Tagged FRONT

Here’s why Hamas and Israel may be secretly negotiating

Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh arriving at a Liberation Youths summer camp organized by the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, Aug. 1, 2015. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)
August 18, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) — After more than a decade of failed diplomacy, Israel could be close to signing a major agreement with the Palestinians. They’re just not the Palestinians you thought. After years of vowing not to negotiate with Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, Israel may be finalizing… Read more »

Volunteer to professional and back: Jewish causes engage Tucsonan
August 14, 2015 / Sarah Chen, Special to the AJP
Elaine Lisberg

Elaine Lisberg doesn’t like to live in the past or dwell over what she’s accomplished. “To me, life’s all about moving forward.” A lifelong devotee of Jewish causes and educational nonprofits, Lisberg has transitioned from active volunteer to trained professional, then to professional volunteer and now officially considers herself… Read more »

Helping others, local man fosters own sense of belonging

Allan Mendelsberg at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Great Strides walk in Tucson on March 29
August 14, 2015 / Renee Claire, Special to the AJP

Allan Mendelsberg serves on the community advisory board for the Special Olympics. He began volunteering for the organization when he was a high school student in Denver. “I really enjoyed working with the kids and when I moved to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona, I just stayed… Read more »

Op-Ed: Obama is ‘dog whistling’ about Jews? Ridiculous

President Barack Obama speaking about the Iran nuclear agreement at American University in Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2015. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
August 14, 2015 / Alan Solow, JTA

CHICAGO (JTA) — Debaters know that when they are losing an argument, a good tactic is to change the subject. So it goes with the current accusations, completely untethered from reality, that President Obama is resorting to anti-Jewish “dog whistles” in his defense of the nuclear deal with Iran.… Read more »

At TIHAN’S Poz Café, locals serve up simple pleasures

(L-R): Patrice White, Naomi Present, Max Harris and Barbara Holtzman of Congregation Chaverim are recognized for their service to Poz Cafe at Tucson Interfatih HIV/AIDS Network in March.
August 13, 2015 / Craig S. Baker, Special to the AJP

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a diagnosis of HIV or AIDS was essentially a death sentence. Pharmaceutical representative Pa­trice White was fresh out of grad school at that time and employed as a social worker for the local hospitals. “It was just awful,” says White of the… Read more »

History museum reopens with postcard show
August 13, 2015 /

The Jewish History Museum, which reopens Aug. 15, will present “Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Postcards from the Permanent Collection,” Aug. 19-Dec. 20. The collection of handwritten cards shows Southern Arizona from the early 1900s through the 1960s. Visitors will have the opportunity to write their own postcards and send them… Read more »

At autism forum, educator says inclusion also a spectrum
August 13, 2015 / Laura Wilson Etter, Special to the AJP
Stephen Shore

For some students who have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder or Asperger’s syndrome, the start of a new school year can be especially difficult. Adjusting to new teachers, schedules, classmates and rules can be hard for all children, but for children with ASD or Asperger’s syndrome, changes in… Read more »

Emotions, diversity imbue JFSA leadership mission to Israel

At a stop on the drive back to Jerusalem from Masada and the Dead Sea, Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona leadership mission participants, from left, Dinah Lucas, Roe Callahan, Linda Immerman-Stoffers, Ellen Freeman and Priscilla Storm prepare to ride a camel — an activity, says JFSA President and CEO Stuart Mellan, that was “strictly optional.”
August 13, 2015 / Nancy Ben-Asher Ozeri, Special to the AJP

“Israel is an inspirational and complicated place,” Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild said upon returning from the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona interfaith community leadership mission last month. “Visiting Israel teaches that one must have great resolve and still, at the same time, be very open to hear competing views.”… Read more »

Op-Ed: Lobby hard on Iran deal, but ditch the stereotypes

Sen. Charles Schumer was the subject of a cartoon that some saw as questioning his loyalty to the United States. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
August 12, 2015 / Jonathan Greenblatt, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Congress and the American people are focused on what everyone agrees is a historic, serious and consequential foreign policy decision — the fate of the nuclear deal with Iran. While we all hope for a debate based on substance and conducted with civility, the truth… Read more »

NPR’s Nina Totenberg reclaims dad’s stolen violin, now worth millions

From left, Jill Totenberg, Nina Totenberg and Amy Totenberg viewing their father's Stadivarius violin, which was stolen after a concert 35 years ago, at an FBI news conference in New York City announcing the recovery of the violin, Aug. 6, 2015. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
August 10, 2015 / Julie Wiener, JTA

(JTA) — Jewish violin virtuoso Roman Totenberg enjoyed a long life, making it to the ripe old age of 101. But that wasn’t quite long enough to be reunited with the prized instrument that was stolen from him in 1980. The FBI officially announced Thursday that it had recovered Totenberg’s… Read more »

Does Israel give Jewish extremists a pass on violence against Arabs?

