Tagged FRONT

In Krakow, Night of the Synagogues bolsters Jewish pride

Young visitors entering the Isaak Jakubowicz Synagogue in Krakow during the Night of the Synagogues in the wee hours of the morning, June 5, 2016. (Ruth Ellen Gruber)
June 7, 2016 / Ruth Ellen Gruber, JTA

KRAKOW, Poland (JTA) – For the sixth year in a row, the seven synagogues in Krakow’s historic Jewish district, Kazimierz, opened their doors for 7@Nite – or the Night of the Synagogues, a one-night mini-festival aimed at bolstering Jewish pride and promoting Jewish awareness among the public. Each synagogue –… Read more »

For Israel and the Palestinians, the peace plans just keep coming

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, looks on at the international summit in Paris to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, June 3, 2016. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
June 6, 2016 / Ben Sales, JTA

(JTA) — Here a plan, there a plan, everywhere a peace plan. Conditions in Israel and the Palestinian Authority may not exactly seem conducive topeace — Israel just formed what may be its most right-wing government ever, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is aging and becoming less popular. Yet peace plans… Read more »

In remote Madagascar, a new community chooses to be Jewish

The conversion process included full body immersions in a river located a 90-minute drive away from Antananarivo, Madagascar's capital. (Deborah Josefson)
June 5, 2016 / Deborah Josefson, JTA

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (JTA) — A nascent Jewish community was officially born in Madagascar last month when 121 men, women and children underwent Orthodox conversions on the remote Indian Ocean island nation better known for lemurs, chameleons, dense rain forests and vanilla. The conversions, which took place over a 10-day… Read more »

At 25, he’s trying to take down a New Jersey political ‘machine’ and become the youngest person in Congress

Alex Law left his job as an IBM consultant over a year ago to run for a House seat against a formidable incumbent. (Courtesy of the Law campaign)
June 2, 2016 / Gabe Friedman, JTA

(JTA) — Alex Law is not your typical Jewish 25-year-old Bernie Sanders supporter. Instead of simply posting tweets with the hashtag #feelthebern or attending campaign rallies, the Collingswood, New Jersey, resident is running to be Sanders’ colleague in Congress. The aptly named Law, who if elected would become the… Read more »

Why a small word change is a big deal for Reform women rabbis

Members of the 2016 rabbinical class of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion reading their class prayer at an ordination ceremony at the Plum Street Temple in Cincinnati, Ohio, May 21, 2016. (HUC-JIR via Facebook)
May 31, 2016 / Debra Nussbaum Cohen, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Since 1972, when the Reform movement ordained its first female rabbi, more than 700 others have joined her ranks in that denomination alone. But a surprise awaited them, though few seemed to notice: The language on their ordination certificates was markedly different than that of their… Read more »

Liberal Jews plan a summer of opposing Donald Trump

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaking at a news conference at the AIPAC policy conference in Washington, D.C., March 21, 2016. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
May 31, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Boycott Trump? Mock Trump? Trump, the musical? Jewish liberals are ready to sow a summer of Donald Trump discontent in ways that aim both to bludgeon and entertain. Bend the Arc, an advocacy group, is convening its first national conference here next week aimed in part at… Read more »

On Adventure Bus, memory takes back seat to experience

Handmaker Advventure Bus participants and volunteers listen to a docent at DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun, May 6. (Angela Salmon/Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging)
May 26, 2016 / Karen Schaffner, AJP Intern

Angela Salmon, a program coordinator at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, doesn’t mind if her clients don’t always remember her name. She doesn’t mind if they sometimes have to search for the right words. When she and her clients are together on the Adventure Bus, a program for… Read more »

Emanu-El debuting ‘Hebrew@Home’ remote learning

Rabbi Batsheva Appel, center, shown repairing a Torah with students in January 2014, says distance learners will be in the physical classroom one day a week to preserve a sense of community. (Courtesy Temple Emanu-El)
May 26, 2016 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor

Temple Emanu-El’s Kurn Religious School will implement a new distance learning strategy to increase Hebrew school engagement in the upcoming academic year. Called Hebrew@Home, it will allow students in third through eighth grades who live in remote locations or cannot make it to the school for other reasons to… Read more »

Pro-Israel heavyweights press hard for 2 states

President Barack Obama sits next to Alan Solow at a meeting with Jewish leaders at the White House, March 1, 2011. (Pete Souza/White House)
May 26, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — In a rare and sharp split with Israeli government policy, a group of Jewish community leaders want to get a proposal for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the next president’s desk. Two complementary U.S. and Israeli working papers to be launched next week propose… Read more »

OP-ED We need to put the Yizkor back into Memorial Day

Flags planted by Jewish War Veterans of the United States Cleveland Post 14 at Zion Memorial Park in Bedford, Ohio, in honor of Memorial Day, 2015. (Jewish War Veterans of the United States, via Facebook)
May 26, 2016 / Jerry Silverman, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — In Israel, when the two-minute siren sounds at 11 a.m. on Yom Hazikaron, the Jewish state’s Memorial Day, the nation comes to a halt. As we saw just two weeks ago, cars on streets and highways pull over, and drivers and passengers get out of their vehicles… Read more »

