Tagged FRONT

For women in Jewish fundraising, harassment is an occupational hazard

The Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York organized a town hall on sexual harassment in the Jewish nonprofit community, Jan. 25 , 2018. (Deborah Nussbaum Cohen)
February 26, 2018 / Debra Nussbaum Cohen, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — She was young, Jewish and the founder of a nonprofit organization that aids deprived children in Southeast Asia. He was a potential funder more than twice her age, promising donations and introductions to influential people. “He dangled a lot of carrots,” she said in retrospect.… Read more »

Parkland students begin to heal at Jewish conference in New York

In center, with the red beard, Rabbi Shaya Denburg, co-director of CTeen in Coral Springs, Fla., with Rabbi Moshe Klein on his right; Chayale Denburg, co-director of CTeen in Coral Springs, Fla., who is standing and second from right; and some survivors of the Parkland, Fla. school shooting. The survivors were in New York this weekend for Chabad's CTeen conference. (Itzik Roytman/Cteen)
February 26, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

(JTA) — Seven survivors of the Parkland school shooting were among thousands of Jewish high school students who attended the annual conference of the Chabad movement’s youth group. Responding to the Feb. 14 shooting became an impromptu theme of the conference, which was hosted in New York City by… Read more »

Florida congressman’s kids are using hamantaschen to help end gun violence

From left to right: Gabby, Cole and Serena Deutch drew inspiration from the Purim story for their fundraising initiative. (Courtesy of Gabby Deutch) --
February 26, 2018 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

  (JTA) — The college-aged kids of a Jewish congressman from Florida are raising money to end gun violence by selling hamantaschen. Gabby, Serena and Cole Deutch launched the Bake Action Against Gun Violence initiative on Sunday. Their father is Rep. Ted Deutch, a Florida Democrat who represents the district where… Read more »

This Jewish grandmother was sentenced to death in Iran. She’s hoping for salvation in Holland.

Sipora, a Jewish refugee from Iran, looking out the window of her daughter's Netherlands home, Feb. 15, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
February 26, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

UTRECHT, Netherlands (JTA) — To the dozens of revelers of this city’s main Purim party, a Jewish grandmother who cooks the event’s annual Persia-themed holiday feast is a rare communal asset. Since she immigrated to the Netherlands in 2012 from her native Iran, the soft-spoken newcomer has been volunteering… Read more »

In Democratic race for Illinois governor, the two top candidates are Jewish. The similarity ends there.

Daniel Biss, left, and J.B. Pritzker are running to be the Democratic nominee for governor in Illinois. (Getty Images)
February 26, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

(JTA) — The Land of Lincoln’s next governor may well be a Jewish Democrat. It just isn’t clear what kind of Jewish Democrat he will be. Two Jewish candidates are the front-runners in the Illinois Democratic gubernatorial primary in March, and both are favored to defeat the unpopular Republican… Read more »

Why these supporters of a new US Embassy in Jerusalem think Sheldon Adelson shouldn’t pay for it

The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, June 14, 2016. (Flash90)
February 26, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sheldon Adelson’s offer to help pay for the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem is getting a thumb’s down from a range of observers who support the embassy’s relocation. The Associated Press had the exclusive on Friday morning, and JTA confirmed it with sources who have been… Read more »

Social activist among writers for BNC Book & Author events

Talia Carner
February 22, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Editorial Assistant

Talia Carner’s psychological suspense novels always revolve around long-ignored social issues, indignities and atrocities. “Knowledge is so valuable,” she says. “When people start looking at those issues and start sharing them, the feeling you get when you change someone’s life, it is magic.” Carner is one of four nationally… Read more »

Special abilities coordinator’s vocational placement is ‘home run’ for all

David Tofield cuts cardboard in the garage at Clutch Auto Repair.
February 22, 2018 /

David Tofield, a 35-year-old member of Tucson’s Jewish community, has an intellectual disability. He can often be found volunteering at the Tucson Jewish Community Center and at Congregation Young Israel services. Tofield finds his volunteer experiences rewarding, but what he was really looking for was a “real paying job,”… Read more »

Annual awards will shine on more stars
February 22, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Editorial Assistant
Stuart Mellan

This year’s Jewish Community Awards Celebration will take an expanded approach to recognizing outstanding service. Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona President and CEO Stuart Mellan largely credits Federation board chair Shelly Silverman with the impetus for the new concept. “Our slogan, ‘Stronger Together,’ is what we try to actualize… Read more »

Annual book festival to host 360 authors
February 22, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Editorial Assistant
Beverly Gray

“We’re rapidly preparing for the 10th Annual Tucson Festival of Books. We expect this to be the best festival ever,” says Brenda Viner, a member of the local Jewish community and one of the festival founders. This year’s festival will be held March 10 and 11 on the University… Read more »

BBYO convention theme sounds prescient note

Tucson delegates at the BBYO International Convention in Orlando, Florida, held Feb. 14-19. Front row: Joshua Kaufmann, Aliya Markowitz, Gabriel Friedman, Sam Goldfinger; back row: Joshua Cohen, Avin Kreisler, Richard Fisher, Aaron Green, Maxwell Silverman, Jaden Boling
February 22, 2018 / Pamela Ruben JNS

