Tagged FRONT

Revising previous guidance, Orthodox groups say no shared Passover seders should take place

The coronavirus has thrown a wrench in Passover seder plans. (Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images)
April 6, 2020 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Leading Orthodox Jewish groups have come out firmly against shared Passover meals, two days before the holiday begins and two weeks after the groups left open the possibility of communal seders under narrow circumstances. “Everyone must plan to celebrate Pesach where they are currently,” reads… Read more »

Jewish community responds to pandemic with relief fund
April 3, 2020 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor
Graham Hoffman is president and CEO of the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona and president and CEO-elect of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona

In response to the growing spread of COVID-19, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Jewish Community Foundation have created a Jewish Community Pandemic Relief Fund to help meet the needs of the most vulnerable members in the Jewish and greater communities. “We have set it up to… Read more »

10 minutes sewing a face mask can save a life
April 3, 2020 /
Mending Souls Co-founder Rose Skelly

The Ruth and Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life is encouraging community sewing groups and individual sewers to participate in the Mending Souls Project. All you need is a sewing machine and basic skills to prepare antibacterial face masks for local healthcare providers. By reviewing the website and calling… Read more »

Jewish Emergency Financial Assistance at JFCS expands in time of need
April 3, 2020 / Samuel Kirschbaum, JFCS Grant Writer
Deborah Kalar-Crowder

Jewish Family and Children’s Services of Southern Arizona assists Jewish individuals facing financial crises in this difficult time. Jewish Emergency Financial Assistance, sometimes referred to as LEAF (Local Emergency Assistance Fund), provides financial assistance, and case management plays a crucial role in ensuring the program effectively helps those in… Read more »

Jewish History Museum seeks entries for new pandemic-era archive

Items from the Oyneg Shabes Archive buried beneath the Warsaw Ghetto include a class schedule in Hebrew and a report on the spread of typhus. (Photos: Ringelblum Archive, Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, Poland)
April 3, 2020 / Bryan Davis, Jewish HIstory Museum

In 1910, a time capsule filled with ephemera was placed in the cornerstone of the historic temple that now serves as the flagship building of the Jewish History Museum. The capsule was buried in the building as part of the inaugural set of projects, services, and celebrations that surrounded… Read more »

Remembering Douglas’s forgotten pioneer Jews along the Mexican border

A grave stands vandalized at the Bisbee-Douglas Jewish cemetery, March 11, 2020. (Mary Levy Peachin)
April 3, 2020 / Mary Levy Peachin, Special to the AJP

Time has been harsh to this graveyard. The Bisbee-Douglas Jewish Cemetery has been desecrated by vandals, student initiations, truck drivers busting through the barbed wire fence, party-goers, and more than a century of neglect. The scene is grim. Looming 100 yards to the south, the U.S.-Mexico border wall distracts.… Read more »

Walking in the footsteps of my pioneer Levy family

Mary Levy Peachin visits the Bisbee-Douglas Jewish Cemetery March 11, 2020. (Courtesy Mary Peachin)
April 3, 2020 / Mary Levy Peachin, Special to the AJP

As a third-generation Arizonan with pioneer roots dating back to 1903, the year Phelps Dodge opened its Douglas smelter, it is difficult to match the historical pride I feel. The stories gleaned over the years are incredible. During two major 1911 Mexico Revolution battles in Agua Prieta, residents climbed… Read more »

Center focuses on maintaining pet-owner unity through respite, training

Sol Dog Lodge and Training Center provides obedience, behavior, K9, Good Citizenship, and service and therapy dog training. Keeping pets and their people together is the ultimate goal.
April 3, 2020 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

A group of women with passion and compassion for dogs is at the heart of Tucson’s Sol Dog Lodge and Training Center, a nonprofit organization. The community has recognized their dedication: they have garnered the annual Arizona Daily Star’s Readers’ Choice Award for best dog daycare/boarding for the past… Read more »

Meet the challah-tinkering yeast scientist who’s helping pandemic bread bakers get a good rise

Sudeep Agarwala is a yeast scientist and challah enthusiast whose guidance for home bakers has taken off online. (Courtesy of Agarwala)
March 31, 2020 / Philissa Cramer, JTA

(JTA) — Few people have any great solutions for this difficult moment in human history, but Sudeep Agarwala is one of them. As a yeast scientist, Agarwala spends much of his time thinking about the single-celled fungi that allow bread to rise. So when he learned that home bakers… Read more »

The coronavirus hasn’t stopped immigration to Israel

Israeli travelers enjoy a celebratory arrival at Ben Gurion Airport, March 23, 2020. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
March 29, 2020 / Sam Sokol, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Aviva Karoly, an attorney originally from Queens, New York, and her husband, Tzvi, were raised in religious Zionist homes and always dreamed of living in Israel. In preparation, the couple had sent their 6-year old son Adi to a Hebrew-speaking preschool. They also put off purchasing… Read more »

Benjamin Netanyahu’s rival just agreed to stop fighting and join him. Here’s why.

Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz seen during election campaign in Ramat Gan on February 25. After 99 percent of votes counted, right-wing bloc led by Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu obtained 58 seats but 3 are missing to get a clear majority. Israeli PM Netanyahu says today that Gantz is 'linking up with terrorists' supporters' alluding at possible union with Arab Alliance Joint List. On Wednesday, March 4, 2020, in Jerusalem, Israel. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
March 27, 2020 / Gabe Friedman, JTA

(JTA) — One of the crazier weeks in Israeli politics in recent memory ended on a fittingly dramatic note: Benny Gantz, the former army chief who came close to unseating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in three straight elections, laid down his proverbial arms. Gantz will join a so-called unity… Read more »

For Italian Jews, the ‘smell of death’ is all around

A cyclist protecting himself from the coronavirus passes in front of a synagogue in Turin, Italy, March 18, 2020. (Stefano Guidi/Getty Images)
March 26, 2020 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — At least twice a day, Micol Naccache breaks down in tears over what the coronavirus is doing to her city of Milan and its Jewish community. A high school teacher and mother of two, Naccache describes herself as “an optimistic person.” But she is struggling to stay… Read more »

You don’t need Zoom or Skype to say Kaddish without a minyan. Here’s a healthier option for the community.

A man recites the Mourner’s Kaddish from a prayer pamphlet. (Getty Images)
March 26, 2020 / Rabbi Seth Winberg

WALTHAM, Mass. (JTA) — Like so many others, I am feeling the spiritual loss and pain of our current inability to learn Torah and pray together in person. Many mourners are devoted to the customary recitation of Kaddish for a deceased close relative and struggling with how to do… Read more »

On Sunday, the rabbi logged on to Zoom: A bride and groom were waiting

Jalna Silverstein and Asael Papour are married in New York, March 22, 2020. (Courtesy of Silverstein)
March 26, 2020 / Ben Harris, JTA

(JTA) — Before everything changed, Jalna Silverstein and Asael Papour were planning a wedding much like many other Jewish nuptials on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. They had a band and caterer lined up, a ceremony planned for the synagogue where Silverstein grew up and all the little… Read more »

What Jewish groups want to see in Congress’ $2 trillion pandemic spending bill

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 20: Socially distanced apart, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) attend a meeting with a select group of Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats, and Trump administration officials in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill March 20, 2020 in Washington, DC. The small group of lawmakers and officials are in negotiations about the phase 3 coronavirus stimulus bill, which leaders say they hope to have passed by Monday. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
March 25, 2020 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The White House has come to an agreement with Democrats and Republicans on a $2 trillion stimulus package, the biggest in U.S. history, in response to the major economic downturn triggered by the coronavirus. The Senate approved the package, 96-0, at midnight Wednesday. It could undergo… Read more »

‘Painful and deep’: Jewish nonprofits face dire economic prospects during and after coronavirus

The main entrance of the Staenberg-Loup Jewish Community Center in Denver, July 27, 2018. At the time, the center had staved off financial worries thanks to a newly formed nonprofit that bought its property and infused it with cash to wipe out $14.3 million in debt. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
March 23, 2020 / Ben Sales, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Some 38,000 people work at Jewish community centers across North America, staffing preschools, camps, gyms, classes, activities for seniors and more. Because of the coronavirus crisis, a lot of them are going to lose their jobs. “The cuts are going to be painful and deep,”… Read more »

Why Jewish communities are keeping mikvahs open amid the coronavirus outbreak — for now

Women's mikvahs in Israel, like this one in the settlement of Alon Shvut, are still open. (Gershon Elinson/Flash90)
March 22, 2020 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — When the rabbis of New Jersey’s suburban Bergen County took the bold step of shutting down almost all facets of communal Jewish life last week, they left the doors of one institution open: the women’s mikvah, or ritual bath. That pattern has been repeated in… Read more »