Tagged FRONT

(JTA) — Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Alice Walker has come under intense criticism after endorsing a book by anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist David Icke. In an interview with The New York Times Book Review, Walker — who is best known for her book “The Color Purple,” detailing the hardships of African-American women in… Read more »

Andrew Rehfeld will serve as HUC’s 13th president. (Courtesy of HUC)

NEW YORK (JTA) —The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion has appointed Andrew Rehfeld, a political science professor who has led the Jewish Federation of St. Louis since 2012, to serve as its 13th president. On Tuesday, the Reform movement’s flagship seminary said Rehfeld would lead its four campuses in… Read more »

BOSTON (JTA) — Diversity and inclusion were among the hot topics at the 50th annual convention of the Association of Jewish Studies, where some 1,200 Jewish studies scholars gathered for a three-day conference that began here Sunday. Fifty years to the month after a handful of scholars in the… Read more »

(JTA) — Noah Klieger, who survived Auschwitz by pretending to be a boxer and went on to a storied career in journalism, died Thursday in Israel. He was 92. As a prisoner in Auschwitz, Klieger was selected for the gas chamber but managed to talk himself out of the… Read more »

(JTA) — Just like any other Santa Claus, Santa Rick will spend much of the next couple of weeks sitting children on his knee, asking whether they’ve been good and listening to their Christmas wishes. If it’s a Saturday, he may have slept overnight in the building. And he’ll… Read more »

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — The last time that a stranger directed an anti-Semitic insult at me, I was carrying supplies for my son’s birthday party. It was on a Sunday afternoon on Dam Square. Carrying Star of David party decorations in a see-through bag, I paused to snap some pictures… Read more »

MUNICH (JTA) — Weeks after they emigrated from Russia and moved to Germany, the Nedlin family sought to join the local Jewish community. Registering for membership in a Jewish community — a practice common in European countries — was a significant step for the Nedlins, who before emigrating in 1992… Read more »

Ruth and Irving Olson

In 2019 the Northwest Division will organize its activities as The Ruth and Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life in the Northwest,” says Alan Kendal, advisory council chair for the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Northwest Division. Stuart Mellan, JFSA president and CEO, made the formal announcement during the… Read more »

Tucson Firefighters Beyond Borders completed its third mission to Israel last month under an unexpected hail of missiles. That only added a new dimension to the multi-faceted, cross-cultural and cross-technology educational exchanges that began in 2013, according to the six participants. The delegation left Tucson on Nov. 6, spending… Read more »

Visiting counselor Anjulie Pfeifer’s office is like visiting grandma’s house. Or going to a hipster coffee shop. Or seeing Smokey Bear’s cabin. At least that is what her clients at Jewish Family & Children’s Services say when they walk across the threshold of her office. Scenic paintings line the… Read more »

Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of four articles on how the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona allocates funds. The first, in the Oct. 12 issue, focused on youth and family education programs at synagogues. The second, in the Nov. 23 issue, focused on national and… Read more »

The Hebrew Free Loan Association of Tucson has been around since 1947. Although it provides an invaluable service — granting interest-free financial assistance to those in need — its longtime president, Phil Bregman, has often called the association “the best kept secret in town.” But in the past nine… Read more »

Chabad Oro Valley will host an “End of Hanukkah” sing-along concert Monday, Dec. 10. Australian-born musician and composer Rabbi Tzvi Rimler, of Noteworthy Live band in Chandler, Arizona, will perform contemporary and old Eastern European Jewish favorites, along with anecdotes and stories. First introduced to the piano at age… Read more »

T ucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network‘s Poz Café program provides a monthly gathering for people living with HIV. Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona funds a lunch annually and, along with local synagogues, provides volunteers to shop for food, cook and serve meals. More than 25,000 meals have been served and… Read more »

Even as the menorah shines its brightest these last three nights of Hanukkah, our eight-day Festival of Lights is starting to wind down. Presents have been opened and latkes savored. Hanukkah 5779 will soon become a sweet memory. So, what are your plans for the rest of December? How… Read more »

  WASHINGTON (JTA) — When a presdent dies, the tendency is to put aside long-simmering resentments and consider the wholeness of his record. So it was when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remembered George Herbert Walker Bush, who died last week at 94. Despite the tense relationship with Israel… Read more »

Though he was just 6 years old on the night of Kristallnacht, Rabbi Chanoch Ehrentreu can still recall the horror: Torah scrolls burning in the courtyard of his father’s synagogue. His father taken by the Gestapo to the concentration camp at Dachau. The grandson of a prominent rabbi from… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — George H.W. Bush was a man of uncommon decency. He also was a man of uncommon integrity. I worked for him for over 10 years, while he was the vice president and then president. My memories could fill a book (or at least a chapter of… Read more »

Three years ago, Don Was walked into a Jewish service in Los Angeles without high expectations. Was, born Don Fagenson in Detroit, is a producer who has worked with musicians like John Mayer, Bob Dylan and Bonnie Raitt. Since 2012, he has also been the president of Blue Note… Read more »

(JTA) — Do you go to shul, temple, synagogue, minyan or just services? Let me ask it another way: That synagogue you won’t set foot in — Do you call it a shul, temple, synagogue, minyan or services? I’m not being judgy. It’s a question about language. Working at a… Read more »