Tagged FRONT

An exhibit on Jewish life during World War I energizes a Midwestern community

A handbill made by the Jewish Welfare Board in 1918 is on display at the exhibit "For Liberty: American Jewish Experience in WWI" at the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Mo. (Gift of the Anne and John P. McNulty Foundation)
October 8, 2018 / Victor Wishna, JTA

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The scribbled, shorthand note is faded, but the formal origins of the first modern Jewish state are clear: “H(is) M(ajesty’s) G(overnment) accepts the principle that P(alestine) shld. reconstitute as the Natl. Home of the J(ewish) P(eople) …” Jotted on stationery from London’s Imperial Hotel, the memo… Read more »

These non-Jews are fighting Labour anti-Semitism from the inside

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 26: Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn addresses delegates on day four of the Labour Party conference at the Arena and Convention Centre on September 26, 2018 in Liverpool, England. In his closing speech to the conference the Labour leader will promise to 'kickstart a green jobs revolution' and expand the provision of free childcare should Labour win power. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
October 8, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

Steeped in anti-Semitism accusations involving him and his supporters, British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has made many Jewish enemies — including inside his own party. But one of his most effective critics is not Jewish. He is a meteorology student at the University of Reading who describes himself… Read more »

A Chicago teacher showed her grandfather was a Nazi collaborator. Now Lithuania is paying attention.

Silvia Foti visits a friend in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 2013. (Ina Budryte)
October 4, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — Barring unexpected delays, Silvia Foti is months away from fulfilling an old promise that’s become her life’s work: to write a biography of her late grandfather, who is a national hero in his native Lithuania. Foti, a 60-year-old high school teacher from Chicago, made the pledge to… Read more »

UA music school festival to mark Debussy, Asia milestones
September 28, 2018 /
Daniel Asia

The 11th annual Music + Festival at the University of Arizona will focus on the music of Claude Debussy, in commemoration of  the 100th anniversary of his death, and Daniel Asia, in honor of his 65th birthday and 30 years in residence at the UA’s Fred Fox School of… Read more »

Tucson community generosity inspires hospital’s healing art therapy program

Lauren Rabb, left, and Jacquelyn Feller stand before “Untitled Rainbow,” donated to Tucson Medical Center by artist Bob Kray II. It hangs near TMC’s south orthopedic unit entrance. (Debe Campbell)
September 28, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

Healing literally surrounds you upon entering Tucson Medical Center. The largest single-story hospital in the U.S. has nearly eight miles of hallways that have transformed into an expansive art gallery through the TMC Healing Arts Program, curated by Lauren Rabb who, like many in this story, is a member… Read more »

UA guided imagery study aims to help smokers quit
September 28, 2018 / Micheal Romero, Intern
Judith S. Gordon, Ph.D.

The University of Arizona is launching a new guided imagery-based smoking cessation program called the Be Smoke Free program. Led by Interim Associate Dean for Research Judith S. Gordon, Ph.D., the study focuses on retraining a participant’s brain both in the need for nicotine and the habit of smoking… Read more »

Mega Challah Bake entering fifth year

(L-R): Danya Horwitz, Haley Fried, Hilary Kleppel and Belle Soyfer join in the dancing while waiting for dough to rise at the Mega Challah Bake on Oct. 26, 2017 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. (Chabad Tucson)
September 28, 2018 /

The fifth annual Mega Challah Bake, bringing together hundreds of women for an evening of community and instruction in the art and mitzvah of baking challah, a staple of the Shabbat table, will be held Thursday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The event, for… Read more »

Fifth annual Ride for the Living affirms Jewish vitality today — in Poland

Tucsonans Boaz Cohon (front left) and Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon at the Ride for the Living in Krakow, Poland, June 29 (Rabbi Samuel Cohon)
September 28, 2018 / Rabbi Samuel Cohon

This summer my son Boaz and I traveled to Poland for the great pleasure and privilege of participating in the Ride for the Living, a 55-mile bicycle ride from Auschwitz-Birkenau to the Jewish Community Center of Krakow, Poland, from the scene of the greatest destruction of our people to… Read more »

‘Fauda’ screenwriter wanted to depict terrorists as ‘real human beings’

Laetitia Eïdo, left, and Lior Raz in a scene from "Fauda." (Courtesy of Netflix)
September 27, 2018 / Curt Schleier, JTA

(JTA) — Moshe Zonder noticed it quickly: “My students are completely serious. They are writing. They are doing the assignments. All of them. It’s great teaching here.” Zonder shouldn’t be that surprised. For an aspiring screenwriter, who better to study with than the man who wrote the entire first… Read more »

