News

This image shows Tropical Storm Ivo in the Pacific Ocean on Sept. 12, 2001. The storm never reached hurricane status, but did make political waves when it was nearly named "Israel." (NASA)

While Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on East Coast Jewish communities, another storm 11 years ago made serious political waves in the Jewish world. It’s not unusual for Jewish organizations to clash with United Nations agencies over issues related to Israel. But in 2001, Jewish groups’ concern for Israel drew… Read more »

Members of HaNoar Ha'Oved V'HaLomed, a left-wing youth group, attending the rally in memory of the slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Tel Aviv, Oct. 27, 2012. (Roni Schutzer/Flash90/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — About a year before Guy Ben-Simon was born, his parents attended the Tel Aviv rally where Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. It was a night of shock and sadness, they recalled for him while he was growing up. They had called all of their friends, telling… Read more »

Erica Fishbein volunteered with JDC's Entwine group in south Brooklyn following Hurricane Sandy. (Courtesy Cheryl Fishbein)

NEW YORK—Hurricane Sandy stormed into New York and New Jersey with unmitigated force, carrying death and destruction, disrupting lives, and devastating neighborhoods in America’s most densely populated regions—which happen to be home to some of the country’s largest Jewish populations. In response, the Jewish community banded together to meet… Read more »

At Mazel Academy in Brooklyn, Torah scrolls were unrolled to dry after being damaged by the floodwaters from Hurricane Sandy, Oct. 31, 2012. (Ben Harris)

NEW YORK (JTA) — When Rabbi Avremel Okonov arrived Tuesday morning at the school he co-founded 10 years ago in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, the water in the basement had already receded from the high water mark. It only came up to his knees. Everywhere he looked… Read more »

Walter Ferguson’s childhood encounter with birds piqued a lifelong interest.

Road kill, for most people, is something you try not to look at too closely and leave behind. But for Walter Ferguson these misfortunate animals could be a prized treasure. Ferguson, one of the world’s preeminent wildlife artists, would never wish for a little creature to be maimed. However,… Read more »

Maddy Melichar, Becky Monroy, Hayley Flanigan and Catalina Foothills High School Principal Angela Chomokos with Day of the Girl proclamations from the City of Tucson and the Pima County Board of Supervisors (Alison Hughes/Pima County/Tucson Women's Commission)

Last month, at the request of sophomore Becky Monroy and four friends at Catalina Foothills High School, the City of Tucson and the Pima County Board of Supervisors issued proclamations naming Oct. 11, 2012 “The Day of the Girl,” building on a successful campaign in almost 100 countries to… Read more »

Rick Recht (Jeff Hirsch)

Congregation Anshei Israel, Congregation Or Chadash and Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging will present Rick Recht live in concert on Monday, Nov. 12 at 6:30 p.m. at Congregation Anshei Israel. “The concert is a collaboration between three Jewish organizations, promoting the idea that music not only transcends boundaries,… Read more »

Congregation Or Chadash will present the fourth Jewish Food Festival and Fun Fair on Sunday, Nov. 4, from 11 a.m. to 4 pm. The festival gives the larger Tucson community the opportunity to try traditional and not-so-traditional Jewish foods in a family-friendly environment. Admission is $4 per person with… Read more »

Adina Bar-El, Ph.D.

The TIPS (Tucson, Israel, Seattle, Phoenix) Partnership 2Gether program (previously known as Partnership 2000) and the Weintraub Israel Center will host Adina Bar-El, Ph.D., author and expert on Hebrew and Yiddish children’s literature, in Tucson Nov. 5 through Nov. 9. Bar-El is the author of 19 books for children… Read more »

Barry Friedman

The Jewish History Museum will honor Barry Friedman with the 2012 Jewish Heritage Award at its annual luncheon later this month. Designed to honor an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the museum’s mission and to the larger Southern Arizona community, the award recognizes Friedman’s contribution to preserving… Read more »

C. Diane Ealy, Ph.D.

“From Fear to Excitement: Your Personal Journey of Empowerment” will be the focus of a fundraising workshop for Congregation Chaverim on Sunday, Nov. 11 from 9 a.m. till noon. “Chaverim has been through extremely difficult times these past two years with the death of Karla Ember and Gabby’s shooting,… Read more »

The Northwest Division of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will hold its second annual bus trip on Wednesday, Nov. 28. This year’s trip will be to the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. On the bus, Cantor Avi Alpert of Congregation Bet Shalom will provide a Jewish musical appetizer.… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El will hold a “Wii Against the Stars” fundraiser on Saturday, Nov. 17, from 5 to 8 p.m. Former University of Arizona basketball players Matt Muehlebach and Corey Williams, along with other former pro and collegiate athletes will be at the event to challenge guests in their sports… Read more »

Joseph Toltz, Ph.D. (Courtesy United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

Musical memories have helped Holocaust survivors deal with their trauma, a connection Joseph Toltz, Ph.D., has researched for the past 14 years. Toltz will lecture on “The Accidental Pioneer: Music from David Broder’s 1946 Work in the Displaced Persons Camps of Europe” at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on… Read more »

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Itamar Rabinovich and Guy Gelbart, director of the Weintraub Israel Center, at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on Oct 29. Rabinovich’s lecture drew a crowd of more than 400. (Sheila Wilensky/AJP)

Whether or not President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are the leaders of the United States and Israel come January, Iran’s nuclear program will still be on the table. Itamar Rabinovich, Israeli ambassador to the United States from 1993 to 1996, presented “The U.S., Israel and the… Read more »

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi addressing the U.N. General Assembly, Sept. 26, 2012. (UN Photo/Marco Castro)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Jewish groups looking for signals from Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi regarding his views were appalled when one finally came — in the form of a nod and what appeared to be a muttered “amen” to an imam’s call for God to “deal harshly” with the Jews.… Read more »

Jacob Vogelman and Jessie Streich-Kest, pictured together in this 2007 photo. The young Jewish couple from Brooklyn was killed when a tree felled by Hurricane Sandy struck them while they walked their dog on Oct. 29, 2012. (Facebook)

(JTA) — Two young Jews were killed in Brooklyn by a falling tree during superstorm Sandy. The pair were out walking a dog Monday night in the storm’s high winds. The dead were identified by The New York Observer as Jessie Streich-Kest, 24, who worked as a high school… Read more »

Damage to New York City infrastructure, like this one inside a New York subway station, was extensively documented online as Hurricane Sandy washed ashore. (@HeyVeronica via Twitter)

NEW YORK (JTA) – At 10 p.m. on Monday, as the full brunt of Hurricane Sandy was bearing down on the northeastern United States, filmmaker Sandi Dubowski posted an urgent online message. DuBowski’s elderly parents had declined to leave their home in Manhattan Beach, a neighborhood of southern Brooklyn… Read more »

Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, of Likud and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman of Yisrael Beiteinu holding a joint news conference announcing that their two parties are joining forces ahead of the upcoming Israeli general elections, Oct. 25, 2012. (Miriam Alster/Flash90/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Political pundits have long debated who is the real Benjamin Netanyahu. Is he a pragmatist handcuffed by his right-wing support base and fealty to his late father’s nationalist vision? Is he a true right-wing ideologue whose apparent concessions to Israeli-Palestinian peace are but feints? Or… Read more »

President Barack Obama, left, and challenger Mitt Romney differ on several issues of importance to the Jewish community. (Graphics by Uri Fintzy)

NEW YORK (JTA) -- JTA reviews the positions of presidential candidates Barack Obama, the Democratic incumbent, and Republican challenger Mitt Romney on some issues of importance to the Jewish community.… Read more »