Tagged FRONT

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)
July 10, 2019 / Marcy Oster, JTA

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)
July 3, 2019 / Howard Lovy, JTA

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)
July 3, 2019 / Ben Sales, JTA

(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)
July 3, 2019 / Sam Sokol, JTA

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)
June 28, 2019 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor

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)
June 28, 2019 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

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 »

Retiree takes social justice to heart
June 28, 2019 /
It is no secret that Steve Teichner is a humanitarian. His car, parked at a Tucson migrant shelter on June 14, proudly announces his passion wherever he goes. (Debe Campbell)

It is 3 p.m. on a Friday, and Steve Teichner has already put in more than 40 hours of work this week. He will leave around 5:30 p.m., if no more migrants show up at the shelter. “It’s not a job, it’s a passion,” says the retired educator. “It’s… Read more »

Community awards honor volunteers
June 28, 2019 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor
Andy Kunsberg

This is the final part of a series on the Jewish agency volunteers who received 2019 Special Recognition Awards at the Jewish Community Awards celebration held May 9 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The evening also included the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s annual meeting. Andy Kunsberg, Jewish… Read more »

JCF summer series to focus on tax and legal topics
June 28, 2019 /
Greg Gadarian

The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona will present “Hot Topics for Tax and Legal Professionals” sessions in July and August. The July 31 session, “Charitable Developments: Recent Developments, Rules, and Landmines” will be presented in honor of Greg Gadarian, JCF Professional Advisory Group founder, to thank him for… Read more »

Singapore, once more: Tucsonan finds Jewish community still thriving

Susan Wortman and Jack Pinnas in front of Maghain Aboth Synagogue in Singapore. Note the large silver mezuzah on the doorframe. (Anne Lowe)
June 28, 2019 / Anne Lowe, Special to the AJP

Four years ago, my husband, David, was asked to teach aviation law in Singapore for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Naturally, I went along for the trip. While there, I spent five weeks researching the Jewish community in that Southeast Asian country. When I returned to Tucson, I presented many PowerPoint… Read more »

For beach-lover, Shabbat at Chabad of Monterey makes great memories

L- R: Rabbi Dovid, Motty, Binie, Mendy, Zevi, Yossi, Moshe, and Rivky Holtzberg near Chabad of Monterey (Courtesy Binie Holtzberg)
June 28, 2019 / Barbara Russek, Special to the AJP

As Shabbat approaches, Jews throughout the world exchange warm wishes of “Shabbat Shalom.” But how do we achieve that transformative Sabbath peace? As I discovered during my stay last summer on the Monterey Peninsula, Rabbi Dovid and Rebbetzin Binie Holtzberg, directors of Chabad of Monterey, extend hospitality to all… Read more »

James Caan’s latest character: A Jew who moves to Israel to become a pig farmer

In "Holy Lands," James Caan plays a secular American Jew who moves to Israel to escape the drama of his family -- and to raise pigs. (Cinedigm)
June 28, 2019 / Stephen Silver, JTA

(JTA) — “Raising pigs in Israel? Couldn’t you play golf like everyone else?” That’s a quote that doubles well as the concept behind the movie “Holy Lands,” which stars Hollywood veteran James Caan as a relatively secular American Jew turned Israeli pig farmer. The film, directed by the French… Read more »

Untold stories: Jews in Arab countries suffered unbearable discrimination

A Jewish mother and her children are photographed outside a synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia, Jan. 1, 1950. Some 850,000 refugees from Tunisia and other Arab countries were expelled from their countries after the creation of Israel.
June 28, 2019 / Miriam Shepher, JTA

June 20 was World Refugee Day. And according to the United Nations page devoted to this commemoration, every minute 20 people leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror. I am one of those people. In 1948, when I was 6 months old, my mother risked everything to… Read more »

Cory Booker was the only Democrat at the first debate who didn’t commit to rejoining the Iran deal

Sen. Cory Booker (C) (D-NJ) speaks as former housing secretary Julian Castro (L) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) look on during the first night of the Democratic presidential debate in Miami, Florida on June 26, 2019. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
June 27, 2019 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., was alone among the 10 Democratic presidential candidates at the first debate not to commit to rejoining the Iran nuclear deal. Moderators at the debate Wednesday evening in Miami asked the candidates whether they would rejoin the deal President Donald Trump abandoned… Read more »

Why the Supreme Court’s decision to let a taxpayer-funded cross stand is dangerous for American Jews

The World War I memorial cross in Bladensburg, Md., is built on public land and its maintenance is paid for with public funds. (Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images)
June 26, 2019 / Joshua Z. Rokach, JTA

(JTA) — On June 20, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a four-story-high cross on government land abutting a major road — brightly lit at night and maintained by taxpayer funds — can continue to loom over drivers because the monument has stood for almost a century. In doing… Read more »

What preparing a Jewish body for burial is really like

Hundreds attend the funeral of former Israeli army's chief rabbi, Avihai Ronsky, in the Jewish settlement of Itamar, April 1, 2018. In Jewish tradition, the body must undergo a series of rituals after death and before burial known as tahara, performed by a chevra kadisha, a holy society of volunteers. (Miriam Alster/Flash 90)
June 26, 2019 / Anonymous

(JTA) — In Jewish communities around the world, there is a little known group of men and women dedicated to performing the mitzvah of preparing a body for burial, a ritual called tahara. The group is called the chevra kadisha, the holy society. The chevra kadisha isn’t a secret… Read more »

Jared Kushner’s peace conference brings a minyan to 19th-century Bahrain synagogue

Jason Greenblatt, the top White House Middle East peace negotiator, second from left, organizes shacharit services at Bahrain's synagogue on June 26, 2019. (Jason Greenblatt Twitter feed)
June 26, 2019 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jason Greenblatt, President Trump’s top Middle East negotiator, led Jewish prayer services at a synagogue in Bahrain this week, during the conference there that rolled out the economic portion of the Trump administration’s peace plan. Greenblatt mustered an Orthodox minyan — a quorum of 10 adult… Read more »

We need fewer stereotypical Jews on TV — and more Walter Sobchaks

John Goodman, right, plays Walter Sobchak in the Coen brothers' classic film "The Big Lebowski" opposite Jeff Bridges in the title role. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
June 26, 2019 / Molly Pascal, JTA

(JTA) — The other day, my Catholic mother-in-law again implored me, her sole Jewish daughter-in-law, to watch “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” The third season of the award-winning show is expected to air in a few months, so I dutifully resigned myself to the task. But as I watched, I… Read more »

At Israel’s first student-run health clinic, the mantra is health care for all — and it’s free

Neta Sagi, a volunteer at Haifa’s student-run Ruach Tova Health Center, examines a patient with an ultrasound machine. (Larry Luxner)
June 26, 2019 / Larry Luxner

Sponsored content from JTA: HAIFA — At the Ruach Tova Health Center in this northern Israeli city, three medical students are hard at work trying to keep up with the steady flow of patients. Nicole Kasher, a third-year student from Los Angeles, reviews patient charts. Galilee native Neta Sagi… Read more »

Barcelona’s oldest house is now a Jewish cultural center
June 26, 2019 / Alan Grabinsky, JTA
Mozaika draws hundreds of visitors to its weekly events on Jewish culture. (Toldot/Instagram)

BARCELONA, Spain (JTA) — Tucked away in one of the narrow streets of this city’s El Call neighborhood, a former Jewish ghetto that these days house upscale shops and restaurants, sits the oldest residential house in Barcelona — a nondescript white stone building full of history. The house was… Read more »

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