Tearing cloth on erev Tisha b'Av to express grief over deaths in Gaza (L-R): Abby Okrent, Georgia Conroy (face obscured), Joyce Smith, Beth Lowry, Deborah Mayaan, John Heid Tucsonans held small interfaith gatherings to pray for peace in the Middle East on July 14 and Aug. 4. On Aug. 4, the evening of Tisha b’Av, 13 people from Jewish, Islamic, Christian, Baha’i, and Buddhist faiths gathered in my living room for an event Abby Okrent helped me… Read more »
Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs and his wife, Bluma, by the glass window of their home damaged in an attack on July 17, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz) AMERSFOORT, The Netherlands (JTA) — After the latest attack on his home, Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs sat down on his couch, picked up the phone and made three calls. A chief rabbi of the Netherlands, Jacobs first phoned police and a Jewish community leader to tell them that late on… Read more »
Pro-Israel demonstration in Chicago, July 22, 2014. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) WASHINGTON (JTA) – If the results of a recent focus group and polls are any indication, the gap is growing between Congress and young Americans when it comes to support for Israel. Polls conducted in late July by Gallup and the Pew Research Center found that support for Israel… Read more »
Israeli soldiers leaving the Gaza Strip seen near the border between Israel and the Hamas-controlled coastal area, Aug. 4, 2014. (Flash90) (JTA) – Now that the latest Gaza conflict appears to be over — or nearly so — it’s time to take stock of the winners and losers. Who won the war? Perhaps more than the other two Gaza conflicts in the last six years, Israel is the clear winner… Read more »
Lisa Silverman with her chiildren (L-R), Yael, Jonah, Talia and Ruth Levin, in Modi'in, Israel
(Ingrid Muller) “Some days will be hard, but hope will prevail” were the words to a song on the radio as I headed home to Modi’in on July 17. So many thoughts, feelings, associations have been cascading through me ...… Read more »
A Palestinian man kissing a baby killed in an attack on a United Nations school in the northern Gaza city of Beit Hanoun, July 24, 2014. (Emad Nassar/Flash90) TEL AVIV (JTA) — Shortly after dawn on July 30, a bomb hit a United Nations school sheltering thousands of civilians displaced by the fighting in Gaza, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens. The attack on the Jabalia Elementary Girls School was the fifth attack on U.N.… Read more »
The “barbaric violation of the cease-fire agreement,” in the words of the White House spokesman, by Hamas when they attacked Israeli soldiers, killing two and taking one hostage, sums up the challenge facing Israel and the West in this vital conflict. An organization that launches rockets at civilians, uses… Read more »
These weapons were found in a Hamas-built tunnel under the Israel-Gaza border, July 24, 2014. (Israel Defense Forces) (JTA) — There’s no shortage of images from the Gaza conflict. We’ve seen rubble, dead Palestinian children, Israelis cowering during rocket attacks, Israeli military maneuvers and Israeli army footage of Hamas militants emerging from tunnels to attack Israeli soldiers. What we haven’t seen are practically any images of Hamas… Read more »
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and Congregation Anshei Israel will cosponsor an event in participation with local rabbis, open to the entire Tucson community on Thursday, Aug. 7 at 7 p.m. at Congregation Anshei Israel, located at 5550 E. 5th St. Organizers welcome people of all ages, backgrounds… Read more »
A multifaith service, “Prayers for Peace in the Middle East,” cosponsored by Temple Emanu-El and the Weintraub Israel Center will be held Thursday, Juy 31 at 7 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El. Cosponsors include the Tucson Board of Rabbis. Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Sikh and other denominational pryaers and songs will… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel and Hamas agreed to a 72-hour unconditional cease-fire. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry jointly announced the cease-fire Thursday evening and said it will be effective at 8 a.m. local time Friday morning. “During this time the forces on… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel will destroy all of the tunnels that lead from Gaza to southern Israel, with or without a cease-fire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Israeli troops have destroyed dozens of tunnel branches so far during the 24-day operation in Gaza, Netanyahu said Thursday at the… Read more »
(Washington, D.C.) – In July, 1988, a 41-year-old Jewish Women International member in Gaithersburg, Md., was gunned down by her estranged husband in the parking lot of her place of employment. This shocking murder gave the 100-year-old Jewish women’s organization a new mission—to protect all women and girls from… Read more »
Amid national publicity on Central American migrants – from pro/con protests to faith-based assistance — the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona stands firm. JCRC has long been involved in border issues, says director Bryan Davis, noting that Jews were once strangers dealing with… Read more »
Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer addresses Jewish leaders at the National Press Club in Washington, July 28, 2014. (Ron Sachs) WASHINGTON (JTA) — The dramatic developments in the war between Hamas and Israel have been accompanied by sharp ups and downs in U.S.-Israel relations. On Monday, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, made nice with the U.S. national security adviser, Susan Rice, before an audience of… Read more »
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest across the street from a pro-Israel really in Chicago, July 28, 2014. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) NEW YORK (JTA) — In Europe, the fight over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has prompted violent street battles, firebombs thrown at synagogues and even a mid-game attack against a visiting Israeli soccer team by protesters in Austria. In America, it has been more a battle of commentary,… Read more »
Israeli Ambassador to the Netherlands Haim Divon, right, with Christian volunteers Timo Erkelens and Eveline Hagoort in the pro-Israel situation room near Amsterdam, July 24, 2014. (Canaan Liphshiz) (JTA) — Israeli Ambassador to the Netherlands Haim Divon nodded approvingly as he surveyed the small army of 50 men and women fighting for Israel. Around a conference table in an office in the Amsterdam suburb of Buitenveldert, 30 volunteers were writing and collecting pro-Israel materials and transferring them… Read more »
Palestinian man seen in front of a fire raging at Gaza's main power plant following an overnight Israeli airstrike, south of Gaza City, July 29, 2014. (Emad Nassar/Flash90) RAMLE, Israel (JTA) — In her living room in the Israeli town of Ramle, Sarah says she wants a peaceful life. At 79, she deserves one. A Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor, Sarah was sent to a Nazi concentration camp in Serbia as a child, arriving in Israel at age 17.… Read more »
Outgoing Israel President Shimon Peres speaks at the swearing in ceremony for his successor, Reuven Rivlin, July 24, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) JERUSALEM (JTA) — In the midst of a grinding war in Gaza, a sometimes near-empty Knesset gallery was packed last week for an uplifting moment: what probably was the final political act of Israel’s elder statesman. Shimon Peres — former Israeli prime minister, defense minister, foreign minister and now… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Behind the feud between John Kerry and Israel over the secretary of state’s efforts to broker a Gaza cease-fire is a larger tension concerning the role of Turkey and Qatar in Palestinian affairs. Israeli officials rejected the proposal for a cease-fire advanced by Kerry in part… Read more »
