Graham Hoffman
As I have recently assumed the mantle of the president and CEO of both the Jewish Federation and the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, I am humbled by the responsibility that I now bear as the leader of these agencies and this remarkable community. Authenticity is central to… Read more »
About 150 people dropped off their electronics to be recycled rather than throwing them in a landfill during a Jan. 13 event organized by Tucson Clean & Beautiful. (Courtesy Local First Arizona)
Editor’s note: Updated 6.28.20 to reflect additional businesses signed up for the certification program and to add the Pima Association of Governments as a supporter. Local First Arizona has been a champion of sustainability in Southern Arizona for many years. The organization recently created further opportunities for positive change in… Read more »
Rabbi Sara Metz
Rabbi Sara Metz will be only the fourth rabbi to lead Congregation Anshei Israel in its 90-year history when she takes up the reins July 1. “That’s so very exciting,” she says, acknowledging it is also challenging. “The community, and rightfully so, holds Rabbi Eisen in such high esteem.… Read more »
Drew Messing (Courtesy Messing)
As the coronavirus pandemic got underway, 16-year-old Drew Messing became the designated take-out food runner for his parents, Claudine and Andrew Messing, and grandparents, Paulette and Joe Gootter. “My mom is a great cook but a little while into quarantine my family was eager to order takeout food. I would… Read more »
A driver from the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona senior transportation program prepares to deliver packages from Jewish Family & Children’s Services to Holocaust survivors living in Southern Arizona. (Courtesy Jewish Family & Children’s Services)
Through an emergency grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also known as the Claims Conference, Jewish Family & Children’s Services has extended its assistance to Holocaust survivors living in Southern Arizona during the coronavirus pandemic. With the $17,000 grant from Claims Conference’s Holocaust Survivor COVID-19 Urgent… Read more »
Kendall, with his advocate Barb Otrovsky, made a boat that won a recent Taglit regatta. (Courtesy Congregation Or Chadash)
Khylie Gardner, communications director at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, says that when the Jewish community comes together, “something amazing happens. Our collective values guide us to uplift one another, helping us to create relationships that are deeply cherished and that work for the good of our entire community… Read more »
Kylie Unell in front of a depiction of New York's Washington Square Park (Courtesy Unell)
NEW YORK (JTA) — As a biracial Jew, there is an expectation that I must have something to say in this historic moment. Unlike at any other time in my life, people are treating my opinion as though it deserves a stage, or a glass case for passersby to take… Read more »
Satya Zamudio, 15, urged Oakland's school board to eliminate its police force. (Rucha Chitnis)
(J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — The school board in Oakland, California, has unanimously voted to abolish the district’s police force in the wake of the nationwide protests against police brutality — with some urging by teens at a city synagogue. A large contingent of young people… Read more »
Seo Yoon Yang (Courtesy)
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (JTA) — As a Korean-American teenage immigrant living in a predominantly white city and attending a school with a predominantly white student body, racial slurs and insensitive comments have unfortunately become a normalized part of my life. Before living in Tennessee, I grew up in Palm Beach… Read more »
Omer Yankelevich with three of her five children at the Knesset in Jerusalem, April 30, 2019. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Omer Yankelevich is the new minister of Diaspora affairs in Israel, meaning she’s in charge of managing the Jewish state’s relations with Jewish communities abroad. It has never been an easy task, but tensions in recent years between Israel and the United States, as well as… Read more »
(JTA) — The Georgia legislature approved a hate crimes bill that allows a longer sentence for crimes deemed to be based on a particular bias. The effort was led in part by the Hate Free Georgia Coalition, a group of 35 nonprofit groups organized by the Anti-Defamation League, the… Read more »
The ropes course at Camp Modin, which has seen immense interest from parents since announcing last month that it was opening this summer. (Courtesy of Camp Modin)
(JTA) — This week, as he prepares to open Camp Modin and administer coronavirus tests to its hundreds of campers and staff, Howard Salzberg is still fielding 50 calls a day from parents who want to send their kids. That’s because Modin, a small, unaffiliated Jewish camp in Maine,… Read more »
New York Democratic House candidate Jamaal Bowman greets supporters in Yonkers, N.Y., June 23. 2020. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Left-wing candidates appeared to be surging in Democratic congressional primaries in New York, although results were preliminary into Wednesday as mail-in votes necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic were still being counted. Jamaal Bowman, who challenged longtime incumbent Eliot Engel in the 16th District, covering parts of… Read more »
Yeshivat Noam, a Modern Orthodox school in Paramus, N.J., organized a graduation float that visited students' homes so that members of the class of 2020 could celebrate safely amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Courtesy of Yeshivat Noam)
As soon as it became clear in March that COVID-19 would force school closures around the country, Jewish day school administrators faced a conundrum that went beyond the question of how to continue educating students. The challenge: how to maintain a sense of community at a time when everyone… Read more »
From left to right, Lesléa Newman, Michael Twitty, Joy Ladin, Daniel Atwood and Yelena Goltsman reflect on celebrating Pride in 2020. (Header image design by Grace Yagel)
(JTA) — Rick Landman still remembers how nervous he felt. Just 18, he had traveled to downtown Manhattan from his parents’ home in Queens for a march to mark the one-year anniversary of the violent police raid on the Stonewall Inn gay bar — an event that had kicked… Read more »
Elias Rosenfeld with U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine in front of the U.S.Supreme Court, Nov. 12, 2019, the day oral arguments werepresented in the case on DACA arrivals. (Courtesy of Rosenfeld)
BOSTON (JTA) – Elias Rosenfeld’s phone rang on Thursday morning hours after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked President Donald Trump from moving to deport him and hundreds of thousands of other young immigrants like him. It was Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center, with… Read more »
Marchers in the 48th Annual Juneteenth Day Festival in Milwaukee, Wisc., June 19, 2019. (Dylan Buell/Getty Images for VIBE)
(JTA) — After the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic this spring delayed the launch of the website for TribeHerald, a new media company for Jews of color, founders Yitz Jordan and Rabbi Shais Rishon settled on a perfect alternative: the evening of June 18. After all, it would be… Read more »
Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein and New York City Councilman Kalman Yeger at Brooklyn's Dome Playground, June 16, 2020. (Benjamin Kanter)
(JTA) – Just days after Orthodox lawmakers cut the chains off New York City playgrounds in defiance of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s orders, the mayor announced Thursday morning that playgrounds will reopen in the city starting Monday. The decision comes as the city moves into its second phase of… Read more »
(Design by Arielle Kaplan)
This story originally appeared on Kveller. What makes one person tick is totally subjective, but science confirms that people are hard-wired to respond to music. It lifts our moods, eases pain and triggers powerful emotions. Some songs become so popular that they transcend their original meaning. Take “I’ve Been… Read more »
Orthodox children watch as protesters march through Brooklyn, June 3, 2020. Some yeshivas have provided instructions for parents to bring their children back to yeshiva three months after schools closed due to the pandemic. (Angela Weiss/Getty Images)
(JTA) – As Orthodox lawmakers were brazenly cutting the locks off a New York City playground on Tuesday morning, Orthodox children were settling in for a school day just nine blocks away. The classes at Yeshiva K’tana Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn were the first held in the school building… Read more »
