Tagged FRONT

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 »

Hoffman brings experience, energy to JCF
August 30, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor
Graham Hoffman

The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona will welcome Graham Hoffman as chief executive officer, beginning Sept. 17. Hoffman most recently was deputy director of development at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C., as well as deputy director of the American Israel Education Foundation for the… Read more »

IT to start season with ‘Absolute Brightness’

David Alexander Johnston in a scene from Invisible Theatre’s production of ‘The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey.’ (Creatista Films, Video and Photography)
August 30, 2018 / AJP

David Alexander Johnston plays nine characters in “The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey” by LGBT activist and Academy Award-winning author, James Lecesne, playing at the Invisible Theatre Sept. 4-16. “Absolute Brightness” tells the story of the effect a gay teen’s disappearance has on his community. These are the voices… Read more »

Torah scroll makes its way from Iowa to Paraguay, telling story about modern Judaism

Most of Paraguay’s 1,000 Jews live in Asuncion, where B’nai Jacob’s Torah has found a new home. (Erin Jones-Avni)
August 30, 2018 / Victor Wishna, JTA

One family after another hurried through Erin Jones-Avni’s front door, anxious to get their first glimpse of the new arrival — to admire its ornate silver breastplate and touch its satiny mantle. “People just kept coming, and they’d make a beeline for the Torah,” she told JTA from her… Read more »

Community takes Homer Davis school to heart

Volunteers from Roche Tissue Diagnostics (Ventana Medical Systems, Inc), including Jennifer Miller Grant (foreground) and Ianna Brugal, pack food boxes for Homer Davis Elementary School on Dec. 15, 2017. The food boxes are part of ‘Making a Difference Every Day: The Homer Davis Project,’ coordinated by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Jewish Community Relations Council. (JFSA)
August 30, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

In Tucson, 21 percent of children live below the poverty level. It makes a difference when children study on empty stomachs. It makes a difference when they have no food to eat when they get home. It makes a difference in their ability to grow, learn and succeed. “Making… Read more »

Alma Hernandez, millennial Mexican-American Jewish woman, wins in Arizona primary

Alma Hernandez’s second-place finish in the Democratic primary for the Arizona House of Representatives paves her way to election in November. (Courtesy of Hernandez)
August 29, 2018 /

(JTA) — Alma Hernandez, a 25-year-old Mexican-American Jew, finished in the top two in her Democratic primary for the Arizona statehouse, paving her way to be elected in November. Hernandez was second in her district Tuesday — there are two open spots for state representative — allowing her to… Read more »

‘Crossing Delancey,’ now 30 years old, was the ultimate Jewish rom-com

Peter Riegert and Amy Irving starred in "Crossing Delancey." Riegert played a pickle shop owner on the Lower East Side. (Warner Brothers/Getty Images)
August 24, 2018 / Stephen Silver, JTA

The movies, at least in contemporary times, don’t have enough great stories of outwardly Jewish love. That’s one of the many reasons why “Crossing Delancey,” the classic 1988 romantic comedy that arrived in theaters 30 years ago this week, remains a cinematic treat worth revisiting.… Read more »

Unique museum tells story of Polish family murdered for hiding Jews during Holocaust

The six Ulma children, seen here with their mother during their last summer alive, were killed in 1944 after watching their parents' execution for harboring Jews. (Courtesy of the Ulma Museum)
August 24, 2018 / Penny Schwartz, JTA

MARKOWA, Poland — Memorial plaques bearing the names of Poles killed for rescuing Jews line the pathway leading to a small, austere structure built into a hillside in this rural village in southeastern Poland. In the center courtyard, a large slab is inscribed to the memory of Jewish victims… Read more »

Ben Kingsley carried a photo of Elie Wiesel with him while filming ‘Operation Finale’

Ben Kingsley stars as Adolf Eichmann in "Operation Finale." (Valeria Florini / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures)
August 21, 2018 / Naomi Pfefferman, JTA

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Ask Ben Kingsley about why he was keen to portray Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann in the new film “Operation Finale” and he describes the traumatic childhood incident in which he first learned about the Holocaust. The 74-year-old British actor was then in grammar school and… Read more »

Azerbaijan’s Mountain Jews museum is part of a dying community’s rescue plan

Women mourn their relatives at the cemetery overlooking the Jewish town of Krasnaiya Sloboda in northern Azerbaijan, July 21, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
August 21, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

KRASNAIYA SLOBODA, Azerbaijan (JTA) — For one day each summer, the hills overlooking this centuries-old Jewish town echo with the sound of wailing women. The women ascend up a narrow path from this town of several hundred residents in northern Azerbaijan to its vast cemetery. It’s an annual procession on Tisha… Read more »

Nazi camp guard Jakiw Palij deported from U.S. to Germany

The view down an alley off the street where Nazi camp guard Jakiw Palij lived in Queens, N.Y., Dec. 4, 2017. (Celeste Sloman for the Washington Post)
August 21, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — A former guard at a Nazi concentration camp was deported to Germany overnight from the United States, where he had lived for decades. Jakiw Palij, 95, had lived in Queens, New York. He served as a guard at the Trawniki concentration camp near Lublin, Poland, during World… Read more »

Mitzvah Magic celebrating 10th anniversary

Mitzvah Magic circle captains and co-chairs celebrate the program’s 10th anniversary, Aug. 5. Standing (L-R): Fran Katz (Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona senior vice president), Andra Karnofsky (co-chair), Linda Tumarkin, Wendy Weiss, Claudia Oreck-Teplitsky, Donna Moser, Iris Posin (co-chair); seated, Elena Boskoff, Trudy Haggard, Anne Lowe (JFSA)
August 16, 2018 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor

Mitzvah Magic, a program that provides baskets of Jewish holiday goods and everyday basics three times a year for local Jewish families in need, is a win-win, says longtime volunteer Iris Posin, who is co-chairing the program this year with Andra Karnofsky. Not only do families receive items that… Read more »

Dynamic duo to expand arts, culture, film at Tucson Jewish Community Center

Katie Spector and Jeremy Thompson, the Tucson Jewish Community Center’s new arts and culture managers, in the J’s Sculpture Garden (Debe Ca
August 16, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

Look for some new directions in arts and culture programming at the Tucson Jewish Community Center with the addition of a dynamic duo of new managers, Katie Spector and Jeremy Thompson. Together they will focus on enriching community development, using innovative and creative ways to bring more people and… Read more »

From darkness to light: Berlin-Budapest trip reveals a new Jewish generation

(L-R) Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Board Chair Shelly Silverman, JFSA 2019 Campaign Chair Melissa Goldfinger, JFSA Senior Vice President Fran Katz, and JFSA Women’s Philanthropy Campaign Chair Leslie Glaze visit the Berlin Wall, July 15. (Melissa Goldfinger)
August 16, 2018 / Shelly Silverman Special to the AJP

Each year, the Jewish Federations of North America invites professionals and lay leaders to participate in a mission that highlights the unique challenges, programs and impact of federations’ overseas funding. In mid-July, Melissa Goldfinger, Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona 2019 Campaign chair; Leslie Glaze, JFSA Women’s Philanthropy Campaign chair;… Read more »

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