TEL AVIV (JTA) – Following a TV report alleging that Ethiopian Israeli women were being given contraceptive shots against their will, Israel’s Health Ministry has ordered physicians to put a stop to the practice. The report, broadcast Dec. 8 on the “Vacuum” investigative news program on Israeli Educational Television,… Read more »
News
In 2 Oscar-nominated documentaries, Israel takes a hit on occupation — and helps pay for it
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — It’s hard to imagine two more divergent perspectives on Israeli-Palestinian relations: that of a Palestinian farmer whose village is resisting the encroachment of a nearby Jewish settlement and of the security service chiefs responsible for maintaining order in the Palestinian territories. Surprisingly, however, these protagonists… Read more »
More details trickle out about Israel’s Prisoner X, aka Ben Zygier, an Australian Jew
SYDNEY (JTA) — More information has begun to trickle out about the mysterious man known as Prisoner X who hanged himself in Israel’s Ayalon Prison in 2010. The Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s “Foreign Correspondent” program made headlines worldwide when it reported this week that the prisoner, whose identity was so… Read more »
Benedict’s papacy: a period of close Jewish relations with occasional bumps
ROME (JTA) — Pope Benedict XVI’s eight-year reign as head of the world’s 1 billion Catholics sometimes was a bumpy one for the Vatican’s relations with Israel and the wider Jewish community. But it was also a period in which relations where consolidated and fervent pledges made to continue… Read more »
Israel Snapshot: A moment of fear amid peace of Galilee
Before I left for Israel, friends and family asked if I was afraid. “Not really,” I replied. It wasn’t until I was actually there, relaxing on the patio of the Mizpe Hayamim health farm … Read more »
Consul talks up the U.S.-Israel relationship
David Siegel, consul general of Israel in Los Angeles, gave a briefing to more than 40 Jewish community leaders on Wednesday, Jan. 30 at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. Siegel became consul general in 2011, serving the Southwestern United States. Most recently, he’d served as chief of staff… Read more »
Will Obama’s planned Israel visit revive Israel-Palestinian peace talks?
Is President Obama’s plan to visit Israel a sign that he’s ready to take another shot at Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking? The White House announced Tuesday that Obama would visit Israel in the spring, his first trip there as president. He did visit in 2008, when he was a candidate for… Read more »
Coming to TSO, Bell honors violin’s Jewish past
Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell will play with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. at the Tucson Music Hall. The program of romantic classics will include the overture to Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro,” Grieg’s “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen,” the “Wedding March” from Mendelssohn’s “A… Read more »
Local experts share tools for coping with bullying
Bullying is an issue of concern nationally; in a 2011 study, 44 percent of 10- to 17-year-olds reported being bullied. Awareness of this problem is on the rise in response to recent violent incidents, including school shootings and highly publicized cyberbullying. To address parents’ concerns, two local Jewish organizations,… Read more »
Support group to aid mothers of disabled
A support group for Jewish mothers of children of any age with disabilities will hold its inaugural meeting later this month. In a letter to prospective participants, organizer Joyce Stuehringer, who has an adult son born with a disability, wrote of her hope that in discussing common experiences, “we… Read more »
JFSA-Northwest introduces chair exercise
The Jewish Federation-Northwest will offer Healthy-Steps chair exercise classes on Tuesday mornings from 9 to 10 a.m., beginning Feb. 12. The gentle whole body workout is set to big band, jazz and swing era music. Based on the Lebed Method, it includes deep breathing, slow stretching and therapeutic exercises.… Read more »
JFSA Maimonides to tour ‘Deadly Medicine,’ hear survivor
Tucsonan Klara Swimmer was a 14-year-old schoolgirl in Hungary when she read a book about Madame Curie that set the course of her life. “I decided that I wanted to do something similar she did and that was medicine.” Swimmer, 88, didn’t allow the Holocaust to knock… Read more »
‘Holocaust Survivor Cookbook’ author to speak
Chabad of Tucson will host an evening with cookbook author Joanne Caras on Sunday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. at Congregation Young Israel. Caras’ cookbooks, “The Holocaust Survivor Cookbook” and its sequel, “Miracles & Meals,” memorialize lives lost in the Holocaust. The Port St Lucie, Fla., resident collected more… Read more »
JFSA transportation grant includes more shuls
Three years ago, transportation programs for Jewish seniors (60+) and adults with disabilities were begun through grants from the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Task Force for Seniors and Adults with Disabilities to Congregations Or Chadash and Bet Shalom. Last year Congregations Anshei Israel, Chaverim and M’kor Hayim and… Read more »
Wildcat’s Pasternack to join Hillel dinner
University of Arizona Assistant Basketball Coach Joe Pasternack will talk about this year’s top-10 Wildcats team at the UA Hillel Foundation alumni and friends’ dinner on Wednesday, Feb. 20 at 6:45 p.m. Pasternack is in his second year as UA assistant coach under Coach Sean Miller. The event, which… Read more »
“Too Jewish” to celebrate with live broadcast
The “Too Jewish” radio show with Rabbi Sam Cohon and Friends will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a live radio variety show broadcast from the Fox Theatre on March 2 at 7:45 p.m., featuring comedian Robert Klein along with Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, U.S. Rep. Ron Barber, Amy Hirshberg Lederman,… Read more »
Jews vocal on both sides of France’s gay marriage debate
(JTA) — Wide-eyed and smiley, Elay-Gabriel seems utterly unaffected by the French media’s sudden interest in him. A dozen French journalists have visited the 18-month-old in recent months because he is trapped in a sort of legal limbo: He cannot obtain citizenship because the state does not recognize children… Read more »
Documents show Venezuela spying on Jewish community
NEW YORK (JTA) — Espacio Anna Frank says its goal is to promote tolerance by teaching the life story of the teenage diarist murdered by the Nazis. But is there something sinister lurking behind the Venezuelan organization’s benevolent facade? SEBIN, the Venezuelan intelligence service, seems to believe so. According… Read more »
Ed Koch, pugnacious New Yorker and passionate Jew till his dying day
NEW YORK (JTA) — One of the proudest moments of Ed Koch’s life came during a trip to Israel in 1990, in the midst of the first Palestinian intifada. Koch had recently left City Hall after 12 years as mayor of New York City and was touring Jerusalem when… Read more »
Reports of Israeli attack come amid mounting concerns over Syrian chemical weapons
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israeli planes reportedly struck a Syrian weapons transport on the Lebanese border amid increasing fears that the country’s chemical weapons stockpile could fall into the hands of Hezbollah. The strikes, which occurred in the early hours of Wednesday morning, were reported to Reuters by a… Read more »