Rabbi Harold Kushner Making good on a desire expressed in 2014 to visit Tucson more often, Rabbi Harold Kushner will discuss his new book, “Nine Essential Things I’ve Learned About Life,” at a Temple Emanu-El event on Saturday, Feb. 13 at 6:30 p.m. A congregational rabbi for 50 years, Kushner is the… Read more »
Anti-abortion activists rally against federal funding for Planned Parenthood in Washington, D.C., July 28, 2015. (Olivier Douliery/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Forty-three years ago this week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Roe v. Wade protecting a woman’s right to abortion. Since the 2010 elections, a wave of state laws has aimed at restricting that right, closing clinics and harassing medical providers. No… Read more »
Pope Francis, left, greeting the chief rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, during a papal visit to the city’s synagogue, Jan. 17, 2016. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
(JTA) – When Pope Francis crossed the Tiber River to visit the Great Synagogue of Rome on Sunday, he became the third pontiff to do so. But his 1.5-mile journey to the towering Tempio Maggiore showed that what was once unthinkable is now the norm. “According to the juridical… Read more »
The husband and children of Dafna Meir grieve at her funeral in Jerusalem the day after her stabbing death in the West Bank, Jan. 18, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash 90)
(JTA) — A day after witnessing her mother’s brutal murder, Dafna Meir’s teenage daughter spoke before hundreds who had come to mourn her. Dafna Meir, 38, a mother of six, was stabbed to death on Sunday near the entrance of her West Bank home. “It’s hard for me to think… Read more »
SodaStream’s West Bank factory was relocated to the Negev following international criticism. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – The collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process a year ago has led to an accelerating war of words over Israeli settlements, with Israel accusing its growing chorus of foreign critics of prejudging the final terms of a peace deal at best – and anti-Semitism at worst.… Read more »
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders deliverS a speech on financial reform in New York, Jan. 5, 2016. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Talk of a Bernie Sanders presidency has suddenly become a lot more serious. Recent polling shows the independent Vermont senator and Democratic presidential hopeful dramatically improving his prospects in the first two primary states against front-runner Hillary Clinton. Two polls out last week — by the Des… Read more »
Eliot Barron, a volunteer, makes a call at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Super Extraordinary Sunday on Jan. 25, 2015.
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will hold its Super Extraordinary Sunday fundraiser and Mitzvah Day on Sunday, Jan. 31, 8:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m., at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The event will include a phone-a-thon with volunteers seeking donations to the Federation’s 2016 Community Campaign to support humanitarian and… Read more »
Sassy Reuven Veteran Israel Defense Forces elite Red Beret paratrooper Sassy Reuven will share his role in the famed hostage-rescue mission code-named “Operation Thunderbolt” when Chabad Tucson and the Weintraub Israel Center commemorate the 40th anniversary of Operation Entebbe on Sunday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. Reuven and 100 commandos flew… Read more »
Or Chadash religious school students and teacher’s aide Seth Brown spell “Or Chadash” in Hebrew with their bodies during a Jewish yoga elective.
After an intensive process that began more than two years ago, the Congregation Or Chadash Religious School has won accreditation from the Association of Reform Jewish Educators. It is the only school in Arizona, and one of the smallest congregations nationwide, to currently hold that distinction. Rina Liebeskind, director… Read more »
Gil Mann JFSA-NW to host ‘Jewish Dear Abby’ If you’re on the fence about attending “Sex, G-d, Christians and Jews: Struggling with Jewish Identity Today,” keynote speaker Gil Mann makes this promise: “I pretty much am positive that anyone who comes to this program will come out thinking a little differently… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting the scene of a deadly shooting in Tel Aviv the night after the attack, Jan. 2, 2016. (Haim Zach/GPO)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the site of a deadly attackhere the night after the shooting, his words were perceived by some as more offensive than comforting. After expressing condolences to the families of the victims and welcoming condemnations from the Arab-Israeli community,… Read more »
The United States reportedly eavesdropped on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials in part because of the Iran nuclear deal. (Marc Israel Sellem/Pool)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — At first blush, it appears like a bombshell: The United States listened in on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s phone calls. But on closer examination, the revelations reported Dec. 29 by The Wall Street Journal might not be so far reaching. Spying on allies is both routine and… Read more »
Rabbi Berel Lazar speaking at the Kremlin, Dec. 8, 2015. (Courtesy of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia)
MOSCOW (JTA) — Like many tourists in Red Square, I have often wondered what lies beyond the tall walls that separate this Moscow attraction from the Kremlin, the official residence of Russia’s president and the nerve center of the state. As a journalist long obsessed with Russia, I’ve wanted… Read more »
Jeffrey Tambor, right, with Judith Light in the second season of "Transparent." (Courtesy of Amazon Studios)
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — The prevalence of transgender issues in pop culture seems to have reached a pinnacle this year. Caitlyn – nee Bruce – Jenner appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair. The movie “Tangerine,” which stars transgender actors, took film critics by storm. Director Tom Hooper’s “The… Read more »
Rabbi Avidan Milevsky, gesturing, leads a Sunday morning Talmud class after services at Kesher Israel in Washington, D.C., Dec. 20, 2015. (Uriel Heilman)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Though it’s been more than a year since Rabbi Barry Freundel was hauled away in handcuffs for installing secret cameras at his synagogue’s mikvah, his crime still casts a shadow over his longtime Orthodox congregation, Kesher Israel. Three civil lawsuits are pending against Kesher by women… Read more »
Alan Gross opens up about surviving Cuban prison, selfies
Alan Gross displaying his Cuban cigars at his apartment in Washington, D.C., Dec. 23, 2015. (Suzanne Pollak/Washington Jewish Week)
(Washington Jewish Week via JTA) – Since being imprisoned in Cuba six years ago, Alan Gross says his life has been “surreal.” He feels disassociated from the causes of his five-year incarceration and from the resulting fame. He was locked up largely because of U.S.-Cuba relations, he says, and… Read more »
Ellen Gerecht, executive director of the National Center to Encourage Judaism, at her office in Silver Spring, Maryland, Dec. 29, 2015. (Suzanne Pollak/Washington Jewish Week)
(Washington Jewish Week via JTA) — Maybe it’s the centuries of living under Christian and Muslim rule. Maybe it’s the history of forced conversion. Maybe it’s that there’s no religion requirement for the Jewish afterlife. Whatever the reasons, Jews have traditionally been uncomfortable proselytizing. But a Maryland foundation is flouting… Read more »
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, at a protest in New York organized by the right-wing Americans for a Safe Israel, Dec. 22, 2015. (T'ruah)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – The issue of torture in Israel has received unusual attention in recent weeks because of the identity of the alleged victims. Human rights groups say nothing is new in the allegations that Jewish youths, arrested in connection with an arson attack over the summer that killed… Read more »
Activists protesting a proposed law governing NGO financial disclosure outside the Tel Aviv home of Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Dec. 26, 2015. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash 90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Its backers call it a victory for transparency. Opponents say it smacks of dictatorship. Either way, a new bill requiring certain Israeli nongovernmental organizations to publicly declare their foreign government funding is moving toward passage after it was approved by a Cabinet committee on Sunday. Justice… Read more »
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington, D.C., Dec. 3, 2015. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Ted Cruz wants to make sure you understand: “Republican” and “neoconservative” are no longer synonymous. The Texas senator, inching up to second place behind front-runner Donald Trump in the polls just weeks before the Iowa caucuses, has launched a broadside against the “crazy” movement that not… Read more »
