“Freeing Your Mind,” painting by Julian Dombrowski It was an exciting day for Julian Dombrowski and his family in early May, when he was accepted into an online graduate program in creative writing at Southern New Hampshire University. Dombrowski, 32, is wheelchair-bound with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a muscle disease that begins in childhood. The illness affects… Read more »
Kristin Taft For the 400 school-age children attending Camp J at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, camp is an opportunity to make friends and beat the heat; however, for the 33 children in the Camp J Inclusion Program, it is also an opportunity to put their “special needs” labels aside and… Read more »
Congregation Bet Shalom at Masada. Back row (L-R): Debbie Rich, Helena Lamb, Debbie Belden, Norm Rubin; middle row: Paul Araiza, Tom Alpert, Cantor Avraham Alpert, Bernie Engelhard, Donna Popp, Kathy Rubin, Mesha Seckbach; front row: Keith Belden, Pedro Fajardo, Elinor Engelhard, Carol Alpert, Ezra Alpert, Nicholas Popp Would you expect to find a Torah scribe atop the mountain fortress at Masada? That’s what happened during Congregation Bet Shalom’s Musical Mission to Israel, June 2-12. Just one day after our grandson Nicholas celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at Robinson’s Arch at the Kotel, he had the opportunity, along… Read more »
Rachel Fraenkel, mother of Naftali Fraenkel, cries over the body of her son, during the joint funeral for three murdered Jewish teens in the Modiin cemetery, on July 1, 2014. (Flash 90) MODIIN, Israel (JTA) — They were their mothers’ sons. They were all of our sons. They were dear boys. They were martyrs for Israel. They were funny, clever, creative. They are the messengers of the Jewish people in heaven. The joint funeral Tuesday of Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaar and… Read more »
(L-R): Rabbi Thomas Louchheim, cantorial soloist Nichole Chorny, Rabbi Batsheva Appel, Steven Seltzer, Cantor Avraham Alpert, Rebecca Crow, Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon and Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin on stage at Tucson's community service memorial for three murdered Israeli teens, July 2, 2014 (Courtesy Simon Rosenblatt) About 250 people came together Tuesday at the Tucson Jewish Community Center for a memorial service for three Israeli teenagers kidnapped June 12 and found murdered Monday. The service was organized by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, the JCC and local clergy. Against a backdrop of photos of… Read more »
Demonstrators in Washington celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case, June 30, 2014. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Two decades ago the Jewish community united in support of landmark religious freedom legislation. Now the Supreme Court’s application of that law has Jewish groups divided. Leading Jewish advocacy groups denounced the court’s 5-4 decision Monday in theHobby Lobby case granting religious freedoms protections to companies, while Orthodox groups… Read more »
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, addressing the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church (U.S.A.) to urge the denomination to reject divestment, June 19, 2014. (Courtesy of Union for Reform Judaism) WASHINGTON (JTA) – There were amendments and amendments to amendments in a debate lasting for more than four hours. There were dueling T-shirts. There was a last-minute appeal for a joint pilgrimage to speak hard truths to Benjamin Netanyahu. And there was a plea to emulate Jesus and speak… Read more »
Six Reform rabbis pose for a photo outside the jail in St. Augustine, Fla., where they spent a nigth after being arrested protesting for civil rights 50 years earlier. From left to right, are Allen Secher, Israel Dresner, Jerrold Goldstein and Richard Levy. Sitting are Daniel Fogel, left, and Hanan Sills. (Dina Weinstein) ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (JTA) — For Rabbi Richard Levy, it was an emotional return to this historic northeastern Florida city. The first time Levy came to St. Augustine 50 years ago, he and 15 other rabbis and a Reform Jewish leader endured taunts from segregationists armed with broken bottles… Read more »
Trip members on the promenade at the port at Tel Aviv. Back row (L-R): Howard Peck, Meir Eisenman, Claire Peck, Carolyn Crowder, Esther Becker, Rabbi Israel Becker; front row: Howard Toff, Cheryl Toff, Renee Geffen, Carol Zuckert, Marcia Winick, Alayne Greenberg, Bruce Greenberg; seated: Lyn Lewis, Clifford Altfeld, Ruth Swedarsky My wife, Lyn, and I recently returned from the Congregation Chofetz Chayim/Southwest Torah Institute 2014 Israel Experience, filled with enthusiasm for the trip and the many unique experiences we shared with a group of 13 led by… Read more »
