News

Syrians demonstrate in the coastal city of Banias against the regime of hard-line leader Bashar Assad in the spring of 2011. (Syrian Freedom via Creative Commons)

As the Syrian government intensifies its assault on opposition strongholds, the debate is heating up in Washington over how to end the bloody crackdown and bring about regime change. The Obama administration has tried to ratchet up pressure on the Syrian regime through international diplomacy and strong economic sanctions.… Read more »

2011 Tucson Festival of Books (James S. Wood Photography)

Top-notch authors from Tucson and around the United States will descend on the University of Arizona campus March 10-11 for what’s been called the “Best Book Festival Under the Sun.” The Tucson Festival of Books has grown exponentially since it debuted in 2009, attracting 100,000 book lovers in 2011,… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El will hold a “funraiser” dance on March 3 from 7 to 10 p.m., with a DJ spinning rock and roll music from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. The event is open to ages 21 and up and will include a silent auction. Admission is $9 per single,… Read more »

Tucson diners will now be able to go out on the town while still paying attention to calories. Twenty-seven restaurant owners joined nutritional experts earlier this month to launch the “Smart Choices for Healthy Dining” program. The program is one of the crowning achievements of the $16 million grant… Read more »

Melissa Hamilton, a violist with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, is organizing 16 TSO members to perform at this year’s community-wide Yom HaShoah commemoration on Sunday, April 22. Hamilton and TSO pianist Marie Sierra will hold a fundraising recital for the Yom HaShoah event on Saturday, March 3 at 7:30… Read more »

Congregation Bet Shalom will hold its 9th annual Wine Tasting Event on Saturday, March 10, from 7:30 to 11 p.m. This year’s theme is “Wines from Around the World,” with wines from Israel, Australia, Italy and the United States provided by event sponsor Total Wine & More. The evening… Read more »

Paulina Goldberg (left) and Raisa Moroz, Holocaust case manager at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, review paperwork at Goldberg’s Council House apartment.

Raisa Moroz, Holocaust case manager/program manager at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, has more than 80 clients on her caseload. But she wants more. “I want people to know this program is available,” says Moroz, who estimates that there are 120 or more Holocaust survivors in Southern Arizona. Every… Read more »

The Claims Conference recently negotiated changes with the German government that should make more Holocaust survivors eligible to collect ghetto pension and one-time ghetto fund payments. Raisa Moroz, Holocaust case manager at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, explains that under previous ghetto pension rules, people had to have lived… Read more »

Mira Awad (left) and Noa

Israeli star Noa and her touring partner Mira Awad will give a UApresents concert on Sunday, March 25 at 6:30 p.m. at Centennial Hall. “Noa and Mira are amazing Jewish Israeli and Palestinian Israeli singers; they bring a fresh musical approach to peace that shows that there can be… Read more »

Anna Greenberg at Sabino Canyon in a “Run with Anna” t-shirt. One of her brothers, Aaron, created “Run with Anna” events as a way to promote regular physical activity. See facbeook.com/RUNwithANNA.

Get healthy — it could save your life. That may sound incredibly obvious, but in the case of Tucson native Anna Greenberg, it’s the start of a remarkable story. Greenberg, 26, was told two years ago that her weight was jeopardizing her health. Her doctor, also a family friend,… Read more »

Jewish backers of Rick Santorum, shown speaking at an Arizona Republican Party fundraiser in Phoenix on Feb. 21, 2012, say Jewish voters should look past his hard-line social conservatisim and consider his message on the economy and on Israel. (Gage Skidmore via Creative Commons)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — If Rick Santorum secures the Republican nomination, expect to hear this mantra from his Jewish supporters: In times of crisis, social issues don’t matter. The former Pennsylvania senator, who is leading in national polls in the race for the GOP presidential nod, is fiercely anti-abortion and… Read more »

Palestinians demonstrating outisde Israel's Supreme court in Jerusalem in support of Khader Adnan, who declared a hunger strike in Israeli jail more than two months ago. Adnan ended his hunger strike on Feb. 21, following an agreement with the State PRosecutor's Office. (Kobi Gideon/Flash 90/JTA)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — As his weight dropped and his face grew gaunt, Khader Adnan became the latest Palestinian cause celebre. Israel arrested Adnan, a 33-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank village of Arraba, on Dec. 17 and placed him in administrative detention. The former spokesman for the terrorist group… Read more »

Alan and Judy Gross at the Western Wall in the spring of 2005. (Courtesy of the Gross family)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – For the Jews of Cuba, it was the ultimate Internet connection. The high-tech equipment that U.S. contractor Alan Gross brought with him to Cuba in 2009 to help connect local Jews to the Internet reportedly included a SIM card that makes it almost impossible to track… Read more »

Hundreds of Israelis protesting against the country's soaring cost of living in front of the Knesset in Jerusalem, Aug. 2, 2011. (Yossi Zamir/Flash 90/JTA)

JERUSALEM (JTA) – “It’s the economy stupid” was how American political strategist James Carville once summed up the defining issue in U.S. presidential elections. But in Israel, besieged by enemy nations and locked into an ongoing conflict with the Palestinians, security has traditionally trumped all other political agendas. Until… Read more »

ODESSA, Ukraine (JTA) — In a colorful room at the Tikva Children’s Home here, 30 young boys stand in two straight lines and wait for the cue signaling that they are to start singing. The children, students in a music class, are performing “Mind Your Manners” by the Philadelphia-based… Read more »

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi presents Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a plaque, August 2011. (The Israel Project)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Here’s what the international Jewish media conspiracy looks like: Two men and four women, all clad in dark suits, sitting around a table in a windowless conference room in a nondescript office in midtown Manhattan. Together they run a global organization stretching from Washington to… Read more »

French President Nicholas Sarkozy addressing guests at the CRIF dinner, Feb. 8, 2012. (Erez Lichtfeld courtesy of CRIF)

PARIS (JTA) – Trailing in the polls and with elections just 10 weeks away, French President Nicolas Sarkozy went to one of his most reliable bases of support — French Jews — to drum up enthusiasm. On the morning of Feb. 8, Sarkozy met at Elysees Palace with released… Read more »

Protesters in the aftermath of deadly riots march in Cairo on Feb. 3, 2012. The increasing chaos in Egypt, including the recent arrest of U.S. democracy activists, has raised questions about it factors into U.S. and Israel security considerations in the region. (Gigi Ibrahim via CC)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The future of a key pillar of Israeli security could rest with the fate of a few dozen pro-democracy activists in Egypt. After Egyptian authorities filed charges on Feb. 6 against 43 American and other foreign pro-democracy activists who worked in the country, leading members of… Read more »

Sen. Lindsey Graham, shown attending Independence Day celebrations at the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, in July 2011, has authored a resolution that would make an Iranian nuclear capability a "red line." (Courtesy U.S. Embassy, Kabul)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Is America’s red line on Iran moving? A new bipartisan resolution introduced Thursday on Capitol Hill is part of a growing effort to shift the longstanding U.S. red line from Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon to having the capability to build one. Such a shift would… Read more »

Evan Kaufmann, a U.S.-born hockey player whose great-grandparents were killed in the Holocaust, is now representing the German national team. (Courtesy Eishockey Magazin)

WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (JTA) — More than 65 years ago, Evan Kaufmann’s great-grandparents were murdered in the Auschwitz death camp. Now he is taking the ice for the German national hockey team. Following a successful hockey career at the University of Minnesota, Kaufmann tried out for several professional clubs in… Read more »