Tagged FRONT

PJ Library national officer briefs locals on global operation

(L-R) PJ Library volunteers Jane Ash, Karen Katz, and Lee Surwit; Rosalie Eisen, PJ Library national senior program officer; Mary Ellen Loebl, Tucson PJ Library coordinator; and Deborah Oseran, incoming Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona board chair, at the Federation Feb. 19 (Debe Campbell)

In Southern Arizona, nearly 900 families with children from 6 months to 11 years old receive free books monthly from PJ Library and PJ Our Way programs. And 98 percent of those parents say PJ Library has been a valuable parenting tool. “This is the largest cohort of young… Read more »

Local teachers cement bond with counterparts on Partnership trip to Israel

Partnership2Gether School Twinning program participants at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Feb. 2. (L-R) Back row: Adi Olshansky, Danielle Weiss, Zohar Bisker, Daniella Cohen, Keren Mor, Jill Sobieszyk, Orly Gros, Kim Spitzer, Nili Cohen-Hammer, Adi Shacham, Jeanette Butcher, Ofra Gueta, Nichole Chorny; front: Yochi Azran, Allie Silber (Weintraub Israel Center)

A delegation of Tucson educators representing Jewish organizations experienced Israel in a meaningful, weeklong cultural exchange during rodeo school break in late February. Jeanette Butcher (Tucson Jewish Community Center), Nicole Chorny and Kim Spitzer  (Congregation Anshei Israel), Allie Silber (Temple Emanu-El), Jill Sobieszyk (Congregation Or Chadash) and I were… Read more »

JFCS Matza & More sees local needs increase

Volunteers unload groceries for Jewish Family & Children’s Services’s 2018 Matza & More campaign. (Jewish Family & Children's Services)

For more than 40 years, Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona’s Matza & More project has packed and delivered Passover bags to Tucson area families who otherwise could not afford food and items for a Seder. Volunteers and staff fill the bags with fresh vegetables, gefilte fish,… Read more »

Local pet lovers have options for day, overnight animal care, socialization

Janice Fischer provides daycare and overnight stays at Camp Doganuga. (Courtesy www.campdoganuga)

About 28 percent of American households have dogs. That’s a whopping 90 million four-legged friends, or as many dog-owners prefer to say, family members. When dog-owners are unable to take their fur babies with them, or when they want to offer them some social interaction, daycare or overnight care… Read more »

Easy-care houseplants for Southern Arizona’s low-humidity climate

Many members of the bromeliad family do well as house plants. (Photos courtesy: Pixbay.com)

Houseplants are trendy once more — which is “groovy” or “cool beans” or maybe just plain super. Not only do plants make oxygen for us to breathe, they bring nature indoors and can help us relax. And there are so many pretty ones to choose from. BUT! Here in… Read more »

Neshama Carlebach is figuring out how ‘to both love and not love’ her father

Neshama Carlebach says "I want to live for this moment, for today, and I want my children to know joy.” (Michael Albany)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Neshama Carlebach says she is figuring out how “to both love and not love” her father. Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, a spiritual leader and musician whose soulful melodies penetrated the hearts of people across the religious spectrum, is the man who made her into who she is… Read more »

Jason Greenblatt urges outside parties not to interfere in peace plan

Jason Greenblatt, left, meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Jerusalem, March 13, 2017. (Government Press Office)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The best thing everyone except for the Israelis and Palestinians can do when the Trump administration reveals its peace plan is to be supportive, Trump’s chief negotiator said. And nothing else. “It really is up to the Israelis and the Palestinians; they’re the ones who will… Read more »

Writer T Kira Madden on growing up queer, Jewish, Chinese and Hawaiian in Boca Raton

(Collage by Alma; photo of T Kira Madden courtesy of Madden)

This article originally appeared on Alma. T Kira Madden’s gorgeous and remarkable debut memoir, “Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls,” chronicles her childhood in Boca Raton, Florida, as the daughter of parents who struggled with addictions. “I wrote the book kind of accidentally,” Madden tells Alma. “But, I… Read more »

I spoke to the creators of Belgium’s anti-Semitic carnival float. They’re not sorry.

A parade float at the Aalst Carnaval in Belgium features caricatures of Orthodox Jews atop money bags, March 3, 2019. (Courtesy of FJO)

(JTA) — I initially had some sympathy for the creators of an anti-Semitic carnival float in Belgium. Studying their CVs and past creations for the annual carnival of Aalst, I saw that they were a group of some 20 upstanding citizens — a fireman, a technician, an Education Ministry… Read more »

Here’s how young European Jews in far-flung cities are connecting to Jewish studies

The video-based learning program for European Jewish students is supplemented by in-person encounters like this Shabbaton in Berlin in March 2018. (Lauder Foundation)

When Jewish physicist Vladimir Osipov emigrated from his native Moscow 13 years ago, he first moved to Holon, a city in central Israel. But it wasn’t until Osipov relocated with his family three years later to a mid-size city in Germany that they felt part of a vibrant Jewish… Read more »

Jeremy Corbyn was hit by an egg at a mosque. This rabbi comforted him.

Rabbi Herschel Gluck shakes hands with a member of the Finsbury Park Mosque the day after a man drove a white van into a group of people on their way home from prayers, June 19, 2017. One person died and 10 were injured. (Claire Doherty/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

(JTA) — Jeremy Corbyn was hit with an egg while visiting a London mosque, an incident that brought little sympathy from critics of the embattled British Labour Party leader — but an unlikely assist from an Orthodox Jewish first responder. A 31-year-old man named John Murphy was charged with… Read more »

5 Jewish things to know about John Hickenlooper

John Hickenlooper participates in a discussion as part of the Brookings Institution's Middle Class Initiative in Washington, D.C., Oct. 10, 2018. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

(JTA) — John Hickenlooper is the latest Democrat who thinks he can win back the White House in 2020. The former Colorado governor and self-described “extreme moderate” announced his candidacy on Monday and is holding his first campaign rally this week. “Ultimately I’m running for president because I believe… Read more »

Documentary on Joseph Pulitzer recalls another era of president vs. the press

A scene from "Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People" shows an old edition of the New York World, Pulitzer's influential paper. (First Run Features)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) – It’s a story that would not sound too out of place in 2019: New York’s leading newspaper accuses the president of the United States of corruption and the latter sues the paper’s publisher for libel. Striking back, the publisher declares in an editorial that his… Read more »

A new book sheds light on little-known American Jewish women throughout history

Pamella Nadell is the author of the forthcoming book "America's Jewish Women: A History From Colonial Times to Today." (Book photo: Courtesy of W. W. Norton & Company; Nadell photo: Sophia Myszkowski)

NEW YORK (JTA) — While looking at family photos, historian Pamela Nadell noticed how female relatives dressed differently with each generation. Her great-grandmother wore a high lace collar and covered her hair with a wig, like some Orthodox Jews. Her daughter’s go-to is a pair of skinny jeans. Nadell, a… Read more »