The Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Last week, I opened The New York Times to Rick Gladstone’s article, “Historical Certainty Proves Elusive at Jerusalem’s Holiest Place,” happy that the newspaper of record would explain to its audience the historical context of this embattled piece of real estate. As I read on, I… Read more »
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaking at an event at the University of Chicago, Sept. 28, 2015. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
(JTA) — I interviewed Bernie Sanders a couple years ago when word first circulated that the Vermont senator might seek the presidency. Though he knew about JTA going in — and must have known questions about his Jewish background were coming — he didn’t want to get into it. I wrote at… Read more »
(JTA) — “In the United States, ‘Conservative Judaism’ is a synonym for failure.” So writes the Israeli journalist Yair Ettinger after interviewing a spectrum of American Jewish religious leaders. If, as it seems, this judgment has become the new conventional wisdom, we reject it as both inaccurate and destructive.… Read more »
Domestic violence thrives when we are silent; but when we take a stand, support, advocate, educate and work together, we silence domestic violence. Throughout October, National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, join Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona in creating awareness to help end domestic violence. Domestic violence… Read more »
Carlos Hernandez “Ethical wills” began as a Jewish oral tradition and have been a part of Jewish culture for centuries. Traditionally, the purpose of an ethical will was to pass on values such as the importance of charity (tzedakah) from one generation to the next. Today, ethical wills, also called legacy… Read more »
Anna Greenberg Tucson Hebrew Academy has been selected to participate in the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Tikkun Middot Project, an initiative to integrate mindfulness practice and character development in 28 Jewish communities across America. Loosely translated, tikkun middot means the cultivation or refinement of ethical traits or measures of character. The… Read more »
The Days of Awe are a pivotal time of year, a time of introspection, of remembrance, and a time to dream anew. We stand on the ground of the entirety of our lives, looking back at the variegated landscape of our past experiences, and forward into the misty mystery… Read more »
Anne Marie Chiasson The CHAI Circle will host Ann Marie Chiasson, M.D., M.P.H., author of “Energy Healing: The Essentials of Self Care” at its 11th annual retreat next month. A program of Jewish Family & Children’s Services, CHAI Circle is a support group for women in the Jewish community with a history… Read more »
Ten years ago, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona became one of the first federations in North America to reach out to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Jewish community by creating an LGBT Jewish Inclusion Project. On June 26, 2015, when a Supreme Court decision extended marriage rights… Read more »
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Women’s Philanthropy will hold its annual welcome and board installations this month. The event will serve as an update as Women’s Philanthropy continues to raise awareness to help end sex trafficking in the Tucson community and beyond. The event will take place Wednesday,… Read more »
The Weintraub Israel Center and the Greater Tucson Fire Foundation will present “Israeli Response and Readiness —Terrorism and Natural Disasters,” a meet and greet and Q&A with the senior officials who develop and implement Israel’s emergency preparedness, response and recovery services, on Monday, Oct. 19, from 5:30-7 p.m. at… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting with China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, May 9, 2013. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Getty Images)
(JTA) — The rise of a new global power usually creates tensions with the incumbent superpower, and the United States-China duo is no exception. At their summit last week in Washington, D.C., Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping spoke of progress in some areas, such as cyber espionage and… Read more »
WASHINGTON (Washington Jewish Week via JTA) — From murderers to sex offenders, some of the least desirable citizens of Maryland’s Montgomery County have walked through the doors of attorney Barry Helfand’s office. But it took a quiet teenager to make Helfand question his responsibility as a lawyer. Sitting in Helfand’s… Read more »
BOSTON (JTA) — An Israeli-founded water purification company has teamed up with Boston-based Harpoon Brewery to channel the once-famously polluted Charles River into a new beer. Desalitech, which started in Israel seven years ago and then moved to Boston, is using its patented technology to provide water for Harpoon’s Charles River… Read more »
Rep. Eric Cantor, then-House majority leader, delivers an address at the Virginia Military Institute, Feb. 17, 2014. (Courtesy of House Majority Leader)
(JTA) — Former Rep. Eric Cantor apparently just missed becoming the first Jewish speaker — second in line to the presidency after the vice president. An aide to Boehner, the Republican House of Representatives speaker who is quitting, dropped the bombshell last Friday: Boehner had wanted to step down last year,… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the U.N. General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York City, Oct. 1, 2015. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
(JTA) – All anyone attending the United Nations General Assembly opening seemed to want to talk about was the threat posed to the world by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. That was much to the consternation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who argued in his speech… Read more »
Alexander Fehling in "Labyrinth of Lies," Germany's entry in the 2016 Academy Awards. (Sony Pictures Classics)
LOS ANGELES (JTA) – When the German film “Labyrinth of Lies” opens, Hitler’s Third Reich was defeated only 13 years earlier. Germany is rising from the ruins, but in 1958 its people are largely in a state of forgetfulness and denial about the recent past. Ask the man in… Read more »
Anne Lowe Anne Lowe, who recently spent five weeks in Singapore, will give a slide presentation on “The Jews of Singapore: Past and Present” at a Hadassah Southern Arizona lunch on Sunday, Oct. 18, 11:30 a.m. at Lodge on the Desert, 306 N. Alvernon Way. In Singapore, Lowe attended services at… Read more »
The Young Women’s Cabinet of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will hold its fourth annual Mahj and Mitzvahs event on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Tucson Hebrew Academy. Mah jongg players of all levels, including beginners, are welcome. Participants will make care packages to donate to the… Read more »
Sharon Loper
Jean Piaget, the famous Swiss developmental psychologist, said play is the work of the child. In this era of technology, many of us don’t realize how important it is for children to put down their screens and play. Research shows that without play, we are bypassing the most critical… Read more »
