Actor Theodore Bikel arrives at the 55th Annual Drama Desk Awards in New York City, May 23, 2010. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images) (JTA) — As 2015 winds to a close, we’d like to take a moment to honor the memories of those who we lost over the past 12 months. From remembering lives cut short by senseless, dark tragedies to tributes to revered icons who lived life to the fullest, here are some Jews… Read more »
Michael Zegen, center, works those biceps in a scene from "A View from the Bridge." (Jan Versweyveld)
NEW YORK (JTA) — On a trip to London last year, actor Michael Zegen caught a revival performance of Arthur Miller’s 1955 drama, “A View from the Bridge,” about a Brooklyn longshoreman whose protective impulses toward his niece tilt toward lust. “I had a terrible seat,” he told JTA.… Read more »
The 25th annual Tucson Jewish International Film Festival is dedicated to the memory of Bob Polinsky, a longtime volunteer. Every time I go to a movie, it’s magic, no matter what the movie’s about. —Steven Spielberg The Tucson International Jewish Film Festival uses that “magic” to promote the preservation of Jewish culture and celebrate cultural diversity. For 10 days, Jan. 14 - 23, the 25th annual festival… Read more »
Gregg Mozgala (left) and choreographer Tamar Rogoff in a scene from ‘Enter the Faun,’ which will be screened as part of the 25th Tucson International Jewish Film Festival.
When New York choreographer Tamar Rogoff invited Gregg Mozgala, an actor with cerebral palsy, to dance the role of the faun in an original production, they had no idea that their collaboration would lead to a profound and unexpected physical transformation. At the time they met in 2008, Mozgala… Read more »
Netanel (left) and Eden Achituv, Israeli teachers new to Tucson Hebrew Academy this year, at THA’s all-school Thanksgiving lunch on Nov. 24. (Alix Cramer/THA)
Netanel and Eden Achituv are the first Israelis to join Tucson Hebrew Academy as part of the World Zionist Organization’s Morim Shlichim (teacher-emissary) program. WZO and the Weintraub Israel Center helped THA recruit the Achituvs, who bring rich experience to the day school’s Hebrew and Judaic studies programs. Coming… Read more »
Sheldon Clare teaches Yiddish at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. (Renee Claire)
So what’s your Yiddish IQ, bubbeleh? Don’t be too quick with your answer because truth is, lots of the mamaloshen (mother tongue) has entered into common English usage; think kibbitz, bagel, klutz, kosher and chutzpah. But should you want to think of more than the commonly known terms, then… Read more »
Nanci Levy and Handmaker residents braid challah. Seated, L-R: Peggy Simon, Betty Light and Anna Rogovin (Courtesy Handmaker)
Recently hired as community outreach coordinator at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, Nanci Levy says 20 years of volunteer work in the Tucson Jewish community was great preparation for her new role — along with a background in advertising, public relations, event planning and fund development. “Over the… Read more »
Rabbi Nachum Ehrentreu, left, and Tucsonan Ron Rosenberg with Jewish kindergarteners in Zaporozhye, Ukraine (Courtesy Ron Rosenberg)
Looking back at 2015, there is no question that the growing number of refugees worldwide has become a huge concern. The United Nations refugee agency reported this summer that there are more refugees in the world today than ever previously recorded. The agency labels Syria, Ukraine and South Sudan… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, with his French
counterpart, Manuel Valls, at the United Nations Climate Change
Conference in Le Bourget, France, Nov. 30, 2015. (Thierry Orban/Getty
Images)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — During last week’s climate summit outside Paris, the 195 delegate countries — including Israel — committed to implementing plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improving their goals every five years. The aim: Keep Earth from warming more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the 21st… Read more »
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, left, met U.S. Jewish religious
leaders, including Union for Reform Judaism President Rabbi Rick
Jacobs, in New York, Dec. 11, 2015. (Courtesy of the Union for Reform
Judaism)
NEW YORK (JTA) – It was all hugs and smiles when Israeli President Reuven Rivlin met Friday with leaders of America’s three main Jewish denominations at an event hosted by UJA-Federation of New York. But when it came time to speak, the Reform and Conservative leaders made clear they… Read more »
Ayman Odeh, carrying one of his three children, casting his vote in
Nazareth on Israel's Election Day, March 17, 2015. (Basal
Awidat/Flash90)
