News

LOS ANGELES (JTA) – Over the past century, Jews have endured what filmmaker Yaron Zilberman calls a “trilogy of traumas”: the Holocaust, the Yom Kippur War and the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The Israeli-American writer, director and producer has spent much of his career exploring these… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Vice President Mike Pence will attend a conference on the Holocaust in Israel. The White House announced Wednesday that Pence and his wife, Karen, would attend the Fifth World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, in Jerusalem on Jan. 23. This year’s conference coincides… Read more »

(JTA) — If synagogues hire armed guards, they should be trained police officers, a top Jewish security agency says in a new report. Armed congregants who are not law enforcement officers “are unlikely to have experience dealing with high-stress situations,” according to the report issued Wednesday by the Secure… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump warned the three European parties to the Iran nuclear deal that he would impose high tariffs on automobile exports if they did not confront Iran over its increased uranium enrichment. The Washington Post on Wednesday reported the threat, which was made a week… Read more »

(JTA) —In 2012, Drew Goldberg spent part of his junior year of college studying abroad in Prague. It was only his second time leaving the United States — the other time was for Birthright, the free Israel trip for Jewish young adults. The trip to the Czech capital was… Read more »

(JTA) — The FBI has arrested three men alleged to be members of a neo-Nazi hate group who had planned to travel with firearms to a pro-gun rally in Richmond, Virginia. The rally is scheduled for the Martin Luther King Day holiday on Monday to protest gun control measures… Read more »

(JTA) — Lev Parnas, the Ukrainian-American businessman charged with campaign finance violations related to the Trump-Ukraine scandal, said in a series of media interviews that President Donald Trump “knew exactly what was going on” in Ukraine. Parnas spoke to several news outlets, including MSNBC, The New York Times and… Read more »

(JTA) — A trailblazing children’s book by a Jewish author is the most checked-out book of all time at the New York Public Library. “The Snowy Day” by writer and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats has been checked out of the library 485,583 times, according to a list of the… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s military carried out airstrikes on terror group installations in Gaza on Wednesday after terrorists launched rocket attacks on southern Israel. Four rockets launched in the afternoon sent Israelis in Gaza border communities running to bomb shelters. Two of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron… Read more »

(JTA) — Five hundred rabbis and other Jewish leaders from around the world are calling for climate change action. The letter released earlier this month was signed by rabbis and leaders spanning the denominational spectrum — from Orthodox to Reform and secular — and from countries including the United… Read more »

(JTA) — A Jewish organization in Ukraine said that the number of anti-Semitic incidents documented there last year decreased by 27 percent over 2018. The United Jewish Community of Ukraine, one of several groups representing Ukrainian Jewry, said in a report published Monday that it has documented 66 anti-Semitic… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Jyrell McGriff, an African-American eighth-grader who lives in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, doesn’t interact much with the many Orthodox Jews who share his neighborhood. He sees them on the street or on buses. He also has fond memories of a Jewish teacher from years… Read more »

(JTA) — The two Jersey City kosher store shooters were carrying a bomb in the van they were using that had enough firepower to kill or wound people in an area the size of five football fields. Federal officials on Monday also said that David Anderson and Francine Graham… Read more »

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is planning its annual Super Sunday phone-a-thon this year for Jan. 26. The event, which raises funds for the 2020 Community Campaign, will be held 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m. in a new venue: the Deanna and Harvey Evenchik Center for Jewish Philanthropy at 3718… Read more »

Did you know … that in addition to the programs, synagogues, and agencies the Federation helps fund in Southern Arizona, it supports Jewish communities in Israel, the former Soviet Union, and more than 70 countries around the world? Did you know … that the Free Loan, a non-sectarian program… Read more »

Michael Beller, left, and Josh Kay

Only 12 states currently require schools to teach students about the Holocaust. Michael Beller and Josh Kay, the founders of Arizona Teaching the Holocaust, want to make Arizona state number 13. “It’s important to me that Holocaust education stay at the forefront,” Beller said. “We want to ensure that… Read more »

Paul Patterson

Continued attacks on Jewish targets are a reminder that individual organizations clearly need to be more attentive, and they are stepping up to that,” says Stuart Mellan, CEO and president of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. “We see a higher level of vigilance than ever before.” “The Jewish… Read more »

On a recent return visit to Tucson, Adam Scott Bellos, founder of The Israel Innovation Fund, told the AJP it felt like “coming full circle for me.” Bellos says the unique Zionist nonprofit has its roots at the University of Arizona, where he spent three years in Judaic studies… Read more »

Award-winning writer and director Yehonatan Indursky, co-creator of Israel’s award-winning TV series “Shtisel,” will speak on Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. as part of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies Shaol & Louis Pozez Memorial Lectureship Series. The free lecture will be held at the Tucson Jewish Community Center,… Read more »

The Israel Innovation Fund’s Wine on the Vine initiative allows people to plant a grapevine in Israel in the name of a loved one for $18. The Tucson Jewish Community Center is one of the first five JCCs in the United States to partner with Wine on the Vine.… Read more »