WASHINGTON (Forward) — It was a feather in the cap of pro-boycott activists, but for Israelis a major setback. With battle lines drawn across concert halls and stadiums hosting rock bands, the decision by mega-star Elvis Costello to cancel his planned concerts in Israel is being viewed as a… Read more »
News
Germany’s Oberammergau Passion Play better, but not good
![](https://cdn-15011.jigsawanalyticsgroup.cloud/20240223084607/passionplay-460x249.jpg)
Berlin (JTA) — It’s a tradition that goes back hundreds of years in the Bavarian village of Oberammergau, nestled in the German Alps. After witnessing it in the 1930s, Hitler reportedly proclaimed, “Never has the menace of Jewry been so convincingly portrayed as in this presentation of what happened… Read more »
With flotilla deaths, Turkey may be near tipping point on Israel
Istanbul — While Turkey and Israel have seen their once-close relationship deteriorate steadily for the past few years, the Israeli commando raid of a Turkish-led flotilla heading for Gaza, in which several Turks were killed, marks a dangerous new low in the two countries’ relations. “Turkey is now involved… Read more »
Obama and Netanyahu: unfortunate incidents or a clash of worldviews?
Washington — President Obama’s Cairo speech and its equivalent invocations of Palestinian and Jewish sufferings. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s call for an unequivocal freeze: “Not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions.” The Joe Biden fiasco. And now the Obama administration’s venture into a nuclear-free Middle… Read more »
Musician Sam Glaser will hail fathers at Congregation Anshei Israel
Singer/songwriter Sam Glaser will be in Tucson to celebrate a local friend, his own father, and fathers everywhere this Father’s Day. The acclaimed Jewish pop musician will perform at a fundraiser suggested by his friend Michael Deitch on Sunday, June 20 at 1 p.m. at Congregation Anshei Israel. Deitch,… Read more »
Israeli teens to perform at JCC
The Israel Scouts (Tzofim) Friendship Caravan will return to Tucson on Tuesday, June 15, with a free song and dance performance at the Tucson Jewish Community Center at 6 p.m. Four performing groups, consisting of five male and five female 17-year-old Israeli Scouts, travel across North America each summer.… Read more »
Sandy Koufax headlines White House Jewish Heritage Month reception
![](https://cdn-15011.jigsawanalyticsgroup.cloud/20240223084608/sandykoufax.jpg)
The athletes, the astronauts, the alternative music, the black rabbi, the white dress uniforms and, above all, the left-handed baseball immortal: Welcome to Barack Obama’s Jewish America. The inaugural Jewish America Heritage Month celebration at the White House, held May 27, underscored the Obama administration’s determination not to be… Read more »
‘Win at Work!’ reflects conflict resolution guru’s lifelong quest for peace
![](https://cdn-15011.jigsawanalyticsgroup.cloud/20240223084615/diane_katz.jpg)
The key to changing an organization or workplace is not to ascribe blame, says Diane Katz, organizational psychologist and author of the newly published “Win at Work! The Everybody Wins Approach to Conflict Resolution.” Katz founded her consulting company, The Working Circle, in 1995, the same year she moved… Read more »
Flotilla raid stokes debate on price of Gaza blockade
![](https://cdn-15011.jigsawanalyticsgroup.cloud/20240223084610/0601flotilla-ship-scaled-460x307.jpg)
ASHDOD, Israel (JTA) — The blurry black-and-white video footage was not what any Israeli wanted to see: elite navy commandos armed with paint ball guns (the pistols were only to be used as a last resort) dangling by a rope onto a boat filled with activists wielding metal bars… Read more »
Volunteers bring some relief to needy Lithuanian, Latvian Jews
MOSCOW (JTA) — It took them five days and nights in four hotels through three countries to deliver two vans from London to the Jews of Latvia and Lithuania. Eight British volunteers went on a “Mission Impossible,” a program of the British charity World Jewish Relief, to aid Jewish… Read more »
Tea party rise, Rand Paul win has Republican Jews nervous
![](https://cdn-15011.jigsawanalyticsgroup.cloud/20240223084610/randpaul-460x307.jpg)
WASHINGTON (N.Y. Jewish Week) — Rand Paul, the Tea Party insurgent who was the upset victor in last month’s Kentucky Republican Senate primary, could be the biggest headache yet for a Republican Party that hopes to capitalize on the populist surge without being tainted by the movement’s extremists. While… Read more »
Helping Russian Jews build community themselves
MOSCOW (JTA) – After decades of community-building from the top down, often with the aid of donors from overseas, can Russia’s Jewish communities build themselves from the bottom up? That’s the question that a group of, well, donors from overseas are trying to determine with a new educational program… Read more »
Pro-Israel, with questions? Beinart pins his thesis to the synagogue door
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Peter Beinart attends an Orthodox synagogue, once edited The New Republic (the closest thing to a smicha for Jewish policy wonks) and backed Sen. Joe Lieberman’s quixotic 2004 bid to become the first Jewish president. Which is why he’s always been counted among the Washington pundits… Read more »
Tucsonans learn leadership skills for changing world
“The world is changing so fast, that none of us feels completely prepared for leadership. Engaging with very bright thinkers helps position us,” Stuart Mellan, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, said during the 5th Saul Tobin Jewish Community Leadership Institute, held in April and… Read more »
Palestinian village and Israeli town build rare partnership across line
WADI FUKIN, West Bank (JTA) — Mohammed Mansara, a 70-year-old farmer who goes by the name Abu Mazen, indicates with a sweep of his arm the fruit trees and vegetables he grows on his small plot of land in this Palestinian village in the West Bank, population 1,200. Then… Read more »
Socially responsible Jewish investing on rise
NEW YORK-In the same manner that she shops for locally grown produce, Abigail Weinberg chose to sidestep the bank behemoths and instead open an account at a small, local bank that invests in her Ann Arbor, Mich., community. “I consider myself someone who wants to be socially and environmentally… Read more »
Perfidious son: longtime advocate Aaron David Miller rejects peace process
WASHINGTON Depending on your view of the Middle East and the Obama administration, Aaron David Miller is either a hero or a turncoat. Miller, a peace process functionary under both Bush administrations and the Clinton administration, published a declaration of independence last month from what he called the “religion”… Read more »
Israelis slam Goldstone apartheid role; some say he helped dismantle system
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Two weeks after pro-Israel groups in South Africa withdrew threats to picket Richard Goldstone at his grandson’s Bar Mitzvah, Israeli critics are charging that the former judge “mercilessly” sentenced dozens of blacks to death on behalf of the apartheid- era regime during his judicial tenure. The charges, aired… Read more »
‘What’s your ish’ asks young Jews to share online what being Jewish means
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has launched “What’s Your #ish?”, an online campaign that encourages young Jews of all stripes to share what being Jewish means to them — their “ish” — while raising awareness of the work of Jewish federations. The project, launched in partnership with The… Read more »
Jewish community recovering, pitching in following floods in Tennessee
![](https://cdn-15011.jigsawanalyticsgroup.cloud/20240223084616/flooddebris-460x309.jpg)
NASHVILLE, TENN. (JTA)-Ruth Klar and Alicia Safdie knew they Jewish community recovering, pitching in following floods in Tennessee were lucky, safe and healthy amid the flood’s muddy wreckage. But the little things made them cry. “My cookbooks are gone,” Klar said in her den at River Plantation, a large… Read more »