(N.Y. Jewish Week) — The recent celebration of Purim offers an appropriate moment to recall a man known for a time as “America’s Haman.” That Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s story ended very differently than the story of Haman in the Book of Esther reminds us how America itself is… Read more »
News
Netanyahu pledges decisive response as rockets slam southern Israel
JERUSALEM (JTA) – As southern Israel was barraged by rockets for a fourth straight day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was hitting back “strongly and decisively,” and its Iron Dome anti-missile defense system was intercepting many of the rockets coming from the Gaza Strip. “The IDF is continuing… Read more »
Youth library at Temple will honor daughter
Jonathan and Marcia Katz are creating the Rebecca Katz Youth Library at Temple Emanu-El in honor of their daughter, who died two years ago at age 22. A dedication and grand opening will take place in late April. “The inspiration for this library comes from Rebecca’s passion for literature,… Read more »
Hadassah parties, book to celebrate 100th
Hadassah: The Women’s Zionist Organization of America is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. As part of the celebration, the national organization is printing a commemorative book due out this spring, “Thin Threads: Real Stories of Hadassah Life Changing Moments.” Hadassah Southern Arizona Co-President Anne Lowe was one of… Read more »
AJTC to stage ‘Blessing of a Broken Heart’
The Phoenix-based Arizona Jewish Theatre Company will present “The Blessing of a Broken Heart,” based on the award- winning book by Sherri Mandel, from March 22 to April 1. Adapted by Todd Salovey, the play depicts a young American mother who moves her family from suburban Maryland to Israel… Read more »
‘Food Stamped’ documentary tackles challenge with humor
“Food Stamped — A Documentary” will be shown at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on Thursday, March 15 at 7 p.m. The film humorously chronicles a couple who are trying to maintain a healthy, balanced diet while on a food stamp budget. The documentary is part of the Jewish… Read more »
ADL condemns AZ Senate invitation to ‘anti-Semitic bigot’
State Sens. Steve Gallardo and Robert Meza, both of Phoenix, walked out of an Arizona Senate hearing March 1 to protest a presentation by Glenn Spencer, a border activist who the Anti-Defamation League calls “an anti-Hispanic, anti-Semitic bigot.” Sen. Sylvia Allen invited Spencer to speak to the Arizona Senate… Read more »
Temple Emanu-El Bilgray scholar to take philosophical approach
When Rabbi Michael Morgan, Ph.D., comes to Tucson as Temple Emanu-El’s Bilgray scholar, be ready for some lively intellectual discussion. Morgan, a distinguished scholar in post-Holocaust philosophy and the author of 16 books, will be a scholar-in-residence at Temple Emanu-El March 22 to 24, with his first talk at… Read more »
‘All That Jazz’ to honor JFSA’s Mellan
The Jewish community will celebrate a longtime leader later this month at “All That Jazz,” a party honoring and starring Stuart Mellan, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona for almost 18 years. “Stuart’s been so terrific,” says Donald Diamond, who initiated the event after… Read more »
New Jersey native hopes to sled for Israel at Olympics
Meet Bradley Chalupski, Israel’s best hope for a medal on the bobsled track at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in 2014. Chalupski is an unlikely Israeli athlete. For one thing, he competes in skeleton, a sport that’s virtually unknown in Israel — not to mention the rest of… Read more »
Obama and Netanyahu disagree on Iran, in public and in private
President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree, at least in principle: Keep the talk on what to do about Iran behind closed doors. But once they’re behind those doors, they can’t agree — and they can’t seem to resist bringing their disagreements into the open. Within hours… Read more »
Israel’s people and diversity charm latest AIFL Tucson youth ambassadors
A tree was planted in Israel recently to honor Elaina Espinosa’s great-grandmother. Espinosa isn’t Jewish — neither was her great-grandmother — but she is one of six Tucson high school students who went to Israel in November as youth ambassadors for the Tucson chapter of the America-Israel Friendship… Read more »
‘Citizenship Counts’ celebrates America as a nation of immigrants
U.S. citizenship matters, especially for Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein. On Feb. 14, the 87-year-old humanitarian told hundreds of eighth graders at Tucson’s Mansfeld Middle School why she founded Citizenship Counts, a national non-partisan, nonprofit organization based in Phoenix. Phoenix attorney Paul Eckstein offered tidbits of Arizona history to… Read more »
At Obama-Netanyahu summit, assurances exchanged but differences remain
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may not have bridged their differences on how to deal with Iran, but each managed to give the other a measure of reassurance. In his speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Obama held his ground, declining… Read more »
No surprises in Putin victory, but question for Russian Jews is what comes next
(JTA) — With Vladimir Putin’s re-election as president of Russia pretty much a foregone conclusion, the question facing Russia was never what would result from last weekend’s election but what would happen after the vote. Thousands of protesters turned out Monday in a Moscow saturated with police and soldiers… Read more »
In face of desperate African poverty, Jewish woman provides a beacon of hope
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (JTA) — Two years after moving to Zimbabwe from South Africa 20 years ago, Ruth Feigenbaum noticed that her gardener, James Phiri, was losing weight and looking ill. With the help of a physician friend, Phiri was diagnosed: Like nearly one in seven Zimbabweans, he was… Read more »
Will Israel’s Supreme Court tilt conservative after Dorit Beinisch leaves?
JERUSALEM (JTA) — It ordered the West Bank security fence rerouted because it cut through private Palestinian property. It overturned state-backed discrimination against Arab Israelis on issues of land distribution and ruled against the Israel Defense Forces’ use of military methods deemed to cause “disproportionate” harm to Palestinian civilians.… Read more »
In Ohio, GOP pins Senate hopes on young Jewish Iraq vet
WASHINGTON (JTA) — As the 2012 campaign heats up in Ohio, Republicans are pinning their hopes on a young Jewish military veteran to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown. Josh Mandel, a 34-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran and the current state treasurer, has faced a number of challenges but… Read more »
Pro-Israel voices joining bid to get Iranian dissident group off U.S. terror list
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Famed attorney Alan Dershowitz, former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel — three prominent Jewish activists who have joined with other prominent people in a bid to remove a group with a blood-soaked history from the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.… Read more »
On the issues: GOP hopefuls on Israel, Iran, abortion, Social Security and more
NEW YORK (JTA) — In advance of Super Tuesday, JTA takes a look at the stances of the four Republican presidential candidates on some issues of Jewish interest. The candidates are listed in alphabetical order. ABORTION Newt Gingrich: Has said that abortion should not be legal, though he makes… Read more »