Marc Schneier NEW YORK (JTA) — Over the past two years, the phrase “Black Lives Matter” has embedded itself into the consciousness — and conscience — of America. The hashtag #BlackLives Matter emerged in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin and quickly became… Read more »
Students at the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Conservative movement's flagship institution. (Courtesy of JTS)
NEW YORK (JTA) — When I was a law student, I took a course by a renowned professor who warned that if a prosecutor ever told us that our client only had two choices, we should walk away from the bargaining table. His point: There are always more options.… Read more »
From left, Woody Allen, Tony Roberts and Diane Keaton in a 1977 publicity shot from "Annie Hall." (Courtesy of Tony Roberts)
NEW YORK (JTA) — There’s a memorable scene in “Annie Hall” when Woody Allen’s character, Alvy Singer, rants about finding anti-Semites everywhere he goes. “You know, I was having lunch with some guys from NBC and I said, ‘Did you eat yet?’ and said, ‘No, Jew?’ Not, ‘Did… Read more »
CHICAGO (JTA) — The Conservative movement was once the very embodiment of what it meant to be an “American Jew.” As the 130th anniversary of the founding of its flagship Jewish Theological Seminary approaches in 2016, the centrist movement that historically straddled the polarities of Reform and Orthodox is struggling… Read more »
David Bowie at a news conference at the Cannes Film Festival in France, May 13, 1983. (Ralph Gatti/AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) — It was clear long before the Internet swelled with heartfelt tributes to David Bowie that the late musician was an artistic legend. The 69-year-old Englishman, who died Jan. 10 after an 18-month battle with cancer, reinvented himself countless times in a music career that spanned more than five… Read more »
Amna Farooqi COLLEGE PARK, Md. (JTA) — David Bernstein, the new president of the Jewish Council on Public Affairs, wrote in JTA last week about an important phenomenon impacting campus activism and debate around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: intersectionality. Bernstein observed that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, has been… Read more »
Muslim students at an anti-Israel protest at the University of California, Irvine in 2006. (Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
NEW YORK – If you want to understand why the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, or BDS, has gained so much ground in the past two years, look no further than intersectionality, the study of related systems of oppression. Intersectionality holds that various forms of oppression — racism, sexism,… Read more »
Tucsonan Lisa Goldberg’s connections to Camp Ramah in Ojai, Calif., run deep. She’s been a Ramahnik since she first attended camp when she was 8 years old, having “inherited” Ramah from her mother, Mimi Dinin Sisk, who was one of the first campers at the California location, and her… Read more »
As thousands continued to flee civil war in Syria, the Tucson Board of Rabbis sent a letter to Gov. Doug Ducey last month asking him to reverse his stand on barring refugees from entering Arizona. Citing the attacks in Paris on Nov. 13 by terrorists from the Islamic State,… Read more »
The Women’s Philanthropy Advisory Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is seeking nominees for its 10th annual Bryna Zehngut Mitzvot Award. The award, honoring the late Bryna Zehngut, recognizes the outstanding achievements of a Jewish teenage girl in Tucson. Nominees must be current high school juniors or… Read more »
Congregation Anshei Israel’s Esther B. Feldman Preschool/Kindergarten will hold a casino night fundraiser on Saturday, Jan. 23. The adults-only evening will begin at 7:30 p.m. and include casino gambling (for fun and entertainment), hors d’oeuvres and dessert, a cash bar, live music and dancing, and a raffle. Among the… Read more »
The Coalition for Jewish Education of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is accepting applications for scholarships to Jewish overnight summer camps for the summer of 2016. The need-based scholarship assistance is funded by the Mo and Frances Beren Family Scholarship Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern… Read more »
Bryan Davis This past year, 2015, has been an historic year for an institution whose focus is the preservation of history. In December 2014 the Jewish History Museum received a lead gift that propelled our organization and our community into a yearlong effort to transform the Jewish History Museum campus. On… Read more »
LimmudAZ will hold its second annual day of Jewish learning on Sunday, Jan. 31 at Arizona State University in Tempe. Was the real writer of Shakespeare’s plays a Jewish woman? Is there an answer to the water wars in the Middle East? What are the top 20 Jewish books… Read more »
The National Council approved a suggestion to construct a new community for the Druze in Israel on Tuesday morning, January 5. The initiative has been greatly supported by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since November 2012 when a decision was taken to establish such a community. The town, the first… Read more »
DUBAI – At a time of civil war, anarchy, extremism, and impoverishment in the Middle East, the city-states of Dubai and Abu Dhabi stand out as the places where Arabic speakers are flourishing, innovating, and offering a model for moving forward. But can it last? I recently visited the… Read more »
An Israeli man scavenging for food, June 24, 2015. Israel has among the highest food prices among advanced democracies, a recent study found. (Nati Shohat/Flash 90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — It has the highest poverty rate among affluent democracies, the fourth-worst income inequality and the seventh-lowest government spending on social services. Those are among the dismal conclusions of the State of the Nation report, an annual set of papers on Israel’s economy and society released… Read more »
(Kveller via JTA) — When I was growing up, my father’s parents lived half a world away in Israel. I only met them a handful of times. Back then there was no Internet, so we sent letters and made the occasional phone call. Once, when I was 12 or… Read more »
An activist protesting a proposed NGO law outside the Tel Aviv residence of Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Dec. 26, 2015. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash 90)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Yet again the Israeli Knesset is considering legislation to single out and punish progressive nongovernmental organizations, particularly the human rights groups that are such a thorn in the side of those who favor the continued occupation of the West Bank. Carefully constructed to evade the inevitable… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — I won’t soon forget the morning of July 31, when I awoke to the horrific news that a firebomb had been hurled at a Palestinian house in the West Bank village of Duma while the family living there was asleep inside. Three people were burned to… Read more »
