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 »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hours after three Israelis in southern Israel were killed by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, a rocket struck the outskirts of Tel Aviv, bringing the conflict between Israel and Hamas to a new intensity. On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces reportedly sent ground trips to the… Read more »
Micah Halpern It doesn’t matter who the president is when it comes to U.S. policy toward Israel. When political pundit Micah D. Halpern made that statement in his talk, “Making Sense of the Middle East: A Post-Election Analysis,” at a Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona leadership campaign summit on Nov. 8,… Read more »
Israeli author Adina Bar-El, left, with Tucsonan Bill Kugelman (Phyllis Braun/AJP) Adina Bar-El, Ph.D., a children’s book author from Hof Ashkelon, Israel, came to Tucson last week to talk about the power of stories — and ended up discovering tales of her own family’s past. On Friday, Nov. 9, Tucsonan Bill Kugelman attended Bar-El’s Heartbeat of Israel breakfast talk at… Read more »
A new Arizona state tax credit allows taxpayers to double their donations to the Jewish Education Tax Credit Organization, JETCO — without costing them a penny. Earlier this year, the Arizona legislature passed SB1047 to give children enrolled in public schools the opportunity to switch to private schools by… Read more »
Ever since terrorists based in Gaza started firing missiles into Israel several years ago, the residents of Kiryat Malachi have been worried. Over the years, missiles have fallen around the town but have landed in open areas just outside of the municipal borders. All of that changed this morning… Read more »
Smoke rising following an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City, Nov. 14, 2012. (Edi Israel/Flash90/JTA) JERUSALEM (JTA) – The Israeli army began moving infantry units to the south and calling up reservists in preparation for a further escalation of hostilities with Hamas after an Israeli airstrike killed Hamas’ military chief in the strip. Ahmed Jabari and a passenger were killed by an Israeli missile… Read more »
Phillipe Karsenty delivering a lecture on the al-Dura affair in France in 2011. (Courtesy Phillipe Karsenty) PARIS (JTA) — To his allies, he’s a bulldog. Enemies call him a conspiracist and a genocide denier. Both sides, however, agree on one thing: One could find a more pleasant adversary than French-Jewish politician and activist Philipe Karsenty. It’s an impression easily reached in even a short conversation with… Read more »
Billionaire Munib al-Masri, the richest Palestinian in the West Bank, standing outside his mansion near Nablus, a replica of a 16th century Italian villa. (Ben Sales) NABLUS, West Bank (JTA) — Dozens of photographs line the wall of a room on the first floor of Palestinian billionaire Munib al-Masri’s West Bank villa, depicting a man of global influence but also of divergent impulses. Al-Masri is seen posing with the likes of Pope John Paul II… Read more »
Suzi Hileman After 22 months, Suzi Hileman finally got to step into a courtroom and confront Jared Lee Loughner, the man who killed six people and wounded her and 12 others who’d come to meet with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords at a Tucson Safeway on Jan. 8, 2011. “I have wanted to… Read more »
