Tagged FRONT

Can Netanyahu make new narrow coalition work?

Jewish Home's Ayelet shaked discussing budgets for Israeli settlements at a meeting of the State Control Committee at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Nov. 10, 2014. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
May 8, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) – Seven weeks after he won reelection, Benjamin Netanyahu finally secured a fourth term as prime minister. With 90 minutes to go until a Wednesday night deadline to form a governing coalition, Netanyahu concluded an agreement with the religious, pro-settler Jewish Home party that gives him… Read more »

Where is the Jewish aid to Nepal going?

Israeli soldiers establish a field hospital together with the Nepalese army on April 29 in Nepal. (IDF Spokesperson/ Flash90)
May 6, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) – Almost as soon as news of Nepal’s devastating earthquake reached the wider world, Jewish aid groups began mobilizing humanitarian efforts to help the victims. In Israel, that meant dispatching first responders to Nepal; in America, it mostly meant raising and allocating money. How is the… Read more »

Why Ethiopian-Israelis took to Tel Aviv’s streets

Israeli policeman trying to disperse the hundreds of demonstrators in Tel Aviv protesting on behalf of Ethiopian-Israelis, May 3, 2015. (Ben Kelmer/Flash90)
May 4, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) — A historically disadvantaged black minority is galvanized when one of its members appears to suffer brutality at the hands of police — and the episode is caught on video. Peaceful mass protests devolve into violence. Police crack down in an attempt to control crowds. It’s… Read more »

Op-Ed: What a biblical tale of rape can teach us about Baltimore riots

Protesters marching in Baltimore following the announcement that six city police officers would be indicted in the death of Freddie Gray, May 2, 2015. (Andrew Burton.Getty Images)
May 4, 2015 / Avraham Bronstein, JTA

GREAT NECK, N.Y. (JTA) — From 2011 through 2014, the City of Baltimore paid nearly $6 million in over 100 judgments and settlements relating to false arrests, unlawful imprisonment and police brutality. Once the justice system takes its course, the family of Freddie Gray may well be added to… Read more »

Jewish-Latino Teen Coalition showcases multiculturalism — at home and in D.C.

Members of Tucson’s Jewish-Latino Teen Coalition meet with Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) at his office in Washington, D.C. (L-R) Zakkai Markowitz, Josh McKenna, Ryan Green, Alan Parra, Jared Friedman, Flake, Aida Flores, Itzel Herrera, Audrey Powers, Dominick Montes (Lisa Kondrat)
April 30, 2015 / Sheila Wilensky, AJP Associate Editor

When a group of nine Jewish and Latino teens traveled to Washington, D.C. last month it wasn’t just to see the sights — unless that included visiting congressional offices. Members of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Jewish-Latino Teen Coalition made the trip cross-country to lobby for immigration reform,… Read more »

IDF doctor to speak on post-traumatic stress
April 30, 2015 /
Eyal Fruchter

Eyal Fruchter, M.D., a retired Israel Defense Forces colonel who served as a military doctor, flight surgeon and military psychiatrist, will lead the keynote session of a conference on “Cause and Effect of Post-Traumatic Stress” on Thursday, May 14 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, presented by the Greater… Read more »

Federation set to honor ‘stars’ at annual awards celebration
April 16, 2015 /
Donna Moser and Audrey Brooks

Women of the Year Audrey Brooks and Donna Moser and Man of the Year Steve Kippur head the list of 2015 award winners the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will honor at its annual meeting and awards celebration, which will be held Thursday, May 7 at 7 p.m. at… Read more »

‘Music of the Night’ dinner to honor cantor
April 16, 2015 / Nancy Ben-Asher Ozeri, Special to the AJP
Cantor Janece Cohen

To mark Cantor Janece Cohen’s 25 years of service as a congregational cantor, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is granting her a Doctorate of Sacred Music, Honoris Causa. On Saturday, May 9, Congregation Or Chadash will honor Cohen for this achievement with a gala dinner. Cohen has been… Read more »

More than 40 years later, Munich 11 will get Olympic moment of silence

American weightlifter David Berger was one of 11 members of the Israeli team killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. (Courtesy Barbara Berger)
April 16, 2015 / Sheila Wilensky, AJP Associate Editor

