Tagged FRONT

Passover in the time of coronavirus: Cancellations mount at kosher resorts

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)
March 3, 2020 / Ben Harris, JTA

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 »

Jewish filmmaker Paula Kweskin uses storytelling to give voice to oppressed women

Paula Kweskin created the Censored Women’s Film Festival out of a growing concern that women’s voices worldwide were being silenced. (Lacey Johnson)
March 3, 2020 / Renee Ghert-Zand, JTA

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 »

Israel’s 3rd election in a year improves Netanyahu’s chances of forming a government, exit polls show

Likud supporters celebrate at party headquarters in Tel Aviv after the release of the first exit polls on March 2, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
March 3, 2020 / Marcy Oster, JTA

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 »

Simon Wiesenthal’s granddaughter leads march marking 75 years since Mauthausen’s liberation

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)
March 3, 2020 / Larry Luxner, JTA

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 »

Is ‘Hunters’ basically Jewsploitation? A JTA editor and a rabbi discuss Amazon’s Nazi-killing show.

Logan Lerman, left, and Al Pacino as Jewish Nazi hunters in Amazon's "Hunters." (Christopher Saunders)
February 28, 2020 / Gabe Friedman, JTA

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 »

Without absentee voting, Israelis abroad struggle over whether to fly home for 3rd election in a year

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)
February 27, 2020 / Marcy Oster, JTA

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 »

These 7 Jewish actresses shaped Hollywood as we know it

(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)
February 27, 2020 / Hannah Steinkopf-Frank, JTA

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 »

Jewish farms are booming. Now the farmers want to grow their community.

Sarah Julia Seldin, left, and Shani Mink are founders of the Jewish Farmers Network. (Ben Harris)
February 27, 2020 / Ben Harris, JTA

REISTERSTOWN, Md. (JTA) — When Sarah Julia Seldin arrived at the main national gathering of Jewish foodies in 2016, she was disappointed to find no programming aimed specifically at people like her. There were sessions on kosher cooking, Jewish food ethics and the realities of kosher animal slaughter. But… Read more »

I enjoyed the Belgian carnival that featured anti-Semitic floats. Then I searched for homes in Israel.

Men wearing suits portraying haredi Jews with an ant's abdomen and legs at the annual procession of the carnival in Aalst, Belgium, Feb. 23, 2020. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
February 26, 2020 /

AALST, Belgium (JTA) — I probably spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking about the Holocaust. Partly as a consequence of covering Jewish news in Europe at a time of rising anti-Semitism, Holocaust associations often come to mind in my daily life — on crowded trains, for example. But… Read more »

This eastern Jerusalem village could become a part of a future Palestine. Its Arab residents are horrified.

Palestinian boys head towards the "Green Line" that separates the Arab village of Bartaa, which straddles the 1967 border between Israel and the northwestern tip of the West Bank, April 29, 2012. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/GettyImages)
February 25, 2020 / Arik Rudnitzky, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Election rallies for the Arab parties in Israel rarely garner much attention or excitement. But recent policy proposals engineered thousands of miles away may have re-energized a once stagnant and unreliable voting bloc. The peaceful Arab village of Bartaa, home to about 4,500 residents, is located in… Read more »

A beginner’s guide to Israel’s unprecedented third election in the past 12 months

A campaign billboard in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv, featuring Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz in front of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Artur Widak/Getty Images)
February 25, 2020 / JTA Staff

(JTA) — Full disclosure: This is the third time in the past year that we have published this article. With only minor changes. That’s because on Monday, March 2, for the third time in the past 12 months, Israelis will be voting in a national election. The first election,… Read more »

Take survey to play part in Jewish community visioning project

From left, Aviva Zeltzer-Zubida, Ph.D., Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona vice president; Graham Hoffman, Jewish Community Foundation president and CEO; and JCF Project Manager Maya Horowitz, review a community planning timeline at the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, Jan. 28.
February 21, 2020 /

Last spring, community leaders from the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Jewish Community Foundation began a community visioning project that was soon dubbed “2020 and Beyond: Reimagining Jewish Life in Southern Arizona.” After initial stages that included hiring an outside consultant and holding meetings with stakeholder groups… Read more »

Love, poetry, community: a family’s unique response to cancer

Siblings Sara and Josh Hurand in Tucson in fall 2017
February 21, 2020 / Phyllis Braun, Executive Editor

Sara Hurand says she’s never known anyone like her brother, Josh Hurand, a psychotherapist in Tucson who has a gift for connecting people. “He makes business connections, creative connections, light and fun connections, and deep and enduring connections. He is meaningfully close with family members both near and far,… Read more »

Pick from a plethora of fun-filled community Purim festivities

Kenny Mirman and Marlene Burns celebrate Purim at Chabad Oro Valley. (Photo courtesy Chabad Oro Valley)
February 21, 2020 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

A full array of Southern Arizona Purim parties will ensure that this most fun holiday of the Jewish calendar is action-packed. Take your pick from a string of family-friendly events, submitted by area synagogues and agencies. Friday, March 6 6 p.m.: Purim Shabbat Early Shabbat tot and child-friendly service;… Read more »

Handmaker lecture to explore community’s future from a rabbinic perspective
February 21, 2020 / Debe Campbell, Assistant Editor

Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging continues its annual Three Rabbis Lecture Panel next month, exploring “The Future of the Tucson Jewish Community.” Rabbi Yossie Shemtov of Orthodox Congregation Young Israel, Rabbi Robert Eisen of Conservative Congregation Anshei Israel, and Rabbi Thomas Louchheim of Reform Congregation Or Chadash will… Read more »

Bet Shalom’s midbar (desert) farm project goes to the chickens

Volunteers pitch in with chores at Congregation Bet Shalom’s Tu B’Shevat Farm Festival Feb. 9. (Courtesy Cong. Bet Shalom)
February 21, 2020 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

Congregation Bet Shalom’s first Tu B’shevat Farm Festival brought about 80 community members of all ages together, including congregants, University of Arizona Hillel Foundation students, youngsters, and young adults connected to local farms and outdoor education programs. “The Midbar Project is a way for our people to connect with… Read more »

Ongoing human rights struggles inform work of Holocaust History Center
February 21, 2020 / Bryan Davis, Ph.D.

On Feb. 21, 2020, the Jewish History Museum will mark four years since the opening of the Holocaust History Center and the expansion of the museum’s campus. The creation of the Holocaust History Center marked the realization of a decades-old community aspiration that began in the 1960s when local Holocaust… Read more »