News

Ledman leaving JFCS on steady course

Shira Ledman

Five years ago, when Shira Ledman took the helm at Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona, her husband, Bob, relocated with her to Tucson. Now it is her turn to follow her husband, a professor of business, as he takes a job with South University in Austin,… Read more »

Chief rabbi recounts Ugandan Jews’ trials, triumphs for JFSA

Rabbi Gershom Sizomu

As the first black rabbi from Sub-Saharan Africa, Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, chief rabbi of Uganda and leader of the Abayudaya Jews, may seem like an anomaly to some, but his commitment to Judaism is staunch. “I grew up in eastern Uganda with no electricity or water,” Sizomu told around… Read more »

For messianic Jews, Bush speech a coup but acceptance elusive

WASHINGTON (JTA) — George W. Bush granted Messianic Jews a brief shining moment in the spotlight last week — and then just as quickly sent them back into the shadows. The Messianic Jewish Bible Institute in Dallas had advertised Bush as the keynote speaker at its annual fundraiser on… Read more »

On Israeli religious reforms, Naftali Bennett still figuring out road map

Naftali Bennett says his wife, Gilat, right, only drew closer to Judaism when the couple lived in New York. (Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Naftali Bennett doesn’t like to waste time. In the eight months since he took over three Israeli ministries — religious services, economy, and Diaspora and Jerusalem affairs — Bennett has pushed through legislation to give Israeli couples more freedom in choosing which rabbi officiates at… Read more »

Israeli-Iranian DJ group spins for peace in Berlin

Roy Siny, left, and Reza Khani are the founders of the Iranian-Israeli party collective No Beef. (Boaz Arad)

BERLIN (JTA) — It’s 4 a.m. at the famous Kater Holzig club and hundreds of beautiful young people are going crazy on the dance floor to the sound of heavy electronic beats. To the casual clubber, it’s just another ordinary night out in Europe’s hottest city. But this gathering… Read more »

In the typhoon-ravaged Philippines, Israel brings its experience in disaster relief

Israeli military personnel assist survivors of the typhoon that ravaged the Philippines last week.

(JTA) — Obviously wanting to get back to work as the medical manager of the field hospital set up by the Israel Defense Forces in the  Philippines, Lt.-Col. Dr. Ofer Merin speaks hurriedly about the three days his team has been seeing patients in the typhoon-ravaged nation. He tells… Read more »

Why is France taking a harder line on Iran than the United States?

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, left, conferring with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of the 68th United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 26, 2013. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — When reports emerged over the weekend that France’s hard line was responsible for the failure of negotiations over Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program, supporters and critics of the diplomatic push resorted to familiar stereotypes. Conservatives scoffed that even the conflict-averse French had outflanked President Obama. Leftists… Read more »

Federations provide emergency relief for Philippines typhoon

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, in partnership with The Jewish Federations of North America, is mobilizing a communal response to the super Typhoon Haiyan, which has wrought widespread destruction in the Philippines. JFNA today opened a mailbox for Federations to support relief efforts by the American Jewish Joint… Read more »

Joy Ladin’s journey between genders is grounded in Judaism

Joy Ladin leads a full and productive life, but her path has not been easy. “Very early on, there was an awareness that I wasn’t in the right gender,” Ladin told the AJP from her home in Hadley, Mass. The first openly transgender person to work at an Orthodox… Read more »

Focus on local survivors brings new Holocaust History Center into the light

This wall at the Holocaust History Center presents information on 120 of the survivors who have lived in Southern Arizona since the 1940s. The center is seeking information on 110 other survivors who have lived here. (Martha Lochert)

The Holocaust History Center at the Jewish History Museum held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Sunday, Oct. 20. The inaugural exhibit at the center goes “from dark to light,” with one long wall presenting the history of the Holocaust and the opposite wall dedicated to the lives of 230… Read more »