Mike Signer, who was mayor of Charlottesville, Va., during the rally last August that brought white supremacists to the forefront of international attention, recalled that he was about 8 or 9 when he heard his first anti-Semitic slur. “Growing up in Northern Virginia, the last thing I wanted to… Read more »

OBITUARY Billy Graham, who championed Israel in public and derided Jews in private, dies at 99

SOUTHAMPTON, UNITED KINGDOM: Billy Graham, the American evangelist, the Bible beneath his hand, pounds his knee as he is interviewed aboard the liner "United States" 26 February 1954 upon his arrival from New York to Southampton. Graham, (son of a dairy farmer, born in 1918 in Charlotte, NC), attended Florida Bible Institute and was ordained a Southern Baptist minister in 1939 and quickly gained a reputation as a preacher. During the 1950s he conducted a series of highly organized revivalist campaigns in the USA and UK, and later in South America, the USSR and Western Europe. (Photo credit should read AFP/Getty Images)
February 22, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

  WASHINGTON (JTA) — Billy Graham, the giant of American evangelism who was exalted by Jews for his championing of Israel at its hour of need and then condemned when a nasty anti-Semitic streak was revealed, has died. Graham, 99, died at his home in Montreat, North Carolina, media… Read more »

Former NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire just launched a line of kosher wines

Amar'e Stoudemire showing one of the wines in his collection of Israeli kosher wines, in New York, Feb. 20, 2018. (Courtesy of Jewish National Fund-USA)
February 21, 2018 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Six-time NBA All-Star Amar’e Stoudemire has launched a line of kosher-for-Passover Israeli wines.The 6-foot-10 former player, who returned earlier this month from a trip to the Jewish state, spoke glowingly about the wines and his connection to Israel at a news conference here Tuesday. “It’s… Read more »

Jewish war veterans want the young warriors to tell their stories

From left to right: Army Lt. Col Naomi Mercer, New York National Guard Col. Rich Goldenberg and retired Army Col. Herb Rosenbleeth, the executive director of Jewish War Veterans of the USA, at a JWV Shabbaton in Arlington Va., Feb. 10, 2018. (Ron Kampeas)
February 20, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

ARLINGTON, Va. (JTA) — Jews don’t serve in the military. Jews shouldn’t serve in the military. Forget about being Jewish — the mission comes first. Like a lot of other Jewish dilemmas, what’s old for Jews who serve in the U.S. military is new again, and the organization established… Read more »

Only 6 percent of Washington DC’s Jewish community identify as Republican

The U.S. Capitol building shown on Feb. 9, 2018. (Zach Gibson/Getty Images)
February 18, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

(JTA) — Jews in and around the nation’s capital do plenty of Jewish things. Many of them just don’t do those things as members of Jewish institutions. That’s one of the main takeaways from a wide-ranging survey of Washington, D.C.-area Jews published this week by the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.… Read more »

The Jewish sheriff leading the response to the Florida school shooting quotes the Talmud

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel speaking at a news conference near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Feb. 15, 2018. Seventeen people were killed there a day earlier by a lone gunman. (Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images)
February 15, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

(JTA) — As he leads the police response to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel is likely enduring some of the toughest days of his career. And he’s probably looking to his Judaism to guide him through it. Israel is the county’s first Jewish… Read more »

Florida school shooting’s Jewish victims remembered for their kindness

Kristi Gilroy hugs a young woman at a police checkpoint near the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Feb. 15, 2018. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
February 15, 2018 / Ben Sales and Josefin Dolsten, JTA

(JTA) — They volunteered. They played soccer. They went to camp. They were sweet, mature and easygoing. They were just beginning their lives, or helping others on their way. And one may have died so that others could live. Jewish students and staff were among the 17 people who… Read more »

5 times Israeli politicians said ‘there’s nothing to it’ and ended up in jail

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking at the Tel Aviv Convention Center, Feb.14, 2018. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
February 14, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

(JTA) — Police are recommending charges of bribery and breach of trust against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He’s saying the case police have made is “full of holes, like Swiss cheese.” Police allege Netanyahu received expensive gifts from supporters in return for advancing their interests, including expensive cigars… Read more »

Why are Jewish leaders fighting about Qatar? Here’s a scorecard.

Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, at the Gulf Cooperation Council summit at the Bayan Palace in Kuwait City, Dec. 5, 2017. (Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images)
February 13, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — There’s a battle going on among pro-Israel leaders, and it’s over Qatar. It’s like watching ice hockey players clear the bench for a brawl, only the antagonists are all on the same team. The folks lining up to praise or bury the emirate are best known… Read more »

Israel, Iran and Syria just traded blows. Does this mean war?

Israeli soldiers taking positions near the border with Syria, Feb. 10, 2018. (Jalaa Marey/AFP/Getty Images)
February 12, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

(JTA) — Israel and Iran have been clashing for years. But on Saturday, their war of words briefly became an actual fight. In short succession, Iran sent a drone into Israel, Israel shot it down and took out the drone launcher in Syria, Iranian-allied Syria downed an Israeli plane,… Read more »