(FotografiaBasica)
This story originally appeared on Kveller. Six months ago, after giving birth to a beautiful son (our third!), we gave up on the delusion of being a cool urban family and moved from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to New Rochelle, in New York’s suburban Westchester County. We… Read more »
To minimize the spread of germs, congregants at Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley are using disposable chopsticks in lieu of a shared yad when reading from the Torah. (Courtesy Alan Sokoloff)
(JTA) — On a typical Friday, some 200 people show up for services at Temple De Hirsch Sinai, a Reform congregation in Seattle. But last week, there was no one in the pews as Rabbi Daniel Weiner welcomed Shabbat in the synagogue’s smaller sanctuary. Instead, some 1,500 people watched… Read more »
A man and woman stand outside the Milan Cathedral with protective masks and sanitizing gels, Feb. 23, 2020. (Andrea Diodato/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(JTA) — The outbreak of the coronavirus in northern Italy forced Claudia Bagnarelli to make a painful choice. “To keep visiting my 94-year-old mother, I needed to stop seeing everyone else in my life,” Bagnarelli, a Jewish ballet teacher from Milan, said Monday. To avoid the risk of infecting… Read more »
David Graizbord Editor’s note: This event has been postponed until November due the spread of COVID-19. The Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona have canceled all public events through April 16 out of an abundance of caution. Israeli politics, water scarcity, and medical advances will highlight “Israel… Read more »
Rabbi Moshe Peretz Gilden
“Tucson Mezuzah Week’ is the first community-wide opportunity, offered by Congregation Chofetz Chayim and the Southwest Torah Institute, to have every Jewish home in Tucson protected by the mitzvah of placing mezuzot on every doorpost,” says the congregation’s Rabbi Israel Becker. Often called the “Jewish security system,” the mezuzah is… Read more »
Gloria Goldman and Teresa Cavendish
Editor’s note: Due to the spread of coronavirus, Congregation M’kor Hayim has postponed this event. HIAS’ National Refugee Shabbat is a call to congregations across the country to dedicate sacred time on the March 20-21 Shabbat to honor refugees and asylum seekers. Congregation M’kor Hayim will hold a special Friday,… Read more »
‘Catch and Release’ by Barbara Brandel
The Spaces We Inhabit” encourages art enthusiasts to explore the points of view of seven local female artists. The exhibit will be on display March 16-April 27 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center Fine Art Gallery. The seven artists, members of group called “Women Who Art,” use a variety… Read more »
A javelina sprints past a Tucson apartment complex in Damion Alexander’s Feb. 22 video, which went viral.
Tucsonan Damion Alexander posted a short video of a running javelina on Facebook Feb. 22, and it has gone viral, spawning countless memes and global news coverage, from the New York Times to news.com.au in Australia, which took pains to explain that a javelina is “also known as a… Read more »
Melissa Zimmerman
After the findings from a national Adverse Childhood Experience Study recognized that a third of the population of the United States suffers from trauma, Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona worked to make the organization a more trauma-informed space. Melissa Zimmerman, vice president of clinical services at… Read more »
Steve Solomon with a high school relic.
Editor’s note: Due to precautions against the spread of COVID-19 announced by Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, the performances of “From Brooklyn to Broadway in Only 50 Years!” have been postponed to Saturday, May 16 at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. For more information visit www.invisibletheatre.com. Invisible Theatre will present… Read more »
Bella Wexler Editor’s note: The March 8 Connections event has been postponed to the fall due to concerns about the spread of coronavirus. Bella Wexler, a junior at Catalina Foothills High School, will receive the Bryna Zehngut Mitzvot Award March 8. The Women’s Philanthropy advisory council created the award, which recognizes… Read more »
Adam Hoffman is developing a curriculum on how to overcome political polarity. (Diller Foundation/JTA)
Adam Hoffman isn’t your average American Jewish teen. The grandchild of Holocaust survivors on his mother’s side, he’s a sixth-generation Texan on his father’s side. An Orthodox native of Houston and graduate of Jewish day schools, Hoffman, 19, is now a freshman at Princeton University in New Jersey. What… Read more »
Sunrise in the Canazei area, which hosts a kosher Passover package that is being forced to shut down due to coronavirus concerns. (Frank Bienewald/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — For the past three years, Esther Possick and her son have avoided the hassle of hosting Passover at their Long Island home by traveling to kosher hotels in foreign locales. In 2017, they spent the holiday at a resort in Stresa, a resort town on… Read more »
Paula Kweskin created the Censored Women’s Film Festival out of a growing concern that women’s voices worldwide were being silenced. (Lacey Johnson)
Beaten and abused by her husband, Robina was just 25 when she set herself on fire, preferring death by suicide to the “dishonor” of leaving her spouse. In Iran, a woman considered to be dressed immodestly is forced, screaming, into a police car. In Pakistan, a girl tells her… Read more »
Likud supporters celebrate at party headquarters in Tel Aviv after the release of the first exit polls on March 2, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party improved its chances of forming a government after it gained three more seats in parliament than Blue and White at the close of voting in Israel, exit polls showed. Likud took 36 seats, according to the polling by the Kan… Read more »
Dozens participate in a memorial ceremony at Mauthausen, the sprawling Nazi concentration camp that held nearly 200,000 prisoners during the Holocaust, including famed Nazi-hunter-to-be Simon Wiesenthal, March 1, 2020. (Larry Luxner)
MAUTHAUSEN, Austria (JTA) — Under a bright blue sky, with Austria’s snow-capped Alps in the distance, Racheli Kreisberg set foot for the first time in her life inside Mauthausen — the sprawling Nazi concentration camp that held nearly 200,000 prisoners between 1938 and 1945. Fewer than half of the… Read more »
Logan Lerman, left, and Al Pacino as Jewish Nazi hunters in Amazon's "Hunters." (Christopher Saunders)
Spoiler alert: This chat reveals information about the first half of the first season of “Hunters.” (JTA) — “Hunters” is nothing if not great fodder for armchair debate. Amazon’s new series follows a band of comic book-esque Nazi hunters in late 1970s New York City who attempt to dismantle… Read more »
(LeAnne Shor)
This recipe originally appeared in The Nosher. Bringing new life to hamantaschen was a challenge. People are dead set on their favorite flavors like classic poppy seed and apricot. Of course, newer directions such as Nutella and rainbow funfetti are a big hit with the kids, but reinventing the… Read more »
The El Al departure counter at Ben Gurion International Airport is empty after the airline canceled flights to Italy amid a coronavirus outbreak, Feb. 27, 2020. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Five years ago this week, Amos Geva took an EasyJet flight from Berlin to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport for a very short visit home. On his agenda: dinner with his family, a trip to the ballot box and media interviews about his efforts to encourage Israeli… Read more »
(Elisabeth Bergner via United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division; Libby Holman via Confetta/Flickr; Ruby Myers via Bollywoodirect/Medium; Sylvia Sidney via Vintage Everyday; Luise Rainer by Paramount/ Wikimedia Commons; Lillian Roth via Wikimedia Commons; Hedy Llamarr by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
This story originally appeared on Alma. Both on screen and behind the scenes, Jewish directors, producers and writers are credited with developing the Hollywood system as we know it today. These seven pioneering Jewish actresses defied expectations of their gender and many survived religious persecution, fleeing Europe during World… Read more »
