Peter Singer speaking at a Veritas Forum event on the Massachusetts Institute of technology campus, March 2009. (Joel Travis Sage via CC) SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) — He’s been brandished “the most dangerous man on earth,” accused of being a “public advocate of genocide” and likened to Josef Mengele, the notorious Nazi “Angel of Death.” Yet he’s also been hailed as “one of the world’s 100 most influential people” and “among the… Read more »
Students from the St. Ursula-Schule, a Catholic high school in Germany, view facsimiles of ads for Hitler's "Mein Kampf" at the House of the Wannsee Conference in Potsdam, site of the planning of the Final Solution. (Toby Axelrod) BERLIN (JTA) –- Does “Mein Kampf” belong in German high schools? With Adolf Hitler’s book due to come out of wraps here in 2015, freed after decades under copyright protection that prevented its publication in Germany, it’s a question that is being debated in classrooms and on German TV… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Most Jewish groups who have weighed in on Arizona’s controversial immigration law saw progress in the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to repeal three of the law’s four parts, but had concerns that law enforcement officials would still be allowed to check the legal immigration status of… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt less than three weeks before the protests there led to Mubarak's downfall in January 2011. (Moshe Milner/GPO/Flash90/JTA) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi is the declared winner of Egypt’s presidential race and his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, reportedly continues to lie near death in a coma — just like the legacy he tried to craft for himself and his country. Mubarak, 84, once the entrenched… Read more »
Randy Altschuler, right, a Republican candidate in the race for New York's first congressional district, campaigning with Rep. Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader and the only Republican Jewish lawmaker in Congress, during Altshuler's losing 2010 race against Rep. Tim Bishop. (Courtesy Randy Altschuler for Congress) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish Republicans nationwide are hoping that a heated congressional race rematch in the New York suburbs puts a second Jewish Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives. Following a narrow 593-vote defeat two years ago to Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.), Jewish businessman Randy Altschuler again is… Read more »
Eliezer Ayalon Eliezer Ayalon, a veteran tour guide for Jewish Federation missions, died late last month. Born in Radom, Poland in 1928, Ayalon was the only child from his family to survive the Holocaust. He spent a year in the Radom Ghetto and then three years in five different concentration camps… Read more »
The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona recently launched a stand-alone graduate certificate program. Students in the program may be enrolled concurrently in a graduate degree program in another department, but they are not required to do so. Students in the Judaic studies graduate certificate… Read more »
Robert Beren, M.D. Robert Beren, M.D., will lead “A Jewish Secular Humanist Conversation about Medical Ethics” for the Secular Humanist Jewish Circle on Saturday, June 23, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at the Dusenberry-River Branch Library. Beren will discuss who owns your body and how that correlates with living wills, advanced directives,… Read more »
Ron Barber, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, won her seat in a special election. Barber, who decided to run after Giffords resigned her seat earlier this year to recover from a shooting in January 2011, defeated Jesse Kelly, a Republican who suffered a narrow defeat to… Read more »
Israel’s government coupled its compliance with a Supreme Court order to remove buildings from a neighborhood on the outskirts of the Beit El settlement with the announcement of new construction in several West Bank areas. The latter action drew a sharp rebuke from the United States and others. Meanwhile,… Read more »
Jane Hiller (left) enjoys a creative movement class at Congregation Anshei Israel’s summer camp. Seeking an enriching day camp environment for your kids this summer? Tucson offers several Jewish day camp options. Congregation Anshei Israel’s summer camp, which serves children ages 2-6, runs through July 27. Along with water play, arts and crafts, songs and stories, the camp offers two areas of special… Read more »
Mitt Romney speaks to supporters at a rally in Tempe, Ariz., April 20, 2012. (Gage Skidmore via CC) Mitt Romney’s Lacrosse moment awaits him. The Democratic convention in Los Angeles was where Joe Lieberman made history as the first Jewish candidate on a major ticket on Aug. 17, 2000. But two days later, history came to life in Lacrosse, Wis., the little college town where he walked… Read more »
Sheila Wilensky The Arizona Jewish Post is celebrating two journalism awards this spring. Associate Editor Sheila Wilensky received a first place 2011 Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism from the American Jewish Press Association for “Healing and hope for Tucsonans as Jan. 8 anniversary nears.” Published in the Dec.… Read more »
Tucsonan Nina Straw is a proponent of the ‘Blessings in a Backpack’ program to feed schoolkids on weekends. Nina Straw grew up in a Conservative Jewish home in Milford, Conn. The concept of tikkun olam (repairing the world) was part of her daily life. “My father lived Judaism,” she told the AJP. “He was a gentle, quiet man who walked the talk. He taught us to live… Read more »
The Butwin family of Tempe, Ariz., shown in a photo from May 2009 (Yafit Butwin's Facebook page) The Phoenix-area Jewish community is grieving after hearing of the suspected murder-suicide of a local Jewish family that was active in Jewish life. The Butwin family of Tempe was found burned to death in the family’s SUV on June 2. Police believe that James Butwin died of a gunshot… Read more »
Tracy Salkowitz It’s a given that the new executive director of the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona would be smart and dedicated, with a long, impressive resume. Tracy Salkowitz is also funny. Phrases like “delightfully witty and warm,” “levity, humility, and humor” and “with laughter and a clear… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — Albert Einstein stepped forward several times in the 1930s and 1940s to help raise money for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Now, more than half a century later, the international Jewish news service known these days as JTA is hoping the father of relativity can come… Read more »
Israeli President Shimon Peres, center, meets with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, right, and former Major Leaguer Brad Ausmus, who will manage Israel's team in the World Baseball Classic, in Jerusalem, May 24, 2012. (Kobi Gideon/ GPO/FLASH90/JTA) WASHINGTON (JTA) — For decades, the joke in Israel went: How do you know when Shimon Peres is headed for defeat? When he announces that he is running. Peres — today Israel’s extremely popular president and on Wednesday a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom — always seemed… Read more »
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) speaks at the Jewish Museum of Florida in Miami in 2008. (Courtesy Debbie Wasserman Schultz for Congress) WASHINGTON (JTA) – When does a bimah turn into a political soapbox? The controversy last month over a Miami temple’s invitation and then disinvitation to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) — which prompted the resignation of an influential congregant who also is a Republican activist — has revived with… Read more »
Kindergarten students in yellow caps run out into the school yard to rehearse for their end of year concert at the Athens Jewish Community School. (Gavin Rabinowitz/JTA) ATHENS, Greece (JTA) – When the bell rang, the sixth-graders who had been playing basketball rushed off to a computer class. Their place in the yard at Athens’ Jewish Community School was taken by two dozen giggling 4- and 5-year -olds practicing dance steps for the year-end concert. “One,… Read more »
