Tagged FRONT

Longtime Tucsonan gives heart and soul to the Jewish community

Linda Tumarkin poses with the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s mission statement inside the Harvey and Deanna Evenchik Center for Jewish Philanthropy, June 27, 2019. (Román Urias/AJP)

Linda Tumarkin, 79, has been an active volunteer in the Tucson Jewish community since shortly after moving to town in 1971, including three terms as chair of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and four terms as chair of the Federation’s Jewish Community Relations Council. She was on the… Read more »

Local volunteer’s love for teaching is a good fit for P2G

Shelley Lipowich, right, employs science, nature, and technology to build bridges between students in Tucson and Israeli classrooms while volunteering for Weintraub Israel Center’s Partnership2gether school twinning program. (Courtesy Lipowich)

Shelley Ann Lipowich, Ph.D., says she’s taught “for 150 years … everything from pre-kindergarten to post-doctoral, and I’ve had a ball.” She got her first taste of the Old Pueblo when it truly was a little village. She attended Sam Hughes Elementary as a child, “when Plumer Avenue was… Read more »

Elder Rehab powers retired Tucsonan toward the century milestone

Lee Chutkow accepts an award certificate from Elder Rehab coordinator Sharon Arkin, recognizing his nine semesters of continuous participation. (Courtesy Arkin)

Lee Chutkow, M.D., 92, has a goal: To reach his 100th birthday. In pursuit of that goal, Chutkow, a retired psychiatrist, classical music maven, and Shakespeare and poetry buff, keeps his mind and body active through the Elder Rehab program at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Five years ago,… Read more »

JFCS workshops give Holocaust survivors from Russia end-of-life guidance

L-R: Iosif Beskin, Gregory Tselnik, and Raisa Moroz examine advance directive documents at a workshop. (Courtesy Raisa Moroz)

This summer, Jewish Family & Children’s Services conducted a series of workshops on advance directives and ethical wills for the 40 Russian-speaking Holocaust survivors in the Tucson community. Nearly half attended. “It is not in Russian culture to talk about final days or what would happen with a person… Read more »

Remembering former JFCS chair for his passion, kindness

The late Fred Fruchthendler, left, with Jewish Family & Children’s Services’ President and CEO Carlos Hernández at the 206 JFCS Celebration of Caring event on April 10, 2016, which marked JFCS’ 75th anniversary. (Photo courtesy Jewish Family & Children's Services)

I remember when I first met Fred Fruchthendler. It was my first interview with the board of Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona for the position of president and CEO. After an hour or so of many tough and thoughtful questions, a voice that had not yet… Read more »

How the AMIA attack changed Latin American Jewry forever

A man walks over the rubble left after a bomb exploded at the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, July 18, 1994. (Ali Burafi /AFP/Getty Images)

AMHERST, Mass. (JTA) – Twenty-five years after the terrorist attack that targeted the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, leaving 85 people dead and hundreds more injured, one thing is clear: The lives of Latin American Jews were changed forever. With nearly 200,000 Jews at the time, from various religious… Read more »

BBC airs expose accusing Jeremy Corbyn’s team of shielding anti-Semites

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaking during a visit to the Regents Park Mosque in London, May 19, 2019. (Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)

(JTA) — Leaders of Britain’s Labour’s party shielded members from accusation of anti-Semitism amid an internal crisis that led to thousands of hate speech complaints but only 15 expulsions, the BBC reported. The findings aired Wednesday by the service’s flagship investigative television program “Panorama” represent the largest-scale journalistic focus… Read more »

Cartoonist disinvited from White House defends image widely labeled as anti-Semitic

Ben Garrison drew this cartoon in 2017. It shows George Soros being manipulated by a hand of the Rothschilds, and Soros in turn manipulating Trump’s former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and retired Gen. David Petraeus. (Courtesy of Garrison)

(JTA) — The artist behind a political cartoon that showed U.S. government officials as puppets of George Soros and the Rothschilds has defended his work and accused the Anti-Defamation League of libeling him. On Wednesday, Politico reported that Ben Garrison would no longer be attending a White House social… Read more »

California bill will ensure the right to hang mezuzahs

Jewish religious law and customs require that mezuzahs be affixed to doorframes. (Zeevveez/Flickr)

SAN FRANCISCO (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — A bill to ensure the right of Californians bill to hang mezuzahs on their door frames is moving through the state legislature, and is on its way to the desk of Governor Gavin Newsom. SB 652 bars landlords and… Read more »

Get ready for the new wave: Young, passionately Jewish — and anti-Zionist

A Jewish woman holding a candle, with a "We Will Outlive Them" banner in the background, at a New York vigil for the victims of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. (Gili Getz)

NEW YORK (JTA) – In 2019, there are more haters than lovers of the Jewish Left. Especially in the United States, the mainstream Jewish community reviles left-wing Jews who embrace anti-Zionism. Meanwhile, the Jewish Left itself is split. On one side are the “Left Zionists” who support a two-state… Read more »