Deborah Kalar-Crowder, emergency financial assistance manager at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, receives packages for Mitzvah Magic. For a family struggling to make ends meet, the gifts and holiday items provided by Tucson’s Mitzvah Magic program are “a godsend,” one recipient recently told the AJP. We’ll call her “Rachel.” Mitzvah Magic, a program of Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Women’s Philanthropy and Jewish Family & Children’s… Read more »
Here are some hot summer reading suggestions from your AJP editors. For me, the public library is an Aladdin’s cave of treasures waiting to be discovered. A recent find on a recommended reading display was “Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment,” a 2009 title by A.J. Jacobs, author… Read more »
Left to right, Mariano Schlez and Paola Salem, with Damian Beker and Maxi Klein, organized efforts to bring together Jewish Soccer fans at the World Cup's seven sites in Brazil. (Courtesy Paola Salem) (JTA) – When Argentina plays its opening-round matches in the World Cup, Mariano Schlez of Buenos Aires will be screaming his support from the stands. But taking in his home country’s matches in Brazil isn’t all that will be occupying Schlez for the first fortnight of the monthlong soccer… Read more »
Rep. Eric Cantor, then-House majority leader, delivers an address at the Virginia Military Institute, Feb. 17, 2014. (Courtesy of House Majority Leader) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Eric Cantor’s defeat in one constituency, Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, triggered mourning among another: Republican Jews. Since 2009, Rep. Cantor (R-Va.) has been the only Jewish Republican in Congress. After the 2010 GOP takeover of the House, he became the majority leader. He is the highest-ranking… Read more »
Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas delivers his farewell speech as prime minister of the Hamas-run government in Gaza, a position he stepped down from under the new Palestinian unity agreement, June 2, 2014. (Wissam Nassar/Flash90) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Is the new Palestinian government kosher under U.S. law? A range of American Middle East policy analysts and current and former U.S. officials say that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas threaded the needle last week and created a government of technocrats untainted by Hamas and not… Read more »
A photo of Sara Kaplowitz Greenberg in the early 1940s is surrounded by a few of her beloved shul hats. (Courtesy Jewish History Museum) The Jewish History Museum’s summer exhibit, “Skullcaps and Shul Hats,” which runs through June 30, focuses on two family collections of head coverings. One is a collection of elegant shul hats worn by Tucsonan Nicki Lasky’s mother, Sara Kaplowitz Greenberg. They range from “fascinators,” small, often feathered decorative headpieces,… Read more »
Evan Mendelson Evan Mendelson has worked most of her life in Jewish philanthropy, including as the founding executive director of the Jewish Funders Network in New York. In January 2013 in Tucson, she was named the first non-family member executive director of the David C. and Lura M. Lovell Foundation. Previously,… Read more »
Rose Cabat, “Feelies,” c. 1960s-1980s,
porcelain, collection of the artist (Carissa Castillo) The Tucson Museum of Art is presenting “Rose Cabat at 100: A Retrospective Exhibition of Ceramics,” through Sept. 14. Cabat, who lives in Tucson, is considered one of the most important… Read more »
Relatives and family members mourning in Tel Aviv during the funeral for Emanuel and Miriam Riva, the Israeli couple killed in the May 24 shooting attack at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels, May 27, 2014. (Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images) (JTA) — It was the threat that European authorities dreaded — and Europe’s Jews suffered the first blow. The suspect arrested in the attack last month at the Jewish museum in Brussels that left four dead was a French-born jihadist who had returned home from fighting in Syria. Now… Read more »
Ukraine's president-elect, Petro Poroshenko, speaking to the media during a news conference in Kiev, May 26, 2013. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Imrages) (JTA) — To many of his voters, President-elect Petro Poroshenko represented hope for fixing Ukraine’s ailing economy because of the billionaire candy company founder’s success in business. Others believed that Poroshenko, who won 54 percent of the vote in last week’s presidential race, was the best candidate for negotiating… Read more »
Likkud Knesset member Rerven Riv;in meets with children at a Jerusalem school on May 30, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) TEL AVIV (JTA) — The front-runner in Israel’s presidential election has equated Reform Judaism with “idol worship” and refused to refer to Reform rabbis by their title. Former Knesset speaker Reuven “Ruby” Rivlin, considered a Likud party elder statesman, is one of six candidates running to succeed Shimon Peres in… Read more »
