: Edward Boarland, sous chef at Le Rafael in Paris, on Nov. 3, 2015. (Cnaan Liphshiz/JTA)
PARIS (JTA) — With 84 Michelin-certified restaurants and a combined total of 115 stars, the French capital offers a dazzling gastronomic selection to anyone willing to stomach the bill. Anyone but observant Jews, that is. For years, the kosher-keeping community has been limited to budget pizzerias or moderately priced… Read more »
Participants in the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism’s centennial celebration in Baltimore in 2013. (Mike Diamond Photography)
NEW YORK (JTA) – When delegates to the biennial convention of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism meet next week near Chicago, they will be seeking a way forward for a movement challenged by numerical decline but holding steady in Jewish engagement. These are the main overall trends that emerge… Read more »
Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona is a finalist in the Santa Rita Landscaping $15,000 Nonprofit Landscape Makeover. If you are on Facebook and would like to help JFCS win, do the following Click here and like the JFCS Facebook page Once there, click on the link… Read more »
A rendering of the new Synagogue Gallery at Beit Hatfutsot-The Museum of the Jewish People. (Courtesy of Beit Hatfutsot)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Irina Nevzlin didn’t know she was Jewish until she was 7, and even then she wasn’t quite sure. So it’s pretty remarkable that the Moscow native — who grew up in Soviet Russia under the dual shields of privilege and protection — is now the… Read more »
Abby W. Schacter PITTSBURGH (JTA) — The conventional profile of American Jews is that they tend to be highly educated and work in professions like medicine, finance, law and the academy. Jews, of course, “value education,” as the trope about the “People of the Book” goes. And American Jews, since they… Read more »
Pim Valkenberg (JTA) — Fifty years ago, on Oct. 28, 1965, Pope Paul VI and the bishops of the Second Vatican Council promulgated the declaration Nostra Aetate on the relationship between the Catholic Church and other religions. In the decades since, the document has done much to foster dialogue between Catholics… Read more »
Good food and drink are among life’s best simple pleasures — especially when you’re talking about pizza baked to perfection or a cold brew shared with friends. Here are a few words about some of Tucson’s best purveyors of gustatory bliss. Fresco Pizzeria & Pastaria Mat and Britnee Cable,… Read more »
Karen Grinzaid Karen A. Grinzaid, MS, CGC, CCRC, senior director and co-founder of JScreen, will present “Knowledge is Power: Impacting the Health of Future Generations” at a Tucson Maimonides Society dinner on Nov. 12 at the La Paloma Country Club. The Maimonides Society is a fellowship of doctors dedicated to education… Read more »
The Jewish Culture Shuk (Hebrew for “marketplace”) returns Sunday, Nov. 15 with an evening of adult education classes taught by more than a dozen local rabbis and educators. Presented by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Coalition for Jewish Education and the Synagogue-Federation Dialogue and held at Tucson Hebrew… Read more »
Bob Harris Bob Harris, a former policy and management expert with the federal government, will lead a four-part discussion series sponsored by Hadassah Southern Arizona at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, beginning Thursday, Nov. 12. Topics will be “Combating the Islamic State or ISIS” on Nov. 12; “Debt Crisis from Greece… Read more »
Leah and Yitzhak Rabin, then Israel's ambassador to the United States, in 1968. (Israel Government Press Office) (Israel Government Press Office)
(JTA) — I remember the assassination like it was yesterday. Yitzhak Rabin was dead, and so was the peace process. Hope on both sides was extinguished. The country was not only in mourning — it was in shock, paralyzed by the magnitude of one of our own killing a national… Read more »
The Mystics of Mile End, by Sigal Samuel (Courtesy of HarperCollins)
(JTA) — Really, every season is book season — but autumn brings a blend of offerings just right for warming up with as the weather cools down. To help you select the best one(s) to keep you cozy on the couch, or to find that perfect Hanukkah present for… Read more »
The percentage of Jews who said religion is important to them rose from 31 to 35 percent since 2007, the Pew Research Center found. (Shutterstock)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Do you experience feelings of peace and well-being at least once a week? Did God write the Torah? Do you eat bacon? If these questions seem a little personal, don’t fret. They’re all part of a new Pew Research Center survey on American religion released… Read more »
The inaugural Ruderman Inclusion Summit took place at Boston's Seaport World Trade Center on Nov. 1 and 2. (Noam Galai)
BOSTON (JTA) — Ruti Regan has been told she’s a pioneer, the first autistic rabbinic student at the Jewish Theological Seminary. But she doesn’t believe that for a second. She may be the first to admit it, said Regan, 30, “but I’m not the only one.” “What do you… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) – When America’s main modern Orthodox rabbinical association voted last week to ban the hiring of clergywomen by its members, the question wasn’t whether to endorse women rabbis. It was whether to widen the group’s well-established repudiation of female clergy or keep quiet and focus on finding common ground with modern… Read more »
Some of the tens of thousands attending a Tel Aviv rally marking 20 years since the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Oct. 30, 2015. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Some 100,000 people joined together in central Tel Aviv on Saturday to pay tribute to slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, but they were divided over what exactly they were rallying for. The demonstration, which marked the 20th anniversary of Rabin’s assassination by a Jewish extremist… Read more »
Palestinians are on the wrong track and will not get off it until the outside world demands better of them. News comes every year or two of a campaign of violence spurred by Palestinian political and religious leaders spreading wild-eyed conspiracy theories (the favorite: Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem is… Read more »
Justine Siegal, prior to coaching for the Oakland Athletics, had already made baseball history by throwing batting practice for the Cleveland Indians in 2011. (Norm Hall/Getty Images)
(JTA) – For Justine Siegal, attending Opening Day games of the Cleveland Indians with her grandfather led to a lifelong passion for baseball – and dreams of one day playing for the Tribe. “Heaven,” she called the outings, where she sat in the best seats in the house —… Read more »
Former President Bill Clinton meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York, Nov. 8, 2010. (Avi Ohayon/GPO via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — By now it should be obvious how absurd it is to call President Barack Obama Israel’s “best friend” ever, as Thomas Friedman of The New York Times has claimed. A Blame Israel Firster, Obama won’t use his moral authority to try stopping the instigators of this… Read more »
Jews United for Justice offers paid parental leave for its employees and is a lead partner in the push to implement paid leave legislation in Washington, D.C. (Anya van Wagtendonk)
NEW YORK (JTA) — It’s a Sunday in 2010, and in one hand I’m texting with a colleague about work. In the other I hold a pee stick, waiting for the results of my home pregnancy test to appear. As I press send, I realize that parenthood isn’t the… Read more »
