Carolynn Scherer Carolynn Scherer Katz will present “Iran Update: a Jewish Perspective” at a Hadassah Southern Arizona lunch later this month. Scherer Katz is a scientist and team leader of the nuclear nonproliferation and systems analysis team at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She was instrumental in drafting Safeguards-by-Design documents for the… Read more »
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Keith Marcum joins the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona as communications and marketing manager. Most recently, he managed marketing and sales for Kuumba Made Inc., in Tucson. Before that, he was marketing manager at IMPACT of Southern Arizona, a Tucson non-profit. He is a graduate of James Madison… Read more »
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a statement in Ramat Gan on September 10, 2019. Photo by Hadas Parush/Flash90
(JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that if he is re-elected next week, he’ll immediately annex a big part of the West Bank: the Jordan Valley. That’s kind of a big deal. On the other hand, it’s not really — yet. That specific eastern swath of the West Bank… Read more »
Temple Beth Hatfiloh in Olympia, Wash., is the only synagogue in the United States known to be sheltering an undocumented immigrant. (Rabbi Seth Goldstein)
(JTA) — In a few weeks, the congregants at Temple Beth Hatfiloh in Olympia, Washington, will gather for Yom Kippur services, where a line in the traditional liturgy declares, “My house will be a house of prayer for all nations.” In this synagogue’s case, that will literally be true.… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel likely will have to go to war with Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu said. “There probably won’t be a choice but to launch an operation, a war with the terror forces in Gaza,” Netanyahu said during an interview with the Kan public broadcaster on Thursday morning. “We have… Read more »
Jeiwsh thought leaders and activists from around the world present the Declaration of Our Common Destiny to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, Sept. 10, 2019. (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Despite our differences, Jews around the world have remained bound together by a shared history, by the Torah and by our core values, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin told Jewish thinkers from around the world. The 30 scholars and activists met this week in Jerusalem to hammer… Read more »
From left to right: Avigdor Liberman, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ayelet Shaked, Ayman Odeh and Benny Gantz are all major players in the upcoming Israeli election. (Getty Images/JTA Photo Montage)
(JTA) — Trying to understand next week’s Israeli elections can get confusing. Especially since we’re talking about the second election in one year. Longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is mired in a series of corruption scandals and again facing a serious challenge from former military chief of staff Benny… Read more »
For Sarah Hurwitz, an introductory course launched an exploration of Judaism. (Random House)
When Sarah Hurwitz was working as a senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama, and later as head speechwriter for Michelle Obama, she often was assumed to be a good source of knowledge about Judaism. Except Hurwitz wasn’t. She had grown up nominally Reform. And after her bat mitzvah, Hurwitz… Read more »
BOSTON (JTA) — A health care organization with historic ties to the city’s Jewish community and an Ivy League university have been awarded a $53.4 million grant by the National Institute on Aging, one of the largest federal awards ever to study dementia. Hebrew Senior Life, an affiliate of… Read more »
(JTA) — A city councilman in Paterson, New Jersey, used the term “Jew us down” at a public meeting to criticize developers looking to buy land for less money. Colleagues of Michael Jackson condemned his use of the term, calling it “highly insensitive,” “reprehensible” and “totally inappropriate.” Councilman Al… Read more »
Robert (“Bobby”) Sharpe died Aug. 28, 2019, in Snowmass Village, Colorado, after a long battle with terminal brain cancer. Born and raised in Minnesota, Sharpe’s career took him to the movie business in Los Angeles and the garment industry in Minnesota before he was drawn to Tucson, where he… Read more »
(JTA) — John Bercow, the British House of Commons speaker who became widely known for his cries of “Order!” and other colorful rhetoric, announced Monday that he will resign his post by the end of October. Bercow is Jewish and said last year: “I’ve always been very open about… Read more »
(JTA) — Popular Jewish actress Mayim Bialik will write and direct a feature film based on her own experiences. The comedy-drama titled “As Sick As They Made Us,” which will deal with mental illness, will be Bialik’s screenwriting and directing debut. The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jon Ossoff, a Jewish investigative documentarian who lost a close 2017 race for the U.S. House of Representatives, is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia. Georgia is seen as a possible pickup for Senate Democrats in 2020 as they seek control of the body.… Read more »
"Dylan & Me: 50 Years of Adventures," by Louie Kemp (Courtesy of Louis Kemp/WestRose Press)
(JTA) — Jewish summer camp is such a crucial part of the American Jewish experience that many Jewish adults, even in their older age, likely remember the names of many of the kids in their cabins from when they were 11 years old. One of those cabins more than… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Late last month, a reporter for Bloomberg Law called the U.S. Department of Labor for comment about a recently hired staffer who had riffed on Facebook about excessive Jewish influence, including the observation that the Jewish media “protects its own.” Within hours, Leif Olson had resigned.… Read more »
(JTA) — A Southern California father of seven suffering from ALS made the cross-country trip to be at his son’s bar mitzvah with family and friends in his hometown of Brooklyn. Rabbi Yitzi Hurwitz, 47, of West Hollywood, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s… Read more »
Lance Forman shows off the final product of his smoked salmon factory in the East End of London, Sept. 4, 2019. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
LONDON (JTA) — Twenty years ago, this city’s oldest maker of smoked salmon endured a series of catastrophes that convinced its Jewish owner that his family business was a goner. In 1999, a fire consumed three-quarters of its factory. A year later, flooding forced it to relocate. A year… Read more »
National Security Adviser John Bolton arrives at his news conference in Kiev, Ukraine, Aug. 28, 2019. (STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu had quite a Tuesday. One week before Israelis go to the polls in their country’s second election this year, the Israeli prime minister went on live television with a promise that if re-elected, he is prepared to annex sensitive areas of the West Bank… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to be removed from the stage during a campaign speech in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod after rockets were fired from Gaza. The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted a rocket heading toward Ashdod and another heading toward Ashkelon… Read more »