Selma’s only synagogue has 4 members and is fighting for its life

The exterior of Temple Mishkan Israel in Selma, Ala. The synagogue has four members but wants to transform into a museum. (Amy Milligan)

(JTA) — Whenever the lone synagogue in Selma, Alabama, needs dusting, new lighting or vacuuming, Ronnie Leet is the one who does it. It’s tiring work — especially since the 120-year-old Temple Mishkan Israel hasn’t held regular services in years, hasn’t had a rabbi in nearly half a century… Read more »

The new Netflix show ‘Family Business’ is a French-Jewish version of ‘Breaking Bad’

Jonathan Cohen, third from left, is seen with other members of the Netflix series "Family Business." (Netflix)

(JTA) — One fan’s recent description on Twitter of the new Netflix series “Family Business” isn’t too far off: a “French Breaking Bad but with weed.” The French series, which debuted last week, is a wacky comedy about a Parisian Jewish family, the Hazans, that turns its failed kosher… Read more »

The Chabad Rebbe died 25 years ago. Here’s how his movement has survived.

Hands reach out to touch the casket of Rabbi Menachem Schneerson as his funeral procession prepares to leave the world headquarters of the Lubavitch Hasidim in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, June 12, 1994. (Mark Phillips/AFP/Getty Images)

JERUSALEM (JTA) –Twenty-five years ago, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the 92-year-old Lubavitcher Rebbe, succumbed to his many ailments and died, to the horror of his Hasidim. Since suffering the first of several devastating strokes on March 2, 1992, while visiting the grave of his late father-in-law and predecessor Rabbi Yosef… Read more »

The Israel Project chairman says reports of its demise are premature. An insider says its entire staff was laid off.

Josh Block, Israel Project CEO, speaks on on PBS News Hour on March 7, 2019. (PBS News Hour/Screenshot)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Israel Project’s chairman says that reports of the advocacy organization’s demise are premature in the wake of the surprise departure of its CEO. An insider told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the organization has let go of all of its staff without notice or their… Read more »

The protests by Ethiopian Israelis, explained

Ethiopians and supporters have protested across Israel against police violence following the death of a 19-year-old Ethiopian Israeli, Solomon Tekah, who was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer. Shown here is a protest in Kiryat Ata, July 3, 2019. (Flash90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Protests by the Ethiopian-Israeli community and their supporters entered a third day on Wednesday in Israel in the wake of the killing of an Ethiopian-Israeli teen by an off-duty police officer. While the protests are tied to the death of Solomon Tekah, 19, on Sunday night… Read more »

Anti-Semitism is strengthening the Jewish identity of young people. Why haven’t our organizations embraced them?

Young Jewish adults from all over the world participate in the Birthright Israel program in Jerusalem, Jan. 14, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (JTA) – The year was 2000, and Michael Steinhardt had just dropped a bombshell that nearly brought an otherwise dignified conference to blows. “I tend, in my dourest moments, to consider both the Reform and Conservative Jews as historic accidents in the 21st century and suspect,… Read more »

Synagogues are now conducting active shooter drills during services

Avi Abraham, a Krav Maga instructor who teaches self-defense classes to synagogue-goers, shows how to combat an attacker in a promotional video. (Screenshot from YouTube)

(JTA) — When the ushers locked the door to the sanctuary, and the congregants prepared to flee the synagogue in preparation for a mass shooting, Rabbi Neil Cooper made sure it all happened before they had to take the Torahs out of the ark. Ten minutes later the worshippers… Read more »

Child advocates blast systemic failures in Israel’s handling of sex abuse cases

Malka Leifer, center a former Australian teacher accused of dozens of cases of sexual abuse of girls at a school, is escorted by police as she arrives for a hearing at the District Court in Jerusalem, Feb. 27, 2018. Advocates say Israel's government have not adequately dealt with the issue of child sexual abuse. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — In April, Israeli police announced the arrest of a 22-year-old man in Beit Shemesh accused of multiple counts of child sexual assault. Short of celebrating the arrest of an abuser, local victims’ rights advocates took the authorities to task. Shana Aaronson, head of the Israeli branch… Read more »

Tucson’s Hernandez wins de-escalation training for school cops

Alma Hernandez at the Arizona State Capitol, June 18 (Courtesy Hernandez)

Children and teens at public schools throughout the state will be safer thanks to the efforts of Rep. Alma Hernandez, Arizona’s first Jewish Latina lawmaker. Working with the office of Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, Hernandez, a Democrat, secured an agreement to begin mandatory training in de-escalation and crisis intervention… Read more »

Social worker counsels clients by day and volunteers by night

Dina Rosengarten stands at an overlook point in Jerusalem on a visit to Israel in October 2018. (Andrea Crane)

After 30 years as a public behavioral health social worker, Dina Rosengarten is still in love with her role. She has a new position as director at a large, private, non-profit behavioral health center in Tucson. She counsels residential clients, mostly those in substance abuse recovery and with severe… Read more »