Tagged HEADLINES

Mormons are baptizing Holocaust victims, Lubavitcher rebbe and celebrities, researcher says

The historic Salt Lake Temple and the world headquarters of the Mormon church in Salt Lake City, Utah, Nov. 14, 2015. (George Frey/Getty Images)

(JTA) — A researcher says Mormons have posthumously baptized the late Lubavitcher rebbe, the grandparents of Carrie Fisher and Steven Spielberg, and hundreds of Holocaust victims, violating an agreement to halt the practice. Helen Radkey, a Salt Lake City-based independent researcher who has been looking into the Mormon practice… Read more »

Bitcoin fraud could be the next big thing for swindlers in Israel

Guy Maimon with his father outside the Tel Aviv bitcoin exchange where he just bought his first cryptocurrency, Dec. 19, 2017. (Andrew Tobin)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israelis lined up Tuesday afternoon at the newly opened bitcoin exchange in this city to purchase the coveted cryptocurrency. Amid the store’s yellow signage, the customers one by one inserted bank cards into a towering ATM-like machine. Sharply dressed young employees helped them make the… Read more »

The top 10 moments that mattered to Jews in 2017

From a wave of bomb threats to JCCs and a neo-Nazi in Charlottesville and to Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, 2017 was not a quiet year for Jews. (JTA collage)

  (JTA) — The past year was not a quiet one, to say the least. From the tumultuous first year of Donald Trump’s presidency to a wave of bomb threats against Jewish community centers to the flood of high-profile sexual harassment allegations, Jews — like so many others —… Read more »

Rise of far-right party suggests Austria hasn’t learned from its Holocaust past

Protesters against a coalition of the People's Party and the far-right Freedom Party in Austria demonstrate outside the parliament in Vienna, Dec. 14, 2017. (Herbert Neubauer/AFP/Getty Images)

VIENNA (JTA) — Like Germany’s governments, those of neighboring Austria have acknowledged their country’s role as a chief perpetrator of the Holocaust. Since the 1990s, Austrian officials have faced up to and condemned how their countrymen and authorities supported Adolf Hitler, an Austria native, and his war of annihilation… Read more »

Kol Simchah choir marks 20th year of concerts

A choir started over 20 years ago by the late Karla Ember at Congregation Ner Tamid continues to perform at concerts and Shabbat and holiday services. “There have been many changes in content and personnel over the years, but Congregation Kol Simchah, successor to Congregation Ner Tamid, carries on,”… Read more »

Award-winning violinist will play with TSO

Gil Shaham

Grammy-award winning violinist Gil Shaham will perform Tchaikovsky’s “Concerto in D major, Op. 35,” considered one of the best known and yet most difficult of all violin concertos, with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra on Friday, Jan. 12 at 7:30 p.m. The concert also will include Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet… Read more »

Hadassah speaker to provide Israel update at brunch

Laura Green

Laura Green, Zionist affairs chair of the Desert-Mountain Region of Hadassah, will present an Israel update for Hadassah Southern Arizona on Sunday, Jan. 7 at 10:30 a.m., during a brunch at Skyline Country Club. Green, who last spoke in Tucson in October 2014, grew up on Long Island, New… Read more »

My daughter’s doctor recommended plastic surgery. We said no way.

(Kveller via JTA) — After experiencing a yearlong medical crisis due to complications with ulcerative colitis, my daughter, Nava, made a complete recovery. Miraculously, after a tremendous amount of hard work, she resumed her life and was able to live it exactly as she had in the past. Now… Read more »

What a liberal rabbi learned at the Trump Hanukkah party

Rabbi David Kaufman and his wife Julie, attend the White House Hanukkah party in Washington, D.C., Dec. 7, 2017. (Courtesy of Kaufman)

DES MOINES, Iowa (JTA) — A Jewish woman walks into the post office to buy Hanukkah stamps for her holiday cards. The person behind the counter asks, “What denominations?” The Jewish woman responds, “Oy! Are we so polarized? Some Orthodox, some Conservative and some Reform.” Yes, we are so… Read more »

OP-ED Winners and losers as the US recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

A patron at a Jerusalem pub watches as President Donald Trump recognizes the city as Israel's capital, Dec. 6, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

(JTA) — President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and his announcement that he will move the embassy there from Tel Aviv will have a number of consequences for Israelis, Palestinians and the wider region. For Israel, it has finally received from an American president… Read more »

Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is ‘naked aggression,’ Islamic nations warn Trump

President Donald Trump speaks at the Rotunda of the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City, Dec. 4, 2017. (George Frey/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would be an act of “naked aggression” that would cause the United States to lose “its mediating role” in the Middle East, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation said. The statement by the group, representing 57 countries, came as President Donald Trump… Read more »