News

JCC Camp Interlaken has given me many memories, from the Maccabiah games to the beauty of Lake Finley. I truly love every moment I am there. I know that I have made long lasting friendships and my best friend is from Interlaken. Camp Interlaken is my home away from… Read more »

The Invisible Theatre will present “My Buddy,” a tribute to comedian Buddy Hackett — starring his son, Sandy Hackett — on Saturday, March 8 and Sunday, March 9 at the Berger Performing Arts Center, 1200 W. Speedway Blvd. This musical production will reveal stories about Hackett’s relationships with myriad… Read more »

Lori Hunt as Rosalind Franklin in ‘Photograph 51’ at Live Theatre Workshop

“Photograph 51,” a play about Jewish scientist Rosalind Franklin, will be staged at Live Theatre Workshop, 5317 E. Speedway Blvd., from Feb. 20 to March 22. Written by Anna Ziegler and directed by Sabian Trout, the production takes on the puzzle of DNA. Franklin, born to an affluent London… Read more »

"Spiraling" by Ira Wiesenfeld

Twelve additions to the Tucson Jewish Community Center’s Sculpture Garden will be unveiled on Sunday, March 9, 1-3 p.m. at the opening of the 5th annual Sculpture Garden exhibition, which features the work of artists from Tucson and across the country. “The goal was to find sculptures that would… Read more »

Handmaker Youth Lea­dership Team will hold a multi-generational event with a disabilities awareness theme on Sunday, March 2 at 2 p.m. Youth volunteers and Handmaker residents will learn strategies for communicating with people who have hearing loss, how daily life is affected by vision loss and how daily life… Read more »

Rita Rudner

Rita Rudner is your typical housewife. She washes dishes, makes beds, folds laundry … then she dashes off to her sold-out show in Las Vegas. “Actually I am making the beds right now,” said Rudner, from her beach home in Dana Point, Calif., which is currently for sale. “We… Read more »

Jeannie Smith

“From Darkness to Light,” the theme of the 2014 Connections brunch, raises the question of individual responsibility to others — a Jewish value — regardless of the risk. Jeannie Smith, the daughter of Polish Righteous Among the Nations rescuer Irene Gut OpDyke, will be the keynote speaker at this… Read more »

Rabbi Eric Yoffie

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president emeritus of the Union for Reform Judaism, supports what he calls “passionate pluralism” in the Jewish world — not one right way of being Jewish. He’s coming to Tucson as Temple Emanu-El’s scholar-in-residence from Thursday, Feb. 27 to Saturday, March 1 “to combat stereotypes that… Read more »

Kristen Fabry as Tzeitel and Damian Garcia as Motel in “Fiddler on the Roof” at Pima Community College (Carol Carder/PCC)

Working on Pima Commu­nity College’s upcoming production of “Fiddler on the Roof” has been “an absolute joy,” says director Todd Poelstra. “More than anything we’ve done, this event, from the first moment we announced it — it’s just been a positive response. ‘Oh, that’s one of my favorite shows… Read more »

Eran Levin, Ph.D., examines a bat in Nimrod Castle on the Golan Heights

What do the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and the Israel Defense Forces have in common? Bats. Yes, that’s right. A dozen species of these nocturnal flying mammals have made their summer home in a collection of abandoned army bunkers along the border with Jordan. And… Read more »

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) addresses the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual policy conference on March 5, 2013 in Washington, D.C. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The highlight of AIPAC’s year is the final day of its annual policy conference, when thousands of activists ascend Capitol Hill to lobby for the passage of the organization’s legislative priorities. But just three weeks before the conference, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is facing… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — In the years after he moved to Israel from Uruguay in 1995, Rabbi Mauricio Balter brought nearly 500 South American families to the Jewish state, some of whom settled near his home on the northern coast. A handful of the new arrivals were not Jews by… Read more »

KFAR SABA, Israel (JTA) — Michelle Kolath-Arbel squeezes a nipple, rolling it in her fingers with a look of mild disgust. This model, which Kolath-Arbel ordered from China two years ago for $50, is thick and crude and took three months to arrive in the mail. “It was hard,… Read more »

Short track speed skater Vladislav Bykanov of the Israel Olympic team carries his country's flag during the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics on Feb. 7, 2014 in Sochi, Russia. (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Soft sand and turquoise beaches make Sochi a lovely holiday destination, but this coastal Russian city is less than ideal for providing religious services to large numbers of Jewish visitors. With few native Jews and only one resident rabbi, the Black Sea resort of 400,000 residents would… Read more »

Martin Indyk, the U.S. special envoy for Ben Gurion International Airport on Jan. 5, 2014. (Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv/Flash90)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — As the Obama administration prepares to unveil a framework plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Jewish groups have responded by laying low. In contrast to the noisy Iran sanctions contretemps between the administration and much of the pro-Israel community, the leading centrist Jewish groups… Read more »

Yakov Burg, CEO of Psagot Winery in the Israeli West Bank settlement of Psagot, says boycotts of settlement goods haven't affected profits in a major way. (Courtesy Psagot Winery)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Of the 200,000 wine bottles Yakov Burg produced last year, 16,000 went to Europe. The possibility of a boycott and repeated rumblings that Europe is planning to label goods produced in the settlements could decrease that number, but Burg isn’t worried. The CEO of Psagot… Read more »

Israel's Sochi-bound figure skaters who train in New Jersey: from left, Alexei Bychenko, Andrea Davidovich and Evgeni Krasnapolsky. (Hillel Kuttler)

HACKENSACK, N.J. (JTA) — Evgeni Krasnapolsky and Andrea Davidovich glide around the ice, shadowing one another to the accompaniment of Nino Rota’s “Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet.” At a rink in this New York City suburb, the figure-skating pair are refining their long program a few weeks before… Read more »

Anne Heyman (Courtesy of DOROT)

AGAHOZO-SHALOM YOUTH VILLAGE, Rwanda (JTA) – Anne Heyman’s death during a horse-riding competition in Palm Beach, Fla., on Jan. 31 shocked and devastated many in the Jewish world. But it was Heyman’s work in Rwanda that so many of her admirers will remember most. A former assistant district attorney… Read more »

Rabbi Harold Kushner

There is a universal human craving for significance, says Rabbi Harold Kushner. The world-renowned rabbi and author will speak on this idea when Temple Emanu-El presents “Making a Difference in Your Life and in Our City,” a brunch next month honoring Mayor Jonathan Rothschild. “We want to know that… Read more »

Models pose at the home of Catherene Morton prior to the Jewish History Museum’s bridal style show on Jan. 1. (Athol Cline/JHM)

Exotic gowns in red, purple and gold as well as the traditional white are on display at the Jewish History Museum’s sixth annual ketubah (Jewish wedding contract) and wedding dress exhibit, which continues through March 30. The exhibit features gowns from the 1500s to 2010, with origins from New… Read more »