News

Footage taken from cameras aboard the Mavi Marmara showing passengers preparing for a confrontation with Israeli soldiers, May 31, 2010. Turkey has demanded an apology for the deaths of its citizens aboard the flotilla ship, but Israel has refused, causing a major rift in ties between the two former allies. (IDF/Flash 90/JTA)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The bad diplomatic news for Israel just kept getting worse. First Turkey announced that it was slashing the level of its diplomatic ties with Israel to the second secretary level, giving the senior Israeli embassy staff 48 hours to leave the country. Turkey also said it… Read more »

The cast of "Hitler's Belly" (Tablet Magazine)

(Tablet Magazine) — A Chinese Hitler, dressed like a mall cop, mopes in an underground bunker in 1945 as his empire is collapsing around him. But it’s not all bad news. “My stomach hurts, and it’s bigger. I’m pregnant!” Hitler exclaims, stroking himself mindlessly. “Hitler’s Belly,” a hit play… Read more »

Israel and its supporters hope to head off a vote in the U.N. Security Council recognizing a Palestinian state when the council meets again in late september. The council is shown meeting to discuss developments in Kosovo, Aug. 30, 2011. (Courtesy United Nations)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — All but resigned to the inevitability of a Palestinian push for statehood at the United Nations later this month, Jewish groups are hoping that its effects can be blunted through aggressive diplomacy and the threat of action by the U.S. Congress. Jewish groups are urging foreign… Read more »

Congregation Chaverim will observe the first yahrzeit and celebrate the life of Karla Ember on Sunday, Sept. 11 at 9 a.m. Ember was cantorial soloist at Chaverim. She died Sept. 8, 2010, after being attacked Sept. 3, 2010 by a man friends described as either her ex-husband or ex-boyfriend… Read more »

Thousands of demonstrators in Haifa were among the 400,000 people throughout Israel who took part in the largest social protest in the nation's history., Sept. 3, 2011. (Chen Leopold/Flash90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Saturday night’s demonstrations by more than 400,000 Israelis calling for social justice represented a powerful climax to an unprecedented summer of protests and activism. The nationwide protests, billed as the March of the Million, have been called the largest demonstration in Israel’s history. Whether they ventured out in… Read more »

HURRICANE HERO: The New York Jewish Week remembers David Reichenberg, a 50-year-old father of four from Spring Valley, N.Y., who died after being electrocuted while saving a boy and his father from a powerline downed by Hurricane Irene. “He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t think about the risk. He just… Read more »

It was an ominous hum. A dozen refrigerated trucks loaded with the body parts of victims of the 9/11 attacks filled a cavernous tent across the street from the office of the city medical examiner, their low-pitched buzz an eerie soundtrack to the solemn work being carried out at… Read more »

Noah Pensak (left) and Jacob Meyer donate books to the Ocotillo Learning Center library. (Courtesy Ocotillo Learning Center)

It started as a novel way to teach Jewish children about philanthropy, social justice and tikkun olam (repairing the world). Today, the mitzvah project has become a cherished part of the Bar and Bat Mitzvah scene. Yet for each child who chooses to take part in this burgeoning tradition,… Read more »

Gertrude Shankman, a Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging resident, and Adam DeLuca in front of the B’nai Tzedek triptych, currently on display at Handmaker. The painting includes a poem by DeLuca. (Bryan Davis)

  Eighteen-year-old Adam DeLuca has participated in the B’nai Tzedek Tucson teen philanthropy program since 2007. Now starting his freshman year at the University of Arizona, DeLuca has also embarked on a lifetime of giving. “Before I joined B’nai Tzedek I understood that charity was a good thing,” DeLuca… Read more »

Girls play at the SEGA Girls’ School in Tanzania, the recipient of Dining for Women’s August 2011 fundraising efforts. (Warren Zelman)

            Do Jewish women enjoy sharing a meal while contributing to worldwide social justice? Of course — and the Tucson chapter of the national organization, Dining for Women, does just that. Dory Martin, a local psychotherapist, started the chapter two years ago after learning… Read more »

Dr. Lane P. Johnson

The Tucson Maimonides Society will present a dinner event on “Medicine and Marijuana” with guest speaker Dr. Lane P. Johnson on Monday, Sept. 19 at 6:30 p.m. at the Westward Look Resort. Johnson is an associate professor of clinical family and community medicine and a clinical associate professor in… Read more »

The Secular Humanist Jewish Circle will hold an observance of Rosh Ha­sha­nah and Yom Kippur on Saturday, Oct. 1 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson, 4831 E. 22nd St. Rabbi Jack Silver, newly ordained secular humanist rabbi who is a member of Congregation Or Adam in Phoenix, will… Read more »

Laura Lauder

“Act on your passion” is philanthropist Laura Lauder’s overriding message for women. “Many people are afraid that others aren’t going to be supportive of what they’re interested in doing,” she told the AJP, “but actually if you act on your passion then others will see you as a model”… Read more »

Twenty-four Israelis and Palestinians came together as a “Peace Team” to play Australian-rules football. (Jonathan Davis/JTA)

      SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — Sulaiman Khatib is an ordinary Palestinian with an extraordinary past. Born in the West Bank near Jerusalem, he grew up as a “freedom fighter,” as he describes it, fighting against the Israeli occupation by throwing stones and preparing Molotov cocktails. But in 1986,… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — When Israeli music producer-to-the-stars Eitan Gafni put on a global song contest for Jews nearly 20 years ago, finding contestants was difficult. At the time, he called on Jewish Agency shlichim, or emissaries, residing in capitals around the world to find young Jews with musical talent… Read more »

Ira Forman, longtime head of the National Jewish Democratic Council, was tapped by the Obama campaign to be its Jewish outreach director. (photo by Ira Forman)

WASHINGTON (JTA/WASHINGTON JEWISH WEEK) — The fight for the Jewish vote in 2012 is expected to be a tough one. So the Obama campaign is turning to the quintessential insider. On Aug. 16, the Obama campaign tapped as its Jewish outreach director Ira Forman, the former head of the… Read more »

MINORITY OF ONE: The New York Jewish Week looks at the lives of the small numbers of Jewish students enrolled at historically black colleges. “I create my own Jewish life,” says Abraham Mercado, a place-kicker for the football team at Baltimore’s Morgan State University, where he may (or may… Read more »

Tifereth Israel Congregation in New Bedford, Mass., is looking for former members and their descendants for its 90th anniversary celebration in November 2011. Please email Milton Goodman, executive director, at mgoodman@tinewbedford.org or contact the congregation through its Facebook page.… Read more »

On Sunday, Aug. 21, Ira Kerem, the TIPS (Tucson Israel Phoenix Seattle) partnership representative in Israel, reported that following the killing of eight Israelis along the border with Egypt by terrorists based in Gaza, the Israeli air force launched attacks into Gaza.  “Since then almost 100 missiles have been fired from… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Last week, Muslim and Jewish soldiers gathered after a day’s training to eat a communal iftar, the traditional break-the-fast meal eaten after sunset during the month-long observance of the Islamic holiday of Ramadan. “Ramadan isn’t just one day like the 17th of Tammuz or Tisha B’Av,”… Read more »