In a new initiative for 2013-14, Congregation Anshei Israel will offer free tuition and waive the registration fee for its religious school kindergarten. The offer is available to synagogue members and nonmembers alike. Classes will be taught by Renee Hulsey, who was recently named “Outstanding Judaic Educator” by the… Read more »
News
Idan Raichel Project to play Tucson in October
The Idan Raichel Project, known for its fusion of diverse musical styles and ethnicities, will perform at the Fox Tucson Theater on Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 7:30 p.m., in a concert cosponsored by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. The group, which rocketed to fame in Israel with its… Read more »
JCF 2013 grants fund $179K for local, Israeli nonprofits
The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona recently announced $179,517 in 21 grants to nonprofit organizations in Tucson and Israel. JCF manages 460 individual donor-advised funds, endowments, supporting foundations and agency custodial funds that enable donors to fulfill their own philanthropic visions, but the 2013 competitive grants are the… Read more »
Lightman family calls for grants
The Steven A. Lightman Family Foundation has opened its 2013 call for grants. The Lightman Family Foundation distributes funds to further the Jewish Community Foundation’s charitable activities that promote health and wellness, on a local and national level, and foster creative and artistic endeavors. The areas of interest include,… Read more »
TIPS partnership aids youth in Israel; seeks Tucson volunteers
More than a dozen Americans and Israelis met recently in Israel to strategize plans for the TIPS (Tucson, Israel, Phoenix, Seattle) Partnership2Gether project for the coming year. Tucson volunteer Gail Ben-Jamin (known to her Israeli friends as Gila) and Oshrat Barel, the future shlicha or Israeli emissary to Tucson,… Read more »
Israeli couple hopes for change in U.S. immigration policy
A same-sex Israeli couple struggling against U.S. immigration laws are set to become the faces of the fight to extend one of the foundations of immigration policy to gays and lesbians. Adi Lavy and Tzila Levy have been caught in the bureaucratic red tape of the American immigration system… Read more »
Border clashes may make it hard for Israel to steer clear of Syria
For much of the past two years, Israel has taken a singular approach to the Syrian civil war: Stay as far away as possible. But with a recent string of victories by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad and the crumbling of the U.N. peacekeeping force that has kept… Read more »
Seeking Kin: Photo brings desperate hope for a Holocaust miracle
The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends. BALTIMORE (JTA) – Picking up her mail about a year ago, 88-year-old Rose Goteiner stopped in her tracks upon seeing the photo on a newsletter cover. Posing shortly after the Holocaust ended, 21 people were standing before… Read more »
For century-old ADL, curbing online hate proves a modern-day dilemma
WASHINGTON (JTA) — How do you confront hatred when it has no fixed address? Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League national director, attempts to pin down an answer to the question in his latest book, “Viral Hate.” Co-authored with privacy lawyer Christopher Wolf, the book chronicles the complications of countering… Read more »
Near Dutch ‘Sharia triangle,’ a small Jewish enclave endures
THE HAGUE, the Netherlands (JTA) — On a cold winter night in 2008, Wim Kortenoeven was startled by the crackling of a large fire raging near his home on the edge of this city’s last remaining Jewish enclave. Rushing from his apartment, Kortenoeven walked 70 yards and crossed the… Read more »
Shadows cast on the heroism of ‘Italian Schindler’
NEW YORK (Corriere della Sera Online) — His Wikipedia page remembers him, in at least 10 languages, as “the Italian police commissioner who saved thousands of Jews from being deported to Nazi extermination camps during the Second World War and for this was deported to the Dachau Concentration Camp,… Read more »
Why did Israel’s promising electric car maker fail?
TEL AVIV (JTA) — It was supposed to be the car of the future, a near-silent, battery-powered vehicle that would wean the West off its dependence on Middle Eastern oil and save the environment in the process. And an Israeli company seemed destined to build it. Better Place, founded… Read more »
On rabbinic equality, non-Orthodox leaders are hopeful but wary
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israel’s plans to move ahead with the funding of non-Orthodox rabbis appeared to be a landmark achievement for Reform and Conservative leaders, who have long chafed at their second-class treatment by the Israeli government. But even as they welcomed last week’s news that the Ministry… Read more »
EU envoy: Settlements leading to Israel’s isolation
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel’s settlement building is increasingly isolating the country in Europe, leading to European Union policies that could reinforce Israel’s delegitimization, according to the top EU representative to the peace process. Andreas Reinicke, the EU’s special envoy for the Middle East peace process, said increasing frustration with… Read more »
Power’s interventionism thrills pro-Israel crowd — except when it’s about Israel
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Samantha Power brings to foreign policy an activist impulse that many in the pro-Israel community wish was more prevalent among American diplomats. Except Power, a former White House national security council staffer nominated this week by President Obama to represent the United States at the United… Read more »
In new White House role, Israel will still keep Susan Rice busy
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Susan Rice has said that a “huge” portion of her work at the United Nations was defending Israel’s legitimacy. Her new job will likely be no less Israel-centric. President Obama plans Wednesday to name Rice his national security adviser and replace her at the U.N. with… Read more »
After nine months of captivity, Jewish doctor returns to hero’s welcome
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (JTA) — Cyril Karabus stepped into the arrivals hall at Cape Town International Airport to a rapturous welcome. A multiracial crowd numbering in the hundreds had turned out to greet him. A minstrel troupe was singing “Hevenu Shalom Aleichem.” And a rabbi stepped forward to… Read more »
How do you spell knaidel?
(JTA) — An Indian-American boy spelled the Yiddish-derived word “knaidel” correctly to win the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Arvind Mahankali, 13, of Bayside Hills, N.Y., defeated 10 other finalists on Thursday in National Harbor, Md., after spelling the word for a traditional Jewish dumpling. Mahankali won $30,000 in… Read more »
In Senate, Lautenberg maintained commitment to Jewish community
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In 1982, Frank Lautenberg was running for New Jersey’s U.S. Senate spot at a time when Democrats in the state were down on their political fortunes. The Jewish community knew and liked Lautenberg, a data processing magnate who died Monday at 89 after serving more than… Read more »
Google Glass portends brave new Jewish world
HIGHLAND PARK, N.J. (JTA) — Over the past few weeks, strangers have begun stopping high school computer science teacher Chaim Cohen on the street. A few accuse him of recording them without their knowledge. Even fewer blame him for all of society’s ills. But many just want an answer… Read more »