Tagged FRONT

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, left, and potential successor Chuck Hagel listening as President Obama announces at the White House that he is nominating Hagel for the defense post, Jan. 7, 2013. (DOD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Now that Chuck Hagel is officially President Obama’s nominee to be secretary of defense, Jewish groups concerned about Hagel’s record on Israel and Iran are faced with a choice. Do they fight hard to derail his nomination, joining common cause with Republican opponents? Or do they… Read more »

California filmmaker Roberta Grossman, who was inspired to make "Hava Nagila (The Movie)" by cherished memories of dancing to the tune at family affairs, spent three years researching the song's history. (Courtesy "Hava Nagila The Movie")

NEW YORK (JTA) — You’re at a wedding or Bar Mitzvah, mingling at the bar or catching up with a distant relative, when you hear it — the opening notes of a familiar tune that as if by some invisible force carries you and other guests to the dance… Read more »

A man taking target practice at a shooting range in Arizona. (Courtesy STA Training)

NEW YORK (JTA) — The day Eric Schaefer learned that a .233 caliber semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle — a type of weapon he owned — was used to kill 26 people in Newtown, Conn., he sold his rifle to local law enforcement near his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. Schaefer, a… Read more »

Ron Dermer, the senior advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at a convention for Jewish bloggers in Jerusalem, 2009. (Miriam Alster/Flash90/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Like many Israeli politicians, Ron Dermer is an unapologetic defender of Israel’s actions, even if it might mean being undiplomatic. But like a seasoned diplomat, Dermer — senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — knows his way through Washington’s backchannels and has cultivated… Read more »

A family reunites outside the New Jersey home of Elise and Hal Hirshberg, parents of Tucsonan Amy Lederman. Front row: (L-R) Sylvia Boris, Lederman, Lynn Pollan, Carol Lewis, Farida Deske, Elise Hirshberg, Myriam Nahmani. Back: Shelley Hirshberg, Bella Bernard, Jeff Hirshberg (Robert D. DeCuir)

Since the beginning of time, in every culture, across every continent, one thing connects us all: the deeply human need to convey what is important to us from one generation to the next. The telling and retelling of the stories of our lives is essential to the creation of… Read more »

Jeannie OpDyke Smith

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Northwest Division will hold a campaign event on Wednesday, Jan. 16 at 7 p.m., featuring Jeannie OpDyke Smith, the daughter of Polish rescuer Irene Gut OpDyke, who died in 2003. OpDyke received international recognition for her actions during the Holocaust while working for… Read more »

President Obama attends the Sandy Hook interfaith vigil at Newtown High School in Newtown, Conn., Dec. 16, 2012. ((Pete Souza/White House)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — In the wake of the shooting rampage in Newtown, Conn., Jewish groups are looking to build alliances and back legislation to strengthen gun control laws. Rabbi David Saperstein, the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said that his group is assembling a coalition… Read more »

Noah Pozner, 6, was among the child victims of the Dec. 14, 2012 shooting massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that claimed six adults.

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (JTA) — It was a eulogy for a life that had only just begun. Veronique Pozner remembered her son Noah as a rambunctious, video-game loving “little man,” a boy with a perpetual smile and twinkly blue eyes who dreamed of becoming a doctor, a soldier and manager… Read more »

The Silverman family's kindness yard at night in Winterhaven (Gila Silverman)

I live in a neighborhood known for its Christmas festival. Several years ago, I wrote an essay for this paper, describing our decision to build a giant dreidel for the festival, and reflecting on the experience of living here. That essay ended with this thought: Sometimes a giant dreidel… Read more »

Pictured (L-R) in front of the Holocaust History Center space under renovation: Lily Brull, Holocaust survivor; Rosie Eilat-Kahn, chair, Holocaust Education & Commemoration Project/HHC advisory board; Barry A. Friedman, president, Jewish History Museum/HHC; Howard Schneider, vice president, JHM/HHC; Stuart Mellan, president and CEO, Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona; Bryan Davis, director, HECP (Photo: Athol Cline/JHM)

