Tagged FRONT

Israel is the star at a national security conference in Mississippi

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant at a press conference with Israeli officials at the Homeland Defense and Security Summit in Biloxi, March 13, 2018. (Ben Sales)
March 14, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

BILOXI, Miss. (JTA) – A homeland security conference took place in a southern Mississippi town with an Air Force base and a shipbuilding yard. Among those in attendance were the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard; a general from India, the world’s second-largest country; and representatives from Taiwan and… Read more »

A new study for cancer risk in Ashkenazi Jews aims to be a model for genetic testing

Dr. Kenneth Offit says a new study on BRCA mutations in Ashkenazi Jews will help save lives and contribute lessons for future medical testing. (Courtesy of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)
March 13, 2018 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — A new study will provide free testing for three mutations that substantially increase the risk for developing breast, ovarian and prostate cancer among people with Eastern European Jewish ancestry. The BRCA Founder Outreach Study (BFOR), which was launched last week, will test 4,000 men and women in… Read more »

What does Mike Pompeo as secretary of state mean for Israel and the Jews?

Mike Pompeo at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jan. 12, 2017. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
March 13, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Like the rest of the world, Rex Tillerson got the news of his firing on Twitter. “Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service!” was the only reference to the now-outgoing secretary of state in a tweet President Donald Trump posted at 8:44 a.m. that also… Read more »

Itzhak Perlman’s inspiring musical journey — and his delightful 50-year marriage — captured in a documentary

Itzhak Perlman, shown in a scene from the documentary "Itzhak," has endured hardships to become arguably the most famous violinist in the world. (Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment)
March 12, 2018 / Curt Schleier, JTA

(JTA) — Itzhak Perlman, arguably the most famous violinist in the world, has heard plenty of questions in his 50-year career. But when asked if his religious heritage has affected his playing, he sounds stumped. “I’m a violinist. I’m Jewish, so that makes me a Jewish musician,” he tells… Read more »

Meet the first Jew and woman to lead U.S. group working to separate religion and government

Rachel Laser is the new executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. (Rick Reinhard)
March 12, 2018 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Though Rachel Laser is the new executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, she prefers a different term for the cause for which she now advocates: separation of religion and government. That difference may be subtle, but it speaks to the… Read more »

This Jewish Parkland survivor hid in a closet during the shooting. Now he advocates for gun reform.

Ryan Deitsch speaks at the Florida State Capitol building in Tallahassee, Feb. 21, 2018. (Don Juan Moore/Getty Images)
March 9, 2018 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

(JTA) — Throughout his senior year in high school, Ryan Deitsch has stayed busy. A month ago, the 18-year-old filled his time outside of classes performing in an doing improvisational theater group he started at his school, producing TV content for the school’s newsroom and working as a busboy… Read more »

Bet Shalom scholar to explore Jewish history and ethics
March 8, 2018 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor
Rabbi Elijah Schochet (left) and Rabbi Avraham Alpert at Alpert’s ordination, May 29, 2017.

Rabbi Elijah Schochet will return to Congregation Bet Shalom as scholar-in-residence March 16-17, with a trio of topics exploring thorny issues in Jewish history and ethics. He will start the weekend with “The Jewish Civil War” at the 5:30 p.m. Shabbat service on March 16, exploring the schism between… Read more »

Rabin’s legacy, leadership topic for Pozez talk
March 8, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Editorial Assistant

More than two decades have passed since Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination in 1995, yet he remains an intriguing and admired modern leader. Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Itamar Rabinovich will speak about his recent biography of Rabin in an upcoming lecture in Tucson, Tuesday, March 13.… Read more »

After decades of silence, French survivor speaks

Léon Malmed, right, with his wife, Patricia, in Dubrovnkik, Croatia, during a 2014 sailing trip (Courtesy Léon Malmed)
March 8, 2018 / Barbara Russek, Special to the AJP

As a former French teacher with an enduring passion for the French language and culture and a devout cardiac Jew (Jewish in my heart), I had to attend Monsieur Léon Malmed’s talk Feb. 19 on his survival during the Holocaust in Compiègne, France. The 80-year-old was silent regarding his… Read more »

Memories of childhood Passovers inspire classes at Tucson J
March 8, 2018 / Jennifer Selco, Special to the AJP
Jennifer Selco

On the day of the first seder, the smell of onions from my childhood home was noticeable from halfway down the block. Inside, you could hear the songs of Cindy Paley’s “Singing Seder” cassette, the pounding of walnuts, and laughter from a funny story just shared. My parents, grandparents,… Read more »

