Palestinian Authority Minister of Health Dr. Hani Abdeen visited Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem on May 5. The hospital said Abdeen was the first P.A. health minister to visit the facility. Abdeen, accompanied by other senior officials from the Palestinian Authority, met some of the dozens of Palestinian physicians who… Read more »
News
Amid rising Islamism in Africa, Israel-Senegal ties are still flourishing
Struggling to be heard over a flock of bleating sheep, Israel’s ambassador to Senegal invites a crowd of impoverished Muslims to help themselves to about 100 sacrificial animals that the embassy corralled at a dusty community center here. The October distribution, held as French troops battled Islamists in neighboring… Read more »
Gelbart family farewell planned
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and Tucson Jewish Community Center will host a farewell party for community shaliach (Israeli emissary) and Israel Center Director Guy Gelbart and family on Wednesday, May 22, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the JCC. The family friendly event will include a light… Read more »
Relationships in business and love to be focus of author talk
The Temple Emanu-El adult education committee will present a book talk by Miriam Hawley and her husband, Jeffrey McIntyre, authors of “Living with Intention in Life, Love and Business,” on Tuesday, May 21, from 7 to 9 p.m. Hawley and McIntyre, business coaches who have worked with executive management… Read more »
With new luxury dorm, Orlando philanthropists offer Hillel evergreen funding model
ORLANDO, Fla. (JTA) – Real estate developer Hank Katzen has a conviction: If you build it, they will come. Except this is no baseball field in an Iowa cornfield. It’s a $60 million, 600,000-square-foot luxury dormitory at the nation’s second-largest college campus, the University of Central Florida in this… Read more »
One month after murder of Aliza Sherman, Cleveland Jews clamoring for answers
CLEVELAND (JTA) — The voice of the 911 caller is frantic, pleading for help. In the background, the victim is heard moaning, her words unclear. “There’s blood everywhere,” the caller says. “I’ve never seen so much blood.” Paramedics arrive on the scene in downtown Cleveland moments later and rush… Read more »
Will controversies hurt liberals’ support for Obama?
WASHINGTON (JTA) — What happens when the rabbi who delivered the invocation at your nomination inveighs against you? Three controversies in quick succession have earned President Obama opprobrium from some of his most steadfast liberal supporters, including Rabbi David Saperstein, who directs the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center. The… Read more »
Moroccan king funding preservation of Cape Verde Jewish heritage — but to what end?
PRAIA, Cape Verde (JTA) — A Portuguese rabbi and a Moroccan diplomat stood shoulder to shoulder in a Catholic cemetery here while 200 mourners howled in grief as they buried a resident of this island off the western coast of Africa. The foreigners had come to Cape Verde’s main… Read more »
31 things to do during Jewish American Heritage Month
NEW YORK (JTA) — May is Jewish American Heritage Month, a commemoration first recognized by President George W. Bush in 2006. Since then, hundreds of programs have taken place nationwide annually to honor the rich contributions of Jews to American culture and society. President Obama added to the annual… Read more »
Jewish Scouting leaders vocal on gay inclusion
NEW YORK (JTA) — Jewish Scouting leaders are taking a vocal role in efforts to pass a historic resolution that would partially lift a ban on gays in the Boy Scouts of America. In a meeting of the National Jewish Committee on Scouting in February, members voted overwhelmingly in… Read more »
Israeli Paralympian Pascale Bercovitch eyes 2016 Games in Rio
TEL AVIV (JTA) – Pascale Bercovitch has a firm handshake and a ready smile. She’s hard to keep up with as she takes an elevator to a cafe on the ground floor of her gym in northern Tel Aviv and talks about her hopes to compete in 2016 in… Read more »
Haredi Orthodox youth mob Western Wall to protest women’s prayer service
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Haredi Orthodox youths mobbed the Western Wall plaza by the thousands to protest Women of the Wall as they held their monthly prayer service. The youths, many of them students from haredi Orthodox yeshivas, filled the Western Wall Plaza by 6:40 a.m. on Friday, 20 minutes… Read more »
Arizona higher education panel examines funding, philosophy
Our system of higher education hasn’t changed in the last 60 years, University of Arizona President Emeritus Peter Likins said at a breakfast and panel discussion April 26 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. As the moderator of the discussion on “The Future of Higher Education in Arizona,” when… Read more »
Oil-rich Qatar pushing to make its name as a Mideast peace broker
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When it comes to the latest Arab peace initiative, two questions are circulating in Washington: Why Qatar? And why now? The three answers: Because Qatar is rich; it is scared; and why not? Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al Thani, the Qatari prime minister and… Read more »
Breaking with all black, some Chabad men pushing fashion boundaries
NEW YORK (JTA) — Yosel Tiefenbrun looked in the mirror and he liked what he saw. The 23-year-old Chabad rabbi and apprentice at Maurice Sedwell, a bespoke tailor’s shop on London’s Savile Row, was wearing a vintage double-breasted jacket with gold buttons, tasseled Barker shoes, a claret bow tie… Read more »
Syria attacks suggest Israel can act with impunity
TEL AVIV (JTA) – Twice in three days, Israeli warplanes entered Syrian airspace and fired on suspected weapons caches bound for Hezbollah — and nothing has happened in response. Some experts are predicting that will continue to be the case following airstrikes near Damascus on Friday and Sunday that are… Read more »
Hadassah will host heart health expert
Lorraine Mackstaller, M.D., is devoted to educating the public, especially women, about heart disease. She will present “Knowledge is Power” at Hadassah Southern Arizona’s luncheon on Sunday, May 19, at noon at Skyline Country Club. Mackstaller is a clinical associate professor of medicine at the Arizona Health Sciences Center,… Read more »
Lecture to tell journey from pastor to rabbi
Jack Parisi, an evangelical Christian pastor who became a rabbi, will speak as part of Chabad of Tucson’s 2013 lecture series on Sunday, May 19, at 7 p.m. at Congregation Young Israel. Parisi’s life-changing journey began when he and his wife, Sally, co-pastors of a church in the Bible… Read more »
Sharansky’s Kotel plan losing support from both sides
Following a court ruling in their favor, leaders of an organization pushing for women’s prayer rights at the Western Wall have withdrawn their endorsement of Natan Sharansky’s compromise proposal to expand the egalitarian section there. A Jerusalem District Court ruled last week that Women of the Wall members who… Read more »
Tucson’s Israel 65 Festival – in pictures
More than 4,000 people attended the Israel 65 Festival on Sunday, April 21, enjoying food, games, the shuk marketplace, music and dance. Special guests included Dana Erlich, consul for public diplomacy, Consulate General of Israel, Los Angeles; U.S. Rep. Ron Barber; Tucson City Councilwoman Karen Ulich; and Mayor Jonathan… Read more »