Tagged FRONT

Shas lawmaker Nissim Zeev, shown during a plenum session in the Israeli Knesset on June 11, 2012, is demanding a public debate on abortion, which he has said publicly is akin to "murder." (Uri Lenz/FLASH90/JTA)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s paradoxical approach to abortion — the procedure is illegal unless approved by a committee, which gives the go-ahead to 98 percent of the requests — could radically change if a Knesset member has his way. Nissim Zeev of the Sephardi Orthodox party Shas, who has… Read more »

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt less than three weeks before the protests there led to Mubarak's downfall in January 2011. (Moshe Milner/GPO/Flash90/JTA)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi is the declared winner of Egypt’s presidential race and his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, reportedly continues to lie near death in a coma — just like the legacy he tried to craft for himself and his country. Mubarak, 84, once the entrenched… Read more »

Sheila Wilensky

The Arizona Jewish Post is celebrating two journalism awards this spring. Associate Editor Sheila Wilensky received a first place 2011 Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism from the American Jewish Press Association for “Healing and hope for Tucsonans as Jan. 8 anniversary nears.” Published in the Dec.… Read more »

Tucsonan Nina Straw is a proponent of the ‘Blessings in a Backpack’ program to feed schoolkids on weekends.

Nina Straw grew up in a Conservative Jewish home in Milford, Conn. The concept of tikkun olam (repairing the world) was part of her daily life. “My father lived Judaism,” she told the AJP. “He was a gentle, quiet man who walked the talk. He taught us to live… Read more »

The Butwin family of Tempe, Ariz., shown in a photo from May 2009 (Yafit Butwin's Facebook page)

The Phoenix-area Jewish community is grieving after hearing of the suspected murder-suicide of a local Jewish family that was active in Jewish life. The Butwin family of Tempe was found burned to death in the family’s SUV on June 2. Police believe that James Butwin died of a gunshot… Read more »

Kindergarten students in yellow caps run out into the school yard to rehearse for their end of year concert at the Athens Jewish Community School. (Gavin Rabinowitz/JTA)

ATHENS, Greece (JTA) – When the bell rang, the sixth-graders who had been playing basketball rushed off to a computer class. Their place in the yard at Athens’ Jewish Community School was taken by two dozen giggling 4- and 5-year -olds practicing dance steps for the year-end concert. “One,… Read more »

Marika Weinberger, a Holocaust survivor and former president of the Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants. (Henry Benjamin)

SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) — When Australia’s highest court soon rules on whether the 90-year-old Karoly “Charles” Zentai should be extradited to Hungary, it likely will be passing judgment on the last known Nazi war criminal suspect residing in the country. The pending end of the drawn out legal proceedings is… Read more »

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak during an Independence party meeting at the Knesset, May 21, 2012. (Uri Lenz/FLASH90/JTA)

(JTA) — Was Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s recent suggestion that Israel take “unilateral action” to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a hint at a policy under discussion or just an off-the-cuff remark? And how will the response of others — such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — shape the… Read more »

Rabbi Sally Priesand (Courtesy Sally Priesand)

(Cleveland Jewish News) — When Sally Priesand became the first woman to be ordained a rabbi in the United States on June 3, 1972, she had no intention of being a pioneer. “I didn’t think about breaking any barriers or championing women’s rights,” Priesand told the Cleveland Jewish News… Read more »

An Egyptian woman casting her vote in the city of al-Mahalla in northern Egypt, May 23, 2012. (Nehal ElSherif via CC)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Egyptians stunned even themselves in the vote to elect their next president — and observers are warning that the United States and Israel should be ready for continued uncertainty in their relations with Egypt. Two finalists emerged following the roller-coaster first round at the polls… Read more »

Justice Gabriel Bach, the prosecutor in the trial of Adolf Eichmann, in front of the Vossius Gymnasium in amsterdam. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Gabriel Bach knew he was Jewish and that the Nazis were a serious threat, but at 13, leaving his new school and home in Amsterdam proved heartwrenching. What if, the boy wondered, he could stay just a few more weeks to finish the academic year? Bach… Read more »

James Lago, a street merchant in Juba, South Sudan, with the Israeli flag. (Armin Rosen)

JUBA, South Sudan (JTA) – This city in the world’s newest country is not your typical Arabic-speaking capital. For one thing, most of the city’s inhabitants are Christian. For another, the Israeli flag is ubiquitous here. Miniature Israeli flags hang from car windshields and flutter at roadside stalls, and… Read more »

Rabbi Arthur Schneier, left, meets with U.S. subcontractor Alan Gross in the Havana prison facility where Gross is being held, March 6, 2012. (Courtesy Appeal of Conscience Foundation)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Advocates for Alan Gross say talk of a trade with the “Cuban Five” is a non-starter, but acknowledge hopes that the Obama administration will consider lower-level concessions for the five Cuban spies in exchange for Cuban considerations for the jailed American. Insiders say that Gross’ advocates… Read more »

(L-R) Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, Solar Celebration Co-Chair Scott Arden, Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon, Temple Emanu-El President John Judin and Solar Project Coordinator Steve Tofel at Temple Emanu-El’s Earth Day Solar Celebration April 22.

When Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon and Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild flipped the switch on Temple Emanu-El’s solar energy array during its Earth Day celebration on April 22, it was the culmination of a long process. “It started last summer,” said Cohon, spurred by “a lot more incentives from the… Read more »

Afikomen bag

Photographs can’t do justice to the exquisite stitchery on the table linens, wall hangings and other objects Tucsonan Barbara Esmond has created over the years as a member of The Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework. The group is named for the fruit that is one of the “seven species”… Read more »

Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman with his wife, Mushkie, and daughters Devora (right) and Chana

Chabad of Tucson has appointed Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman to be the first full-time rabbi serving the spiritual, religious and educational needs of Oro Valley Jews. “This is a response to the growing Jewish population in the Northwest,” says Rabbi Yossie Shemtov, regional director of Chabad of Tucson. Zimmerman and… Read more »

Tucsonan Bill Kugelman and teens from the Western region of the United States lead the March of the Living from Auschwitz to Birkenau in Poland on April 19. (Courtesy CJE)

Holocaust survivor Bill Kugelman has been to Birkenau before, once on a previous March of the Living trip in 2006, and as a prisoner of the Nazis. From 1939 to 1945, Kugelman, 88, spent three and a half years in concentration camps, including Birkenau, and two and a half… Read more »

Mitch Dorson

Mitch Dorson, 63, died unexpectedly on May 13, 2012. “His life was a story about a man standing for his principles,” says Rabbi Joseph Weizenbaum, who worked with Mr. Dorson at Temple Emanu-El. “He never backed off” of those principles teaching social studies, first at Catalina Foothills High School… Read more »

An anti-government demonstration in Budapest, December 2011. (Ruth Ellen Gruber)

BUDAPEST (JTA) — The debate over anti-Semitism in Hungary has sharpened since the anti-Israel, anti-Jewish and anti-Roma (Gypsy) Jobbik movement entered Parliament two years ago as the country’s third largest party. Seeking scapegoats and channeling paranoia at a time of severe economic, social and political woes, Jobbik’s lawmakers regularly… Read more »

Pawel Bramson, left, at the Jewish cemetary in Warsaw. (Kuba Wyszynski)

WARSAW (JTA) — Fifteen years ago, Pawel Bramson was a skinhead shouting anti-Semitic and racist slogans during soccer matches. He hated Jews and blacks – simply, he says, because you need someone to blame for what’s wrong in the world. These days he keeps kosher, wears the long beard… Read more »