Arthur Naiman
Author and publisher Arthur Naiman has no time for those without humor or creativity. The Chicago-born Tucson transplant by way of New York, Paris and the Bay Area has published more than 30 nonfiction books and started two publishing companies. A philosophy major at Brandeis University, he had no… Read more »
Mort Kranitz in his business office. The framed portrait was painted by a cousin, the late Abe Kranitz.
At 90 years young, Mort Kranitz still has a song in his heart and a spring to his step. The pacemaker he got in June inspired him to take life easier and he now gets into his office at Mort’s Auto Brokerage a little later in the day. Yes,… Read more »
A street in the Ladadika neighborhood, which used to be the Jewish quarter in Thessaloniki, Greece. (Wikimedia Commons)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – “I am proud to be a Vlach,” says Yiannis Boutaris, the mayor of Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city. Ostensibly, we’re here at the Washington Hilton to discuss Boutaris’ bid to put the Jewish back in Thessaloniki, a city — perhaps best known as Salonika —once home to the largest… Read more »
Protestors march at a rally in London, July 2, 2016. (Isabel Infantes/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
LONDON (JTA) — For two years, in her travels around the English capital, Natalie Pitimson has toted a library bag emblazoned with a word in Yiddish. “The word ‘schlep’ written on the side perfectly describes my regular hour-long trek through central London,” Pitimson, a senior sociology lecturer at the University… Read more »
Howard and Claire Singerman standing outside Mark's Deli, a Jewish restaurant in Glasgow, July 4, 2016. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
EDINBURGH, Scotland (JTA) — The last time that Scotland voted on whether to become independent from the United Kingdom, most of its 7,000 Jews thought doing so was a bad idea. Worried that Scottish independence would encourage nationalism and embolden an already aggressive anti-Israel movement with deep roots in the… Read more »
Volunteers recruited by Peace Corps volunteer Brooke Nagle start cleanup work on the Bisbee-Douglas Jewish Cemetery on March 17. (Courtesy Brooke Nagle)
Every graveyard tells its own story, says Tucsonan Richard Rosen, former owner of the Bisbee-Douglas Jewish Cemetery, located about 100 yards from the U.S.-Mexico border. Regardless of its current condition, the land still radiates a strong spiritual energy, says Rosen. “There’s something right about it, and there’s also something… Read more »
Elie Wiesel poses with students in Tucson on March 1, 1993, when he gave the concluding lecture in the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s “Discovery IV” series. Over the years Wiesel visited Tucson several times, including in 2005, when he gave the inaugural University of Arizona Presidential Lecture, speaking on “Confronting Fanaticism: Building Moral Unity in a Diverse Society.”
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate who became a leading icon of Holocaust remembrance and a global symbol of conscience, died on Saturday at 87. His death was the result of natural causes, the World Jewish Congress said in a statement. A philosopher, professor… Read more »
Sen.Al Franken attending the 68th Annual Writers Guild Awards in New York City, Feb. 13, 2016. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images For The Writers Guild Of America)
(JTA) — Last week Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said that if Hillary Clinton asked him to be her running mate, he’d take the job. “If Hillary Clinton came to me and said, ‘Al, I really need you to be my vice president, to run with me,’ I would… Read more »
Eve Goldberg, whose son died of an opioid overdose in 2013, now runs an organization in his memory that seeks to create a community of young adults recovering from addiction. (Ben Sales)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Eve Goldberg’s son, Isaac, was in a panic. He had to get out of college. Isaac Goldberg Volkmar had been at the University of Rhode Island for less than a semester in 2009 when he called his mother desperate to escape. He had joined a… Read more »
A slim majority of British citizens have voted to leave the European Union. (Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images)
Great Britain and the rest of Europe woke up to a new reality Friday as a slim majority of British voters said their country should leave the European Union. Markets trembled, British currency crashed and British Prime Minister David Cameron announced his pending resignation. It was a major blow to an alliance… Read more »
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in London after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, June 24, 2016. (Rob Stothard/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Only a week ago, Jeremy Corbyn seemed to have survived his biggest public relations debacle as the leader of Britain’s Labour Party: the proliferation of anti-Semitic rhetoric among its members. Yet this week, the British vote to leave the European Union achieved what Corbyn’s opponents failed to… Read more »
Israel Biton and Danit Yona, camp counselors from Israel, at the Tucson Jewish Community Center (Courtesy Weintraub Israel Center0
Danit Yona, 22, one of two Israelis working as counselors at the Tucson Jewish Community Center’s Camp J this summer, says she learned her nearly flawless, American-accented English from watching TV shows like “Full House,” “Family Matters” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” after school. “I also had a… Read more »
Maury Lipowich tends his plot at the Shay-Shay Community Garden at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. (Courtesy Maury Lipowich)
At the Shay-Shay Community Garden at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, enthusiastic amateur gardeners tend sunflowers, enormous squash, cherry tomatoes, spiky artichokes and other bounty. The 23 plots opened for use in mid-March, says site coordinator Susanne Kaplan, who has served on the board of the nonprofit Community Gardens… Read more »
Barbara Mannlein and her husband, Martin, use color-coded kitchen tools: red for meat, blue for dairy and green for pareve. (Martin Mannlein)
The Jewish dietary laws, termed kashrut, are many and complex. According to the Torah and the Talmud, Jews may not mix meat and dairy, and may eat only fish with scales and fins, and meat from ruminants with cloven hooves. Pareve — foods containing neither meat nor dairy, including… Read more »
Lt. Shachar, Israel's first transgender officer, addresses a pride event at Israel's embassy in Washington, D.C., June 20, 2016. (Ron Kampeas)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – When Shachar was 2 years old, she asked her parents to keep her hair short. When she was 5, she asked them to throw out every skirt in her closet. When Shachar was 16, he realized he was a boy, and when he was 19 he got… Read more »
Akiva Neuman, an Orthodox Jew who is studying to be a rabbi, competes in the Philadelphia qualifying round of “American Ninja Warrior.” (Mitchell Leff/NBC)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Like his fellow competitors on “American Ninja Warrior,” 25-year-old Akiva Neuman pushed himself to his physical limits — climbing, jumping and running through an intense obstacle course — in the hopes of making it to the national finals in Las Vegas. But unlike the dozens… Read more »
An aerial view of Rio 2016 Olympic Park during construction (Gabriel Heusi/Brasil2016.gov.br)
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Mazel tov! That’s perhaps how the big shots in charge of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the first to take place in South America, will toast victories when the competition gets underway Aug. 5. Three of the top officials of the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee, including… Read more »
Dear friends, On the evening of June 26, the Jewish History Museum will host the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona (JFSA) Pride program Celebrating Marriage Equality, an event that will mark the one year anniversary of the Marriage Equality Act, a landmark moment for our country and for LGBT… Read more »
Tucsonan Paul Gordon, M.D., talks about the Affordable Care Act with a café patron in Kalamazoo, Mich. (Courtesy Paul Gordon)
University of Arizona College of Medicine professor Paul Gordon, MD, MPH, is living a dream he’s held onto for 40 years. An avid cyclist since high school, Gordon has always wanted to bike across the continental United States. On April 22, his dream came to life when he put… Read more »
Joel Feinman, left, and Barbara LaWall Barbara LaWall, a Democrat first elected in 1996, is running for her sixth term as Pima County Attorney. Joel Feinman, who practiced criminal law as a Pima County public defender from 2007-2015 and who is also a Democrat, announced his candidacy for the county attorney position in October. Both… Read more »
