Maxwell Greenberg Maxwell Ezra Greenberg will be the inaugural scholar-in-residence at the Jewish History Museum, beginning in January. “Greenberg’s work, which focuses on Jewish encounters and intersections with what he calls Latinidad, has drawn him to Southern Arizona, the Jewish History Museum, and the Bloom Southwest Jewish Archives at the University… Read more »
Hila Plitmann The Tucson Desert Song Festival celebrates ‘The American Voice’ in its eighth annual fest, Jan. 15-Feb. 16. This year marks the first in TDSF’s series of composer commissions. Israeli soprano Hila Plitmann will premiere “Songs of Love and Loss,” commissioned for this festival and written by American composer Richard… Read more »
Rabbanit Jenna Englender dances with the Torah during her graduation ceremony from Yeshivat Maharat in New York, June 17, 2019. (Shulamit Seidler-Feller/Maharat)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Growing up in a Modern Orthodox community in South Africa, Sara Hurwitz never imagined that she would one day become a clergy member. The Conservative and Reform movements have been ordaining female rabbis for decades. But in the Orthodox world, women are barred from many… Read more »
Friday night prayers at the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial featured a 78-person choir and screens projecting the words of the service, Dec. 13, 2019. (Rob Dicker/Union for Reform Judaism)
CHICAGO (JTA) — Josh Nelson sat onstage in front of 5,000 people, accompanied by eight other musicians and perched next to a ginormous video screen bearing the words to one of Judaism’s central prayers, the Shema. It was the largest Shabbat service in America and the apex of the… Read more »
Clive Owen excels in the complex role of a man torn between his talent and the need to remember. (Sabrina Lantos/Sony Pictures Classics)
(JTA) — “The Song of Names” is a heartwarming film about a Jewish violin virtuoso who renounces his faith in the aftermath of the Holocaust, only to rediscover it when he hears a song of remembrance. The violinist, Dovidl Rapaport, is shown in three stages of his life, the… Read more »
Colombians celebrate Dia de las Velitas at the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Bogota, Dec. 7, 2018. (Lokman Ilhan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Jews in Colombia preparing for Hanukkah saw something earlier this month that no doubt looked very familiar. On the night of Dec. 7, streets, plazas, windows and porches across the country were lit by thousands of candles in honor of Dia de las Velitas (Day of the… Read more »
Peter Curtis is a music professor at Riverside City College in Southern California. (Courtesy of Curtis)
NEW YORK (JTA) — A few years ago, Southern California-based jazz guitarist Peter Curtis was rehearsing for a Christmas concert that involved a choir, but he needed to find a song to play by himself for a solo interlude. Curtis is Jewish and was far from a Christmas song… Read more »
Midge Maisel, played by Emmy winner Rachel Brosnahan, does her stand-up routine in season 3 of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." (Amazon Prime)
Critics have long called out “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” co-creator Amy Sherman-Palladino for the lack of diversity in her shows about pushy, fast-talking white ladies. This outcry probably motivated Sherman-Palladino to set “Maisel” in the 1950s, when its sheer whiteness could be blamed on historical accuracy.… Read more »
Gideon Taylor of the Claims Conference speaks as Israeli President Reuven Rivlin look on in Jerusalem in 2017. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
(JTA) — A major German industry family will donate tens of millions of dollars to support Holocaust survivors and former forced laborers in the Nazi era. In addition to one-time donations to the Claims Conference and individual laborers, the Reimann family’s JAB firm has created a foundation designed to… Read more »
Shira and Amichai Ish Ran hold a news conference at the Shaarei Tzedek hospital a week after being injured in a West Bank terror attack, Dec. 16, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash 90)
BEIT EL, West Bank (JTA) — I watched the news of the terrible Jersey City shooting last week with both horror and a sense of deja vu. Sadly, violent attacks against Jews, wherever we live, have become all too common. We can no longer assume our communal spaces and houses… Read more »
Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves a polling station after voting in the general elections in London, Dec. 12, 2019. (Yunus Dalgic/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