The ‘best football player who grew up in Israel’ seeks a spot at US college

Yuval Fenta plays running back for the Tel Aviv Pioneers. (Hillel Kuttler)
September 27, 2018 / Hillel Kuttler, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) – In the summer of 2011, Yuval Fenta saw two guys tossing a football on the beach in Herzliya. He asked to participate. “You’re too small,” they responded. A dejected Fenta retreated, but not before hearing them mention an American football league that played in Israel.… Read more »

This new program is recruiting Israeli girls for cyber warfare and high-tech futures

Demand for high-tech professionals in Israel currently outstrips supply by about 15,000 individuals, according to Start-Up Nation Central. Programs like CyberGirlz aim to address the shortfall by recruiting more women into the field. (Courtesy of CyberGirlz)
September 27, 2018 / Larry Luxner

TEL AVIV — Tali Ben Aroya knows what it’s like to feel intimidated. As the founder of an Israeli social network startup, she recalls more than once being the only female in a room full of male business executives. “I remember myself asking where all the other women were,”… Read more »

NJ store to close after a century of suiting up bar mitzvah boys — and the occasional mobster

Sam’s storefront, circa 1968. (Courtesy of Jeffrey Cohen)
September 27, 2018 / Johanna Ginsberg, New Jersey Jewish News

WHIPPANY, N.J. (New Jersey Jewish News via JTA) — When Clifford Kulwin celebrated his 13th anniversary as rabbi at Temple B’nai Abraham in Livingston, New Jersey, he knew he had to mention another local institution. “I understand there are some present who do not consider this a ‘real’ bar… Read more »

In J.K. Rowling’s new novel, a villain is an Israel-hating anti-Semite

J.K. Rowling at the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) at Royal Albert Hall in London, Feb. 12, 2017. (John Phillips/Getty Images)
September 21, 2018 / Yvette Alt Miller, JTA

(JTA) — For months author J.K. Rowling has been warning about the dangers of anti-Semitism in England, sparring on Twitter with critics who either downplay the phenomenon or say its proponents are confusing criticism of Israel with Jew hatred. Now, in her newest book, she includes a character whose… Read more »

A year after the Mexico City earthquake, many Jewish organizations still don’t have a home

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - SEPTEMBER 19: Rescuers work in the rubble after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck on September 19, 2017 in Mexico City, Mexico. The earthquake caused multiple fatalities, destroyed buildings and knocked out power throughout the capital. (Photo by Rafael S. Fabres/Getty Images)
September 21, 2018 / Alan Grabinsky

MEXICO CITY (JTA) — This capital city has yet to recover from last September’s earthquake, which killed over 300 people and left many more homeless. In the trendy Condesa neighborhood, once a predominantly Jewish area here, many buildings have been demolished and others are in a state of abandonment and… Read more »

Why these Dutch Christians are celebrating Sukkot

Pastor Piet van Veldhuizen has lunch inside his congregation's sukkah in the Netherlands, Sept. 18, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
September 21, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

HENDRIK-IDO-AMBACHT, Netherlands (JTA) — From its exterior, the massive building known as The Ark in this Dutch town looks like a typical Reform synagogue. On the Hebrew month of Tishrei, the ancient olive tree that dominates the yard of this large worship space is dwarfed by a reed sukkah,… Read more »

A new Torah scroll symbolizes a Liberal Jewish revival in the Czech Republic

David Maxa delivers a sermon during Shabbat services at Prague's Spanish Synagogue during the European Union of Progressive Judaism's biennial, April 2018. (Courtesy of Maxa)
September 18, 2018 / Margarita Gokun Silver, JTA

PRAGUE (JTA) — A new Torah scroll is being used in this historic city by one of its two Reform Jewish congregations to welcome the High Holidays and the series of solemn and joyous celebrations that conclude with, what else, Simchat Torah — the rejoicing of the Torah. But it’s… Read more »

Ari Fuld, American expat slain in West Bank, remembered as a combative activist and caring friend

Ari Fuld, shown at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, worked at a nonprofit that provides food and supplies to Israeli soldiers. (Facebook)
September 18, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

(JTA) — When Ari Fuld first approached him, Josh Weixelbaum was a 20-year-old soldier visiting friends in the West Bank settlement of Efrat. Fuld had heard Weixelbaum speaking English, so he introduced himself and asked Weixelbaum about his time in the army. Fuld soon learned that Weixelbaum, an American… Read more »