News

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 »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Several rockets were fired at Israel from Syria, launched by Shiite militias operating under the command of the Iranian Quds Force, the Israel Defense Forces said. The rockets failed to land in Israeli territory, according to the IDF. The attack Monday followed hours after a series… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump fired John Bolton, his national security adviser and one of the administration officials seen as closest to the views of Israel’s government. “I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House,” Trump said Tuesday on… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that if he is re-elected, he will immediately annex the Jordan Valley. Netanyahu also promised to annex West Bank Jewish settlements in what he termed a “dramatic announcement” exactly one week before Israelis go to the polls for national… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, making his first visit to Hebron since 1998, said Wednesday that the West Bank city “will never be empty of Jews.” Netanyahu made the remarks at a ceremony to mark the 90th anniversary of the massacre of Jews in Hebron, a… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — As he talks about the recent string of attacks on Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, Yosef Rapaport points to a small scar above his right eye. It’s the remnant of an anti-Semitic attack he experienced 50 years ago as a teenager in Montreal. “For those of… Read more »

(JTA) — The Israel-based humanitarian group IsraAID, B’nai B’rith International and Chabad are among those pitching in to help the Bahamas in the wake of Hurricane Dorian’s devastation, which has killed at least seven people. “We are in the midst of a historic tragedy in parts of the northern… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will serve as welfare minister in the wake of the resignation of Haim Katz over charges of fraud and breach of trust. Netanyahu adds the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, generally known as welfare, to three other ministries he now… Read more »

he ‘Garden of Hope’ at the Tucson Jewish Community Center will be a multipurpose healing space. (Photo: Barbara Grygutis Sculpture LLC)

Gan Tikvah, the Garden of Hope, is nearing completion at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. It will have a fluid connection to the current Sculpture Garden and provide a shady and tranquil pocket park for all seasons. It will offer an outdoor venue for classes, programming, and, with dramatic… Read more »

As each news cycle seems to create new challenges to our Jewish community’s sense of wholeness, how will we respond — individually and collectively? Will we become broken and divided — or if not — how will we retain our footing so that we may remain connected to each… Read more »

Esther Becker will explore “Conversations with G-d” at the annual Women’s Academy of Jewish Studies Women’s Book Brunch, Sunday, Sept. 15 at Congregation Chofetz Chayim. “We live in an era when we all have our challenges to deal with and no one goes unscathed,” says Becker.  “I wanted to… Read more »

The Union for Reform Judaism’s Taste of Judaism classes, taught by Temple Emanu-El’s Rabbi Batsheva Appel, will be offered at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on Sundays, Sept. 8, 15, and 22 from 2:30-4:30 p.m., and at Temple Emanu-El on Thursdays, Sept. 12, 19, and 26, from 6-8 p.m.… Read more »

Having lived in Indonesia, an Islamic nation, for two decades, I never imagined the opportunity to visit a synagogue there. My first visit to Manado in the early ’90s was as a journalist covering Indonesia’s then-president Soeharto as he opened a new tourism center in North Sulawesi. Almost 30… Read more »

It’s very nostalgic to be back in Tucson,” says Abbii Cook, University of Arizona Hillel Foundation’s new assistant director. “I’m so excited to be back at the place that really shaped me. It’s like a full circle,” she says. Cook spent a lot of time at Hillel as a… Read more »

The 2019 Mega Challah Bake, cosponsored by Chabad Tucson and the Tucson Jewish Community Center, will be held Thursday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson J. At this sixth annual event, up to 350 women, teens and girls 9 and older will make the staple round breads… Read more »

Eighteen-year-old Aliya Markowitz had a goal: maintain a 4.0-grade point average through all four years at Catalina Foothills High School. She achieved this, while being active in BBYO, serving on the youth group’s Tucson and regional boards, and participating in the March of the Living two-week trip to Poland… Read more »

Scott Warren

Scott Warren, Ph.D., will be the Gallery Chat speaker at the Jewish History Museum and Holocaust History Center as it reopens for its 2019-2020 season on Friday, Sept. 6, at 11 a.m. He will speak about human migration through the Sonoran desert and how it shapes both memory and… Read more »

Mark Lytle, a native Tucsonan who has worked in the fire service for 24 years, is part of a coalition of first responders who created Integrated Community Solutions to Active Violence Events, or ICSAVE, to provide free active violence trainings to schools, religious institutions, and other groups across Arizona.… Read more »

Parents and siblings can read to babies early in life. (Courtesy PJ

Babies and reading are the focus of a lighthearted BYOB (bring your own baby) event coming up at the Tucson Jewish Community Center Early Childhood Education Center next month. “It’s an opportunity to meet other Jewish families with babies,” says Mary Ellen Loebl, coordinator for Southern Arizona’s PJ Library… Read more »

HaZamir Tucson is launching as a new branch of the International Jewish Teen Choir, a musical youth movement of 41 choral chapters across the United States and Israel. An inter-congregational group of local Jewish teens will cap their year of practice with a festival in New York where 450… Read more »