Tagged HEADLINES

Agata Kulesza, left, and Agata Trzebuchowska co-star in the Polish film "Ida," an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film about an aunt and niece looking for family lost in the Holocaust. (Opus Film)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — For the past few decades, Holocaust films have been common — and often victorious — fare at the Academy Awards. But this year, the Polish nominee in the Foreign Language Film category ventures into the less frequently explored territory of the Holocaust’s aftermath. “Ida,” writer-director… Read more »

RAANANA, Israel (JTA) — Chani Lerner-Mor’s political activism began on a street corner here in 1993. The landmark Oslo Accords had been signed recently, ceding parts of the West Bank to Yassir Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization. The daughter of a Likud Party activist, Lerner-Mor, then just 9 years old,… Read more »

Two Faces of Haman: Why do we like trying them on? (Masks and photo by Edmon J. Rodman)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Who is the Haman in your life? The person, who like the bad guy in the Megillah Esther that we read on Purim, schemes to bring you down. When we get to the place in the Megillah where Haman is forced to lead Mordechai though… Read more »

Roy and Claire Kaufmann, the founders of the nonprofit Le'Or, with their children. (Courtesy of the Kaufmann family)

(JTA) — “You know, it’s a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob, what is the matter with them?” That was President Richard Nixon speaking to his top aide, H.R. “Bob”… Read more »

The entrance to the core display of the museum of the Holocaust Education Center in Fukuyama, with its replica of the infamous Auschwitz gate, Dec. 27, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

FUKUYAMA, Japan (JTA) — In the auditorium of this country’s main Holocaust education center, a teenage actor explains the dilemma that faced a Japanese diplomat during World War II. “My conscience tells me I must act a certain way, but doing so means defying my commanders,” says the actor… Read more »

Michael Oren, a former diplomat and noted historian, may be the only American-born member of the next Israeli parliament. (Gideon Markowicz/FLASH90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Michael Oren, New York-born and educated at Columbia and Princeton, begins an interview in Hebrew. Though he quickly switches to English, Oren interrupts himself every so often to translate a word into Hebrew for his assistant. It’s a bilingual bridge he has spanned in one… Read more »

Melissa Goldfinger, a volunteer with the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, has launched a new club for children in grades 4-7 called Many Mitzvah Makers – 3M for short. The mission of 3M is to engage kids in the mitzvot of tzedakah, tikkun olam and chesed (charity, repairing the… Read more »

Tucsonan Arlene Brody’s pearl, rhinestone and lace tiara, also worn by her sisters and sister-in-law (Athol Cline)

The Jewish History Museum’s seventh annual ketubah and wedding gown exhibit will open on Sunday, Feb. 15 at 2 p.m. with a champagne and chocolate reception. Models will wear several gowns from the permanent collection, including new acquisitions, as well as gowns on loan. Some of the local brides… Read more »

Nancy Lefkowitz

Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona has coordinated Matza & More, a volunteer-driven program to collect and deliver Passover items to more than 200 local Jewish families and individuals in need, for more than 40 years. Local businesses, syna­gogues and Jewish organizations support the effort. JFCS is… Read more »

Leonard Hammer

As an Israeli lawyer and legal scholar for more than two decades, Leonard Hammer, Ph.D., is well-equipped to discuss Israel’s complex juncture of religion and democracy. Hammer, the David and Andrea Stein visiting professor of modern Israel studies at the University of Arizona, will speak on “Israel’s Proposed National… Read more »

"Cereusly" by Dot Kret

The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona will host an artists’ reception featuring the work of Mendocino photographer Julie Masterson and Tucson photographer Dot Kret on Monday, Feb. 16 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the JCF office, 3567 E. Sunrise Dr., Suite 143. Masterson’s passion for photography has… Read more »

Omri Margalit, an Israeli serving as a counselor at Tucson’s Camp J, with Tucsonan and fellow counselor Rachel Fox in 2009 (Courtesy Rachel Margalit)

For the Margalit family, the Tucson Jewish Community Center was the setting for a true camp love story: a Tucson camp counselor meets and falls for a visiting Israeli. Rachel Fox and Omri Margalit met at the JCC’s summer camp as teenagers serving as counselors. Rachel, a University of… Read more »

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — A federal judge in Argentina who has authored a book about the Holocaust was tapped to pick up the late AMIA prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s case against President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Daniel Rafecas, who has a relationship with the Jewish community, was chosen by… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – When Benjamin Netanyahu faces the Congress next month, two things are unlikely to come up in his speech: a consideration of diplomatic protocol and an analysis of the efficacy of sanctions. Media attention ahead of the speech has focused on the diplomatic crisis set off by… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Labor Chairman Isaac Herzog won’t be debating each other ahead of Israel’s March election, but English speakers in Tel Aviv who packed an event hall here got the next best thing: Candidates from five parties came out for a panel-style… Read more »

WASHINGTON (Washington Jewish Week via JTA) – For Orthodox Jews, President Barack Obama’s proposed tax reforms present a numbers-crunching paradox: Income he designates as well-off may mean just getting by for large families. Obama’s 2015 budget, which was introduced Monday, aims to offset economic breaks to upper-income families to… Read more »

Israeli arcaeologist Yoram Haimi, right, has been warning of threats to important historical artifacts at the Sobibor death camp in Poland, September 2013. (Courtesy of Yoram Haimi)

SOBIBOR, Poland (JTA) — After he uncovered the path that two of his uncles followed to the gas chambers at Sobibor, Yoram Haimi thought the complex he had worked years to unearth would be preserved for posterity. So when Polish authorities announced in 2011 that they would build a… Read more »

(Jewniverse via JTA) – It might seem that the only Jews left in Pakistan are underground – in Karachi’s lone Jewish cemetery. But that’s not quite so. Faisal (Fishel) Benkhald, the son of a Muslim father and Iranian Jewish mother, dares to call himself a Jew in a country… Read more »

Protesters clashing with Israeli police following the funeral of Sami al-Ja'ar in Rahat, in southern Israel, Jan. 18, 2015. (Activestills.org)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — In an economically depressed town populated largely by a minority group, a young man is killed under disputed circumstances. In the days that follow, riots consume the town, pitting frustrated and angry residents against the police, who maintain their officers acted in self-defense. But activists… Read more »

Rabbi Rachel S. Mikva

Religious ideas can be used both constructively and destructively, says Rabbi Rachel S. Mikva, Ph.D., the upcoming Rabbi Albert T. Bilgray scholar-in-residence at Temple Emanu-El. Mikva aims to encourage critical thinking about “Dangerous Religious Ideas” in the 29th Bilgray Memorial Lectureship series from Feb. 5 to 7, in collaboration… Read more »