Tagged HEADLINES

Robert Kraft brings football Hall of Famers to Israel

Robert Kraft, in black shirt, with Hall of Famers Marshall Faulk, right, and, in rear, from left, Ron Yary, Roger Staubach and Dave Casper in Ramat Hasharon, Israel, June 15, 2017. (Hillel Kuttler)

RAMAT HASHARON, Israel (JTA) – An Israeli soldier clapped football great and Vietnam War veteran Roger Staubach on the shoulder at a soccer field here, telling the 1963 Heisman Trophy winner and U.S. Naval Academy grad that he and his brother serve in the paratroopers. The introduction Thursday evening prompted… Read more »

ANALYSIS ‘Jewish spouses matter,’ says a new demographic study. Let the battle begin.

Adam and Eve depicted on a 19th-century ketubah, a Jewish marriage contract, from the Norsa-Torrazzo Synagogue in Mantua, Italy. (DeAgostini/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — One of the wisest things ever said about intermarriage came from former Atlantic sports columnist Jake Simpson: “No stat could have predicted … the wonder that was David Tyree’s helmet catch in Super Bowl XLII.” Granted, Simpson wasn’t writing about the high rates of Jews marrying non-Jews.… Read more »

Multifaith Iftar meals bring settlers, Palestinians together

Rabbi Shivi Froman of Tekoa prays the afternoon service facing Jerusalem while religious Muslims bow towards Mecca. (Courtesy Rabbi Mordechai Vardi)

  An early June evening, Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem.  Approximately 60 people sit on a garden patio under an awning, waiting for the sun to disappear over the western mountains before breaking the day-long Ramadan fast with dates and water, to be followed by a larger meal of… Read more »

JPride party to celebrate marriage equality

JPride will sponsor a Celebration of Love, Family, and Community at the Jewish History Museum on Sunday, June 25, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. This is the group’s second annual event commemorating the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage on June 26, 2015. Weather permitting, the… Read more »

The spirit of the vine: lessons from travels in Burgundy

Amy Hirshberg Lederman

I recently spent five days hiking and biking through the Burgundy region of France, where my appreciation for the vineyards and vintners of that region was nothing short of inspirational. The two main grapes of Burgundy, pinot noir and Chardonnay, generate hundreds of varieties of wine for all of… Read more »

Rabbi’s corner: Lighting the world

Benzion Shemtov

I would like to share with you a thought on a mitzvah that recently took on a particularly dear meaning to me. As my daughter turns 3 years of age today, she begins to light her very own Shabbos candle, brightening the world each Friday evening. Married women have… Read more »

OP-ED Retaining ban on partisan pulpits is key to protecting religious freedom

Rabbi Jack Moline (Courtesy of the Interfaith Alliance)

That small little law known as the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits electioneering by houses of worship and other charities and which President Trump has vowed to repeal, is exceptionally important to preserve. Even if it is not widely enforced, the permission it grants to the Internal Revenue Service to… Read more »

Citizen historians can help U.S. Holocaust museum

What did American newspapers report about Nazi persecution during the 1930s and ’40s? The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., has launched the History Unfolded project to seek answers to that question. The project asks students, teachers and history buffs throughout the United States what was possible… Read more »

ANALYSIS Trump’s post-London attack tweets are chilling — and counter-productive

President Donald Trump speaks at the Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., June 4, 2017. (Olivier Douliery/Pool/Getty Images)

  BOCA RATON, Florida (JTA) — In popular myth, South Florida was ground zero of the Great Email Explosion of 2008. That was the year your great-uncle or long-lost cousin couldn’t resist passing on rumors, hoaxes and conspiracy theories about Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, the true causes… Read more »

Could Gal Gadot become the biggest Israeli superstar ever?

BEVERLY HILLS, CA - JANUARY 08: Actress Gal Gadot attends the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 8, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

  (JTA) — Try to think of the most famous Israelis in history. Not necessarily the most consequential or “important” ones — like any number of Nobel Prize winners or behind-the-scenes Middle East peace deal negotiators — but those who are most universally recognizable. Most lists would likely include… Read more »

Trump’s Hebrew translator lets the president’s words speak for themselves

President Donald Trump speaks at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, May 23, 2017. (Issac Harari/Flash90)

  SAN FRANCISCO (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — A San Francisco teacher hired to translate into Hebrew President Trump’s “not very eloquent” (as she puts it) speeches last week in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem said she isn’t proud to be working for this administration and… Read more »

Rod Rosenstein: 5 things to know about the man who helped Comey get fired

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., March 7, 2017. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Until this year, Rod Rosenstein was an unassuming U.S. attorney with a reputation for fairness. Now he’s at the center of the controversy over President Donald Trump’s snap firing of James Comey, the FBI director. Rosenstein, 52, whose appointment by Trump as deputy attorney general was confirmed… Read more »

There’s an Orthodox version of ‘Shark Tank’

BizTank, a haredi Orthodox version of "Shark Tank," brings together a panel of mostly Orthodox Jewish investors to hear pitches from entrepreneurs. (Ben Sales)

NEW YORK (JTA) — At the opening of the most recent season finale of “Shark Tank,” the ABC reality show about startup entrepreneurs, a male model stripped and posed in front of a group of investors, showcasing a business that combines drinking wine and painting pictures. At the beginning… Read more »

Rabbi’s Corner: Blossoming through the cracks

Rabbi Ruven Barkan

Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature’s law is wrong It learned to walk without having feet. Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air. Long live the rose that grew from concrete when… Read more »

Local woman remembers euphoria of Six-Day war victory

Margo Gray, a member of Hadassah Southern Arizona, wrote the following recollection of the Six-Day War period for Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America: I was 18, had completed my first university semester and had just returned to Chicago. I am a first-generation American whose father had escaped… Read more »

Covenant House grateful for assistance from Handmaker

B’nai B’rith Covenant House of Tucson is a low-income HUD housing community for seniors that provides safe, affordable housing for 120 older adults in mid-town. Early in the morning on Sunday, May 14, which was Mother’s Day, 40 residents living in building one were awoken to a blaring fire… Read more »

Tucson J creates week of day camp for adults

The Tucson Jewish Community Center will hold a weeklong day camp for adults, “Around the World,” June 12-16. The camp will explore the languages, cultures, and cuisines of Mexico, China, Italy, France and Israel, with each day devoted to a different country. Participants can register for the entire week… Read more »

Prescott is site for Jewish outdoor club event

The Mosaic Outdoor Club is planning a hike on Thumb Butte in Prescott during its Labor Day weekend ‘escape.’ (Courtesy Mosaic Outdoor Clubs of America)

The Mosaic Outdoor Clubs of America, the nation’s oldest and largest Jewish organization dedicated to fun and adventure in the outdoors, will hold its annual five-day international event in Prescott, Ariz., Aug. 31-Sept. 4. . The 27th annual Jewish Outdoor Escape, dubbed “r-AZ-ma-t’AZ: An Arizona Adventure,” will be based… Read more »