Family members of Ali Saad Dawabsheh outside their home in a West Bank Palestinian village after an arson attack that killed the 18-month-old boy, July 31, 2015. Jewish extremists are suspected of setting the fire. (Oren Ziv/Getty Images)
August 5, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

(JTA) – There are some striking similarities between last week’s arson attack on a Palestinian home that killed an 18-month-old boy and last summer’s kidnapping and immolation of a 16-year-old Palestinian, Mohammed Abu Khdeir. Then, as now, Jewish extremists were the prime suspects in the attack. Then, as now, the murder… Read more »

A year after Gaza war, border communities are growing

Children in the southern Israeli kibbutz of Nahal Oz playing near a colorfully painted concrete shelter, July 6, 2015. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
August 4, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Few communities were as battered during last summer’s conflict between Israel and Hamas as Nahal Oz, a kibbutz of some 350 people located just a mile from the Gaza border. At one point in the fighting, 40 missiles landed on the community in a single… Read more »

After Palestinian baby’s death, Israelis say condemnation not enough

Tali Mizrahi, a member of the anti-racism group Light Tag, visiting the home of a Palestinian baby allegedly killed by Jewish arsonists. (Ben Sales)
August 3, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

DUMA, West Bank (JTA) — The smell of stale smoke wafted from the burnt concrete home now marked by a banner bearing the grinning face of a baby and, in bold red letters, a name: Ali Saad Dawabsha. Some 100 Jewish visitors trudged hesitantly under the banner and into the… Read more »

Jewish terror draws Netanyahu’s focus homeward

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting the hospitalized family of a West Bank Palestinian baby killed in an arson attack, July 31, 2015. (Flash90)
July 31, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

  Updated 8.5.15 WASHINGTON (JTA) – Ahead of what may be the toughest diplomatic battle of his career, a final bid to kill the Iran nuclear deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suddenly found himself facing down a terrorist threat – apparently from Jews. The flow of Iran… Read more »

News Analysis: With polls of U.S. Jews on Iran at odds, whom to believe?

Hundreds of people protesting against the Iran nuclear deal on July 26, 2015, in Los Angeles, California. (Peter Duke)
July 31, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — There have been three major polls of American Jews since the announcement of the nuclear deal between world powers and Iran — by the L.A. Jewish Journal, The Israel Project and J Street— all with significantly different results. Two show U.S. Jewish support for the Iran nuclear… Read more »

Jewish women’s eggs are hot commodity, but are they ‘kosher’?
July 30, 2015 / Suzanne Pollak
Egg banks report that they cannot meet the demand for Jewish donations. (Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

ROCKVILLE, Md. (Washington Jewish Week via JTA) – Laura has donated her eggs four times to women who needed help having children. “It gave me a real sense of purpose,” she said. “It really is a great personal pleasure to know that I have something that changes someone’s life.”… Read more »

Ukraine fiscal crisis leads to major setback for homegrown Jewish philanthropy

A heavily damaged hotel near the Donetsk airport in Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2015. The fighting between Ukraine and Russian-backed rebels has wreaked havoc on the Ukraine hryvnia.(Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
July 29, 2015 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) – For many years Rami Waisman, the director of a major jewelry chain, was earning enough to give back handsomely to the Jewish communal institutions in his eastern Ukraine hometown,  Dnepropetrovsk. But these days Waisman is struggling and can no longer financially support such institutions as the local synagogue,… Read more »

Pollard’s wait not over: Fight to bring him to Israel will outlast his release

Israelis calling for the release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard in Jerusalem, March 21, 2013. (Liar Mizrahi/Getty Images)
July 29, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Barack Obama will not alter the terms of Jonathan Pollard’s parole once he is released, a signal that Israel’s struggle to bring him to the country whose citizenship he has assumed will outlast his November release date. “Mr. Pollard will serve his sentence as mandated… Read more »

Israelis say Pollard release won’t change stance on Iran

Uri Ariel, left, Israel's minister of housing, and Knesset Chairman Yuli Edelstein at a Passover seder held in honor of Jonathan Pollard, pictured, at the Knesset, April 8, 2014. (Flash90)
July 28, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

  TEL AVIV (JTA) — When the United States frees convicted spy Jonathan Pollard in November, many in Israel will celebrate the moment for which they have fought and hoped. What Pollard’s release won’t do, officials and analysts say, is make most Israelis feel any better about the nuclear deal with Iran. Pollard, who was convicted… Read more »