(JTA) — Midwest Jews may need to find something else to eat when Yom Kippur ends — tons of their bagels are now toast. Some 38,000 pounds of frozen bagels met an unhappy fate on Sunday, just a couple of days ahead of the Jewish Day of Atonement, when… Read more »
Special Sections
Goat at Yom Kippur family service – no kidding!
Children will be able to release their sins the really old-fashioned way by sending them away with a goat at Temple Emanu-El’s Yom Kippur morning family service, Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 8:30 a.m. During Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, repentance is achieved by prayer, repentance, and fasting, but… Read more »
Voices of Hope: The ongoing legacy of the Holocaust
The Jewish New Year is a time for reflection and commitment toward a more just world. The six Holocaust survivors we feature in this issue are a few among the approximately 75 survivors currently living in Southern Arizona, most of whom were children or teens when the war broke… Read more »
Four gorgeous Rosh Hashanah recipes from some of Israel’s top chefs
Sea Bass with Roasted Peppers and Herb Crème Filling. (Photo: The Edge Partners PR/JTA Photo Service)
Rosh Hashanah menus, while traditional and delicious, can also get a little stale year after year. With Israeli food trending across the globe, now is a perfect time to add some authentic Israeli flavors to your holiday. We have gathered four exclusive recipes from some of Israel’s top chefs:… Read more »
Happy New Year 5780
By Anne Lowe
Erika Dattner
Erika Dattner at her home in Tucson. (Shayne Tarquinio/AJP)
When World War II began, Erika Dattner was 2 years old in Budapest, Hungary. Her childhood was shaped and stolen by Hitler’s military campaigns and Nazi protocols. Her family was scattered and to stay safe, she had to hide. When the war ended in 1945, she had no home.… Read more »
Michael Bokor
Michael Bokor displays some of his sculptures. He is currently working on figures for a Holocaust memorial project. (Korene Charnofsky Cohen)
Despite his family’s poverty in New York City in 1947, Michael Bokor declares it was beautiful to be in America. At least compared to life in Hungary during the Holocaust — forced labor, concentration camps, hiding, beatings, starvation, disease, and death. After living in the United States for 72… Read more »
Theresa Dulgov
Theresa Dulgov, at her Tucson home, clutches the small handbag she took when she fled Hungary in 1956. Her mother, Eva, stuffed the doll with jewelry. (Debe Campbell/AJP)
Theresa Dulgov, 75, is a child survivor of the Holocaust. From her Tucson home, surrounded by souvenirs from her travels and treasures recovered from her past, she recounts the memories her mother, Eva Siebert, instilled and her own as she grew up in the shadow of both the Holocaust… Read more »
Willy Halpert
Willy Halpert speaks at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Northwest office, Dec. 27, 2015. Courtesy Willy Halpert)
Willy Halpert remembers the last day he saw his father with crystal clarity: the sunshine, the chatter of an Antwerp café, music playing, then silence as Nazi SS and Belgian Brownshirts closed off the street. But for decades after the war, he shut away memories of what came after,… Read more »
Walter Feiger
Walter Feiger
As a boy in Poland, Walter Feiger cherished a book about Buffalo Bill; when he first visited Tucson in 1970, he said, “That’s buffalo country!” Feiger, who survived a ghetto and several concentration camps, has been telling his story to local school and law enforcement groups since the 1980s.… Read more »
Annique Dveirin
Annique Dveirin lights a candle with her granddaughter, Haley Dveirin, at the Tucson Jewish community Yom HaShoah commemoration in 2017.
(Keith Dveirin)
Never Again, Annique Dveirin. A signature. A statement. And all because she wants hate to cease to exist in this world. Even though she was only 4 years old when she was hidden with a Christian family in Poland, Dveirin was made painfully aware of the terrors of the… Read more »
Israeli woman goes to the emergency room after confusing wasabi for avocado
(JTA) — Just a teaspoon of the green stuff was enough to make her feel like she was having a heart attack. A 60-year old Israeli woman checked herself into the Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba after a night of “unexpected chest pressure that spread to her arms… Read more »
What working as a prosecutor has taught me about Yom Kippur and forgiveness
Editor’s note: The author is an active prosecutor in a major U.S. city. Due to the nature of their work, they must write anonymously. The court officer calls out the calendar number and reads the docket into the record. The defendant, accompanied by his attorney, enters the well. The… Read more »
Meringue-topped apple pie bars: An innovative Rosh Hashanah dessert
(Dikla Frances/JTA Photo Service)
This recipe originally appeared on The Nosher. Looking for an innovative way to incorporate apples into your Rosh Hashanah menu? Look no further than these meringue-topped apple pie bars. With layers of buttery pastry, cinnamon-scented apples and fluffy meringue, they’re sweet, toasty and sure to be a hit. The… Read more »
By chilling out on Rosh Hashanah, I made my Judaism truly meaningful
Julie Matlin (Courtesy of Matlin) MONTREAL (JTA) — Picking through gefilte fish in the kosher department, searching for the freshest packages, I think of my Grandma Fanny. She made her gefilte fish from scratch, lovingly combining the cod, whitefish, pike and whatever other secret ingredients she threw in that made it so good. “This… Read more »
My congregation prays at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue. Here’s how we are coping this Rosh Hashanah.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, right, holds hands with Rabbi Jonathan Perlman, who survived the attack at the Tree of Life synagogue, at Rodman Street Missionary Baptist Church during a service for victims of the mass shooting, Oct. 31, 2018, Perlman's wife, the author Beth Kissileff, is seated to his left. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images/JTA Photo Service)
PITTSBURGH (JTA) — Our sages teach us that kol hatchalot kashot, all beginnings are difficult. This phrase feels especially resonant this Rosh Hashanah. The man who blew the shofar last year at my Pittsburgh synagogue, New Light, is not here to blow it now. He was murdered on Oct. 27… Read more »
Sackler family-owned Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy
(JTA) — The Sackler family-owned Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy as part of a tentative $12 billion settlement with dozens of state and local governments that filed lawsuits accusing the company of fueling and profiting from the opioid epidemic. The company’s board met Sunday evening to approve the move,… Read more »
Health care organization linked to Boston’s Jewish community gets $53 million to study dementia
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 »
Five hacks for the best Rosh Hashanah celebrations with family, friends
Traditional apples and honey dish on Rosh Hashanah table; apples and honey are traditionally eaten on the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah to symbolize wishes and prayers for sweetness in the new Jewish year, San Ramon, California, September 9, 2018. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
I can’t help but wonder why Hallmark and the retail world at large haven’t co-opted the Jewish New Year. True, while there may “only” be some 5 million to 7 million Jews in the U.S. (depending on who’s counting), Rosh Hashanah is a particularly important holiday on the Jewish… Read more »
Tucson Jewish Community Center aims for autumn Garden of Hope opening
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 »



