Women demonstrating outside the Tel Aviv courtroom where former Israeli President Moshe Katsav was convicted of rape and other sex crimes, Dec. 30, 2010. (Roni Schutzer/Flash 90/JTA) TEL AVIV (JTA) — For years it was considered an open secret in Israeli political and media circles that Moshe Katsav had a habit of sexually harassing women who worked for him. In a nation at arms with a decidedly machismo bent, sexual encounters between powerful male politicians and… Read more »
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara (center), on a Greek Navy boat with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and his wife, Ada, August 2010. (Amos BenGershom/Government Press Office/FLASH 90/JTA) Israel’s ambassador to Greece, Arye Mekel, was on the phone with a journalist earlier this month when the call came in that Israel’s Carmel region was up in flames. The Israeli prime minister needed to speak urgently with his Greek counterpart. Mekel quickly located Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou… Read more »
The Jewish History Museum is looking for ketubot (marriage contracts), wedding attire and wedding photos to borrow for its third annual Ketubah Exhibit, which will be held Jan. 8 through Feb. 14, 2011. A fashion show of historic gowns will be held Jan. 9. A ketubah for display may… Read more »
Tucson Hebrew Academy has taken a more-than-proactive approach to bullying. “We deal with bullies all the time in life,” says Ronnie Sebold, THA director of admissions, noting that even adults often run into bullies, from the person who cuts you off while driving to a boss or co-worker who… Read more »
Five Tucson synagogues and six Jewish organizations have been selected to build endowment funding through the new Areivim Legacy Community Project, in partnership with the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona. “Since we created the Endowment Book of Life almost 20 years ago, the Jewish Community Foundation and the… Read more »
Capt. Isaac Greenberg Captain Isaac A. Greenberg will present “Being Jewish in the Army and Afghanistan” at Congregation Anshei Israel’s Shabbat service on Saturday, Jan. 8 at 9 a.m. Greenberg, a native Tucsonan, graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2005 with a degree in international relations. He… Read more »
Joe Black On Friday, Dec. 24, Temple Emanu-El will host recording star Rabbi Joe Black, who will perform at Chardonnay Shabbat services at 5:45 p.m. A frequent visitor to Tucson, Black is one of the most popular Jewish contemporary artists in the United States. He has shared his music with hundreds… Read more »
Imagine Greater Tucson, a community-based effort to identify shared values and create an action plan for the future of the region, will hold a Jewish community conversation in conjunction with the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona on Tuesday, Jan. 11 at 6:30 p.m. at Tucson Hebrew Academy. If you… Read more »
Women’s Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will present “13 Extraordinary Women Tell Their Secrets” at a brunch on Sunday, Jan. 9, 10 a.m. at the Marriott University Park Hotel. The 13 women, who will have three minutes each to share their formulas for success in their… Read more »
Evie Pozez Evelyn Shirley Whitebook Pozez was “always gracious and grateful to people around her,” says Stuart Mellan, CEO and president of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. “First and foremost, I’ll remember her shining spirit and ever-present smile.” Mrs. Pozez, 84, died on Friday, Dec. 17, 2010. Born in Iowa… Read more »
Inspired by the Reshet network, Congregation Chaverim began a mentoring program in which established families invite new ones to family-friendly events, such as this Simchat Torah celebration. Last year, Tucson was chosen as one of four pilot communities to participate in the National Reshet Network, a synagogue-strengthening program funded by the Covenant Foundation and coordinated locally by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. Reshet means “network” in Hebrew. In May, Rabbi Philip Warmflash, executive director of… Read more »
The 20th Annual Tucson International Jewish Film Festival, which will run Jan. 20-30, will open with “Who Do You Love,” a behind-the-scenes look at the brothers who started the legendary Chess Records, launching the careers of Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Etta James, Churck Berry and others. It will be… Read more »
Steve Solomon Sometimes being Jewish is not enough. Sometimes, you have to be Italian too, to really send you over the edge. To find out more, the AJP interviewed playwright Steve Solomon, author and star of the award-winning show “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish, and I’m in Therapy.” The show… Read more »
Dan Terris Professor Dan Terris, director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University, will speak at the Brandeis National Committee Tucson chapter’s annual University on Wheels program on Wednesday, Jan. 12 at 10 a.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, which is co-sponsoring the program.… Read more »
Susan Gaeta The Shaol Pozez Memorial Lectureship Series will present a unique event on Monday, Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Susan Gaeta will meld a talk and performance in “A Sephardic Musical Journey.” Gaeta’s first solo CD, “From Her Nona’s Drawer” (2009), features traditional Sephardic… Read more »
Texas state Rep. Joe Strauss looks set to stay in the powerful speaker's role after a broad coalition repudiated challenges based on his Judaism. (Office of Rep. Joe Strauss) WASHINGTON (JTA) — In Texas, the Tea Party passed its first Jewish test even before its legislators had been sworn in. Deeply conservative forces in the Lone Star State firmly repudiated the effort by evangelical Christians to unseat the powerful Jewish speaker of the Texas House of Representatives because… Read more »
BUDAPEST (JTA) — The rise of Hungary’s far-right Jobbik Party has ratcheted up debate about anti-Semitism in this country and focused attention on the seeming paradoxes of Jewish life here. On the one hand, a recent article in Germany’s Der Spiegel described Budapest as “Europe’s capital of anti-Semitism,” where… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama WASHINGTON (JTA) — A slight majority of Jewish Israelis has negative views of President Obama, but his supporters are more numerous than previously reported, according to a poll. The Brookings Institution poll of Jewish Israelis showed 51 percent responding with negative views of the U.S. president to 41 percent… Read more »
Nancy Kaufman with Dean Jep Strait, left, Father Demetrios Tonias, Pastor Wesley Roberts and Bishop Gideon Thompson on a summer study tour in Israel in 2009. (Photo courtesy of Boston JCRC) WASHINGTON (JTA) — With the prospect for the first American universal health care plan apparently dimming in Massachusetts because the three outsize personalities vital to its passage — the state’s governor, its House speaker and its Senate president — could not agree on the details, Nancy Kaufman came to… Read more »
The remains of a Jewish cemetary dating back to the 16th century in the Ukrainian village of Solotyvn. Dina Kraft SOLOTVYN, Ukraine (JTA) — On a sloping green hill tucked between small farmsteads, the mottled graves of Jews buried here since the 1600s rise up like a forgotten forest. Trudging through the mud between the tilted stones, their chiseled Hebrew lettering and renderings of menorahs sometimes barely visible, Vladimer… Read more »
