A New York City police officer standing guard outside Grand Central Station in New York City, Sept. 20, 2016. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — “I heard the explosion, then I went to the deli.” In the hours after the bombings Saturday in New York and on the Jersey Shore, the phrase became an instant slogan for New Yorkers’ purported coolness under fire. Attributed to a witness of the bombing that… Read more »
{David J. Del Grande/AJP)
In his 1971 Yom Kippur sermon, Rabbi Arthur R. Oleisky of Congregation Anshei Israel called for the formation of a Jewish day school in Tucson. Rising to the challenge, Bertie and the late Jack Levkowitz and David and Judy Leonard joined the rabbi and his wife, Betejoy, as the… Read more »
Kathleen Mueller, M.D., (left) and Gloria “Gigi” Dunn, M.D. (Courtesy Tucson Jewish Community Center)
The Tucson Jewish Community Center will host Simply Well for Women, a two-day seminar with Drs. Kathleen N. Mueller and Gloria “Gigi” Dunn, on Oct. 8 and 9, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Two of only 1,000 physicians in the world to have completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship… Read more »
Pumpkin Banana Chocolate Chip Bread (Shannon Sarna)
(JTA) — For many families, the Yom Kippur break-fast is a bagels and schmear-filled inevitability — just add some lox, maybe some slices of tomato and orange juice, and everyone is happy. For other families, the break-fast is one of the most important meals of the year — almost… Read more »
The lobby of the new Jewish Federation/Foundation building will evoke the welcoming spirit of the tent of the biblical Abraham and Sarah. (Courtesy CDG Architects)
After decades of putting the needs of other Jewish community agencies first, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is ready to break ground on a new home of its own. The new 18,000 square foot building, which will house the Federation and the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona,… Read more »
Aymen Odeh heads the Joint List of Arab political parties. (Courtesy of Odeh's office)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Aymen Odeh has a tough job. He is the first person to represent all of Israel’s Arab political parties in the Knesset, or parliament. The parties, whose members range from secular communists to pious Muslims, came together as the Joint List to run in the 2015… Read more »
Members of the New York City Police Department stand guard in Manhattan's Herald Square, near where a bomb was set off the previous evening, Sept. 18, 2016. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Donald Trump wants to profile likely terrorists the way Israel does it. The problem is, Israel and the United States already profile in similar ways – and neither in the way Trump prefers. The Republican presidential nominee’s proposal to blanket-profile entire communities would be unwieldy and… Read more »
(JTA) — Here we are in September/Elul, preparing to welcome a new Jewish year and a new fall season of Jewishy books, including the first novel since 5766 (by now almost 40-year-old) wunderkind Jonathan Safran Foer — perhaps you’ve heard the buzz. Presented below is JSF’s latest, plus nine… Read more »
Rep. Scott Garrett, left, and his challenger in November, Josh Gottheimer (Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Common Sense Media)
(JTA) — The congressional race in New Jersey’s 5th District is a bitter one, pitting a rarity — a hard-line conservative Republican congressman from the Northeast, Scott Garrett — against Josh Gottheimer, a lawyer who was a speechwriter for former President Bill Clinton and an executive at Microsoft. Now the Iran nuclear… Read more »
A Tunisian Muslim woman, right, wearing a burkini swimsuit wading in the water on a beach near Tunis, Aug. 16, 2016. (Fethi Belaid/ AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Like their constituents, the mainstream representatives of French Jewry are not known for passing up opportunities to express their opinion on subjects of national debate. And Jewish institutions in France, like those in the United States, regularly comment on a host of issues, including divisive ones that lie… Read more »
Martha and Watistill Sharp departing New York Harbor for Prague in 1939. (Courtesy of Sharp Family Archives)
(JTA) — In 1940, as he was being transported to safety in the lower deck of a ship, the Jewish author Lion Feuchtwanger asked Waitstill Sharp why the American Unitarian minister had bothered to rescue him from the Nazis. Sharp and his wife, Martha, had spent much of the previous… Read more »