Israeli teen emissaries to be newest link in Tucson-Israel chain

Under the auspices of the Weintraub Israel Center, Leah Avuno and Bar Alkaher, Israeli teen emissaries who will arrive in Tucson in August, hold a Skype conference with local Jewish educators. The teens are known as “Shinshinim,” from the Hebrew letter “shin’’ that starts each word in the program’s Hebrew title, “Shnat Sherut Shlishit” (third year of service). (Courtesy Weintraub Israel Center)
May 26, 2016 / Karen Schaffner, AJP Intern

A year of service will soon begin for two Israeli teens and their work will bring them here to Tucson. Leah Genei Avuno, 17, of Kiryat Malachi and Bar Alkaher, 17, of Shimshit will arrive here at the beginning of August and they cannot wait to dig in. They are… Read more »

Dems’ panel drafting platform includes critics of Israel, friends of Israel — and a BDS backer

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, left, embracing philosopher and social activist Cornel West in Des Moines, Iowa, Nov. 14, 2015. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
May 24, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Democratic Party platform drafting committee is top heavy with veterans of political battles over Israel — some friendly, some critical, and including at least one major backer of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. The Democratic National Committee named the committee on Monday, a day… Read more »

Anti-Semitism charges stir the calm waters of bucolic Oxford

A Jewish student speaking during a debate featuring Alan Dershowitz at Oxford's Chabad Centre, Nov., 1, 2015. (Courtesy of Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters)
May 22, 2016 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

OXFORD, England (JTA) — For a city that has made headlines recently for its anti-Semitism problem, Oxford has a pretty laid back Jewish scene. On a recent Friday night, dozens of recognizably Jewish families and students wearing kippahs were enjoying the afternoon sun as they strolled to one of Oxford’s two… Read more »

House passes bill protecting circumcision, ritual slaughter as international religious freedoms

An infant being carried before his circumcision at an Orthodox synagogue in Berlin in 2013. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
May 22, 2016 /

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A bill unanimously approved by the U.S. House of Representatives would extend religious protections to advocates of circumcision and ritual slaughter as well as atheists, addressing what its sponsors describe as an increase in religious persecution in recent years. The bill, passed Monday, would broaden the definition of… Read more »

Modern Orthodox dating gets a close-up in new web series

Leah Gottfried in a scene from the first episode of "Soon by You," a web series she created and directs. (Dignity Entertainment)
May 22, 2016 / Gabe Friedman, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — “There’s no such thing as a bad date — there’s just a funny story,” says Jessica Schechter, a 28-year-old modern Orthodox woman who teaches acting in New York City and lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. There’s the guy who took her to the action… Read more »

Yom HaShoah service sparks tears — and hope

Tucsonan Wolfgang Hellpap, a Holocaust survivor from Berlin, Germany, lights the sixth candle at the Yom Ha- Shoah Commemoration held Sunday, May 1 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Jasmin Rendon, a student at Pima Community College, served as his escort. (Courtesy Christians United for Israel-Arizona)
May 12, 2016 / Patty Vallance, Special to the AJP

They killed us — just because we were Jews. It didn’t matter if we were babies, or children, mothers or fathers; it didn’t matter if we were secular or religious, observant or not; they killed us — in camps, in forced labor, in resistance. They killed us because we… Read more »

In D.C., Tucson’s unique Jewish-Latino Teen Coalition advocates for the poor

Members of Tucson’s Jewish-Latino Teen Coalition with Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) in her office on April 13, 2016. (L-R): Samantha Ybarra, Sayanna Molino (chaperone), Emma Galligan, Slaughter, Zoe Holtzman, Michael Artzi, Sophie Gootter, Joshua Cohen, Aaron Gomez, Shari Gootter (program coordinator), Alexander Senti, Daniel Vogel, David Bracamonte (Courtesy Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona)
May 12, 2016 / Sarah Chen, Special to the AJP

“For me, it all came together when we were sitting in Sen. Cruz’s office, speaking to his chief of staff, and I realize that it’s this clash of strong opinions, this is why solutions to our most pressing social problems are so hard to find.” Strong words coming from… Read more »

Hadassah to celebrate Jerusalem Day with wine tasting, Iran nuclear update
May 12, 2016 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor
Carolynn Scherer Katz

Hadassah Southern Arizona will celebrate Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) with “A Taste of Gold,” a kosher wine tasting with snacks on Sunday, June 5, 4-6 p.m. at Catavinos, 3063 N. Alvernon Way. Carolynn Scherer Katz, regional advisor for Hadassah, will speak on the recent Iran nuclear agreement and its… Read more »

Art, video at Handmaker to mark success of ‘Tracing Roots’

Sharon Glassberg, left, director of the Coalition for Jewish Education at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, views internet research with Natalie Feldman, a Tucson Hebrew High student, and Gloria Lindsman, a resident at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, as part of the “Tracing Roots and Building Trees” program, April 17 at Handmaker. (Karen Schaffner/AJP)
May 12, 2016 / Karen Schaffner, Special to the AJP

On a recent Sunday afternoon, 15-year-old Erika Spivack sat next to 93-year-old Betty Light, searching online for any information she could find about Light. First stop: ancestry.com, where she unearthed an item as valuable as any buried treasure. “Did you go to East High School in Denver?” Spivack asked… Read more »