Tagged FRONTTOP

At Berlin’s European Maccabi Games, the past is ever-present

American soccer player Catie Chase at the European Maccabi Games in Berlin showing photos of her late grandparents, who survived the Holocaust, July 28, 2015. (Hillel Kuttler)

BERLIN (JTA) – Seventy-nine summers after Marty Glickman’s Olympics uniform was rendered as useless as a jilted bride’s wedding dress, his daughter Nancy wore the same uniform to light the cauldron that officially opened the European Maccabi Games here. Her late father’s removal from the U.S. track team hours… Read more »

Why the Iran nuclear deal is likely to survive its hurdles

MARCH 03: Sen. Bob Corker (L) (R-TN), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, answers questions at a press conference following the weekly policy luncheon of the Republican caucus at the U.S. Capitol March 3, 2015 in Washington, DC. Corker answered questions on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to a joint meeting of Congress earlier in the day. Also pictured are Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) (R-KY) and Sen. John Thune (C) (R-SD). (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – The nuclear deal with Iran, 20 months in the making, is now done — at least as far as negotiations go. The accord, announced early Tuesday, still faces hurdles, although they likely won’t keep the deal from going ahead. So what happens next? We read the laws, perused the… Read more »

Israel trip offer expands on ‘people to people’ connections

Members of a Partnership2Gether group celebrate together in Israel. (Jewish Agency for Israel)

The Weintraub Israel Center has embraced the mission of creating a “living bridge” between Southern Arizona and Israel since it was founded in 1997. At the forefront of this mission are the Israeli shlichim — Hebrew for “messengers” or “emissaries” — who serve as directors of the WIC during… Read more »

Where the Obama-Netanyahu relationship went wrong

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office of the White House, May 20, 2011. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – When David Axelrod, then a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, first learned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly had referred to him and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel as “self-hating Jews,” he remembers feeling stung. “For people to suggest that I would… Read more »

Obama: I have same high expectations of Israel as I do of U.S.

Adas Israel Congregation’s Rabbi Gil Steinlauf greets President Obama, May 22, 2015. (Ron Sachs)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – President Barack Obama has a message for American Jews: I don’t shy away from disagreeing with Israel publicly, because I care about Israel and our shared values. The president marked Jewish American Heritage Month with a speech Friday at Washington’s oldest Jewish congregation, Adas Israel. His… Read more »

World’s sacred places lure Tucson rabbi on trip of a lifetime

Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon at the last stop on his world tour, the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru (Courtesy photo)

An intense interest in the world’s sacred places would be natural for any clergy. But Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon, senior rabbi at Temple Emanu-El, took it to the next level. He purchased an around-the- world plane ticket and embarked on a whirlwind trip to more than 120 sacred places… Read more »

In aftermath of Nepal quake, Israelis sending help and looking for their own

A statue of the Buddha surrounded by debris from a collapsed temple in Bhaktapur, Nepal, April 26, 2015. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — When the ground began to shake, Inbar Irron was among a dozen Israelis in Nepal who ran outside the building where they had been sitting — and straight into a cloud of dust. When their vision cleared, they saw a devastating scene: Much of the village of Manegau,… Read more »

From pop icon to humanitarian: Henry Winkler to headline JFCS fundraiser

Henry Winkler will speak at Jewish Family & Children's Services Celebration of Caring dinner on Tuesday, April 14, 2015.

Known to the world as “The Fonz,” the character he played for a decade on TV’s “Happy Days,” Henry Winkler fulfilled a childhood dream by becoming an actor. He won two Golden Globe Awards, received three Emmy nominations and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Fonzie’s… Read more »

After the nuclear negotiators go home, what happens next?

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, thir from left, in Lausanne, Switzerland, with his counterparts from the other world powers negotiating with Iran before the nuclear talks resumed, March 30, 2015. (U.S. State Department/Flickr)

(JTA) – Diplomats in Lausanne, Switzerland, have extended their deadline on a framework accord on Iran’s nuclear program. But even if an agreement is reached this week, it’s merely a way station toward a comprehensive deal that is due by June 30. If a deal is reached, who needs to approve… Read more »

Expanded Holocaust History Center will be dream come true

The new entrance of the Holocaust History Center, sharing a plaza with the Jewish History Museum, will allow for easy traffic flow from one museum to the other.

