News

B’nai B’rith Strauss Manor requests donations of DVDs/Blu-Rays and art supplies to occupy residents during the coronavirus pandemic. The Gerd and Inge Strauss Manor is a federally assisted multi-family senior housing project with 81 apartments. “I’ve started a library where residents can check out movies,” says Luz E. Gallego,… Read more »

Gila Silverman

The last few weeks have been difficult, as our entire world has changed in response to the coronavirus. There have been times recently when I have been overwhelmed by fear and sadness and grief. At other times, I have savored the quiet of a slowed-down life and been awed… Read more »

Marvin Slepian, M.D.

A renowned researcher at the University of Arizona Health Sciences has taken the university’s reputation as a basketball powerhouse to a new level — designing an easily manufactured and low-cost ventilator prototype that uses a basketball to respond to the fast-spreading COVID-19 pandemic. “We are in a period where… Read more »

Editor’s note (April 20): A fourth round of Downtown Tucson Partnership gift cards, worth $35 but costing $25, will go on sale here on Wednesday, April 22 at 6 a.m. HSL Properties helped fund the third round, which sold out in less than 15 minutes, and is also sponsoring… Read more »

Jeffrey Goldberg

The University of Arizona will lose one of its stars in May as Jeffrey Goldberg, Ph.D., dean emeritus of the College of Engineering, retires. Speaking prior to the coronavirus pandemic, he said he planned to travel, see his grandkids more often, and practice a healthier lifestyle in his golden… Read more »

Bob Schwartz has been involved with the Jewish community since he was a child growing up in the suburbs of New Jersey. He has been a part of nine congregations in six states and has been active within the Jewish community in Tucson for two years. A former attorney,… Read more »

After the deluge of negative headlines over the last several weeks, when COVID-19 is finally beaten back, it will be the scenes of police cordoning off Bnei Brak like a medieval plague city that will define the corona crisis for most Israelis and international observers. These media attacks, which… Read more »

Lindsey Baker returns to her hometown on May 1 to accept the inaugural chief operating officer position for the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Jewish Community Foundation. “Creating a sustainable, single-chief executive model is what we have been working toward,” says Graham Hoffman, JCF president and CEO,… Read more »

BOSTON (JTA) – Thirty-two residents at two Jewish senior living facilities that are part of the same nonprofit network have died from COVID-19, and scores of other residents and staff have tested positive for the virus. Eleven residents of Chelsea Jewish Life Care, across its three Boston-area locations, and… Read more »

REHOVOT, Israel (JTA) — To help my kehillah survive the coronavirus pandemic, I had to do something dramatic and counterintuitive: step away from being its official rabbi. Our faith communities need spiritual leaders in these trying times more than ever. But as a non-Orthodox rabbi in Israel, I am… Read more »

(JTA) — A senior Catholic priest in Romania priest who referenced fear of the coronavirus during a sermon about Christian disciples’ fear of Jews said that people who accused him of anti-Semitic speech were “biased” against him. Francisc Dobos, the spokesman for the Archdiocese of Bucharest, wrote this on… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Jewish community’s expression of solidarity with Chinese Americans during the coronavirus pandemic has yielded an unexpected return: scads of personal protective equipment for Jewish organizations. David Bernstein, the president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Jewish public policy umbrella that initiated the solidarity… Read more »

(JTA) — The coronavirus has spread rapidly among members of the Jewish community of Antwerp, which has a large Orthodox population. At least five have died and another 10 are hospitalized in serious condition. But the virus is hardly ever mentioned there by name. “People call it ‘the disease’… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Bernie Sanders joined his old friend Joe Biden in a live webcast to endorse him on Monday, and the two candidates left standing in the Democratic primaries emphasized that they agree on more than what they disagree on. “Today I am asking all Americans, I am… Read more »

(JTA) — A Brazilian television anchor was fired after proposing on air that a concentration camp be created to house patients diagnosed with the coronavirus. Marcao do Povo made the comment during Wednesday’s edition of Primeiro Impacto newscast, the second most-watched program on Brazilian television in the morning hours,… Read more »

(JTA) — When Bernie Sanders announced on Wednesday that he was suspending his presidential campaign, he closed the door on the last sliver of possibility that America would elect its first Jewish president in 2020. That leaves Jewish White House history to be made. Here are 10 people who… Read more »

(JTA) — The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of a Jewish death row inmate in Texas who says his judge was anti-Semitic. Randy Halprin, 42, had been scheduled to be executed on Oct. 10, 2019 but was granted a stay of execution by the Texas Court… Read more »

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — An Argentine journalist apologized after saying that the coronavirus was created by rich Americans and Israelis during a prime-time news program. Tomás Méndez, host of the popular ADN Tv, said on Wednesday that “bats are not responsible for the coronavirus, humans are.” Those… Read more »

RAANANA, Israel (JTA) — A video clip featuring an Israel family performing “Hallelujah” has garnered thousands of views on social media. The Brombergs, who immigrated to Israel from São Paulo, Brazil in 2018, play and sing Leonard Cohen’s enduring classic song in English and Hebrew from their homes in… Read more »

In the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s Passover will be like no other in living memory. With families kept apart by lockdown orders and millions struggling with uncertain financial futures, the needs are great and the logistics of coordinating Passover aid are daunting. Across America, Jewish federations… Read more »