In anticipation of the construction of a new synagogue in Nabagoye, Uganda, the women and children there were given the honor of transferring the Torahs from the old synagogue to a temporary home. (Courtesy of Be’chol Lashon)
(JTA) — When there was no more space in the synagogue in Nabagoye, Uganda, congregants would go outside, gathering under trees. But the branches weren’t enough to shield them from the rain during the East African country’s wet seasons, which last about half the year. A new 7,000-square-foot… Read more »
From left: Sarah Jessica Parker, Woody Allen, Rachel Bloom and Jeffrey Tambor all star in fall premieres that Jewish viewers should watch. (Lior Zaltzman)
(JTA) — Fall is here, and with it comes cooler weather, earlier sunsets and an end to whatever magical spell or temporary insanity that possessed us to spend our free time outdoors rather than in front of our screens. But now it’s time to bring out those snuggies, brew… Read more »
Milan Chatterjee said the UCLA administration was working in collusion with activists of the BDS movement. (Courtesy of Chatterjee)
(JTA) — When Milan Chatterjee arrived at UCLA’s law school in 2014, Middle East politics wasn’t one of his core interests. He describes himself as an Indian American interested in corporate law who has strong connections to his South Asian and Hindu heritage. He has played the Indian tabla drums on… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arriving at the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Sept. 11, 2016. (Marc Israel Sellem/Pool/Flash90)
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JERUSALEM (JTA) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued earlier this month that the Palestinian leadership is supporting “ethnic cleansing” by refusing to accept Israeli settlers in its future state. “Yet the Palestinian leadership actually demands a Palestinian state with one precondition: No Jews. There’s a phrase for that: It’s called ethnic… Read more »
Jacob Nagel, left, Israel's acting national security adviser, signing a Memorandum of Understanding for $38 billion of U.S. defense assistance over 10 years with Undersecretary of State Tom Shannon, Sept. 14, 2016. (Embassy of Israel)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – President Barack Obama’s near parting gift to Israel, a guarantee of $38 billion in defense assistance over a decade, distills into a single document what he’s been saying throughout eight fraught years: I have your back, but on my terms. The agreement signed Wednesday in the State Department’s… Read more »
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton walks to her plane at Quad Cities International Airport in Moline, Ill., Sept. 5, 2016. (Brendan SmialowskiAFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Hillary Clinton trounces Donald Trump among Jewish voters, but underperforms compared to her Democratic predecessors, according to an American Jewish Committee poll that depicts a Jewish community disenchanted with politics and anxious about the country’s future. The poll released Tuesday shows Clinton defeating Trump, 61… Read more »
Anti-Israel students at Columbia University erected a mock "apartheid wall" in front of the iconic Low Library steps during Israel Apartheid Week, March 3, 2016. (Uriel Heilman)
NEW YORK (JTA) — They’re all true, all those stories you’ve heard. The Jewish student questioned about whether her Judaism and involvement in the Jewish community would disqualify her from serving in student government. The Israel bashers who besieged a movie night put on by a pro-Israel group, forcing… Read more »
Aly Raisman posing after winning a silver medal in the women's individual all-around competition at the Rio Olympics, Aug. 11, 2016. (Getty Images)
(JTA) — A stabbing and car-ramming epidemic in Israel that some called a third intifada was among the most dominant Jewish stories of the past year. But 5776 was also notable for the release of spy Jonathan Pollard after 30 years in prison, the communal fallout from the Iran nuclear deal, a historic… Read more »
New Jewish immigrant children at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport after arriving on a flight from Ethiopia, Oct. 29, 2012. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — “We are committed to helping ensure that the State of Israel welcomes Jews of all colors.” “We say, we have black lives that matter in Africa.” “In America, race has been a central area of Jewish concern historically.” These are all statements that have been… Read more »