LONDON (JTA) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party has defeated Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party by a large margin in Britain’s general elections on Thursday, exit polls indicate. The Conservatives received 368 seats out of 650 according to the polls by BBC, ITV and Sky News, with Labour lagging… Read more »
Hasidim, government officials and police officers stand in front of the K'hal Adas Greenville synagogue next door to JC Kosher Supermarket in Jersey City, N.J., the site of a deadly shooting, Dec. 11, 2019. (Laura E. Adkins/JTA)
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (JTA) — One opened a grocery store that became a hub for a growing community. Another was a young student who stood out for his charitable work. Another was an exemplary cop who tried to make the streets safer. Another was a worker who was always… Read more »
‘David Broza & Friends’ will perform at the Fox Tucson Theatre on Dec. 21. Photo courtesy Fox Tucson Theatre
Israeli singer/songwriter David Broza is considered one of the world’s most dynamic and vibrant performers. From his whirlwind finger picking to flamenco percussion and rhythms, to a signature rock and roll sound, his charismatic and energetic performances have delighted audiences throughout the world. Broza recently told the AJP that… Read more »
Esther and Rabbi Israel Becker Photo: Britta Van Vankren
Rabbi Israel and Esther Becker of Congregation Chofetz Chayim will celebrate “40 Years of Torah Growth Together” with an on-line fund-raising campaign on Sunday and Monday, Dec. 8 and 9, and a 40th-anniversary dinner on the last night of Chanukah, Sunday, Dec. 29, at 5 p.m. at the synagogue.… Read more »
Sean Patrick Doyle (center) and the company of Arizona Theatre Company’s ‘Cabaret’ in rehearsal. Photo courtesy Arizona Theatre Company
“Cabaret,” on stage at the Arizona Theatre Company in Tucson through Dec. 29, “has toe-tapping, show-stopping musical numbers,” says Sara Bruner, who is directing the ATC production. “It’s wildly entertaining … but it also has real meaning.” It’s such a famous show — there’s Bob Fosse’s 1973 film, the… Read more »
Susan Kasle of Jewish Family & Children’s Services presents Yad Vashem docent Robert Eden with books of stories by Southern Arizona Holocaust survivors, Nov. 3. Photo: Jon Kasle
Susan Kasle is vice president of community services at Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona, which coordinates services for Holocaust survivors living in Southern Arizona. For Kasle, a highlight of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s recent interfaith mission was representing JFCS during the mission’s Nov. 3… Read more »
Larry Gellman J Street will honor Larry Gellman at a Tucson reception on Monday, Dec. 16, at 6 p.m., with guest speakers Ambassador Wendy R. Sherman and J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami. Sherman led the U.S. negotiating team that reached the Iran nuclear agreement in 2015. Gellman has chaired the boards… Read more »
Jewish community members rally in support of humanitarian Scott Warren on Nov. 12, the opening day of his retrial at the federal courthouse in Tucson. Those in attendance included Rabbi Avi Alpert, Rabbi Thomas Louchheim, Jewish Community Relations Council Chair Mo Goldman, Jewish History Museum Executive Director Bryan Davis, and JHM board member Eric Schindler. Photo: Stephen Shawl
A collaborative Jewish community initiative that sprang from the Oct. 24 day of a learning journey to the U.S.-Mexico border at Nogales, Arizona, continues to move forward. “There are clearly two tracks of interest that emerged from the initial education event,” Jewish History Museum Director Bryan Davis told the… Read more »
I know that sufganiyot — jelly doughnuts — are traditional and beloved for Hanukkah. But I feel confident that once you try these easy and incredibly delicious ricotta fritters, you will be converted to these sweet fried treats. And if I’m making a confession, I have actually never loved… Read more »
Graham Hoffman holds a challah for Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona interfaith mission participants celebrating their arrival in Jerusalem on Oct. 30. Photo courtesy Graham Hoffman
On a Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona interfaith mission Oct. 27-Nov. 5, dubbed “Connecting Cultures, Communities, and Hearts,” 28 participants got a taste of Israel’s diversity and complexity, coming away with a new appreciation for the nation’s challenges, but no easy answers. Members of the group “were touched so… Read more »
