Ella Starobinska [Sheila Wilensky/AJP] Ella Starobinska is an enthusiastic 20-year-old college student at the University of Arizona, but her path to the Tucson campus took a different route than most. On March 1, 2005, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society brought Starobinska and her parents from Kiev, Ukraine, to Tucson to join her brother,… Read more »
Guide with Holocaust educators on Centropa trip outside the entrance to Theresienstadt, a former concentration camp outside of Prague, July 2010 (Centropa) PRAGUE (JTA) — Educators who teach Holocaust history face the same challenge every year: how to get students interested in one of history’s greatest tragedies more than 65 years removed from World War II. In the old days, the formula was straightforward. “You show kids horrifying pictures, scare them,… Read more »
Conservative blogger Andrew Schlafly says Albert Einstein's scientific theories are bad science and part of a "liberal conspiracy." (JTA graphic/Library of Congress) BALTIMORE (JTA) — More than a half-century ago, the Nazis dismissed Albert Einstein’s groundbreaking theories as “Jewish science”; in recent years Holocaust revisionists have taken up the anti-Einstein cause. Now, the legendary physicist is facing a new wave of attacks — this time from conservative bloggers who say that… Read more »
Larry Lokey has pledged to give away all of his $700 million, with the next $60 million going to Israel. (Photo courtesy The Giving Pledge) NEW YORK (JTA) — The philanthropic world got a happy jolt when 40 members of the world’s wealthy elite — including 13 Jews — announced that they would give away more than half their money before they died. The participating philanthropists were responding to a challenge issued earlier this… Read more »
Plans for a mosque at the site of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks have generated controversy. (Creative Commons/Special KRB) Plans for a mosque at the site of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks have generated controversy. WASHINGTON (JTA) – More often than not, Jewish and Muslim groups come down on the same side of battles over religious liberties. Jewish organizations often file amicus briefs supporting Muslim religious rights in… Read more »
Ari Ginsburg, a member of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona's LGBT Jewish Inclusion Project steering committee, left, with Marc Paley, project coordinator, in Berkeley at the 2010 LGBT Jewish Movement-Building Convening(Bynna Fish) Who are we? Where did we come from? How do we get started? Where do we want to go and how are we a part of our Jewish community? While these questions ring true for everyone, they’re especially true for members of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender community looking… Read more »
Moshe Zohar, who grew these pomegrante trees on his farm in the Negev, is facing eviction from the same government agencies that granted him the land. (Sue Fishkoff) BEERSHEBA, Israel (JTA) — Moshe Zohar’s hands are rough and callused, his face lined with the dust of the desert he farms half an hour outside this southern Israeli city. Eleven years ago Zohar, his wife, Hilda, and their three children settled on this harsh land to build Nahal… Read more »
Daniel Schorr WASHINGTON (JTA) — It took about seven years for Daniel Schorr to tire of being a journalist for Jewish media. The distaste of digesting for JTA’s readers the news of the emerging Holocaust, combined with what he saw as the blinkered parochialism of Jewish news, led him to quit… Read more »
Congregation Chofetz Chayim’s 2010 Spirit program scholars (L-R): Frankie Snaid of Savannah, Ga.; Ben Tziyon Eisenberg of Rochester, N.Y.; Boruch Wasser of East Bruswick, N.J.; Dani Semel of Queens, N.Y. (Not pictured: Moshe Morgenstern of Queens, N.Y.) This summer, Tucson’s Jewish men can experience one-on-one or intimate group learning, yeshiva-style, without leaving town. Congregation Chofetz Chayim is offering up to 100 men two weeks of free Torah study through its Spirit program. Spirit participants will study with students from Rabbi Israel Becker’s alma mater, The Rabbinical… Read more »
Gilad Shalit supporters call for his immediate release on the “True Freedom Flotilla,” a New York event held June 24 that was organized by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. (Michael Priest/JTA Photo Service) Some 100 to 200 passengers in all, they came as members of a self-described True Freedom Flotilla intent on promoting a Middle East-related humanitarian mission. Instead of breaking the Israeli blockade of Gaza, however, as was the goal of the flotilla of ships that was intercepted May 31 by… Read more »
Carol Karsch From blogs to social media to e-blasts, modern journalism is about more than just getting the story. Jewish newspaper editors and publishers from around the United States gathered to discuss those topics and our niche’s future direction at the American Jewish Press Association conference at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort… Read more »
Bruce Zoldan standing in the Youngstown, Ohio, retail showroom of his fireworks company. (B. J. Alan company of Youngstown) LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Millions of Fourth of July fuses waiting to be lit are a good sign for Bruce Zoldan and his family business, the B.J. Alan Company, the second largest importer and wholesaler of consumer fireworks in the United States. But it’s already been a pretty hectic… Read more »
Chickens being kosher slaughtered on New Zealand's South Island in 2009. A new law banning shechitah is being challenged by the country's Jews. SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) – Barring a last-minute policy reversal, Jewish leaders in New Zealand appear certain to launch legal action against the government over its controversial new law banning kosher slaughter. Six Jewish leaders were granted a 30-minute meeting a week ago with Prime Minister John Key, the son… Read more »
(L-R) Seth Grossman, Sol Lieberman, Janet Winans and Adrienne Halpert, gathered in Halpert’s store, Global Arts Gallery, have found varied ways to express their Jewish identity in Patagonia, Ariz. Whether engaged in traditional religious practices or celebrating the High Holy days at the “temple of nature,” for the dozen or so Jewish residents of Patagonia, Ariz., identification with Judaism runs deep.… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — The last time American Jews took to the streets in significant numbers to make the case for Israel’s right to defend itself, during Israel’s war with Hamas in early 2009, rockets were raining down on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip. This time it’s a… Read more »
The factory in which Oskar Schindler used Jewish slave labor during World War II has been turned into a Holocaust museum. (Patti McCracken/JTA Photo Service) KRAKOW, Poland (JTA) — In January 1994, an American tourist stepped out of a taxi into a cold, drizzling rain and entered the Jarden Jewish Bookshop at the far end of the square in the Jewish quarter of Krakow. On the counter he splayed a weeks-old copy of The… Read more »
Baseball legend Sandy Koufax greets fans at the Jewish American Heritage Month celebration at the White House on May 27. (The Jewish Channel/JTA Photo Service) The athletes, the astronauts, the alternative music, the black rabbi, the white dress uniforms and, above all, the left-handed baseball immortal: Welcome to Barack Obama’s Jewish America. The inaugural Jewish America Heritage Month celebration at the White House, held May 27, underscored the Obama administration’s determination not to be… Read more »
Diane Katz The key to changing an organization or workplace is not to ascribe blame, says Diane Katz, organizational psychologist and author of the newly published “Win at Work! The Everybody Wins Approach to Conflict Resolution.” Katz founded her consulting company, The Working Circle, in 1995, the same year she moved… Read more »
Republican Jews are trying to figure out what to make of Rand Paul, a self-described Tea Party backer and son of former presidential candidate Ron Paul. (Gage skidmore/flickr) WASHINGTON (N.Y. Jewish Week) — Rand Paul, the Tea Party insurgent who was the upset victor in last month’s Kentucky Republican Senate primary, could be the biggest headache yet for a Republican Party that hopes to capitalize on the populist surge without being tainted by the movement’s extremists. While… Read more »
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has launched “What’s Your #ish?”, an online campaign that encourages young Jews of all stripes to share what being Jewish means to them — their “ish” — while raising awareness of the work of Jewish federations. The project, launched in partnership with The… Read more »
