Fabrice Schomberg outside his home in The Hague. (Cnaan Lihpshiz) THE HAGUE, Netherlands (JTA) — For the tour guides that lead visitors through the Van Ostade Housing Project, Fabrice Schomberg’s sukkah is one of the few signs of the neighborhood’s Jewish roots. Built in the 19th century for impoverished Jews, the enclave today is surrounded by the largely Muslim… Read more »
Paul and Hedy Strnad were rejected in their efforts to seek safe haven in the United States from Czehchoslovakia on the eve of the Holocaust. (Courtesy Jewish Museum Milwaukee) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Was the Jewish “lady tailor” who ran a Prague dressmaking shop a potential Nazi spy? The Roosevelt administration apparently thought so. The Jewish Museum Milwaukee recently opened a remarkable exhibit about the late Hedy Strnad, a Jewish-Czech dressmaker who with her husband, Paul, attempted to immigrate… Read more »
A view of the reactor at the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran as the first fuel is loaded, Aug. 21, 2010. (Iran International Photo Agency via Getty Images) WASHINGTON (JTA) – Obama administration officials and Iran skeptics, chief among them Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are presenting starkly different outlooks of what the world would look like should negotiators meet a Nov. 24 deadline and strike a nuclear deal. The topic is likely to dominate the meeting… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his address at the U.N. General Assembly shows a photo of a rocket launcher in a civilian area of Gaza with children nearby, Sept. 29, 2014. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images) NEW YORK (JTA) – In the end, there was much to talk about at the U.N. General Assembly but few genuine surprises. With an eye on the jihadist group ISIS, President Obama focused on the need for the international community to counter the dangers of violent extremism. Israeli Prime… Read more »
Simon Rosenblatt Simon Rosenblatt is emphatic as he speaks about volunteering with the Tucson Jewish community: “Make no mistake, Jewish Tucson is our family.” Rosenblatt spreads his energy and time across a trifecta of local and national Jewish efforts: Temple Emanu-El, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Union for Reform… Read more »
Vivian Ackerman, left, and Selma Paul Marks (Sheila Wilensky/AJP) Friendships may be coveted throughout life, but how many span more than 65 years? Selma Paul Marks, now 91, was pregnant with her first child when she attended her friend Vivian’s wedding to Harry Ackerman at the Stone Avenue Temple on March 23, 1947. Years later, Marks and Ackerman,… Read more »
Summer’s over but worldwide trouble spots rage on. The influx into Arizona of Central American migrants fleeing violence, the ongoing turmoil in Ukraine, and the Israel-Gaza conflict were the subjects of an educational forum on Sept. 10, hosted by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of… Read more »
Martin Indyk said that refraining from imposing ideas on the Israelis and Palestinians inhibited both sides from embracing them. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) WASHINGTON (JTA) – What was supposed to have revived the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks — allowing negotiations to develop organically — instead helped kill them, Martin Indyk, until recently the top U.S. peace broker, told JTA in a candid and wide-ranging interview. Speaking by phone Sept. 19 while in transit… Read more »
President Barack Obama speaking at the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Sept. 24, 2014. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) NEW YORK (JTA) – President Obama devoted the bulk of his U.N. speech to the fight against violent Islamic extremism and hardly mentioned Iran’s nuclear program. In his address last year to the General Assembly, Obama spent a great deal of time talking about Tehran’s nuclear pursuit, describing it… Read more »
Secular Israelis outside the Cinema City theater in Jerusalem demonstrating in favor of allowing movie theaters to open on Shabbat, Feb. 25, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) TEL AVIV (JTA) – During the past 18 months, the governing coalition in Israel has passed legislation to extend the nation’s mandatory conscription to the haredi Orthodox — a group currently exempted from military service — and Knesset leaders have advanced bills that would allow for civil unions and… Read more »
The leader of France's far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen, seen here at a May Day demonstration in Paris in 2012, has a growing following among Jews. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images) (JTA) — From the window of his Paris home, Michel Ciardi can see into the waiting room of a government welfare agency where a predominantly Arab and African crowd awaits government checks. A former communist, Ciardi once believed the scene at the agency was a necessary element of French… Read more »
Who knows what Tucson’s energetic young Jewish leaders may accomplish in the next 30 years? Four of those leaders profiled here, Amy Beyer, Adam Goldstein, Ben Pozez and Sarah Heisler Singer, have already contributed a great deal to the future of Jewish Tucson, belying the stereotype of apathetic young… Read more »
Mark Wallace, CEO of the new Counter Extremism Project, is flanked by board members Fran Townsend and Joseph Lieberman in announcing the group's creation in New York, Sept. 22, 2014/ (Courtesy of Counter Extremism Project) NEW YORK (JTA) – Imagine taking the 6-year-old nongovernmental organization United Against Nuclear Iran and swapping out the word Iran with “violent extremists.” That pretty much sums up the Counter Extremism Project, an NGO launched Monday that aims to expose the financial, ideological and recruitment architecture that supports violent… Read more »
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida greets Israel's U.S. ambassador, Ron Dermer, at a Jewish New Year celebration hosted by Dermer in Chevy Chase, Md., Sept. 17, 2014. (Courtesy Israel Embassy) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Saying a nuclear Iran would be a “thousand times” greater threat to the world than ISIS, Israel’s ambassador to the United States warned against including Iran in any coalition to derail the jihadist group. Ron Dermer, speaking Wednesday to guests at a pre-Rosh Hashanah reception at… Read more »
In the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, pro-Palestinian rioters broke shop windows and set fires, July 20, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz) THE HAGUE, Netherlands (JTA) — A laconic man who abhors hysteria, the president of France’s CRIF umbrella of Jewish communities is not naturally inclined to emphasize his community’s fear in public, preferring to underscore French Jewry’s achievements and capacity to prosper despite recent hardships. But in a filmed interview… Read more »
Rabbi Billy Lewkowicz (left) and David Cutler David Cutler wanted to do something special with his Catalina Foothills home after his wife, Felicia, passed away in 2009, so he approached Rabbi Billy Lewkowicz and his wife, Ada, about using the home as a synagogue. Lewkowicz, director of Judaic studies at the Tucson Hebrew Academy, jumped at… Read more »
Ori Parnaby This fall, Tucsonans will have two new ways to connect with the many programs and services offered by the Tucson Jewish community: a concierge service and a revamped, interactive jewishtucson.org community website. Ori Parnaby, the concierge, started in her new position Sept. 2. Her office is at the Tucson… Read more »
Abigail Gumbiner Abigail Gumbiner defies the adage “you can’t go home again.” On Sept. 14 she will speak at the Jewish History Museum of Tucson about photos she and two other artists have contributed to the current exhibit “Temple of Shadows.” The exhibit title refers to the building that many in… Read more »
Jewish House members, present and past, clockwise from left, John Yarmuth, Nita Lowey, Jerrold Nadler, Henry Waxman, Brad Sherman and Howard Berman. (house.gov) WASHINGTON (JTA) – From 31 in 2009 to a likely 19 in January, the unofficial Jewish caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives is shrinking fast. Jewish lawmakers have traditionally been the first stop for Jewish lobbyists seeking inroads for their issues, including Israel, preserving the social safety net,… Read more »
New children's books: a tale from Spain, easing a young girl's pain (Courtesy Wisdom Tales Press) BOSTON (JTA) — Fourteen years ago, sitting in her synagogue during Saturday morning services, Jacqueline Jules was browsing some Torah commentary when a story about a medieval poet struck an inspirational chord. “It was an ‘aha’ moment. This will be my next writing project, my next children’s book,” recalled… Read more »
