News

From left to right, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the director of American Friends of Lubavitch, hanging onot his hat, joins Jack Lew, the director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and Rabbi Abraham Shemtov on a crane as Lew gets ready to light the National Menorah on the ellipse in front of the White House, Dec. 1, 2010.

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Chanukah is a story of a people standing alone to keep its lights aflame. This year in Washington, the message was of a people standing with friends — and even the not-so-friendly — to douse terrible flames. President Obama hosted the annual White House Chanukah party… Read more »

A costumed Maccabee stands at a Chanukah menorah-lighting ceremony at Berlin's Brandenberg Gate, Dec. 1, 2010. (Toby Axelrod)

BERLIN (JTA) — Icicles formed on Rabbi Yehudah Teichtal’s beard as he helped set up the towering menorah in the center of Berlin. It wasn’t just any menorah among the thousands that the Chabad-Lubavitch movement erects every Chanukah in public locations around the world. Teichtal, the Chabad rabbi in the… Read more »

At least 40 Israelis have been killed in a forest fire in northern Israel described as out of control, Dec. 2, 2010. (Flash 90)

In the aftermath of the deadliest fire in Israel’s history, Israelis this week set to the task of burying the dead, cleaning up and figuring out what exactly went wrong — and who is to blame. Even before the blaze in the Carmel Mountains near Haifa came under control… Read more »

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets Egyptian Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit on May 27, 2009. Leaked State Dept. cables reveal that diplomats advised Clinton to defer to Gheit's aggrandized notion of Egypt's importance. (State Dept./Michael Gross)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A careful reading of the WikiLeaks trove of State Department cables — which is laying bare some 250,000 secret dispatches detailing private conversations, assessments and dealmaking of U.S. diplomats — reveals a notable if perhaps surprising pattern: how often they get things wrong. Again and again… Read more »

At least 40 Israelis have been killed in a forest fire in northern Israel described as out of control, Dec. 2, 2010. (Flash 90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — In a country always on guard to prevent the next tragedy born of terrorism or war, an out-of-control forest fire was the culprit in a tragic bus incident that left some 40 people dead in northern Israel. The bus, carrying police cadets from Israel’s prison service,… Read more »

Jewish Addiction Support Services will present “Addiction: A Story of Recovery” with Dan Stone, LCSW, LISAC, CT, on Sunday, Dec. 12, 2-3:15 p.m.at the Dusenberry-River Library, 5605 E. River Road, Suite 105. Stone, a licensed social worker and substance abuse counselor, will share his personal journey of recovery. Like… Read more »

The Tucson Maimonides Society will hold a dinner next month highlighting “Emergency and Disaster Medicine in Israel and the American Physicians Fellowship for Medicine in Israel,” with APF president Norton Greenberger, M.D. The APF was founded in 1950; twice yearly emergency and disaster preparedness conferences with hands-on training are… Read more »

Asher Susser

Professor Asher Susser, a visiting Israeli scholar at the University of Arizona, will present “The Middle East in the 21st Century: The Decline of the Arabs” at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Northwest Division Kickoff Event next month. The kickoff will be held Thursday, Dec. 9, from 5… Read more »

Mark S. Smith, a professor at New York University, will present the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies’ Raphael Patai Memorial Lecture, “The Priestly Vision of Genesis 1,” on Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The first words of creation have inspired and intrigued people… Read more »

Lori Sumberg

When Lori Sumberg sings her original composition of “Esa Eynai” at the Fourth International Jewish Music Festival on Dec. 5 in New York City, she will take a bit of Tucson with her. Out of more than 350 pieces submitted by composers around the world, Sumberg’s piece was one… Read more »

Barbara Ribakove Gordon with some of the Ethiopian children she has helped.

Barbara Ribakove Gordon, founder of the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry, will receive the Rabbi Samuel S. and Irma Cohon Foundation Award for 2010. Rabbis Baruch J. Cohon and Samuel M. Cohon will present the award, which includes a cash prize of $25,000, at Temple Emanu-El’s Shabbat Chanukah… Read more »

Rabbi Harold Kushner

Everyone knows people who are less happy than they might be. Rabbi Harold Kushner doesn’t have the all-purpose antidote, but “Conquering Fear: Living Boldly in an Uncertain World,” his new book, suggests ways to live more fully. Kushner, author of the international best-seller “When Bad Things Happen to Good… Read more »

(L-R) UA students Meryl Press, Rachel Pergamit and Karin Finkelstein study ‘shmirat haguf’ (protecting the body) with Hillel Program Director Laura Etter.

In classrooms, auditoriums, restaurants, libraries and conference rooms, more than 600 Tucsonans marked the first Global Week of Jewish Learning as they studied a variety of Jewish texts on everything from miracles to Kristallnacht. This community-wide program, held Nov. 4-11, was based around the Global Day of Jewish Learning… Read more »

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

More than 600 people attended Rabbi Joseph Telushkin’s talk — and laughed at his perfectly delivered jokes — at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s 2011 Campaign kickoff at Congregation Anshei Israel on Wednesday, Nov. 17. Not only is Telushkin an Orthodox, observant Jew, said JFSA Vice Chair Larry… Read more »

There is something about small lights glowing in the vast darkness that renews our childlike wonder: sparklers, flashlights, birthday candles. And we all remember “Lite-Brite,” the little black box of our childhood with the multicolored plastic pegs that, once plugged in, illuminated our designs. For Jews, there are the… Read more »

Gila Silverman’s husband, David, created this 10-foot dreidel the third year that the family lived in Winterhaven.

I live in a neighborhood known for its Christmas displays. No one is more surprised about this than I am. And, to my even greater surprise, I have found living here to be a moving experience. The one thing I have known for certain my entire life is that… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A combination of timing, diplomatic considerations and, above all, good old-fashioned noodging has culminated in the biggest push in years to free Jonathan Pollard. Insiders associated with the push, which resulted last week in a congressional letter to President Obama asking for clemency for the American… Read more »

Hillel members from several New York City universities interacting with the homeless community during a resource fair in New York, Oct. 17, 2010. (JCPA)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The framers of an interfaith effort with the grand goal of halving American poverty in the next decade had a small but focused message this week: Keep those school lunches coming. At a meeting Monday on Capitol Hill at an event attended by congressional staffers, the… Read more »

One of the "lions" at the International Lion of Judah conference helps a young New Orleans reader during the event's community service literacy project. (Bernie Saul for Jewish Federations of North America)

NEW ORLEANS, La. (JTA) — Just down the road from where the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America had concluded a day earlier, more than a thousand of the federation system’s most generous women found a philanthropic sanctuary of their own. At the Hilton Hotel here,… Read more »

Some Jewish groups are saying that Glenn beck, above, went too far with his criticism of George Soros. (Gage Skidmore)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Fox News provocateur Glenn Beck spent several days taking aim at billionaire businessman and philanthropist George Soros, but so far — at least within Jewish circles — the barrage appears to be backfiring. On his radio and TV shows earlier this month, Beck portrayed Soros as… Read more »