The Holocaust Education & Commemoration Project of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Jewish History Museum are opening a new exhibit space at the museum dedicated to Holocaust history. The newly renovated space will be located in an 1880s Arizona Territorial house directly north of the museum… Read more »

Tucsonans Alan Dankwerth, left, and Mike Jacobson at an Israel Defense Forces base in northern Israel (Courtesy Mike Jacobson)

Longtime Tucson friends Alan Dankwerth and Mike Jacobson had both been to Israel before. But their trip in October was different. Leaving their wives behind, they spent a couple of weeks working at an Israel Defense Forces base in northern Israel, not far from the Golan Heights, through the… Read more »

The Israeli police station in E!, the only Israeli structure in the area. (Ben Sales)

MAALE ADUMIM, West Bank (JTA) — From the terrace of the mall in Maale Adumim, a West Bank settlement eight miles from Jerusalem that serves as a bedroom community for Israel’s capital city, customers get a panoramic view of the Judean Desert to the east. Arab and Jewish towns… Read more »

Left to Right, some key players in the Israeli elections coming up on Jan. 22: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud, Tzipi Livni of the New Movement Party and Shelly Yachimovich of Labor. (Yossi Zamir/Miriam Alster/Flash 90/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) – Two months ago, the strategy for victory was clear: To unseat Benjamin Netanyahu in elections on Jan. 22, Israel’s handful of center-left parties had to unite under one banner and choose a leader who could challenge the Israeli prime minister on issues of diplomacy and security.… Read more »

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, talking to journalists about the crisis in Gaza, Nov. 21, 2012. Rice, who reportedly is being considered for secretary of state, has earned plaudits from Jewish groups for her U.N. role. (UN photo/Paolo Filgueiras)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The very quality that helped get Susan Rice in hot water with some in Washington is what pro-Israel groups have come to appreciate — she is a vigorous and reliable defender of the Obama administration’s foreign policies. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who… Read more »

People waiting in line for food packages at a distribution center for needy in Lod, near Tel Aviv, September 2012. (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — The numbers tell a consistent storyline: Nearly one in four Israelis lives in poverty. A report last week by Israel’s National Insurance Institute showed that 1.8 million of Israel’s 8 million people live below the poverty line. In 2011, the year for which the report… Read more »

With this Chanukah season calling for a Lincoln connection, why not light a Lincoln menorah? (Edmon J. Rodman)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — We need to celebrate a Lincoln Chanukah this year. It’s not because of the new Spielberg movie — that gives us something to do on Christmas Day — but because of the 150th anniversary of a little-known event in American history that threatened to expel… Read more »

Lone soldier Stephen Segal (in purple beret)

The firing of missiles from Gaza into Israel and Israel’s Nov. 14 killing of Ahmed Jabari, the chief of Hamas’ military wing, initiated the call-up of Israel Defense Forces’ reserves. The situation escalated over the following week, and since Nov. 21, a precarious cease-fire has taken hold. For members… Read more »

Tucsonan Alain Avigdor, right, visits with a Jewish woman at an assisted living facility in Casablanca, Morocco. (Larry Gellman)

“Casablanca” brings to mind an almost mythical film in an exotic locale, conjuring up images of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman parting on a foggy airfield. But Casablanca is a real place where Jews have lived as far back as Roman times. Sixteen Tucsonans witnessed the vibrancy of Morocco’s… Read more »

Suzi Hileman

After 22 months, Suzi Hileman finally got to step into a courtroom and confront Jared Lee Loughner, the man who killed six people and wounded her and 12 others who’d come to meet with  Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords at a Tucson Safeway on Jan. 8, 2011. “I have wanted to… Read more »

Sheldon Adelson, a major donor to Republican candidates, attending a Republican Jewish Coalition event at the party's convention in Tampa, Fla., on Aug. 27, 2012. Jewish republicans say the party should expect to hear from donors about how to do better in the next election. (Ron Kampeas)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Think immigration through — again. Forget about gay marriage. And for heaven’s sake, when it comes to rape, shut up! The Republican Party as a whole is having the morning-afters, reconsidering how it might have done better in an election that saw the party fail to… Read more »