 2014. (Haim Zach/GPO/Flash90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called for “freedom in our sovereign and independent state” during a prayer for peace with Israeli President Shimon Peres and Pope Francis. Vatican officials had called the service on Sunday at the Vatican a “pause in politics” with no political intentions.… Read more »

Likud’s Reuven Rivlin is elected president of Israel

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Reuven Rivlin of the Likud party was elected president of Israel in a campaign that was fraught with scandal. Rivlin was elected in the second round of Knesset balloting on Tuesday, defeating Meir Sheetrit of the Hatnua party in a 63-53 runoff vote. The former Knesset… Read more »

Palestinians avoid U.S. aid cutoff, but what happens when Hamas runs in elections?

Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas delivers his farewell speech as prime minister of the Hamas-run government in Gaza, a position he stepped down from under the new Palestinian unity agreement, June 2, 2014. (Wissam Nassar/Flash90)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Is the new Palestinian government kosher under U.S. law? A range of American Middle East policy analysts and current and former U.S. officials say that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas threaded the needle last week and created a government of technocrats untainted by Hamas and not… Read more »

Beat the summer heat with ice cream, yogurt and gelato

Allegro Il Gelato Naturale 446 N. Campbell Ave., #120 207-1991 • www.gelatoallegro.com Allegro uses only natural ingredients and you can really taste the difference. Our coffee gelato is made with Lavazza, Italy’s favorite coffee, and for our chocolate we’ve chosen Valrhona, the Grand Cru of cocoa powder. We know… Read more »

Tucson pizza eateries spice up summer dining

  1702 1702 E. Speedway Blvd. 325-1702 • www.1702az.com All our ingredients are brought in daily and our sauce and dough are made daily as well. We serve any combo of toppings you want on our giant slices that are sure to impress. Caruso’s Italian Restaurant 434 N. 4th… Read more »

Local works: buying local strengthens our communities

Erika Mitnik-White

Why buy local? When you buy from locally owned businesses, you support your friends and neighbors in the community. These are the people who buy homes locally, pay taxes locally and support our local charities. In fact, local businesses contribute twice their percentage of profits to charity than non-local… Read more »

Anshei Israel hires religious school administrator

Sarah Artzi

Congregation Anshei Israel has appointed Sarah Artzi as interim religious school administrator. In this new role, Artzi will oversee day-to-day operations of the school and its teachers. Born and raised in Tucson, Artzi is a lifelong member of CAI. She is the daughter of Sue and the late Saul… Read more »

JCC seeks input on Alzheimer’s proposal

The Tucson Jewish Community Center is seeking to assess interest in an intergenerational fitness/volunteer program for memory-impaired seniors and teen volunteers. The program would recreate a successful Alzheimer’s disease rehabilitation program that retired research scientist Sharon Arkin, Psy.D., ran at the University of Arizona from 1996 to 2001. The… Read more »

Chabad rabbi to discuss book about Rebbe

Rabbi Yossie Shemtov, regional director of Chabad Tucson, will lead a discussion of a new book about his spiritual mentor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneer­son, on Wednesday, June 11 at 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble at 5130 E. Broadway. Shemtov will share his personal thoughts on “Rebbe: The Life… Read more »

‘Skullcaps and Shul Hats’ on display at JHM

A photo of Sara Kaplowitz Greenberg in the early 1940s is surrounded by a few of her beloved shul hats. (Courtesy Jewish History Museum)

The Jewish History Museum’s summer exhibit, “Skullcaps and Shul Hats,” which runs through June 30, focuses on two family collections of head coverings. One is a collection of elegant shul hats worn by Tucsonan Nicki Lasky’s mother, Sara Kaplowitz Greenberg. They range from “fascinators,” small, often feathered decorative headpieces,… Read more »

From PA to AZ, a passion for philanthropy

Evan Mendelson

Evan Mendelson has worked most of her life in Jewish philanthropy, including as the founding executive director of the Jewish Funders Network in New York. In January 2013 in Tucson, she was named the first non-family member executive director of the David C. and Lura M. Lovell Foundation. Previously,… Read more »

Tucson Museum of Art shows ‘Rose Cabat at 100’

Rose Cabat, “Feelies,” c. 1960s-1980s, porcelain, collection of the artist (Carissa Castillo)

                                    The Tucson Museum of Art is presenting “Rose Cabat at 100: A Retrospective Exhibition of Ceramics,” through Sept. 14. Cabat, who lives in Tucson, is considered one of the most important… Read more »

The Jews of Bisbee, Arizona: diverse, passionate and proud

Howard Kline welcomes patrons to his art gallery on the sunny side of Bisbee’s Main Street. (Heather Green)

A visual artist who started out as a rock drummer in the ’60s, a bookstore owner about to make aliyah, a Harvard Law School graduate who headed west to practice on the Navajo reservation — these are three of the 40 to 50 Jews currently living in Bisbee. Although… Read more »

Ohio governor dedicates Holocaust and Liberators Memorial

The Ohio Holocaust and Liberators Memorial, designed by Daniel Libeskind, on the lawn of he Statehouse, Columbus, Ohio, was dedicated June 2, 2014. (Marshall Weiss/ The Dayton Jewish Observer)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (The Dayton Jewish Observer) — Visibly moved by the testimony of a Holocaust survivor, Ohio Gov. John Kasich called for a monument at the Ohio Statehouse during the annual Governor’s Holocaust Commemoration three years ago. “Let’s construct something that can teach people about man’s inhumanity to man,… Read more »