Birthright Israel alumna: It’s cool to be a Jew

Shannon Rzucidlo

After Shannon Rzucidlo, 26, went on a Birthright Israel trip this summer, NEXT, a division of the Birthright Israel Foundation, reached out to keep her connected, offering resources to help her create a Rosh Hasha­nah meal for friends. “I think my NEXT High Holiday meal was my ‘coming out’… Read more »

Warmth, eye-opening perspective for local firefighters in Israel

(L-R) Capt. Kyle Canty, Northwest Fire Department; Capt. Richard Johnson, Tucson Fire Department; Division Chief Kelly McCoy, Northwest Fire Department; Capt. Mark Lytle, Green Valley Fire District; Capt. Scott Laird, Rincon Valley Fire District; Tzvia and Emil Riven (in front of Laird); Lt. Thomas Tucker, Tucson Airport Authority Fire Department; and Capt. Kris Blum, Tuscon Fire Department, plant a tree on Mount Carmel to honor the Rivens’ son, Elad, who died in 2010 fighting Israel’s worst forest fire. (Courtesy Greater Tucson Fire Foundation)

  “We went as seven firefighters and came back as seven ambassadors for Israel,” says Capt. Scott Laird of the Rincon Valley Fire District, who spent Oct. 15-25 in Israel as part of Southern Arizona’s first Firefighters Without Borders delegation. The group sought to learn, firsthand, about how Israel’s… Read more »

Downtown Tucson rocks new businesses — and welcomes the boom

From entertainment at the Fox Tucson Theatre to a cornucopia of new restaurants, to entrepreneurial innovations, downtown Tucson has been transformed — and more changes are on the way. “It’s been very gratifying and good for the Fox to offer significant programming downtown,” says Craig Sumberg, executive director of… Read more »

Creativity theme for Global Day of Jewish Learning

Southern Arizona will take part in the fourth annual “Global Day of Jewish Learning” on Sunday, Nov. 17, joining Jewish communities in more than 40 countries across six continents. A project of the Aleph Society and Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, the day is an opportunity for people in Southern Arizona… Read more »

Chabad to hold Chanukah event at Reid Park Zoo

The Reid Park Zoo will host a Chanukah celebration for the Jewish community on Monday, Dec. 2 at 5 p.m. Chabad of Tucson will rent the 17-acre venue from the City of Tucson to mark the fifth night of Chanukah with a display of holiday lights, light sculptures and… Read more »

PCC to stage Kaufman’s ‘The Laramie Project’

Samantha Orzech in ‘The Laramie Project’ at Pima Community College (Courtesy Pima Community College Center for the Arts)

Pima Community College Theatre Arts will present “The Laramie Project” by Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theatre Project, directed by Nancy Davis Booth, Nov. 14-24. In 1998 University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, who was gay, was kidnapped, beaten and left to die tied to a fence… Read more »

HYLT plans social action events at Handmaker

Handmaker Youth Leadership Team will participate in two community service projects with residents at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, this month and next. On Sunday, Nov. 17 at 2 p.m., youth participants and residents will pack care packages for clients of Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network. A speaker will… Read more »

Karnit Flug, first female Bank of Israel chief, targeting economic inequality

Karnit Flug was named successor to Stanley Fischer, right, as governor of the Bank of Israel. (Miriam Alster/Flash 90)

JAFFA, Israel (JTA) — Andromeda Hill is a beachfront complex of luxury apartments connected by tree-lined pathways that features such amenities as a spa and business center. Five minutes down the road is Ajami, a low-income neighborhood profiled in the 2009 film of the same name that remains one… Read more »

Whither the Jewish macher? Upstarts increasingly setting Jewish agenda

Nathan Lewin, left, and his daughter Alyza created headaches for major Jewish groups by persevering with a so-far unsuccessful lawsuit to get the State Department to recognize Jerusalem-born Americans as born in Israel. (Washington Week)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — On Sept. 27, the conservative political blogger Ken Berwitz was enraged — not by Democratic malfeasance, his favored bugbear, but by the policies of an Oklahoma-based chain of craft stores. Berwitz was bothered not only that Hobby Lobby was keeping Hanukkah tchotchkes off its shelves, but that… Read more »