President Obama addressing the biennial conference of the Union for Reform Judaism, Dec. 16, 2011. (URJ) WASHINGTON (JTA) — The moment in the final presidential debate when President Obama described his visit to Israel’s national Holocaust museum and to the rocket-battered town of Sderot seemed to be aimed right for the kishkes. The “kishkes question” — the persistent query about how Obama really feels about… Read more »
Elie Berrebi, director of the Jewish Consistory of Marseille, at the city's Great Synagogue, Oct. 14, 2012. (Cnaan Liphshiz) MARSEILLE, France (JTA) — At a time when Jewish institutions across France resemble military fortresses for their security, entering the great synagogue and main Jewish center of this picturesque city on the Mediterranean coast is as easy as pushing open the front door. The only obstacles on a recent… Read more »
Bar-Ilan University historian Ariel Toaff being served a double-roasted goose and baked onion salad by a "medieval" waitress in Bevagna, Italy. (Ruth Ellen Gruber) BEVAGNA, Italy (JTA) — In a medieval tavern in 21st century Italy, waitresses in archaic costumes served a tepid, chalk-white substance the texture of oatmeal to tables filled with slightly skeptical diners. Sweet yet salty, and flavored with a mix of unexpectedly tangy spices, it turned out to be… Read more »
Mitt Romney, left, and President Obama, shown onscreen during their debate on Oct. 22, 2012, were generally in agreement on the Middle East at the Florida one-on-one on foreign policy. (Rosa Trieu/Neon Tommy via Creative Commons) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel, a heated issue throughout the campaign, finally took center stage at the final presidential debate. It was mentioned a total of 31 times by President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney at Monday night’s foreign policy debate at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. Actual… Read more »
Israeli police arresting Anat Hoffman after she said the Shema Israel prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Oct. 16, 2012. (Women of the Wall) TEL AVIV (JTA) — Last week’s episode was hardly the first time Israeli police stopped activist Anat Hoffman while she was leading a women’s prayer service at the Western Wall in violation of Israeli law. But this time, police actually arrested Hoffman — a first, she says — and… Read more »
Asmaa al-Ghoul, a Palestinian journalist, is trying to advance civil and human rights in Gaza by protesting Hamas policies. (Courtesy International Women's Media Foundation) TEL AVIV (JTA) — She can’t stay out of trouble there, but Asmaa al-Ghoul always comes back to Gaza. A secular, feminist Palestinian journalist, al-Ghoul, 30, has been harassed by Hamas. She’s also been beaten and arrested by Hamas police for protesting its Islamist policies and suppression of human… Read more »
George McGovern signing his book "Abraham Lincoln" at the Richard M. Nixon Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, Calif., August 2009. (Scott Clarkson via CC) WASHINGTON (JTA) — George McGovern is widely remembered for advocating immediate American withdrawal from Vietnam and sharp reductions in defense spending. Yet despite his reputation as a pacifist, the former U.S. senator and 1972 presidential candidate, who died Sunday at 90, did believe there were times when America should… Read more »
Eric Buss Eric Buss will perform a family friendly comedy show on Saturday, Nov. 3 at 6:30 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El. A Tucson native, Buss combines crazy inventions and high energy into an award-winning act, which he has performed on the David Letterman show, on five continents and on television in… Read more »
Phyllis Broad Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging will present its fourth annual “Celebration of Tucson’s Oldest Jewish Residents”on Thursday, Oct. 25 at 11 a.m. The lunch will honor Jewish Tucsonans who are 88 or older. Phyllis Broad will be recognized for her commitment to Handmaker and the greater Tucson Jewish… Read more »
Itamar Rabinovich Itamar Rabinovich, Israel’s ambassador to the United States from 1993 to 1996, will present “The U.S., Israel and the Challenge of Iran: Options and Constraints,” on Monday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. A Weintraub Israel Center Heartbeat of Israel program, the free lecture… Read more »
Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman of Chabad of Tucson affixes the mezuzah at the grand opening of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona's Northwest office in October 2012. (Phyllis Braun) The Jewish Federation-Northwest celebrated its grand opening at 190 W. Magee Road on Sunday, Oct. 7. Although the new office of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Northwest Division has been open since July, offering classes, Torah study, women’s Rosh Chodesh gatherings, mah jongg, arts and crafts for all… Read more »
A projection of what Rambam Hospital’s underground hospital will look like once it is completed. (Rambam Hospital, Haifa) When missiles rained down on northern Israel from Lebanon six years ago, surgeons at Rambam Hospital in Haifa worked, terrified, on the building’s eighth floor. That summer, missiles had struck fewer than 20 yards away, endangering the staff and patients of northern Israel’s largest hospital and the central facility… Read more »
Tucsonan Bill Kugelman, a Holocaust survivor from Poland, talks with Polish students Michal Kochanowski, Maciej Baranowski and Milena Adelt at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on Oct. 9. (Sharon Glassberg/JFSA) Polish high school teacher Barbara (Basia) Matusiak wears a Star of David around her neck, although she isn’t Jewish. Matusiak was part of a non-Jewish Polish group that included 10 teens, two teachers and the principal of High School 15 in Lodz, Poland, who visited Tucson from Oct. 4… Read more »
A poster touts the debate Oct. 11 between Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in Danville, Ky. The candidates outlined differences over what constitutes a red line for action when it comes to Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. (Creative Commons) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made headlines last month with this question: What are the U.S. red lines when it comes to Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program? The two presidential campaigns are offering two different answers. “Recently, President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have talked… Read more »
TEL AVIV (JTA) — The Facebook page of PlayArt Labs, an Israeli gaming startup, looks more like the homepage of an art museum than the profile of an emerging technology company. It features an article about Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” an animation of Vincent van Gogh’s… Read more »
Hannah Rosenthal, center, the anti-Semitism monitor for the United States, meeting with English language micro-scholarship students in Azerbaijan, March 2011. (U.S. Embassy Baku) WASHINGTON (JTA) – Anti-Semitism overseas is being noted with increasing frequency by U.S. State Department human rights reports, and Hannah Rosenthal says that’s a good thing. Rosenthal, the State Department’s second anti-Semitism monitor, says increased reporting reflects burgeoning awareness of the problem among U.S. diplomats. “The not-so-sexy part of… Read more »
Arlen Specter, shown speaking at the AFL-CIO convention in September 2009, represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate for 30 years. (Steve Dietz/Sharp Image) WASHINGTON (JTA) — During his 30 years in the clubby confines of the U.S. Senate, Arlen Specter never lost his acerbic prosecutorial zeal, friends and associates say. The insistent questions, the commitment to independence that made the longtime Pennsylvania senator a critical player in recent U.S. history, ultimately did… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When 15 prominent American Protestant leaders sent a letter to Congress last week calling for an investigation and possible suspension of U.S. aid to Israel, at least one outcome was certain: The Jews wouldn’t like it. Already, one major American Jewish group has canceled its participation… Read more »
Rabbi Raphael Evers speaking with spectators at the commemoration ceremony on the 20th anniversary of the crash of an El Al plane in Amsterdam, Oct. 4, 2012. (Cnaan Liphshiz) AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Chemical weapons, nuclear debris and Mossad agents in biohazard suits all have played prominent roles in the dozens of conspiracy theories surrounding the crash of an El Al airplane here 20 years ago this month. But Rob Oudkerk, vice chairman of the Dutch parliament’s inquiry into… Read more »
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing early elections in Israel at a news conference at his office in Jerusalem, Oct. 9, 2012. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90/JTA) TEL AVIV (JTA) — It wasn’t Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for early elections that was unusual. After all, only a few governments have served a full term in Israel’s 64-year history. What was unusual was that seemingly everyone on Israel’s political spectrum — from left to right — appeared to… Read more »
