Tagged HEADLINES

(JTA) — Jared Kushner, the Orthodox Jewish son-in-law of President-elect Donald Trump, will be named senior adviser to the president, Trump transition officials reportedly have confirmed. The official announcement is expected as early as Tuesday, The New York Times and several other major news outlets reported Monday. Citing people close… Read more »

Ryan McKittrick

Ryan McKittrick, assistant professor of theater arts at Brandeis University, will present “The American Musical from the 19th Century to ‘Hamilton’” at the Brandeis National Committee’s University on Wheels breakfast on Thursday, Jan. 12 at 9:30 a.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. McKittrick’s talk will feature scenes from… Read more »

Joe Pasternack (University of Arizona)

The University of Arizona Hillel Foundation will host its annual alumni and friends event on Thursday, Jan. 26 at 5:15 p.m. The evening will feature Joe Pasternack, UA associate head basketball coach under Coach Sean Miller, who will brief attendees on this year’s Wildcat team. His talk will be… Read more »

The University of Arizona Cancer Center is partnering with the Tucson Jewish Community Center to deliver a free, four-part educational series on cancer starting in February. Classes will focus on trends in research and clinical care, from precision medicine to novel drug development to the new frontiers of immunology.… Read more »

Live Theatre Workshop will stage “Buyer & Cellar” by Jonathan Tolins, a one-man show that begins with the premise of an underemployed actor going to work as a shopkeeper in the basement of Barbra Streisand’s Malibu home, Thursdays-Sundays through Feb. 11. “This seriously funny slice of absurdist whimsy creates… Read more »

Invisible Theatre will present Renée Taylor in “My Life on a Diet” at the Berger Performing Arts Center, 1200 W. Speedway Blvd., on Saturday, Jan. 7 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 8 at 3 p.m. Taylor, best known for her Emmy-nominated role as Fran Drescher’s Jewish mother on… Read more »

On Sunday, Jan. 8, the Weintraub Israel Center will hold an event to thank the Greater Tucson Fire Foundation and the Tucson area firefighters who traveled to Israel in November to help control the hundreds of fires there. The event will be held at 5 p.m. at the Tucson… Read more »

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — I do not like wearing a kippah. I grew up in a Reform synagogue where few people wore them, including the rabbi. The gendered nature of it bothers me. (Why, in some “egalitarian” synagogues, are men forced to wear them but not women?) And, quite… Read more »

  NEW YORK (JTA) — Emotions are running high following the Obama administration’s decision to allow the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution condemning Israeli settlements. Here are seven questions aimed at making sense of what went down and what it could mean moving forward. 1. Did Obama… Read more »

(JTA) — While the rest of the world is busy exchanging Happy New Year wishes, Germans are greeting each other with a peculiar expression: “guten Rutsch,” which means “good slip.” Some believe the greeting, which is especially unusual in a formal society such as Germany’s, is a lighthearted reference… Read more »

Daniel S. Mariaschin (Courtesy of B'nai B'rith International)

  TEL AVIV (JTA) — The feeling in this country following the adoption of the anti-settlements resolution in the U.N. Security Council on Friday is more than palpable. For those who observe Shabbat, there was the knowledge on Friday afternoon that a vote in New York would occur after… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – President-elect Donald Trump said during his campaign he wants to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. His nominee for ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, has said he hopes he will work from an embassy in the city. Trump’s transition team has affirmed the intention to move… Read more »

(The Nosher via JTA) — In many homes, there is a tradition to bake Hanukkah cookies this time of year. Whether it’s the sugar and butter mixing in the mixer, the blue and white sprinkles, or the festive menorah cookie cutters, there is something about cookie baking that propels us into the… Read more »

  (JTA) — Aleppo, one of the world’s oldest cities and Syria’s largest metropolis, is synonymous with one of humanity’s cruelest conflicts — now surpassing the siege of Sarajevo as the deadliest and longest-running battle for a city in our time. With an estimated 31,000 deaths, the battle for… Read more »

  WASHINGTON (JTA) — The transition between the Barack Obama and Donald Trump presidencies is creating a vacuum that is increasing the threat of genocide in trouble spots, according to a top official at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Cameron Hudson, the director of the museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – A year ago, when several dozen Washington-area Jewish and Muslim religious and lay leaders jostled for spots in a group picture, the mood was convivial. The most novel item on the agenda for that November 2015 confab was bringing in non-Middle Eastern Muslims into the Jewish-Muslim… Read more »

(JTA) — From a new audio version of “Hanukkah Bear” — a holiday favorite by National Jewish Book Award winner Eric A. Kimmel — to a novel for young teens set during the Festival of Lights, there is a fresh crop of Hanukkah books that are sure to delight… Read more »

  JERUSALEM (JTA) — Over the past few weeks, more than 1,700 brush fires across Israel have destroyed homes, vehicles and countless irreplaceable personal possessions. As a nation, we have also suffered severe damage to more than 32,000 acres of precious natural resources – woodlands, grasslands and protected parklands,… Read more »

Jonathan Elkhoury represents multiple minority groups in Israel. He told his life story to a rapt group of students at the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation on Dec. 1. His father fought for the South Lebanese Army against the Palestine Liberation Organization and fled to Israel when the Israel… Read more »

The third annual Limmud AZ, a daylong smorgasbord of Jewish learning, will be held Sunday, Feb. 12 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Arizona State University Memorial Union Student Conference Center in Tempe. Limmud AZ will include dozens of workshops, discussions, art, music, performances and text-study sessions,… Read more »