Tagged FRONT

“This Is Hunger,” a multimedia traveling exhibition created by MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, will be at the Tucson Jewish Community Center Jan. 5-8. The free exhibit, housed in a 53-foot trailer that opens to reveal almost 1,000 square feet of exhibit space, uses state-of-the-art storytelling techniques and… Read more »

The 26th annual Tucson Jewish International Film Festival will present more than 20 films from around the world, Jan. 12-22. All films will be screened at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, with two exceptions: a pre-festival kickoff in SaddleBrooke and the opening night film at the Loft Cinema, 3233… Read more »

When Leonard Nimoy announced in 1949 that he wanted to be an actor, and was leaving Boston for Hollywood, his Russian-Jewish parents were stunned. “My grandfather said that he should take up the accordion,” says Adam Nimoy, Leonard’s son and the director of the new documentary “For the Love… Read more »

Micah Halpern, a syndicated columnist and political analyst, says traveling the country as a guest speaker gives him the opportunity to help local communities and really get a sense of what’s going on in the Jewish world. “And that’s really the best part about this whole thing; it charges… Read more »

(JTA) — All I want for Hanukkah is Christmas. I grew up in suburban Chicago surrounded by my fellow Jews — at school, at camp, on the weekends, at my parents’ friends’ houses, in the streets and parks of my neighborhood. Even then, I knew that Jews made up less… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — “This Jew says no to white nationalism,” one sign read. “Silence is akin to consent,” another said, quoting the Talmud. A third displayed a lyric from a Yiddish song: “We will outlive them.” The signs, along with chants like “Donald Trump, it’s your fault; Stephen… Read more »

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Though they are considered a caloric hazard in Israel, sufganiyot are a rare Hanukkah treat for many Jews in Europe. When the holiday arrives, some Jewish communities in Russia, Ukraine and beyond arrange special community bakes. This keeps schools and kindergartens in supply of the jam-filled… Read more »

  WASHINGTON (JTA) — President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is the chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil, an energy company large enough to have its own foreign policy. It is a policy, however, that doesn’t always align with the priorities of Jewish and pro-Israel groups. Oil… Read more »

  NEW YORK (JTA) — When  Northwestern University’s student Senate passed a resolution in February 2015 asking the university to divest from six corporations they said contributed to the violation of Palestinians’ human rights, freshman Ross Krasner was hurt and surprised. The rhetoric of the measure, portraying Israel as an oppressor,… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) – As wildfires threatened Israel last week, rhetoric linking arson to terrorism heated up. For about a week, fires across the country burned huge swaths of land, destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses, and forced tens of thousands of people to flee. Dozens were injured, though few… Read more »

  LAWRENCE, Kan. (JTA) – Joanna Slusky places a test tube into an incubating shaker, flips the switch, and it begins to quiver. So does she. “I’m excited,” she said, showing off another gadget in her lab, a contraption that stirs solutions using a magnetic coil and a metal… Read more »

PARIS (JTA)  — Although his country is entering one of the most dramatic election campaigns in recent memory, Isy Morgensztern had no intention of exercising his right to vote. A left-wing Ashkenazi Jewish filmmaker from Paris, Morgensztern was too disappointed with the ruling Socialists under French President Francois Hollande… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Add sweeping school reforms – and with them, funding for private schools that Orthodox groups embrace and secular Jewish groups fear — to the campaign promises that Donald Trump plans to fulfill. Last week, just before Thanksgiving, the president-elect named Betsy DeVos, a billionaire education reform activist… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry signaled in a speech that the Obama administration was still considering action on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in its final days, although it might fall short of a direct intervention on the issue. There’s no way to “force-feed” peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Kerry said… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — When Bollywood star and Indian fashion icon Sonam Kapoor appeared on the cover of the June-July issue of Harper’s Bazaar Bride, India, she did so wearing a sheer pink confection and a radiant smile. Behind her sprawled the Old City of Jerusalem.  It wasn’t happenstance.… Read more »

Tucson’s Jewish Culture Shuk, a night of classes and discussions led by local rabbis and Jewish educators, is something Debbie Gubernick looks forward to every year. Gubernick, founder of Agents of STEAM, a local organization that helps facilitate events and literacy in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, has attended… Read more »

Historical rules work until they stop working, Mara Liasson, an award-winning political correspondent for National Public Radio, told about 1,000 people who crowded Congregation Anshei Israel on Nov. 16 for the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s 2017 Community Campaign kickoff. President-elect Donald Trump proved that he could break all… Read more »

(JTA) — If the French right-wing politician Francois Fillon is elected president next year, it won’t be for his skills at promoting interfaith dialogue. The secularist candidate widely favored to win the election in May managed to enrage many Jews, Muslims and even Catholics with a single explosive statement… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) – As the wildfires that raged across this country for nearly a week were subdued Sunday, Israelis surveyed the devastation in search of answers. The fires, which continued to flare Sunday evening, consumed as many as 32,000 acres of forest and brush across the country – an area more… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) – Call them Israel’s American volunteer fire brigade. Dozens of firefighters from across the United States put their lives on hold – leaving behind jobs and families – to help subdue the wildfires that swept Israel over the past week. While they all share a love of… Read more »