(Mendy Hechtman/Flash90)
(JTA) — The Conservative movement’s rabbinical association will allow its rabbis to attend intermarriages. The policy change, which reverses a ban of four decades, was made last week in a vote of the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, which determines the centrist movement’s Jewish legal rulings.… Read more »
Moving Traditions' Tzelem group conducts its monthly meetings using video chat. (Lior Zaltzman)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Growing up, Devin Goldstein often felt alienated from Judaism. The 17-year-old recalls having to wear traditionally feminine outfits when the family attended synagogue. That was painful for Goldstein, who has since come out as transgender. “It meant I had to get dressed in clothes I… Read more »
An iconic Rube Goldberg cartoon used on a U.S. postal stamp. (Rube Goldberg Inc.)
(JTA) — When one hears the name Rube Goldberg, one concept instantly comes to mind: those fun machines that complete simple tasks in overly complicated and humorous ways. Think a ball rolling down a long ramp that hits a series of dominoes, which hits something else, so on and… Read more »
A Jewish family reunited in Budapest in 1943 following the arrival there of family members from Holland. (Courtesy of Willy Lindwer)
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — When her classmates were sent from occupied Holland to death camps, Emmy Korodi and her Dutch-Jewish family were safe in Hungary — one of Nazi Germany’s closest allies. Her family were among some 90 Jews who, at the height of World War II, survived for the unlikeliest… Read more »
Laura Osman is shown with her husband, Lawrence, and their children, from left, Levi, Teddy and Molly. (Courtesy of Laura Osman)
ENCINO, Calif. (JTA) — Curiosity about my ancestry spurred me to order an at-home genetic testing kit by mail earlier this year. Maybe my blonde hair was a result of some hidden Swedish genes? When the kit arrived, I quickly spit in the tube and sent it off, not… Read more »
A demonstrator participates in a rally in Boston’s Copley Square in support of a lawsuit against Harvard contending that the university discriminates against Asian Americans in admissions, Oct. 14, 2018. (Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
(JTA) — In 1922, Harvard University President Abbott Lawrence Lowell had a problem: His school had too many Jews. At least that’s what he thought. As the country’s Jewish population ballooned in the early 20th century, the Jewish proportion of Harvard students increased exponentially, too. In 1900, just 7… Read more »
The Stormer Book Clubs took credit for anti-Semitic fliers that appeared across the country last week. (Anti-Defamation League/JTA Collage)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Fliers blaming Jews for the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh appeared in seeming random locations around the country last week. “Every time some Anti-White, Anti-American, Anti-freedom event takes place, you look at it, and it’s Jews behind it,” the fliers read. They showed an image of the… Read more »
Walraven van Hall, right, and his brother Gijs in the 1930s. (Courtesy of the van Hall family)
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Opposite the Dutch national bank here lies one of Europe’s least conspicuous monuments to a war hero. Titled “Fallen Tree,” the metal statue for resistance fighter Walraven van Hall looks so realistic that for months after its unveiling in 2010, the municipality would receive calls reporting… Read more »
Helle Fromberg, left, and Thomas Gorlen seen at the celebration of Danish Jewry's rescue held at the Great Synagogue of Copenhagen, Oct. 11, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (JTA) — All over the world, Holocaust commemoration events follow a certain protocol. Somber affairs where participants dress in dark colors and modestly, they usually feature a soulful rendition of the “El Malei Rachamim” prayer, or Merciful God, sung by an anguished cantor who names Nazi death… Read more »
Holocaust survivor Wolfgang Hellpap lights a memorial candle at the community Yom HaShoah commemoration on May 1, 2016, at the Tucson Jewish Community Center.
