Todd Rockoff Shalom Tucson, a program of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Tucson Jewish Community Center, will hold a “Gateway to our Jewish Community” bagel brunch on Sunday, Oct. 20, 10 a.m. to noon, at the JCC. Representatives from synagogues, Jewish agencies and organizations will be on hand.… Read more »
Therapist Zahava Baruch (right) counsels Ethiopian immigrants Fanta (left) and Weinishe at the welfare department in Kiryat Malachi, Israel. The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona fund a variety of programs in our TIPS (Tucson, Israel, Phoenix, Seattle) partnership city of Kiryat Malachi, Israel, including counseling for Ethiopian immigrants. Every Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., there is an unusual… Read more »
TEL AVIV (JTA) — In late July, the Palestinian Authority’s official television channel featured a girl reciting a poem with the words “our enemy is Satan, Zion with a tail.” Two days earlier, the Palestinian Authority minister of religious affairs had compared the recently restarted Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations to… Read more »
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, founder of Shas and Sephardic sage, dies at 93. TEL AVIV (JTA) — Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the Israeli sage who founded the Sephardic Orthodox Shas political party and exercised major influence on Jewish law, has died. Yosef died Monday at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. He was 93. He served as Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi from 1973… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — What would happen if some of the biggest players in American Jewish life sat down and debated the implications of the new Pew Research Center’s survey of U.S. Jewry? After last week’s landmark study, I talked to nine Jewish philanthropists and organizational leaders about the… Read more »
Hundreds of thousands of mourners attended the funeral procession of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef who was buried at the Sanhedriya cemetery on Oct. 7, 2013. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90) JERUSALEM (JTA) — I didn’t need to ask directions. Stepping out of the Jerusalem Central Bus Station, I saw them, men in hats and coats walking together slowly, a steady stream moving east along one of Jerusalem’s central thoroughfares to the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. At 5 p.m.,… Read more »
Models portraying Adam and Eve at the Genesis-themed opening of London's JW3 Jewish community center, Sept. 29, 2013. (Blake Ezra Photography) (JTA) — At his office in London’s newly opened, $80 million Jewish community center, Raymond Simonson fumbles with a state-of-the-art telephone switchboard. “Sorry, I’m embarrassed, but we’ve only just moved into our offices,” says Simonson, the 40-year-old boss of London’s first American-style JCC, which opened Sunday. “Now the article… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Meals on Wheels may disappear, Iran sanctions are at risk and yoga is filling in the gaps. This is what the federal government shutdown looks like in Jewish Washington. While national Jewish organizations are sorting through the essential services that the impasse may cut, regional Jewish… Read more »
A 2009 event in the Washington area was part of an effort by groups focused on engaging young American Jews. NEW YORK (JTA) — If you’re pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into Jewish identity building, what do you do when a survey comes along showing that the number of U.S. Jews engaging with Jewish life and religion is plummeting? That’s the question facing major funders of American Jewish… Read more »
The remains of cars and other debris at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, following an attack by Islamic militants, Sept. 26, 2013. (Kenyan Presidential Press Service/via Getty Images) (JTA) — When Rina Attias phoned to say that she was trapped with terrorists inside Nairobi’s Westgate mall, her husband Albert replied with a short instruction: Hang up right now. Albert Attias, the head of the Jewish community in the Kenyan capital and an Israeli military veteran, wanted to… Read more »
Imagine this scenario: President Obama delivers an address to the nation, in which he says he would use force if Syria doesn’t strip itself from its chemical arsenal. Later, on the same day, National Security Advisor Susan Rice appears in a public event and dismisses the president’s words, quoting… Read more »
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is prepared to confront Iran on its own in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images) WASHINGTON (JTA) — The “credible military threat” against Iran that Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to hear while he was in the United States this week eventually emerged — from his own lips. The Israeli prime minister, in a blunt speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, warned that Israel… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — There are a lot more Jews in America than you may have thought — an estimated 6.8 million, according to a new study. But a growing proportion of them are unlikely to raise their children Jewish or connect with Jewish institutions. The proportion of Jews… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, arrive in New York, Sept. 29, 2013. (Kobi Gideon/GPO/Flash 90) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Worried that he may be losing the biggest stick in his arsenal when it comes to Iran — the threat of a U.S. strike — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington for a meeting Monday with President Obama prepared to speak out. But friends,… Read more »
David Sadker Congregation Or Chadash will hold a retreat, “Courage & Renewal: A Sabbath Dedicated to Our Hidden Wholeness” Friday, Oct. 18 through Sunday, Oct. 20 at the Redemptorist Renewal Center, 7101 W. Picture Rocks Road. “It is said that on the Sabbath we are given an extra soul — the… Read more »
Holocaust survivors Meyer and Susan Neuman with their children, Rosie (left) and Phillip upon arrival in Tucson. (Courtesy Rosie Eilat-Kahn) Although the mission of Tucson’s Jewish History Museum is to tell the stories of Jewish settlers in the American Southwest, the museum is about to highlight another imperative. After raising funds for expansion and purchasing the building on the adjoining Stone Avenue property four years ago, “we started doing… Read more »
Idan Raichel (Yeara Livny) On Oct. 9, the Idan Raichel Project, Israeli world music pioneers, will kick off their U.S. tour with a live concert at the Fox Tucson Theatre. Voted “Musical Group of the Decade” in an Israeli national media poll, the Project blends a range of cultures, languages and musical influences… Read more »
Dorothy Kret (Sheila Wilensky) Dorothy (Dot) Kret isn’t your typical matchmaker. For the past 25 years she’s been helping people with disabilities “become employable and employed,” as the DK Advocates mission statement puts it. “My mother always said what my company does is today’s version of a yenta,” she says, using the word… Read more »
Ryan Ballis, center, with award from the Wounded Warrior Project, is flanked by Quentin Irion, the group’s outreach coordinator (left) and Derek L. Duplisea, Wounded Warrior alumni director for the Western United States. (Courtesy Mark Ballis) Each year, caring and energetic 12- and 13-year-olds contribute immeasurably to the social action efforts of the Jewish community in Tucson and around the world. These B’nai Mitzvah students participate in a “mitzvah project,” as these endeavors have come to be known, adding another layer of meaning to the… Read more »
Stuart Milk The Tucson Jewish Community Center will host “A Conversation with Stuart Milk,”co-founder and board president of the Harvey Milk Foundation, on Sunday, Oct.13 at 6 p.m. Milk was instrumental in steering a bill through the California legislature in 2009 to make May 22 a state holiday honoring his uncle… Read more »
