News

Andrew Goldstein, a member of Israel’s national lacrosse team, says “the landscape has really changed” for gay athletes since he came out in 2005. (Larry Palumbo)

BALTIMORE (JTA) — In the years after coming out as gay, lacrosse player Andrew Goldstein recalls being asked on panel discussions whether major American professional sports leagues would include openly gay athletes. It’s a question, Goldstein said, that is no longer relevant with Jason Collins in the National Basketball… Read more »

U.S. citizen Tariq Abu Khdeir being brought to the Magistrate’s Court in Jerusalem after he was beaten by Israeli police amid clashes over the murder of his Palestinian cousin, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, July 6, 2014. (Flash 90)

(JTA) – For Israelis, the enduring image of the past few weeks may be the montage of the three Israeli teens murdered last month after being abducted from a hitchhiking post in the West Bank. But another enduring image has emerged in the last few days that is unlikely to… Read more »

Birthright participants visiting Masada during a more peaceful time, in summer 2012. (Taglit-Birthright)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — When the siren rang out in Jerusalem last week, the 41 teenage participants in a five-week summer Israel trip were already asleep, exhausted from a day that had begun with a flight from New York. Within minutes, they were awake, out of their rooms and in… Read more »

Michael Savlov, left, an attendant at a Tel Aviv gas station, went back to work not long after a shrapnel from a Gaza rocket landed at the site on July 10, 2014. (Ben Sales / JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Had the shrapnel fallen a foot to the right, gas station attendant Michael Savlov would have been destroyed along with the rest of the Dor Alon gas station in southern Tel Aviv. Savlov was with a customer in the station’s office Thursday morning when a… Read more »

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon being briefed in the South Front Command on Operation Protective Edge, July 9, 2014. (Ariel Hermoni/Ministry of Defense/Flash90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Get used to conflict. That’s the message Israeli officials and security experts are relaying as the Israel Defense Forces conducts its third operation in six years against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s missile defense capabilities have grown significantly since previous rounds of fighting in… Read more »

Participants in an anti-racism rally in Jerusalem holding signs that say, "Enough violence.Yes to co-existence," July 7, 2014. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash 90)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — For many Israelis, eyes are turning south watching yet another conflict unfold with Hamas. Yet thoughts are also turned inward, contemplating the sense of national solidarity occasioned by the abduction and murder of three teenagers and then shattered by the murder of a fourth. The Israeli… Read more »

Black smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza International Airport in Rafah, July 7, 2014. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90)

  WASHINGTON (JTA) — Escalations between Hamas and Israel are nothing new. What’s missing this time, analysts say, is the alignment of outside interests that has resolved such fights in the past.Egypt’s government lacks the influence over Hamas of its predecessors and the United States is in hand-washing mode… Read more »

Jeff Haskell

        Invisible Theatre will kick off its Sizzling Summer Sounds cabaret series at Skyline Country Club with “Borscht Belt Boys and Girl,” featuring Jeffrey Haskell, Jack Neubeck and Katherine Byrnes, July 9 and 10 at 8 p.m. Susan Claassen, director of Sizzling Summer Sounds and creator… Read more »

An Israeli border policeman patrols the area of the Judean desert near the Jordan border. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Emerging from the chaos of the Syrian civil war, the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) terrorist group has gained the world’s attention for its brutal medieval-style Islamic justice and its swift victories in Iraq, threatening to overrun the weak U.S.-backed government there. Now ISIS is also… Read more »

Dr. Richard J. Ablin

In 1970, Dr. Richard J. Ablin discovered the PSA, or prostate-specific antigen, which has been widely used as a screening test for prostate cancer since 1994. That test, he says, is a terrible mistake — a disaster that spawned a multi-billion dollar industry and has destroyed millions of men’s… Read more »

A potluck “Meet, Greet and Eat” brunch for “summer sunbirds” on July 20 will be a chance to connect with other Jews and build community on Tucson’s northwest side, says Anne Lowe, director of the Northwest Division of the Jewish Federation. The event is for singles, couples and families.… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El’s Taste of Judaism outreach and education program celebrates its 15 anniversary this year. The free introductory course offers samplings of Jewish spirituality, values and community in three sessions, taught by Rabbis Samuel M. Cohon and Batsheva Appel. The interactive course is for all, regardless of religious background… Read more »

(L-R) Rabbinic student Avrohom Luban talks with Tucsonans Max Lazar and Al Gordon during a “Spirit” study session. (Courtesy Southwest Torah Institute)

The Southwest Torah Institute’s long-running Dr. Paul W. Hoffert Spirit Program returns to Tucson Sunday, Aug. 10 through Friday, Aug. 22. The Spirit program offers two weeks of yeshiva-style learning, open to all Jewish men and boys ages 8 and up. Participants can study virtually any topic of Jewish… Read more »

(JTA) — Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the father of the Jewish Renewal movement, has died at age 89. A maverick rabbi from an Orthodox background who spent time in the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Schachter-Shalomi transitioned over time toward a New Age, neo-Hasidic approach, gaining a substantial following on his own but also influencing other… Read more »

In honor of Independence Day, the Southwest Torah Institute is offering “Proudly American, Devoutly Jewish, Thriving at Both,” a free multimedia presentation, at www.tucsontorah.org.  The 50-minute presentation is written and presented by Rabbi Israel Becker. “With this on-line presentation, you will find a refreshing look at the Jewish experience… Read more »

(L-R) Isaac Zolot, Sarah Cassius, Zohar Amar and Maya Collier celebrate Tu B’Shevat, the birthday of the trees, during a break at Tucson Hebrew High.

Tucson Hebrew High will start off its 2014-15 school year with last-minute registration and the first night of classes on Tuesday, Aug. 12 at its host facility, Congregation Anshei Israel. At 6 p.m., incoming freshmen and new students will meet the faculty and join an opening program and pizza… Read more »

“Freeing Your Mind,” painting by Julian Dombrowski

It was an exciting day for Julian Dombrowski and his family in early May, when he was accepted into an online graduate program in creative writing at Southern New Hampshire University. Dombrowski, 32, is wheelchair-bound with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a muscle disease that begins in childhood. The illness affects… Read more »

Kristin Taft

For the 400 school-age children attending Camp J at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, camp is an opportunity to make friends and beat the heat; however, for the 33 children in the Camp J Inclusion Program, it is also an opportunity to put their “special needs” labels aside and… Read more »

Congregation Bet Shalom at Masada. Back row (L-R): Debbie Rich, Helena Lamb, Debbie Belden, Norm Rubin; middle row: Paul Araiza, Tom Alpert, Cantor Avraham Alpert, Bernie Engelhard, Donna Popp, Kathy Rubin, Mesha Seckbach; front row: Keith Belden, Pedro Fajardo, Elinor Engelhard, Carol Alpert, Ezra Alpert, Nicholas Popp

Would you expect to find a Torah scribe atop the mountain fortress at Masada? That’s what happened during Congregation Bet Shalom’s Musical Mission to Israel, June 2-12. Just one day after our grandson Nicholas celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at Robinson’s Arch at the Kotel, he had the opportunity, along… Read more »

Rachel Fraenkel, mother of Naftali Fraenkel, cries over the body of her son, during the joint funeral for three murdered Jewish teens in the Modiin cemetery, on July 1, 2014. (Flash 90)

MODIIN, Israel (JTA) — They were their mothers’ sons. They were all of our sons. They were dear boys. They were martyrs for Israel. They were funny, clever, creative. They are the messengers of the Jewish people in heaven. The joint funeral Tuesday of Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaar and… Read more »