Simferopol Reform Synagogue Ner Tamid on Feb. 28, 2014. (Courtesy Simferopol Reform Synagogue Ner Tamid) Shortly after Russian soldiers occupied the Crimean city of Sevastopol last week, Leah Cyrlikova took her two children out for an afternoon stroll in a city park. When they passed a group of soldiers, they stopped to have a friendly chat and pose with them for photos. While many… Read more »
Hundreds of thousands of haredi Orthodox Jews protesting a measure to draft them into the Israeli military, March 2, 2014. (Yaakov Naumi/FLASH90) JERUSALEM (JTA) — Beneath banners invoking historic calamities from the Egyptian enslavement to the Holocaust, hundreds of thousand of haredi Orthodox men gathered on the streets of Jerusalem to recite psalms and penitential prayers as they inveighed against an enemy they consider on par with Hitler and the ancient… Read more »
Philip Caputo It’s time to celebrate books. The Brandeis National Committee/Tucson Chapter will hold its 18th annual Book & Author Day luncheon on Thursday, March 13 from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Skyline Country Club, and its evening soirée March 12 at the same venue. The four featured authors… Read more »
Stella Inger Stella Inger believes in the American dream. Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Inger was 6 years old when her family immigrated to the United States in 1989, following the fall of Soviet communism. “We came as refugees,” says Inger, in her office at KGUN9 television, where she’s a news anchor.… Read more »
(L-R) Shailah, Alexandra and Jordan Lowe, granddaughters of Tucsonans Anne and David Lowe, at Camp Young Judaea Midwest. All three of my children went to Camp Young Judaea Midwest in Waupaca, Wis., where Young Judaeans from Tucson still go. At the time we lived in Milwaukee, so the camp was about a two and a half hour drive from our home. Jonathan, Caren and Ethan loved the… Read more »
(L-R): Sharon Glassberg, Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona vice president; Rabbi David Wolpe; Brenda Landau, JFSA senior vice president; and Stuart Mellan, JFSA president and CEO, at “Together” event Feb. 12. (Martha Lochert) A haimish (homey, folksy) Rabbi David Wolpe used humor and storytelling to entertain and enlighten a crowd of more than 500 at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s “Together” event on Feb. 12 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. “When I grew up Jewish schools were called parochial. I… Read more »
Alice Herz-Sommer, pictured here on her 107th birthday, is the subject of an Oscar-nominated documentary. She died at age 110 on Feb. 23. (Polly Hancock) LOS ANGELES (JTA) — In her 110 years, Alice Herz-Sommer was an accomplished concert pianist and teacher, a wife and mother — and a prisoner in Theresienstadt. Herz-Sommer died on Feb. 23. She is the star of an Oscar-nominated documentary showing her indomitable optimism, cheerfulness and vitality despite all… Read more »
Rita Rudner Rita Rudner is your typical housewife. She washes dishes, makes beds, folds laundry … then she dashes off to her sold-out show in Las Vegas. “Actually I am making the beds right now,” said Rudner, from her beach home in Dana Point, Calif., which is currently for sale. “We… Read more »
Jeannie Smith “From Darkness to Light,” the theme of the 2014 Connections brunch, raises the question of individual responsibility to others — a Jewish value — regardless of the risk. Jeannie Smith, the daughter of Polish Righteous Among the Nations rescuer Irene Gut OpDyke, will be the keynote speaker at this… Read more »
Rabbi Eric Yoffie Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president emeritus of the Union for Reform Judaism, supports what he calls “passionate pluralism” in the Jewish world — not one right way of being Jewish. He’s coming to Tucson as Temple Emanu-El’s scholar-in-residence from Thursday, Feb. 27 to Saturday, March 1 “to combat stereotypes that… Read more »
Kristen Fabry as Tzeitel and Damian Garcia as Motel in “Fiddler on the Roof” at Pima Community College (Carol Carder/PCC) Working on Pima Community College’s upcoming production of “Fiddler on the Roof” has been “an absolute joy,” says director Todd Poelstra. “More than anything we’ve done, this event, from the first moment we announced it — it’s just been a positive response. ‘Oh, that’s one of my favorite shows… Read more »
Eran Levin, Ph.D., examines a bat in Nimrod Castle on the Golan Heights What do the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and the Israel Defense Forces have in common? Bats. Yes, that’s right. A dozen species of these nocturnal flying mammals have made their summer home in a collection of abandoned army bunkers along the border with Jordan. And… Read more »
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) addresses the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual policy conference on March 5, 2013 in Washington, D.C. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) WASHINGTON (JTA) — The highlight of AIPAC’s year is the final day of its annual policy conference, when thousands of activists ascend Capitol Hill to lobby for the passage of the organization’s legislative priorities. But just three weeks before the conference, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is facing… Read more »
Yakov Burg, CEO of Psagot Winery in the Israeli West Bank settlement of Psagot, says boycotts of settlement goods haven't affected profits in a major way. (Courtesy Psagot Winery) TEL AVIV (JTA) — Of the 200,000 wine bottles Yakov Burg produced last year, 16,000 went to Europe. The possibility of a boycott and repeated rumblings that Europe is planning to label goods produced in the settlements could decrease that number, but Burg isn’t worried. The CEO of Psagot… Read more »
Cantor Janece Cohen Congregation Or Chadash will celebrate its 18th anniversary with “Chai Hopes: a musical celebration honoring 18 years of life, faith, and community” on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 3:30 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The number 18 is significant in Jewish tradition because it is the sum of… Read more »
Fifty-eight Israeli lawmakers marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day at Auschwitz, Jan. 27, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz) OSWIECIM, Poland (JTA) — Watching thousands of Poles dance to Klezmer music just 50 miles from the Auschwitz death camp, Johnny Daniels could feel an ambitious plan taking shape. The experience last year at Krakow’s annual Jewish Culture Festival prompted Daniels, a 28-year-old Israeli and Holocaust educator, to organize… Read more »
The first fuel is loaded at Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant on Aug. 21, 2010. (Iran International Photo Agency via Getty Images) WASHINGTON (JTA) — A loose coalition of advocacy groups and policy experts, including a pair of dovish Jewish organizations, have been coordinating messaging in support of the Obama administration’s Iran strategy. The coalition was convened by the Ploughshares Fund, which advocates for a nuclear-free world. Coalition participants — J… Read more »
Examples of Anne Frank abound in Japanese popular culture. (Courtesy of Alan Lewkowicz) AMSTERDAM (JTA) — She speaks only Japanese and is not entirely sure what country she’s in, but 18-year-old Haruna Matsui is happy to stand in the rain for an hour with two friends to see the home of a person she has never met yet nonetheless considers her soul… Read more »
(L-R) Nina Isaac, Randi Levin, Cheryl Wortzel, Shaun Kozolchyk and David Plotkin at a past Hava Tequila event. Hava Tequila, a party with a 1920s theme sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Young Leadership department, will be held Saturday, Feb. 8, 8 to 11 p.m. at Hotel Congress. The event, for ages 21 and over, will include a DJ, dancing, photo booth, hors d’oeuvres, signature… Read more »
Adisa Ayaso Adisa Ayaso arrived in Israel in January 1984, but her family’s aliyah wasn’t the typical airplane flight of so many modern-day Jews. Ayaso, now 33, was born in the village of Gedlia Murim in Ethiopia. She was 3 when her family began the 1,000-mile trek across the mountains of… Read more »
