Tagged FRONT

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 »

Educator to speak on ‘transformative power of community’

Sarah Shulkind, Ph.D., will speak at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Women’s Philanthropy Annual Welcome on Oct. 4.
September 13, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

Sarah Shulkind, Ph.D., head of the Alice and Nahum Lainer School in Los Angeles, will be the guest speaker at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Women’s Philanthropy Annual Welcome next month. Entitled “Many Voices Impacting as One,” the event will celebrate 10 years of the Mitzvah Magic program… Read more »

Tucsonan inducted as AEPi supreme master

Tucsonan Jeffrey H. Jacobson speaks at Alpha Epsilon Pi's 105th International Convention Banquet in Phoenix, Aug. 11.
September 13, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

Jeffrey H. Jacobson, a Tucson attorney, became the 74th supreme master at Alpha Epsilon Pi’s 105th International Convention in Phoenix in August. “AEPi has been everything to me. From my Jewish identity to friendships and relationships to my leadership skills and my desire to give back to the community.… Read more »

At L.A. games, Maccabi USA team taps local youth for 2019 Pan Am Games

Tucsonan Cody Blumenthal heads for the basket in a tied match at the Maccabi Games in Los Angeles in August.
September 13, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

Cody Blumenthal and Gabe Green were among 2,600 athletes at the largest annual JCC Maccabi Games this summer, representing the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Blumenthal participated in 16 and under basketball while Green vied in 14 and under soccer at the Aug. 5-10 games in Orange County, California. Josh… Read more »

Hadassah Southern Arizona fashion show will be celebration of diversity

Models for Hadassah Southern Arizona’s fashion show on Oct. 21 will include Tucsonan Talya Simha Fanger-Vexler.
September 13, 2018 / Micheal Romero, AJP intern

Hadassah Southern Arizona is hosting a luncheon fashion show called “Walkin’ and Rollin’ Down the Runway” next month. It will be held on Sunday, Oct. 21 at 11:15 a.m. at the Country Club of La Cholla, 8700 N. La Cholla Blvd. Committee member Anne Lowe says the fashion show… Read more »

For spring delight reminiscent of Israeli landscape, plant bulbs now

Iris reticulata ‘Harmony’ (Courtesy Colorblends)
September 13, 2018 / Jacqueline Soule, Ph.D., Special to the AJP

Arizona and Israel have some climatic and botanic similarities. Israel is lovely in spring — the hillsides covered with a plethora of bright flowers. Israel has a Mediterranean climate, with rains in the cooler winter months, followed by months of no rain, similar to Arizona. While some of the… Read more »

SodaStream is behind this 20-foot Statue of Liberty replica drowning in plastic bottles

This SodaStream display was set up in New York City to raise awareness of the negative consequences of one-use plastic bottles, Sept. 5, 2018. (Josefin Dolsten)
September 12, 2018 /

By Josefin Dolsten NEW YORK (JTA) — Tourists and locals wandering around Flatiron Plaza in downtown Manhattan were met with an unusual sight: a 20-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty standing in a steel cage filled with empty plastic bottles and metal cans. On the other side of… Read more »

Israelis want American Jewish help in promoting religious pluralism, study finds

Conservative Jews pray at the section prepared for prayer for the Women of the Wall at Robinson's Arch in Jerusalem's Old City on July 30, 2014. the section is open for Jews both men and women to pray together as seen here. Photo by Robert Swift/Flash90
September 12, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

(JTA) — For years, American Jewish groups have agitated for more religious pluralism in Israel. And year after year, the Israeli government has acted as if the country’s demographic and political realities make any kind of substantial reform impossible. The latest version of an annual survey disputes that claim:… Read more »

Rahm Emanuel will leave a city — and Jewish community — divided about his legacy as mayor

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, with wife Amy, announces that he will not seek a third term at a City Hall news conference, Sept. 4, 2018. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune/TNS via Getty Images)
September 6, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

(JTA) — As Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel prepares to exit City Hall after eight years in office, his Jewish supporters tout his commitment to helping people and his record of economic development in the city. His Jewish detractors, meanwhile, call out his closing of dozens of Chicago public schools… Read more »

A Jewish atonement ritual (not the chicken one) gets an eco-friendly makeover

2015 was the last year that Temple B'nai Brith families were allowed to use bread at the traditional tashlich ceremony at the Blessing of the Bay Boathouse in Somerville, Mass. (Sharona Jacobs)
September 4, 2018 / Penny Schwartz, JTA

SOMERVILLE, Mass. (JTA) — On the first afternoon of Rosh Hashanah, Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz will lead her congregation on a walk to the Blessing of the Bay Boathouse on the Mystic River for tashlich, a centuries-old ritual when Jews symbolically discard their sins from the past year into a… Read more »

Sen. John McCain remembered as war hero, strong supporter of human rights and Israel

U.S. Sens. John McCain and Joseph Lieberman, right, place notes in the Western Wall in Jerusalem, March 19, 2008. (Brian Hendler/JTA)
August 30, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

Six-term Arizona Republican Sen. John Sydney McCain III, 81, died at the family ranch in Sedona, Arizona, Aug. 26, one day after declining further treatment for brain cancer. Today, he lies in state in the U.S. Capitol, where a formal ceremony will take place in the Capitol Rotunda at… Read more »