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 »
Tagged FRONT
New partnership to create Holocaust History Center in Tucson
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 »
For local men, volunteering on IDF base satisfying way to see, support Israel
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 »
Living next to E1, Maale Adumim residents reflect Israeli consensus on settlements
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 »
Kadima crumbles, Labor emphasizes social issues and Likud still dominates
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 »
Rice, a loyal Obama soldier, wins Jewish plaudits
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 »
Report: One-quarter of Israelis — and 37 percent of kids — live in poverty
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 »
Linking to Lincoln on Chanukah
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 »
Tucson’s lone IDF soldiers elicit pride and prayers at home
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 »
Personal connections enhance JFSA men’s mission to Morocco
“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 »
Jewish Tucsonan shot on Jan. 8 responds to Loughner sentence
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 »
On the morning after, Jewish Republicans advise the party
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 »
Fighting over every percentage point: Arguing about the Jewish vote and exit polls
WASHINGTON (JTA) – President Obama’s Jewish numbers are down, but by how much and why? Expect four more years of tussling between Jewish Republicans and Democrats about the meaning of Obama’s dip from 78 percent Jewish support cited in 2008 exit polls to 69 percent this year in the… Read more »
As Obama takes second term, Israelis wonder what the future holds
TEL AVIV (JTA) – Most Israelis were asleep as the polls closed in America and voters waited for the results, but on one rooftop in central Tel Aviv a party with loud classic rock music and flashing lights was going strong. It was the pro-Obama election-watching party of Israel’s… Read more »
Sandy’s wrath spurs comprehensive Jewish community response
NEW YORK—Hurricane Sandy stormed into New York and New Jersey with unmitigated force, carrying death and destruction, disrupting lives, and devastating neighborhoods in America’s most densely populated regions—which happen to be home to some of the country’s largest Jewish populations. In response, the Jewish community banded together to meet… Read more »
On the issues: Obama and Romney on abortion, Iran, Israel and more
NEW YORK (JTA) -- JTA reviews the positions of presidential candidates Barack Obama, the Democratic incumbent, and Republican challenger Mitt Romney on some issues of importance to the Jewish community.… Read more »
Down to the wire, Romney resurrects moderate posture that attracted Jewish support
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Mitt Romney’s record as a moderate Republican governor would seem to have made him ideally suited to peel off Jewish votes from President Obama. The problem is that he spent much of the past half decade running from that past. Now, however, as the campaign draws… Read more »
For Obama campaign, trying to put to rest persistent questions about ‘kishkes’
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The moment in the final presidential debate when President Obama described his visit to Israel’s national Holocaust museum and to the rocket-battered town of Sderot seemed to be aimed right for the kishkes. The “kishkes question” — the persistent query about how Obama really feels about… Read more »
Israeli diplomat Itamar Rabinovich will speak on Iran challenge
Itamar Rabinovich, Israel’s ambassador to the United States from 1993 to 1996, will present “The U.S., Israel and the Challenge of Iran: Options and Constraints,” on Monday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. A Weintraub Israel Center Heartbeat of Israel program, the free lecture… Read more »
Leaving State Department’s anti-Semitism post, Hannah Rosenthal reflects on accomplishments
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Anti-Semitism overseas is being noted with increasing frequency by U.S. State Department human rights reports, and Hannah Rosenthal says that’s a good thing. Rosenthal, the State Department’s second anti-Semitism monitor, says increased reporting reflects burgeoning awareness of the problem among U.S. diplomats. “The not-so-sexy part of… Read more »