Tagged FRONT

Laura Kafif, the house mother at Sava A Child’s Heart, visits with one of her charges, Zeresenay Gebru, as he recovers from heart surgery at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel, May 31, 2011. (Sheila Shalhevet/JTA Photo Service)

Just two days earlier, 8-year-old Salha Farjalla Khamis said goodbye to her parents and four siblings in her village on the African island of Zanzibar. Now, in a hospital in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon, tears roll silently down her cheeks as she watches an Israeli nurse attach… Read more »

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (P.K.Weis/southwest photobank.com)

Photos of a smiling Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona congresswoman who was shot in the head in January, were released on her Facebook page. The photos show Giffords with close-cropped hair. According to a statement on the Facebook page, they were taken May 17, the day after her husband, Mark… Read more »

Retired pediatrician Marilyn Heins serves on the board of the University of Arizona Humanities Seminar Program. (Sheila Wilensky/AJP)

Lifelong learning is often touted as an essential ingredient for aging gracefully, but for some Jewish Tucsonans the appeal goes far beyond that notion. The University of Arizona Humanities Seminars Program has filled a need “for something that gets into my brain and grabs me,” says Marilyn Heins, 80,… Read more »

Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin [Britta Van Vranken)

Congregation Young Israel appointed Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin as associate rabbi as of May 2011. He will work alongside CYI’s spiritual leader of 27 years, Rabbi Yossie Shemtov.   Ceitlin grew up in Montreal, where his parents are both educators. He studied in yeshivot in Bnei Brak and Kfar Chabad… Read more »

Rabbi Ben Herman

Congregation Anshei Israel has hired Rabbi Ben Herman to serve as director of congregational learning, effective July 1. In this new position at CAI, Herman will be responsible for the synagogue’s religious school and adult education programs and will also be the liturgical coordinator, arranging for congregants to lead… Read more »

Dr. Gilat Raish (far, left), an Israeli post-trauma expert, guides Japanese teachers through a recovery course in Watari, Japan, sponsored by IsraAid. (Nofar Tagar for IsraAid)

In northeastern Japan, the area hardest hit by the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami, a team of Israeli post-trauma experts guided local teachers and officials through their lingering pain. One kindergarten teacher broke down in tears as she related how another teacher saw the great wall of water… Read more »

Rabbi Gil Leeds, right, performs a brit milah in Palo Alto, Calif., in July 2010. The baby is being held by Mitchell Ackerson. [Alex Axelrod]

In November, San Franciscans will vote on a ballot measure that would outlaw circumcision on boys under the age of 18.   Although experts say it is highly unlikely the measure will pass — very few state ballot propositions pass in the state, much less one this controversial —… Read more »

Scene from inside the "Balint Haz" Jewish Community Center in Budapest. (Ruth Ellen Gruber)

BUDAPEST, Hungary (JTA) — A generation after the fall of communism, Jews in Central Europe feel comfortable where they live but are concerned about anti-Semitism. They like to visit Israel but don’t want to move there. And they feel that they don’t have to be religious to be a… Read more »

In a Middle East policy speech at the State Department, President Obama said the pre-1967 border should serve as the basis for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, May 19, 2011. (Pete Souza/White House)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — From accolades like “compelling” to accusations like “Auschwitz borders” to radio silence, to label the Jewish response to President Obama’s speech on Middle East policy as diverse understates matters. The very breadth of the Middle East policy speech — 5,600 words and covering the entire Middle… Read more »

Arab demonstrators marking the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba hold Palestinian flags as they approach the village of Majdal Shams in the Golan heights, between Syria and Israel, May 15, 2011. (Hamal Almak/Flash 90/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — If a single phrase could capture the sentiment that motivated thousands of Arabs to try to cross Israel’s borders on Sunday to “retake Palestine” from the Jews, it would be this: Yes, we can. That can-do attitude had toppled regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, and… Read more »

Alene Schwartz has lost more than 125 pounds in three years. (Bryan Schwartz)

Alene Schwartz weighed 265 pounds in 2008 when she embarked on an exercise and diet — or as she says, “live it” — program. “I just decided that as I got older, I wanted to have the strength to pick up a grandchild, bend down to get something, and… Read more »

Until his arrest in New York on charges of sexual assault, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was seen as a leading contender for the French presidency. WTO via CC)

PARIS (JTA) — Shock waves continue to ripple throughout France as Dominique Strauss-Kahn, considered the likely Socialist Party candidate to challenge President Nicolas Sarkozy in French presidential elections next year, remains in a New York City jail on charges of sexual assault. Saturday’s arrest of Strauss-Kahn appears to significantly… Read more »

John Demjanjuk is wheeled into a Munich courtroom on Nov. 30, 2009 for the first day of his trial. The photo was taken by Sobibor death camp survivor Thomas Blatt. (Thomas Blatt)

BERLIN (JTA) — The guilty verdict pronounced May 12 against John Demjanjuk in a Munich courtroom was a long time coming. Following a trial that lasted a year and a half — capping more than three decades of legal drama — the 91-year-old former Ohio autoworker is now officially… Read more »

Rabbi Robert Barr of Congregation Beth Adam in Cincinnati says Jews are looking for spiritual nourishment without necessarily believing in divine power. [Alan Brown]

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — Jeff Levine has spent 40 years searching for a God he can believe in. He’s finally given up — but he’s not giving up on Judaism. “I did a lot of studying, and I realized about a year ago that it’s OK to say I’m… Read more »

(L-R) Debi Chess-Mabie, Shelley Lipowich and Maria Rodriguez participate in a Habitat for Humanity build on March 23.

Following the passage of Arizona SB 1070, an anti-illegal immigrant measure that critics say encourages racial profiling of Hispanics, in April 2010, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, considered ways to support Tucson’s Hispanic community, says Brenda Landau, JFSA director of women’s philanthropy… Read more »

Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon

The speaker invited then uninvited. The signature on the petition removed. The activity joined, then unjoined. The job threatened. Rabbis and Jewish professionals increasingly are being faced with a dilemma over discussing divisive topics — especially regarding Israel — central to how they see their Jewish missions without losing… Read more »

Artist’s rendering of proposed Hillel renovation

After more than three years in the planning, the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation is ready to begin work on renovating and expanding its current building. Hillel will hold a ceremonial groundbreaking at the site (1245 E. Second Street) at 8 a.m. on Thursday, May 5. Hillel serves as… Read more »

JFSA Man of the Year Jim Whitehill

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will hold its own “gem show” to honor its 2011 award winners at its annual meeting and awards celebration on Thursday, May 12 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Heading the list of community gems are Man of the Year… Read more »

Ellie and Si Schorr [Julie Glaser Ray)

The idea that mental illness is a shanda (shame) or horrific secret has changed significantly — but not enough, say Si and Ellie Schorr. In the 1970s, when they were raising a child who showed signs of mental illness, people didn’t talk about such things. “The stigma was not… Read more »

Rabbi Shmuel Simenowitz works his draft horses on his Vermont farm, circa 2002, with children Tova and Shlomo riding along. (Lloyd Wolf)

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — It’s easy to spot Rabbi Shmuel Simenowitz at a Jewish food conference, an environmentalist gathering or any of the other progressive-minded confabs he frequents. Just look for the Chasid in the room. Simenowitz is an anomaly: a haredi Orthodox Jew, black hat and all, who… Read more »