Tagged HEADLINES

Marlyne Freedman, past senior vice president of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, has traveled to Israel many times. A few friends asked her to assemble and lead a small, intimate group of first-timers to visit our homeland. From Oct. 14-28, Tucsonans Peggy and Bob Feinman, Ginny Spencer and… Read more »

“The MeshugaNutcracker!,” featuring a Klezmer-ized orchestration of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite,” debuts in movie theatres nationwide for one night, on Tuesday, Dec. 19. Called an “enchanting festival of light-hearted glee and meaningful warmth” (Los Angeles Times), this Hanukkah-themed musical comedy arrives on the last night of the holiday, presented by… Read more »

Movies about Jews evading the Holocaust are, frankly, irresistible. We never tire of these celluloid beacons of hope, not least because we can never forget that the victims greatly outnumbered the escapees. The challenge that filmmakers face in this area is keeping the rays of light in proportion to… Read more »

It’s always Hanukkah in this picturesque town in northern Italy’s Piedmont region. Jews have lived in Casale Monferrato for more than 500 years, with the community reaching its peak of 850 members at about the time Jews here were granted civil rights in 1848. The town still boasts one… Read more »

Books make a great gift because they contain the precious gift of knowledge. Here are eight gardening books for all types of folks, whether they garden outside or indoors, or just cook with vegetables that others grow. To start off — who doesn’t like a cookbook? “The Renee’s Garden… Read more »

Move over, potato latkes. Make room for dosas. The savory fried Indian lentil and rice pancakes take center stage in “Queen of the Dosas,” a gem of a new Hanukkah book by the award-winning children’s writer Pamela Ehrenberg. It’s among eight new Hanukkah books for kids — one for… Read more »

  NEW YORK (JTA) — Did The New York Times just normalize an American neo-Nazi? That’s the charge being flung at The Newspaper of Record over its Saturday profile of Tony Hovater, 29, a “polite,” “low key” Ohio man who is a “committed foot soldier” who helped start one of… Read more »

(JTA) — The BDS debacle at the University of Michigan proved once again that Jews can be their own worst enemies. Since 2002, the University of Michigan’s Central Student Government (CSG) has, on 10 occasions, rejected resolutions to support the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction the State… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — “Is So-and-So Jewish? How Jewish is she? Find out if she’s Jewish.” I often joke that JTA reporters and anti-Semitic bloggers write the same stories, only with different headlines. We proudly search down Jewish celebrities to show the diverse ways that Jews are contributing to… Read more »

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Henny Goudeketting, a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor, is ailing and preparing to leave the world. Goudeketting, who was sterilized in Nazi medical experiments at Auschwitz, has neither children nor other relatives to care for her. Now, after multiple infections and recurrent falls, she’s readying to say goodbye.… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rep. Eliot Engel has become the first U.S. congressman to be featured on a postage stamp in Kosovo. Engel, a New York Democrat, may be the first Jewish member of Congress on a stamp, period. Bella Abzug helped inspire a 1999 stamp celebrating the women’s rights… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Nazis came for Rose Holm’s family in the afternoon. By the evening, the 16-year-old was lying among corpses in the underground bunker where she and her family had been hiding. “I was between those dead ones, and I didn’t know if I’m alive or I’m… Read more »

Contributions to the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Community Campaign help support the JDC — and a variety of other causes in Tucson, Israel, and around the world.… Read more »

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (JTA) — Before she boarded the plane from Israel to Silicon Valley, Darya Henig Shaked already was bucking stereotypes of women in tech. Among married Israeli techies in the Bay Area, it’s assumed that the man in the marriage was the one who obtained a work visa… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Ilan Mengistu knows his pitch to rescue his brother, Avera, should be a no-brainer to Jews — “pidyon shvuyim,” the redemption of the hostage, is among the greatest of commandments. But Mengistu also knows that the story he has to tell is not the straightforward narrative… Read more »

(The Nosher via JTA) — I recently fell in love with honey squash, a new variety of hearty winter squash bred specifically to be concentrated in flavor and adorable in appearance. OK, maybe it wasn’t specifically grown to be adorable, but the result nevertheless is the same. I found… Read more »

SECAUCUS, N.J. (JTA) — “Caution: Meat and dairy sampling on show floor,” read a sign at the entrance to Meadowlands Exposition Center. That may seem like an unusual warning outside a convention center, but to the crowd attending the food expo there on Tuesday, it made sense: Kosherfest is… Read more »

As Hurricane Harvey swept over Houston, Chava Gal-Or counted herself lucky. The water rose up to her door and a little bit seeped in, but her home did not flood. However, many in the Reform synagogue where she works had it much worse: Twenty-nine families lost their homes —… Read more »

Bryce Megdal

Cantorial candidate Bryce Megdal will present a   musical program at Hadassah Southern Arizona’s lunch on Sunday, Dec. 3. Carolynn Scherer Katz, Desert Mountain Hadassah regional vice-president, will install the 2018 officers of Hadassah Southern Arizona and the Woman of the Year Award will be presented. Megdal, a Tucson… Read more »

It’s the time of the year that Arizona residents and winter visitors have been waiting for — temperatures are perfect and the hiking trails and walking paths are filled with people who are outside with their pets, enjoying the Arizona winter. While you enjoy exercise with your pet, you… Read more »