News

Temple Emanu-El is offering a new program for interfaith families, “Stepping Stones to a Jewish Family.” Stepping Stones is designed to introduce interfaith families to Judaism and Jewish rituals, synagogue life and community participation in a relaxed, informal way. Temple Emanu-El is partnering with the Tucson Hebrew Academy on… Read more »

Screen shot of the board at the United Nations General Assembly showing the 138-9 vote officially upgrading Palestine to nonmember observer state, Nov. 29, 2012. (Fox News)

NEW YORK (JTA) — The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to upgrade Palestine to a non-member observer state. The vote Thursday was 138 to 9, with 41 countries abstaining. The Palestinians had been expected handily to win the vote, which is largely symbolic. Cheers erupted in the General… Read more »

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, right, meets the Hamas Prime Minister Haniyeh in Cairo, July 26, 2012. (Mohammed Al-Ostaz/Flash90/JTA)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Is Morsi morphing into Mubarak? Last week Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi earned U.S. kudos that were quickly followed by expressions of concern — the former for brokering the truce that ended the Israel-Hamas mini-war, the latter for then decreeing himself absolute powers. It’s a sequence of… Read more »

(Washington Jewish Week) — A moment of silence. That’s what Jews worldwide were demanding at last summer’s London Olympics in memory of the 11 Israeli Olympians killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The Obama White House wasted little time releasing a statement supporting the gesture. But… Read more »

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announcing his retirement from politics at a news conference at the Defesne Ministry office in Tel Aviv, Nov. 26, 2012. (Roni Schutzer/Flash90/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Is Ehud Barak a calculating political survivor or a military man who, in his own words, “never had any special desire” for political life? Will he be remembered as a warrior or as a seeker of peace? And what will he do next? Barak’s announcement… Read more »

BRUSSELS (JTA) — Within hours of Israel’s assassination of a top Hamas commander, the situation room sprang into action, anticipating retaliatory attacks and preparing instructions to keep civilians out of harm’s way. No, the room wasn’t deep in a bunker beneath Jerusalem, but thousands of miles away — and… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — When the first two sirens went off, Shoshana Leshaw ran from her second-floor bedroom down to the bomb shelter in the basement. By the time the third and fourth sirens wailed, she went no farther than the stairwell. “It’s almost like you’re sick of the… Read more »

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, sitting, with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, left, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announce a cease-fire with Hamas at a news conference in Jerusalem, Nov. 21, 2012. (Miriam Alster/Flash90/JTA)

(JTA) – As Israel and Hamas mostly stilled their guns Wednesday night after reaching a cease-fire agreement, ending eight days of intense bombardment, both sides took home some new lessons about their foes. By firing longer-range rockets capable of reaching Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Hamas demonstrated for the first… Read more »

Moshe Bahta, director of the Ibim Absorption Center, briefing his staff, Nov. 18, 2012. (Adam Soclof)

IBIM, Israel (JTA) – The explosion occurred close enough to Stesyahu Alema to shake his apartment, where he sat with his wife and two of his five children. But he didn’t flinch. None of them did. “There are a lot of people with me, so I don’t need to… Read more »

Israeli soldier praying next to a tank along the Israel-Gaza border, Nov. 18, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90/JTA)

KFAR AZA, Israel (JTA) — In some ways, Israel’s latest confrontation with Hamas looks like past conflicts in the Gaza Strip. Operation Pillar of Defense has left some key Hamas leaders dead, depleted weapons supplies and hit more than 1,000 targets in Gaza. “We are exacting a heavy price… Read more »

Kiryat Malachi residents crying at the funeral of Itzik Amsalem on Nov. 16, 2012. Amsalem was killed in a missile attack the day before. (Ben Sales)

KIRYAT MALACHI, Israel (JTA) — They pick through the tangled foliage, Orthodox men with long beards and black kipahs, wearing white gloves and bright yellow vests, searching for body parts. A few yards over and four stories up, construction workers drive drills into a bombed apartment building. They speak… Read more »

Memorial candles lit for Kiryat Malachi casualties in the apartment building where they were killed by a Gaza rocket. (Anav Silverman/Tazpit News Agency)

It’s Thursday evening in Kiryat Malachi and the city of nearly 21,000 residents is strangely quiet. The usually busy city center is empty of people—most of the stores and restaurants have been shut down. There are no high school students loitering around, and no elderly folks smoking hooka or… Read more »

Lone soldier Stephen Segal (in purple beret)

The firing of missiles from Gaza into Israel and Israel’s Nov. 14 killing of Ahmed Jabari, the chief of Hamas’ military wing, initiated the call-up of Israel Defense Forces’ reserves. The situation escalated over the following week, and since Nov. 21, a precarious cease-fire has taken hold. For members… Read more »

Mason Tvert was the face of a successful campaign to legalize recreational marijuana in Colorado.

Say what you will about Mason Tvert, the Jewish activist behind the marijuana legalization campaign that passed in Colorado, the man clearly has a sense of humor. Some years ago, in his efforts to persuade the public that marijuana is far less of a health menace than alcohol, Tvert… Read more »

Greece’s Golden Dawn party leader Nikolaos G. Michaloliakos speaks in a political commercial in April. (YouTube)

For every Jew who lives in Greece, there are about 100 Greeks who voted for the country’s neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn, this past spring. The party now controls 18 seats in Greece’s 300-member parliament, and its popularity is rising rapidly: A poll taken in October showed that if elections… Read more »

Emily Peters

Emily Peters, 13, an eighth grader at Emily Gray Junior High School, wants to help kids at her school – and beyond – eat healthier and be more active. Emily is the Arizona ambassador for Fuel Up to Play 60, a school based nutrition and physical activity program sponsored… Read more »

Children watch Rabbi Yehudah Ceitlin of Chabad of Tucson demonstrate an olive oil press at the 2011 Hanukkah Mall Madness.

Shalom Tucson will hold its ninth annual Hanukkah Mall Madness event for children and parents on Sunday, Dec. 2, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Park Place Mall. Local synagogues and Jewish agencies will present activities and crafts, including dreidel games, holiday card-making, sand pictures, menorah placemats and face… Read more »

The Arizona Jewish Post is changing its home delivery system to better serve our readers. Beginning with the Dec. 14, 2012 issue, the AJP will be carrier-delivered … Read more »

Tucsonan Alain Avigdor, right, visits with a Jewish woman at an assisted living facility in Casablanca, Morocco. (Larry Gellman)

“Casablanca” brings to mind an almost mythical film in an exotic locale, conjuring up images of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman parting on a foggy airfield. But Casablanca is a real place where Jews have lived as far back as Roman times. Sixteen Tucsonans witnessed the vibrancy of Morocco’s… Read more »

The Iron Dome defense system firing missiles to intercept incoming rockets from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90/JTA)

SDEROT, Israel (JTA) — Wage war to make peace. That’s the idea behind Israel’s strikes this week against Hamas targets in Gaza, including Wednesday’s attack that killed Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari. What’s not clear is how far Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense will go, what price Israeli civilians… Read more »