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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)

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)

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)

(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)

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)

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)

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)

(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)

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)

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)

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)

(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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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 »

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