Kaddish to honor soldiers at Wall replica in Oro Valley

The replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (bringthewallaz.com)
March 8, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Editorial Assistant

Riverfront Park in Oro Valley was chosen as the only location in Arizona for “The Wall That Heals” exhibition, featuring a replica of the national capital’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Northwest Division is among sponsors of the exhibit, hosted March 15-18 by the Town… Read more »

Arthur Miller’s daughter made an intimate HBO documentary about her father

Arthur Miller with wife Marilyn Monroe in 1956. (Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
March 7, 2018 / Curt Schleier, JTA

(JTA) — “Arthur Miller: Writer,” a lovingly crafted documentary about the award-winning playwright set to air on HBO , doesn’t reveal a lot of new information. A good portion of the film involves Miller himself speaking from the audio version of his 1987 memoir, “Timebends: A Life.” And much… Read more »

Poland’s Holocaust law upends one activist’s decade of progress in interfaith relations

Bogdan Bialek, right, and Michal Jaskulski during a 2016 discussion in Warsaw about the film made about Bialek's interfaith efforts in Poland. (Courtesy of the makers of Bogdan's Journey)
March 7, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — The Catholic journalist Bogdan Bialek is used to being called a traitor in Poland for his commemorations of Jewish victims of a 1946 pogrom in his city of Kielce. For over a decade he has promoted awareness of and atonement for the murders, violating taboos that regard… Read more »

He’s the Jew who inspired the PLO declaration of independence. Now he wants to take down AIPAC.

Jerome Segal, a philosopher running for the U.S. Senate, at the AIPAC policy conference in Washington, D.C., March 4, 2018. (Ron Kampeas)
March 7, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Thirty years ago, Jerome Segal made headlines in Israel and the United States with an odd pedigree: He was the committed Jew who wrote the Palestinian declaration of independence. That was never quite accurate — the University of Maryland professor of philosophy wrote an op-ed for… Read more »

Netflix included her in a documentary about leaving Orthodox Judaism. They didn’t say she was gay.

Etty Ausch said her sexuality was cut from Netflix's "One of Us." (Courtesy of Ausch) --
March 7, 2018 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

  NEW YORK (JTA) — A woman who was featured in a hit Netflix documentary about former Orthodox Jews says the fact that she was openly lesbian was cut from the film. Etty Ausch, 33, is one of three people who tell their stories of leaving the Brooklyn Hasidic… Read more »

Why more Orthodox Jews are going to AIPAC

AIPAC President Mort Fridman addresses participants at the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., March 4, 2018. (AIPAC)
March 7, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

  WASHINGTON (JTA) — On the second floor of the downtown convention center here, hundreds attending the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee packed a standing-room-only hall. A bouncer stood outside to control the overflow crowd. It wasn’t a session on boycotts, Iran or the… Read more »

What is AIPAC’s role in the age of Trump?

Donald Trump waving after addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., March 21, 2016. Trump was elected president nearly eight months later. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
February 28, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — When candidate Donald Trump spoke at AIPAC’s Policy Conference in 2016 and said Barack Obama may be the worst thing that ever happened to Israel, many cheered, many choked and the organization apologized. The fallout from that event will haunt the proceedings when 18,000 activists, including… Read more »

Austria just hosted Europe’s largest conference on anti-Semitism. It was challenging with a far-right party in the government

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, right, of the Austrian People's Party and Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache of the Freedom Party give a news conference in Vienna after their first Cabinet meeting, Dec. 19, 2017. (Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images)
February 28, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

VIENNA (JTA) — Until December, Milli Segal’s main challenge as a producer of Jewish-themed events in Austria was balancing her duties at work with her hands-on approach to being a Jewish grandmother of four. As an organizer of prestigious Holocaust commemoration projects, Segal, 63, is on a first-name basis… Read more »

Meet the Jewish teenager from Maryland running to be governor of Kansas
February 27, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA
Ilan Cohen says it was a "very easy process" to get on the ballot in Kansas even though he is not legally allowed to vote. (Courtesy of Cohen)

(JTA) — Ilan Cohen loves Kansas. He knows a couple of people in Kansas. He’s currently, officially, running to be governor of Kansas. And one day he hopes to visit Kansas. And turn 18. And be able to vote. And graduate from high school. Right now, Cohen is a… Read more »