Security was lax entering and leaving the 1972 Olympic Village in Munich. Barbara Berger knows this firsthand, because she was there on Sept. 3, 1972 to watch her 28-year-old brother, David Berger, an American, lift weights as a member of the Israeli Olympic team. The next morning, Berger and… Read more »

Anshei Israel to mark 85 years of community building
April 16, 2015 / Craig S. Baker
Rabbi Arthur Oleisky

You may not know this, but every anniversary is (according to a tradition probably created by Hallmark) associated with a particular gift — paper for the first, tin for the 10th, diamonds for the 60th. The 85th anniversary is the diamond and sapphire anniversary. Both stones because, let’s face… Read more »

When El Al flew to Tehran — and 9 other things you may not know about Israel’s past

Golda Meir, shown in January 1964, was not the world's first female prime minister. (Wikimedia Commons)
April 14, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

(JTA) — Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, falls on April 23. In honor of the Jewish state’s 67th birthday, we present, in no particular order, 10 little-known aspects of its history. El Al used to fly to Tehran. Iran and Israel enjoyed mostly good relations up until the Islamic revolution… Read more »

Le Pen picks fight with father amid party’s surging Jewish support

National Front leader Marine Le Pen speaking with reporters following a meeting with French President Francois Hollande, Jan. 9, 2015. (Thierry Chesnot/Getty Images)
April 14, 2015 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — At 27, David Rachline is the youngest senator in the history of France’s Fifth Republic and a rising force within the country’s third largest party. A university dropout and the son of a Jewish Socialist Party activist, Rachline crushed his opponents in the 2014 mayoral elections in… Read more »

First in line for Portuguese citizenship: Jewish dreamers and fortune seekers

Congregants praying at the Kadoorie Synagogue in Porto, Portugal, May 2014. (Courtesy of the Jewish community of Porto)
April 10, 2015 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — Hunched over a monument for thousands of Jews killed in a 1506 massacre in Lisbon, Danielle Karo (not her real name) felt a swelling in her eyes. To Karo, an American poet and business analyst who is descended from one of Sephardic Jewry’s greatest sages, the massacre… Read more »

Israel 67 fest will cap week of celebrations

A parade led by the University of Arizona marching band kicks off Tucson’s 2013 Israel Festival.
April 2, 2015 / Sheila Wilensky, AJP Associate Editor

Blue and white Israeli flags waving on the campus of the Tucson Jewish Community Center will soon signal “Tucson Celebrates Israel,” a week of community-wide commemorations and festivities. From April 19 to 26, Tucson community members are invited to participate in events ranging from a 7 p.m. screening of… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El dinner to honor Dicksteins

Stephen and Ruth Dickstein
April 2, 2015 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor

Temple Emanu-El will honor congregants Ruth and Stephen Dickstein for their contributions to the synagogue and the Tucson community with a gala dinner on Saturday, May 16. The theme of the event is “Our World Rests on Three Pillars: Learning, Worship, and Acts of Lovingkindness.” Steve and Ruth met… Read more »

Tucson Festival of Books wows readers for 7th year
April 2, 2015 / Sheila Wilensky, AJP Associate Editor
Eugene Yelchin

Who knew seven years ago that the Tucson Festival of Books would rank as one of the top celebrations of authors and reading in the United States? Kudos to its founders, Bill and Brenda Viner, members of the Tucson Jewish community, and Bruce Beach, Frank Farias and John Humenik.… Read more »

Jewish-Christian charity bringing Ukrainians to Israel — and aiming to keep them there

A Ukrainian couple at pre-flight briefing for immigrants to Israel in Kiev, March 23, 2015. (Ben Sales)
March 31, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

KIEV (JTA) — Tatyana Orul would have moved to Israel years ago if not for her job as a television journalist in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, which interested her too much to give up. But when bombs started falling next to her house last year, she reconsidered.… Read more »

Will Netanyahu join partners’ push for the poor?

A homeless man in Jerusalem. Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has emerged as one of the developed world's most economically unequal countries. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
March 30, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel got his wish in last week’s elections: a larger and more stable right-wing government marching in lockstep on security and diplomacy. But while the coming coalition may be more unified when it comes to the conflict with the Palestinians, it… Read more »