News

Six members of an El Al Airlines crew spoke with students at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., as part of a new program, Nov. 28, 2011. Shown with the crew is Lehi Rothschild, third from right, the Jewish Agency fellow who organized the event. (Dan Klein)

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (JTA) — A good flight crew requires a certain amount of charm to keep passengers calm during turbulence, emergencies or pretzel shortages. Five El Al Airlines flight attendants and a pilot put those skills to the test Monday at Rutgers University in New Jersey as they… Read more »

Jerusalem Lions take on Tel Aviv Pioneers in an Israel Football League game at Kraft Family Stadium. (IFL File Photos)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — It’s a cold Thursday night in Jerusalem and by the looks of it, you’d think there was a meeting of the United Nations under way. Men are carrying on in Hebrew, English, Arabic, Russian and French, but they’re not talking peace. They’re here to settle the… Read more »

Israeli designer Dorit Bar Or, center, acknowledging applause with models at the close of her show at Tel Aviv Fashion Week, Nov. 21, 2011. (Meir Partush/Flash 90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — For Israeli fashionistas, last week’s inaugural Tel Aviv Fashion Week proved what they’ve known for years: Israeli fashion is creative, current and worthy of worldwide attention — and, hopefully, sales. “I wanted to help my business and help my country,” said organizer Ofir Lev, deputy… Read more »

Jewish leaders who met with Vice President Joe Biden, shown here checking out an iPhone app in the White House with President Obama in July 2011, said in a statment that they had a "meaningful and productive" meeting the vice president about Jonathan Pollard. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Four drug dealers, a trafficker in stolen goods, a gambler and a turkey made President Obama’s Thanksgiving freedom list, but Israel’s best-known spy did not. But advocates of releasing Jonathan Pollard aren’t giving up hope. Seven Jewish leaders who met Nov. 21 with Vice President Joe… Read more »

A haredi Orthodox woman taking part in one of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s technical training programs. (Courtesy JDC)

At Israel’s first college for the haredi Orthodox, lectures on social work and computer programming are conducted just down the hall from a pair of classrooms transformed into a nursery for the students’ babies. The average female student here — women comprise a majority of the 1,100 student body… Read more »

Silvio Berlusconi (left) toasts with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem in February 2010. (Photo: Miriam Alster/FLASH90/JTA)

Crowds on the streets of Rome jeered and cheered when their long-serving, scandal-plagued prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, stepped down earlier this month. A choir even sang Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” in front of the presidential palace as he handed in his resignation. Italian Jews don’t expect Berlusconi’s ouster to have… Read more »

Madeline Dreyfus Heineman Berger, founder of the Temple of Music and Art

David Ira Goldstein has been artistic director of the Arizona Theatre Company for 20 years. But the ATC’s Jewish legacy in Tucson goes back much further — all the way to the founding of the ATC’s Tucson home, the Temple of Music and Art, by Madeline Dreyfus Heineman Berger,… Read more »

Steve Solomon

Steve Solomon, star and creator of one of the longest running one-man comedy shows in history, “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish & I’m in Therapy,” presents a new show next month at the Invisible Theatre. In “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish and I’m Home for the Holidays:… Read more »

Their effort may be coming on the heels of “Black Friday,” but organizers of a new nationwide campaign are hoping that consumers will hold on to some of their shopping dollars to show support for Israel. Jewish newspapers, pro-Israel groups, Israeli companies and retailers are joining together to launch… Read more »

Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz

The Rabbi Samuel S. and A. Irma Cohon Memorial Foundation will award the Cohon Foundation Award for 2011 to Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz, founder of Jews for Judaism International, which has helped young people resist the pull of cults and missionaries and has reunited more than a thousand young Jews… Read more »

The University of Arizona Hillel Foundation will formally dedicate the Meyer Agron Center for Jewish Life on the Harvey & Deanna Evenchik Campus at the University of Arizona on Sunday, Dec. 11 at 3:30 p.m. A capital campaign that began in the fall of 2010 raised funds to renovate… Read more »

With new measures tightening sanctions on Iran, the United States moved one step further toward effectively cutting off the Islamic Republic’s economy from the West. President Obama issued the measures Monday in the form of an executive order. At a news conference the same day, Secretary of State Hillary… Read more »

An innovative figure emerged in my youth who inspired me in a way that was so different from many others — a rabbi with a guitar and amazing stories who reached into the inner depths of my soul. It was Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who became known as the “sweet… Read more »

The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona is accepting applications from nonprofit organizations for the Goldman Family Israel Scholarship Grant, which provides up to $2,500 for one trip to Israel. Previously, the Jewish Federation’s Coalition for Jewish Education and Tucson Hebrew Academy were awarded this grant and each used… Read more »

Children of all ages and their parents are invited to celebrate at Shalom Tucson’s Hanukkah Mall Madness on Sunday, Dec. 4, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Park Place, near the food court. Local synagogues, organizations, and Jewish agencies will present arts and crafts activities, including holiday cards and… Read more »

(L-R) Itamar Rabinovich, Alon Pinkas, Beth Nakhai (symposium organizer and associate professor, Arizona Center for Judaic Studies), David Makovsky, Gil Riback, Steven Spiegel and Peter Beinart at the University of Arizona’s “Symposium on the U.S.-Israel Relationship” Nov. 9. (Farzad Nakhai)

Middle East experts from the East Coast to the West Coast landed in Tucson to air their views at a “Symposium on the U.S.-Israel Relationship: On the Verge of a Paradigmatic Shift?” on Nov. 9, sponsored by the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona. “There’s… Read more »

J. Edward Wright

The Weintraub Israel Center and Congregation Or Chadash will hold an adult education series, “Israel and Our Jewish Roots,” with nine sessions from Nov. 30 through March 22, 2012. The series will present different aspects of the Jewish connection to the land and country of Israel. J. Edward Wright,… Read more »

A new kosher cookbook, “Havurah Cooks! A Collection of Recipes by Sun City Vistoso Havurah Club” was conceived by board members Ester Leutenberg and Bebe Lewis as a way to fight “activity fatigue” in the club, which was founded in 1993 and now boasts some 160 members. The club’s… Read more »

Neshama Carlebach

Neshama Carlebach sings so that people can feel. “I want people to feel — that’s when healing begins,” says Carlebach, 37, the daughter of the legendary Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who also used music to teach and inspire, recording more than 25 albums. Carlebach will take the concert stage at… Read more »

Jewish leaders in Britain have outlined the process they will follow in seeking to identify a successor to the current chief rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks. (Office of the Chief Rabbi)

LONDON (JTA) — Increased transparency and the inclusion of women’s voices will be cornerstones of the process that Orthodox leaders in Britain have devised to find a replacement for the country’s longtime chief rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, who will step down in September 2013. Stephen Pack, the president of… Read more »