Religion & Jewish Life

(JTA) — Tiffany Haddish celebrated her bat mitzvah Tuesday night surrounded by an array of Jewish celebrity friends, including Billy Crystal, Chelsea Handler and Sarah Silverman. The comedian, who celebrated in Beverly Hills on the occasion of her 40th birthday, released her Netflix standup special, “Black Mitzvah,” on the same… Read more »

This story originally appeared on Alma. I am a product of a Jewish day school education, eight years of Jewish summer camp, and a Conservative Jewish upbringing. Finding a Jewish partner to marry and have Jewish babies with was in my DNA, as was tikkun olam. So it came… Read more »

(JTA) — Moshe Holtzberg, whose parents were killed in the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai when he was 2, was called to the Torah as a bar mitzvah. Holtzberg celebrated on Saturday in his hometown of Afula, in northern Israel, Chabad.org reported. A party was held on Sunday night in… Read more »

(JTA) — In case you missed it: Black and Jewish comedian Tiffany Haddish is having a bat mitzvah ceremony soon. She has released a Netflix stand-up special inspired by the occasion as well. So, naturally, on a special Sunday night edition of Jimmy Fallon’s “The Tonight Show,” Haddish broke… Read more »

Rabbi Cantor Hillary Chorny, left, and Cantorial Soloist Nichole Chorny

Update 11.22.19: This scholar-in-residence weekend is supported by The Rabbi Marcus Breger Fund at Congregation Anshei Israel. Rabbi Cantor Hillary Chorny of Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles will bring new music and innovative, interactive Shabbat services to Tucson as Congregation Anshei Israel’s scholar-in-residence, Dec. 13 and 14. Her… Read more »

Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona recently partnered with a national initiative that provides emergency funding to local Holocaust survivors. Assistance from the Seed the Dream Foundation and KAVOD-Ensuring Dignity for Holocaust Survivors now is available for any Holocaust survivor through the new KAVOD Survivors of the… Read more »

David Hazony

David Hazony, Ph.D., will present “Aliyah of the Mind: Zionism as Jewish Emancipation” on Monday, Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, as part of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies’ Shaol & Louis Pozez Memorial Lectureship Series. Most people think Zionism is about supporting… Read more »

The Tracing Roots intergenerational program, a partnership between Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging and Tucson Hebrew High, will be held at Handmaker again in 2020, beginning Sunday, Jan. 12. High school student participants will be paired with Handmaker residents and get to know them through the Jan. 12… Read more »

RAMAPO, N.Y. (JTA) — On the street where a man was stabbed to within an inch of his life on Wednesday, yellow buses waited to ferry young children to elementary school. Steps away from where his blood had splattered on the asphalt, young men shuffled in and out of… Read more »

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) – At 91, Holocaust survivor Andor Stern no longer fears the Nazis who imprisoned him in Auschwitz. Living in his native Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest metro area of nearly 25 million, what scares him today are burglars – his modest house has been broken into… Read more »

A new Chabad adult education course will explore what Judaism has to say about common negative emotions such as sadness, anxiety, anger, guilt, and shame. “Worrier to Warrior: Jewish Secrets to Feeling Good However You Feel” will be presented by Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin at the Tucson Jewish Community Center,… Read more »

If you’ve spent any time in Tucson you’ve seen the swarms of quirky yellow VW bugs dressed up with floppy black ears and a tail. They’re the iconic Truly Nolen Pest Control Mousecars. But, did you know there really was a man called Truly David Nolen … and that… Read more »

Pinchas Zohav, community chaplain for the Ruth & Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life (Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Northwest Division); his wife, Rita Zohav; Northwest Director Phyllis Gold; and Northwest staff member Carol Nudelman celebrated Shabbat on Friday, Oct. 4, with residents at Sunrise Senior Living. Zohav celebrates… Read more »

PITTSBURGH (JTA) —As we approach the one year since the worst anti-Semitic attack in American history, I am grateful for the outpouring of support for the Pittsburgh Jewish community. Over the last year, people across the world have stood shoulder to shoulder with all of us in the 412.… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Carved into the rock on the side of a mountain directly under the Har HaMenuchot cemetery here lies the entrance to Jerusalem’s newest necropolis, a city of the dead that its designers hope will relieve a shortage of burial space in the capital. A local engineering… Read more »

SAN FRANCISCO (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — Typically, Jews gather after Rosh Hashanah services to recite a brief prayer and then symbolically cast away their sins by tossing breadcrumbs into a body of water. The ritual, called tashlich, isn’t mandated by Jewish law — it’s just… Read more »

The b’nai mitzvah project has become an important part of the traditional coming of age ritual for many Jewish teens. Whether they volunteer in the local community or raise funds for a worthy cause, it’s a chance to exercise compassion and responsibility. Sometimes, it’s also a lesson in flexibility,… Read more »

In the past seven years, the American Jewish population has grown 10 percent. It remains a population that is mostly liberal, college-educated, and overwhelmingly white. And it’s not getting any younger. This is all according to a new American Jewish population estimate of the 48 contiguous U.S. states put… Read more »

Joy Often repeated during the High Holiday season: “What are you celebrating now?” “Who cares? We Jews always pray, eat, and are merry!” During prayers on every Jewish holiday, we mention “Mo’adim L’Simcha,” a holiday to rejoice. Yet, on Sukkot there is an extra emphasis on being happy and… Read more »

Using a recipe Handmaker resident Betty Light shared, Bonnie Gottesman (left) and Rabbi Richard Safran were among a group of residents at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging who enjoyed making honey cakes Sept. 25 in preparation for Rosh Hashanah. Some added nuts and/or raisins, depending on their individual… Read more »