Tagged HEADLINES

‘Chocolate factory’ is theme for JFSA young leaders’ gala

(L-R) Alejandra Baltazar-Molina, Melissa Landau, Matt Landau, Selim Cam and Heidi Steiner at the masquerade-themed Hava Tequila event on Jan. 21, 2017.
January 25, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Editorial Assistant

Hava Tequila and the Chocolate Factory” is the theme for the 7th annual Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Young Leadership party on Saturday, Feb. 3 at 8 to 11 p.m. at the Scottish Rite Cathedral, 160 S. Scott Ave. The golden ticket-themed event, for ages 21 and over, includes… Read more »

Pozez lecture to focus on Trump’s Middle East policy
January 25, 2018 /

Shai Feldman of Brandeis University will present “A Year into the Trump Presidency: The U.S. & the Middle East” on Monday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson J. The free talk is part of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies Shaol & Louis Pozez Memorial Lectureship Series.… Read more »

UA Hillel alumni plan pre-game dinner
January 25, 2018 /
Lorenzo Romar.

The University of Arizona Hillel Foundation will host its annual alumni and friends basketball event on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 5:15 p.m. The pre-game dinner will feature Lorenzo Romar, UA associate head basketball coach under Coach Sean Miller, who will brief attendees on this year’s Wildcat team. A silent… Read more »

I’m raising my son to respect women. Here’s how.
January 25, 2018 / Lucy Rimalower, JTA

(Kveller via JTA) — I’m pretty good at having uncomfortable conversations. I’m a therapist. I’ve been talking with people for years about consent, misogyny and patriarchy. My great-grandmother, who immigrated from Eastern Europe to New York City and managed to become her high school’s valedictorian, marched for women’s suffrage… Read more »

OP-ED Jewish men need to talk about #MeToo

(Tabitha Kaylee Hawk/Flickr Commons)
January 23, 2018 /

(JTA) — Like a lot of other Jewish men, I have been quietly keeping a scorecard of the number of Jewish men in the #MeToo headlines. Harvey Weinstein, Dustin Hoffman, Jeffrey Tambor, Mark Halperin, Leon Wieseltier, James Toback, Israel Horowitz, Al Franken, James Levine, Jeremy Priven, Woody Allen, Brett Ratner, Michael Oreskes, Bruce Weber — all have been accused in… Read more »

What ‘The Sound of Music’ Taught My 3-Year-Old About Nazis
January 17, 2018 / B.J. Epstein, JTA

(Kveller via JTA) — “The Nazis were bad people who didn’t like Jews,” I heard myself saying to my 3-year-old. I immediately questioned this rather disappointing explanation. Bad people? What does that mean? Haven’t my wife and I always told our child that people aren’t “bad” or “good,” even… Read more »

OP-ED The two-state delusion is the greatest obstacle to peace
January 17, 2018 / Jeff Ballabon and Bruce Abramson, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Arab-Israeli conflict is entering a phase more likely to lead to resolution than any that preceded it. The mindless mantra “there is no alternative to the two-state solution” is giving way to reality. The Palestinian Authority has never been a partner for peace. A 23rd… Read more »

Saffron Rice with Raisins and Pine Nuts
January 17, 2018 / Paola Gavin, JTA

(The Nosher via JTA) — Saffron rice with pine nuts is made all over the Middle East. Sometimes it is spiced with a little ground coriander, cinnamon and cumin, or flaked almonds are used instead of the pine nuts. This saffron rice is often served for Rosh Hashanah as… Read more »

OP-ED: 6 ways to address sexual harassment in the Jewish community

Lisa Eisen (Courtesy of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation)
January 16, 2018 / Lisa Eisen, JTA

(JTA) — #MeToo. #GamAni. The stories are numerous and painful. They span decades and reach every corner of the Jewish community. Enough is enough. The time is now for us to finally and fully address sexual harassment in Jewish institutional life. When it comes to sexual harassment, Jewish teachings are… Read more »

A son of refuseniks chronicles the slow dissolve of Russia’s Jews

Professor Maxim Shrayer, Slavic and Eastern Languages and Literatures photographed in his office in Lyons Hall for a future issue of Chronicle.
January 16, 2018 / Penny Schwartz, JTA

BROOKLINE, Mass. (JTA) — When Maxim Shrayer traveled to Moscow for a five-day visit at the end of October 2016, his itinerary included a trip to the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center. Shrayer, who emigrated from Russia to the U.S. with his refusenik activist parents 30 years ago, is… Read more »

UA partners with Israel, Mexico on technology research
January 12, 2018 / Jeff Kronenfeld, Jewish News

Universities in Arizona, Mexico and Israel have formed a three-way partnership to cooperate on research, innovation and entrepreneurship. The partnership is made up of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the University of Arizona and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. According to Bruce Wright, associate vice president of the… Read more »

Remembering to seek G-d
January 12, 2018 / Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman, Chabad of Oro Valley

One time there was a little boy who was playing the classic game of hide-and-go-seek. At one point in the game, while he was hiding, his peers got busy with something else, and instead of looking for their friend, they left him hiding there, while they went along their… Read more »

Don’t destroy the two-state solution

(L-R): Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin in 1994 after winning the Nobel Peace Prize for their roles in the Oslo Accords. in the year 2525 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
January 12, 2018 / Jonathan Greenblatt, JTA

Several recent political measures in Israel — including announcements by Israel’s parliament, attorney general and ruling party — have significantly begun to undermine the possibility of achieving a two-state solution. Let me be clear: When discussing why the peace process has been stalled for so many years, one has… Read more »

What Martin Luther King Jr. learned on his only visit to Jerusalem

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preaches in 1960 at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
January 12, 2018 / Marc Schneier, JTA

On Easter Sunday in 1959, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. rose in the pulpit of his Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, to deliver a sermon that focused on his just-completed visit, with his wife, Coretta, to Jerusalem and its holy sites. King’s trip that month to… Read more »

This art studio in Berkeley is combining painting and prayer

Rabbi Adina Allen and her husband, Jeff Kasowitz, founded the Jewish Studio Project in 2015 as a way for Jews to access their religion through art. (Ben Sales)
January 11, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

BERKELEY, California (JTA) — In the middle of a traditional Friday night service in this artists’ district in the crunchy mecca of Berkeley, California, a group of 40 worshippers paused their prayers to gather around a group of “found objects:” an empty picture frame, fake flowers, a doorknob. Each… Read more »

Lack of peace with Israel is Palestinian’s fault, U.S. ambassador says after terror attack

Rabbi Raziel Shevach, right, shown with his family, was killed in a shooting near Nablus in the northern West Bank. (Facebook)
January 10, 2018 /

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The U.S. ambassador to Israel blamed the Palestinians for the lack of peace with Israel in the aftermath of a shooting in the West Bank that killed an Israeli man. David Friedman tweeted Wednesday morning, as the Israeli military expanded its search for the killer or killers, including… Read more »