More than 250 Holocaust survivors have lived in Southern Arizona since the 1950s. Following decades of hoping for an institution that would archive the stories and memorabilia of survivors’ lives, the dream will become a reality when a greatly expanded Holocaust History Center opens in early 2016. “By creating… Read more »

Will Racheli Ibenboim’s new campaign put a haredi woman in Knesset?

Rachaeli Ibenboim is urging women to boycott Israeli haredi parties in March's Knesset elections unless they include female candidates. (Hadas Parush/Flash 90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Racheli Ibenboim acts as if she’s in a rush, repeatedly checking her phone before hurrying off to her next appointment exactly 30 minutes after the current one begins. The way Ibenboim tells it, she’s not just trying to keep up with a tight schedule but… Read more »

Tucson doctor’s specialty is a global calling

Tucsonan Kenneth V. Iserson. M.D., a specialist in emergency medicine, with a newborn under an improvised inclubator in Zambia.

Kenneth V. Iserson, M.D., is a doctor, so he’s expected to help people — but he’s also a humanitarian pioneer. “I’m one of the grandfathers of emergency medicine,” Iserson, home from a two-month stint teaching doctors in Argentina, told the AJP. “I completed the first residency in emergency medicine… Read more »

Netanyahu fires Lapid and Livni, moving Israel closer to early elections

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leading a Likud faction meeting at the Knesset, Dec. 1, 2014. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — For the second time in about two years, Israel appears to be headed toward elections. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s firing Tuesday of two key Cabinet ministers, Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni, increased the likelihood of a government collapse. “The people of Israel placed the responsibility on… Read more »

Terror victims mourned in Jerusalem — and beyond

Hundreds of Israelis mourn at the funeral of three of the victims killed earlier today when two Palestinian terrorists from East Jerusalem entered the Kehilat Yaakov synagogue in the Jewish orthodox neighborhood of Har Nof, Jerusalem, with pistols and axes, and began attacking Jewish worshippers. Four orthodox Jewish men were killed and several more injured. The attackers were shot and killed at the scene. November 18, 2014. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — They all lived on the same street. They had all moved there from abroad. They were all rabbis. They all prayed at the same synagogue. And it was at that Jerusalem synagogue that they were all murdered on Tuesday morning. Mosheh Twersky, 59; Kalman Levine,… Read more »

Open Hillel holds first conference at Harvard

A representative of Jewish Voice for Peace speaking with a student at the Open Hillel conference at Harvard University, Oct. 12, 2014. (Gili Getz)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (JTA) — Harvard senior Rachel Sandalow-Ash scanned the exuberant crowd that packed a campus auditorium on Saturday night. “Wow,” she said, speaking to an audience of some 350 composed primarily of American college students. “This is amazing. This is really cool.” Sandalow-Ash, 21, went on to discuss… Read more »

Conversion to Judaism: denomination by denomination

Mikvah immersion is required for Orthodox and Conservative conversions and strongly recommended for Reform conversions. (Mayyim Hayyim/Tom Kates)

(This is part of a special JTA report on conversion in America. Read our other pieces about who’s converting to Judaism in the AJP category Religion and Jewish Life, and about the 10 questions about Jewish conversion you want to know but are afraid to ask.) ORTHODOX Number of… Read more »

‘Same Moon’ project brings Tucson, Israeli families together

At an Aug. 17 party at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, local families created a poster that says “Shalom” in Hebrew and English to share with their “Same Moon” counterparts in Israel. (Courtesy Weintraub Israel Center)

Today’s families lead busy lives, but a simple opportunity to communicate with each other — let alone families thousands of miles away — can be a rare delight. “The Same Moon” project has provided just that. Six months ago, the Weintraub Israel Center connected 10 Tucson families who have… Read more »

How much has Israel’s war in Gaza cost?

An Iron Dome missile defense battery near the southern Israeli town of Ashdod. Each interceptor missile cost Israel $50,000. (David Buimovitch/Flash 90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — After the missiles have stopped, after the troops have come home, even after most of the wounded are out of the hospital, Israelis will still be feeling the burden of Operation Protective Edge — this time in their pockets. With the recent expiration of a… Read more »

European anti-Semitism is focus as Jewish leaders, Democratic senators meet

(Sean Hayford O’Leary via Creative Commons)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Talk at the annual meeting between Democratic senators and Jewish groups kept coming back to anti-Semitism in Europe. The recurring theme, which the 24 senators who attended and the Jewish leaders both raised, was a measure of the anxiety aroused by recent reports of attacks on… Read more »