Wolfgang Hellpap, 87, a child survivor of the Holocaust from Berlin, Germany, tells his remarkable story with matter-of-fact simplicity. He’s told it many times during the past 13 years he’s lived in Tucson, to high school students and other groups. “I want people and especially young people to know… Read more »
Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon Congregation Beit Simcha (House of Joy), a new synagogue based in Northwest Tucson, will open later this month. Established by a group of congregants and Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon, Beit Simcha will hold its inaugural Friday night Shabbat services on Oct. 19 at 6 p.m. at the Harvey and… Read more »
Goldie Gibbons Goldstein
Shalom Baby celebrates the birth or adoption of new babies and welcomes them to the Southern Arizona Jewish community with a box of supplies for the new parents. “It’s like the Jewish community in a box,” says Jewish Tucson Concierge and program coordinator Carol Sack. “There’s not many opportunities… Read more »
Hebrew High students Maya Krause, left, and Rachel Levy, right, collaborate with Handmaker resident Lois Waldman to trace her family tree. (Courtesy Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging)
Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging and Tucson Hebrew High will launch a Tracing Roots 2.0 intergenerational program next month, bringing together Handmaker residents and Jewish teens. The original program, which began in fall 2015 and wrapped up in 2017, built “beautiful connections,” says Nanci Levy, Handmaker’s community outreach… Read more »
Congregation Bet Shalom members work on the pollinator garden for the Midbar Project. Later project development will include beehives, gardens, and chickens for lessons about desert and Biblical gardening traditions. (Courtesy Congregation Bet Shalom)
Local congregations are enhancing youth and family education programs while increasing inter-synagogue collaboration to enrich Tucson Jewish life. Participants credit expanded funding from the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona for this boon. “The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has always allocated grant money to synagogues, but additional funding through… Read more »
Yofi wears her Sparks Cheer T-shirt.
Yofi, a fluffy 2-year-old goldendoodle, leads a very dynamic life in the Jewish community and beyond. She is an athlete, educator, therapist and beloved pet with a very busy schedule. Her active social life began early with basic training at eight weeks old. “She went from crazy to calm… Read more »
Brooke Sebold, left, with her mother, Ronnie Sebold, at a Sept. 29 tribute event in Denver for trauma surgeon Ernest E. Moore, who saved Brooke’s life 25 years ago after a skiing accident. Brooke will be the keynote speaker at Tucson Hebrew Academy’s Tikkun Olam Award dinner Nov. 4. (Courtesy Ronnie Sebold)
I’ve always considered Tucson Hebrew Academy as my fourth child and this community to be my family,” Ronnie Sebold recently told the AJP. With hands-on involvement within the school for 37 of its 45- year history, she has dedicated a lifetime to nurturing the academy. For this dedication to… Read more »
Newlyweds Grace Kolack and Daniel Louchheim (Steven Palm)
Grace Kolack, daughter of Marque Kolack of Naples, Florida, and Janice Wilson of Tucson, and Daniel Louchheim, son of Thomas and Marcia Louchheim of Tucson, were married April 29, 2018, at La Mariposa Resort with Rabbi Thomas Louchheim and Cantor Janece Cohen officiating. The maid of honor was Bailey… Read more »
Seth Windham with the lovin’ Ozzie
All hounds were on deck Sunday for a Blessing of the Pets at Congregation Anshei Israel, led by Rabbi Robert Eisen. About two dozen dogs attended, and a half-dozen cats were blessed virtually through photographs or with stuffed stand-ins. One dog even brought her stuffed cat for blessing. The… Read more »
A.J. Jacobs, right, picks coffee cherries, which contain coffee beans, in Colombia. (Courtesy of Jacobs)
(JUF News via JTA) — Author A.J. Jacobs has encouraged his three sons to be grateful for all they have. He and his wife urge them to write thank-you notes, to thank the bus driver — even thank their household robot Alexa for weather forecasts. Jacobs, who is Jewish, sometimes says… Read more »
Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is shown after casting his vote in Rio de Janeiro, Oct. 7, 2018. (Fernando Souza/AFP/Getty Images)
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Jair Bolsonaro, an ardently pro-Israel candidate who is highly divisive among Jews for his sometimes politically incorrect rhetoric, won the first round of Brazil’s presidential election and remains the front-runner to lead the Latin American nation. Bolsonaro, a 63-year-old conservative Christian congressman, won 46… Read more »