(JTA) — Arab-Israeli lawmaker and political leader Ayman Odeh refused to meet with the umbrella foreign policy body for American Jews because it shares office space with the Jewish Agency, an abrupt and dissonant end to a trip that was aimed at promoting greater Arab-Jewish cooperation. “I came here… Read more »
Circa 1660, Dutch philosopher Benedicto De Spinoza (1632 - 1677). (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
AMSTERDAM (JTA) – More than 350 years after this city’s Portuguese Jewish community excommunicated Baruch Spinoza and banned his writings for eternity, the philosopher’s books are for sale at the souvenir shop of the community’s synagogue. Spinoza, a Dutch-born Jewish philosopher who laid the intellectual foundations of the Enlightenment… Read more »
An oil rig in the Tamar natural gas field off the Israeli coast, June
23, 2014. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — When Israel discovered two massive natural gas fields off its coast five years ago, it was billed as a goldmine that would shift the balance of energy exports in the Middle East and fill Israel’s coffers. Five years later, drilling in the biggest field, known as Leviathan,… Read more »
Nicholas Thalasinos renewing his marital vows with his wife at a
Jewish-style ceremony, 2013. (Facebook)
(JTA) – While America puzzles over the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, many American Jews are puzzling over an additional element: the religious identity of victim Nicholas Thalasinos. Pictured on his Facebook page wearing a scarf-style tallit prayer shawl, Thalasinos, who was killed along with 13 others in… Read more »
Tucson Jewish Comunity Center staff members and Israeli chefs prepare a communal meal Nov. 16. Guests include the staffs of the Kiryat Malachi and Hof Ashkelon community centers and members of the Partnership2Gether steering committe. (L-R) Todd Rockoff, Abby Gettinger, Lisa Delyria, Stacy Ramsower, Christina Pugh, Denise Wolf, Chef Yael Shamir, Chef Maya Klein, Travis Fischer, Chef Sahar Rafael, Lynn Davis, Sue DeBenedette, Oshrat Barel. The Israeli chefs, joined by Chef Orly Varon Shushan, will visit Tucson in May for the Israel Festival.
Jewish culture and connection were the focus of a recent Tucson Jewish Community Center staff trip to Israel. The group of 10 returned to Tucson from their 12-day trip on Nov. 19 with a renewed sense of purpose. The Tucson J staff joined with delegations from the Shimon and… Read more »
Bob and Jere Moskovitz, newcomers to Tucson, toast the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Jewish Culture Shuk at Tucson Hebrew Academy on Nov. 15. (Korene Charnofsky Cohen)
The Jewish Culture Shuk, a one night smorgasbord of adult education classes, brings the community together through learning. Teaching from a Jewish perspective, instructors strive to help us understand and respect ourselves and others, and to deal with difficult situations at home and in the world. On Sunday, Nov.… Read more »
(L-R): Aaron Green, Nathan Shapiro, Peggy Simon and Haley Dveirin share lunch at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging on Nov. 8. (Courtesy Tucson Hebrew High)
Tucson Hebrew High students are creating relationships with residents of Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, aided by a recent “Better Together” grant from an anonymous donor. The grant supports programs for young Jewish students to engage with the elderly in a hands-on fashion, encouraging the students to live out Jewish… Read more »
Tucsonan Danny Levkowitz finished his steel menorah in time to celebrate Chanukah 2015.
Tucsonan Danny Levkowitz recently finished building this 15-foot tall menorah, his first attempt at sculpture, at his east side home. Made of steel rebar with LED lights, the menorah took over two months to create, but it is something Levkowitz, the owner of Sun Lighting, has been dreaming about… Read more »
Sharon Megdal, director of the University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center, and Abraham Tenne, retired Israel Water Authority director of desalination, tour a desalination facility in Hadera, Israel. (Cody Sheehy)
I just returned from an exciting visit to Israel, my 10th since 2010. Each time I visit the region I learn new things about their efforts to manage water resources. At the WATEC 2015 conference in Tel Aviv, where I was an invited speaker, I had the opportunity to… Read more »
Migrants wait to be processed at the increasingly overwhelmed Moria camp on the island of Lesbos in Greece, Oct. 21, 2015. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – American Jewish organizations don’t see the Syrian refugees as a threat; they see them as a reminder. With rare unanimity on an issue that has stirred partisan passion, a cross-section of the community has defended the Obama administration’s refugee policy in terms recalling the plight of Jews fleeing… Read more »
