Bodies of Armenian victims of a campaign of mass killing by Ottoman Turks. (Wikimedia Commons) In April 1915, while World War I was raging, the government of the Ottoman Empire attacked its Armenian citizens. Over the next several years, it is estimated that one to 1.5 million Armenians died. Able-bodied men were murdered or enslaved as forced labor in the army, and hundreds of… Read more »
Close to 700 people poured into the Tucson Jewish Community Center on April 22 to take part in a memorial service for 18-year-old Kelsey Taylor Luria, who died April 18, 2015 after battling acute myeloid leukemia for almost six months. Rabbi Stephanie Aaron, who spoke at the memorial, said… Read more »
Linda Roy, an educator at Congregation Anshei Israel for 30 years, died April 15, 2015 at age 66. Ms. Roy, a native of Southern California, came to Tucson in the early 1980s from San Bernardino, Calif. It was in Tucson that she “explored her Jewish heritage through her deep… Read more »
Police subduing an injured demonstrator during the July 1967 race riots in Newark, N.J. (Three Lions/Getty Images)
(JTA) — The Newark riots of 1967 have shaped the imagination of the New York-New Jersey area for over 40 years — probably more than they shaped the actual political and social landscape of Newark and its suburbs. The riots often are held up as a pivotal moment in… Read more »
LAS VEGAS (JTA) – “It’s so noisy,” Kenny says. Yes, it’s noisy. This is Vegas. The Venetian. The casino floor. The bikinis, the brides-to-be, the blonde with the “I’m 21, bitches” T-shirt. The whoops, the hissing, the groans, the bells. This is Las Vegas, where Sheldon Adelson, who owns… Read more »
Palestinian refugees in the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus, Syria, awaiting food aid from the United Nations, Jan. 31, 2004. (United Nations Relief and Works Agency via Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — It’s happening again — Palestinian refugees are caught between warring factions in the Middle East and the world is reacting too slowly to their plight. In earlier times, Palestinian refugees found themselves in the crosshairs at the Sabra and Shatila camps, when Lebanese Phalangists massacred… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — America has good allies all around the world, but there is no greater ally than Israel, a beacon of democracy, freedom and liberty in a part of the world filled with darkness. However, the Obama administration continues to create more and more daylight between itself and… Read more »
HANOVER, Germany (JTA) — Seventy years after the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by British troops, some 100 people personally touched by the history returned to the site to share their memories and warn against forgetting. Among them were children born at a displaced persons camp for survivors less than two miles… Read more »
Two days ago a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal. The latest numbers suggest over 4,000 people have been killed and thousands more injured. According to the United Nations, the death toll is likely to rise to the tens of thousands in Nepal, India and China. The Jewish Federations of North… Read more »
JQY Exective Director Mordechai Levowitz, center, in white shirt holding sign, coordinated the conference at Columbia University. (Courtesy of JQY)
NEW YORK (JTA) – A group of modern Orthodox rabbis have done what advocates for Orthodox gays and lesbians say would have been unthinkable as recently as five years ago: They spoke at a conference on the treatment of gay, lesbian and transgender people in Orthodox communities. Four prominent… Read more »
(JTA) — This weekend, a collection of GOP presidential candidates will arrive in Las Vegas for a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition. But don’t allow yourself to be fooled into thinking that these candidates are making a real attempt to appeal to American Jewish voters. Their presence is… Read more »
Newly ordained rabbis Ilanit Goldberg, left, and Nicholas Renner drape a tallit over Malka Packer during her ordination ceremony at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College's 2014 commencement. (Courtesy of RRC/Jewish Reconstructionist Communities)
NEW YORK (JTA) — The Reconstructionist movement is on the cusp of making a historic decision about whether to drop its longstanding ban against intermarried rabbinical school students. If the policy change passes, as most expect, Reconstructionism would become the first of America’s four major Jewish religious denominations to ordain intermarried rabbis.… Read more »
A faucet and toilets are seen in a classroom in the ecological village in Nitzana, Israel. Students there learn about desalination and how to save water. (Chen Leopold/Flash 90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — For help facing its worst drought in centuries, California should look to a country that beat its own chronic water shortage: Israel. Until a few years ago, Israel’s wells seemed like they were always running dry. TV commercials urged Israelis to conserve water. Newspapers tracked… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Election Day is 19 months away, but the campaign already has begun. Aside from Democrat Hillary Clinton, three Republican candidates with reasonable chances at the nomination have declared and several others are on the cusp. The Republican Party says it’s been making inroads with Jewish voters, who… Read more »
Next week, Israel will celebrate the 67th anniversary of its establishment as a modern nation. On Remembrance Day, the day before Independence Day, Israelis will cherish the memory and legacy of the 23,000 soldiers who gave their lives so that we would be able to live as free people… Read more »
Ed Harris’ suspenders celebrate his British heritage. (Sarah Chen/AJP) Edward Harris still celebrates the day he arrived in New York from London with only $28 in his pocket: Feb. 8, 1954. A dual citizen of the United States and Britain, he feels fortunate to have slowed his globetrotting days here in Tucson. Harris was born in 1934, just… Read more »
Marc Mezvinsky and Chelsea Clinton during their wedding ceremony, July 31, 2010 (Genevieve de Manio) Millennia ago, before rabbis existed or conversion was invented, thousands who were not born Jewish became part of the Jewish community through a very simple act: They married a Jew. Sarah was the first, followed in turn by Rebecca, Leah and Rachel. Thousands more followed — both biblical characters… Read more »
(L-R): Stuart Shatken, president of the Jewish Community Foundation board of trustees, Andy Shatken and author Chris Farrell at the JCF funders forum on March 16.
For many aging Americans, traditional ideas of retirement are changing. On March 16, the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona hosted a funders forum with Chris Farrell, author of “Unretirement: How Baby Boomers Are Changing the Way We Think About Work, Community and the Good Life” (Bloomsbury Press). Speaking… Read more »
This week, the Tucson Jewish Community Center launched a new 12-week series, the BEST Protocol for Osteoporosis, with instructor Mary T. Maher, M.S., A.C.S.M.-C.P.T. The three-day-a-week program is based on the Bone Estrogen Strength Training study conducted by the University of Arizona between 1995 and 2001. The protocol’s goals… Read more »
Participants at Tucson Hebrew Academy’s STEM festival on Sunday, May 3 can drive award-winning robots, investigate a mock crime scene or play a giant video game with their feet. Presented by THA’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) program, the family-oriented festival will run 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.… Read more »
