News

PARIS (JTA) — Nearly 70 years to the day since the passage of a pivotal anti-Semitic law in Vichy-occupied France, new evidence about who drafted the law is transforming some historians’ views of France’s wartime head of state, Philippe Petain. Until now the Oct. 3, 1940 law — dubbed… Read more »

A girl affiliated with the Westboro Baptist Church pickets the offices of the Anti-Defamation League in the Pacific Southwest region, June 19, 2009. Creative Commons/k763)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish defense organizations long — and proudly — have upheld a delicate principle in defending the First Amendment: Hate the speech, defend the speaker. But a Supreme Court case whose arguments were scheduled for Wednesday have put that precept to the test: A Maryland family is… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A day after Israel’s Cabinet announced that it would consider making a loyalty oath mandatory for non-Jewish immigrants, the question put to The Israel Project’s president and founder was simple enough. “How did your organization react?” Natasha Mozgovoya, the Washington correspondent for Israel’s daily Haaretz, asked… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — For the first time in history, a U.S. Supreme Court convened last week with three Jewish justices. And Jewish defense organizations had their eyes on … Arizona. Two of the three cases on the docket this session attracting special attention from Jewish groups come from the… Read more »

This architectural rendering shows the interior of the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre. "Khumbula" is the Zulu word for remember. (Lewis Levin)

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (JTA) — At a South African Holocaust museum that plans to open late next year in Johannesburg, the Holocaust will be featured beside a more local genocide: the Rwandan violence of 1994. The inclusion of the African mass murder is not a mere gesture toward… Read more »

Rahm Emanuel, seen here at a Chanukah lighting in Washington on Dec. 13, 2009, left the White House to run for mayor of Chicago. (Israel Bardugo for American Friends of Lubavitch)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — They were two Jewish aides who had offices within shouting distance of the Oval Office. But the Oct. 1 resignation of Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff and the imminent departure of David Axelrod, the president’s senior adviser, is raising the question of what… Read more »

On Sept. 17, State Treasurer candidate Andrei Cherny announced his plan to lead an effort to divest Arizona’s stock holdings from companies that do business with Iran and other state sponsors of terrorism. According to Cherny, Arizona owns stock in about two dozen companies that are listed on the… Read more »

Zev Garber will present “Shoah at the University: New Considerations in Holocaust Education” as part of the Shaol Pozez Memorial Lecture Series on Monday, Oct. 4 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Garber, emeritus professor and chair of Jewish studies and philosophy at Los Angeles Valley… Read more »

Stephen Stone (Sheila Wilensky/AJP)

Tucsonan Stephen Stone, 70, conducted what may have been one of the first studies of obesity in American children, a precursor to First Lady Michelle Obama’s current childhood health mission. “Childhood Obesity: Identification, Management and Prevention,” his research project that began in 1985 at the University of Maryland, identified… Read more »

Sharon Glassberg

Sharon Glassberg, director of the Coalition for Jewish Education of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, and Guy Gelbart, director of the Israel Center, will present talks at Pima Community College Downtown Campus during Ethnic Studies Week, Oct. 1-7. Glassberg will discuss Jewish identity from a historical and modern… Read more »

Odyssey Storytelling and Temple Emanu-El will present “My Jewish Story” on Saturday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El. Six community members will present 10-minute true stories about their personal Jewish histories. “Some will be funny, some poignant, all will be entertaining,” says Penelope Starr, founder and producer… Read more »

"Partnership" by Natalie Leonard

Drawings by Natalie Leonard and Zevi Bloomfield are the local winners in an art contest sponsored by the TIPS communities of Tucson, Israel, Phoenix and Seattle. The drawings are printed on note cards the Israel Center will distribute at community events. This is the fourth year of the TIPS… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El will present a communications workshop, “Listening to Be Heard,” on Sunday, Oct. 3, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Participants will learn to focus on how they communicate rather than what they communicate. Presenters are Connie J. A. Beck, Ph.D., an associate professor in the psychology, policy and… Read more »

Beloved: A Multifaith Pride Service to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and two-spirit communities, will be held Thursday, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El. Co-sponsored by the Wingspan Multifaith Working Group and the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s LGBT Jewish Inclusion Project, the service will… Read more »

Tucson’s Jewish History Museum, housed in Arizona’s first synagogue building at 564 S. Stone Ave., will open a century-old time capsule at its centennial celebration on Sunday, Oct. 24. The celebration will begin at noon with a street festival. The capsule will be opened at 2 p.m. Placed in… Read more »

Tedd Goldfinger

The Tucson Maimonides Society will present “Wine and Your Heart: Wine Tasting & Dinner” with guest speaker Dr. Tedd Goldfinger on Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010, at Skyline Country Club. Goldfinger is the founder of Desert Cardiology of Tucson Heart Center and chaired a Tucson Cardiology Update Colloquium for 13… Read more »

Eighteen years ago, Stuart Mellan and Nancy Etter, both widowed, single parents, met, fell in love and united their combined five children to create their new family.

Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona President and CEO Stuart Mellan and his wife, Nancy, will celebrate 18 years of marriage by hosting an open house anniversary party to benefit the Homer Davis Elementary School’s Friday food pack program on Sunday, Oct. 10, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the… Read more »

‘Fractured Bubble’ by Henry Grosman and Babak Bryan won the Sukkah City architectural competition in Manhattan. (Courtesy of Reboot)

It was a surprise hit on the cultural roster of a city that may be the most culturally busy city in the nation. And even though the Sukkah City architectural competition in New York was being dismantled this week, look for Sukkah City next year in a town near… Read more »

Jerry Silverman, right, president and CEO of Jewish Federations of North America, with Stuart Mellan, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, and Carol Karsch, executive director of the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona. “Jerry brings the future into every conversation about the present,” says Mellan.

“Change is the new normal and we need to embrace that concept,” Jewish Federations of North America president and CEO Jerry Silverman told a Tucson audience on Sept. 15. Making one of the dozens of community visits he’s become known for since taking the JFNA helm in September 2009,… Read more »

Shira Ledman

Until recently, government grants accounted for around 75 percent of the budget at Jewish Family & Children’s Services. But after losing big chunks of federal, state and local funding over the past 18 months — bringing the government share of the agency’s budget down to about 50 percent —… Read more »