David Siegel Tech Parks Arizona will host the Consul General of Israel, David Siegel, on April 29 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation, 1245 E 2nd St. Siegel’s talk will be part of a briefing on the Tech Parks Arizona Global Advantage business attraction program… Read more »
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s board development committee, chaired by Shelly Silverman, has recommended the following slate of officers for the 2015-2016 program year: Tom Warne, chair; Eric Schindler, vice chair/board development chair; Helaine Levy, vice chair; Jim Wezelman, treasurer/secretary; Kathryn Unger, immediate past chair. Nominated as directors… Read more »
BOSTON (JTA) – On a recent morning, a group of seventh-graders in Natick, Massachusetts, was absorbed in a video of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s acceptance speech of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize. “Why did he win?” asked their teacher, Tracy Sockalosky. She guided the discussion to the importance of remembrance, a… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Hillary Clinton does not appear until 90 seconds into the two-minute video rolling out her campaign. No one among the bright and diverse array of everyday Americans in that video mentions foreign policy. Or Barack Obama. Jewish Democrats say the video released this weekend is emblematic… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — The evening before we visited Auschwitz, over pizza with a group of young people in Oswiecim, the town on whose outskirts lies that infamous symbol, one of my students approached me with tears in her eyes. Tears are hardly uncommon to visitors of sites of… Read more »
Girls study in a Jewish school in Sarcelles, France, Oct. 3, 2010. (Serge Attal/FLASH90)
.(JTA) —When mainstream French media report about Jewish schools, it’s usually not good news. Sometimes, the reports are about controversies surrounding public funding of such institutions in a country with a strong separation between religion and state. More often, the news is in the context of security around Jewish schools,… Read more »
President Barack Obama has said that Iran should be granted sanctions relief only once it begins to implement a nuclear accord. (Chip Semodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Now that the outline for an Iran nuclear agreement has been released — or, more precisely, two outlines, one by Iran, the other by the Obama administration — major gaps have emerged that will need to be resolved ahead of a June 30 deadline for a… Read more »
LaurenElieCropped: Elie Greenberg and Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt co-created the popular instrumental Shabbat evening service ast Adas Israel Congregation in Washington. (David Polonsky)
NEW YORK (JTA) – When Rabbi Bruce Dollin first talked to the board at his Conservative synagogue about launching an alternative, singing-centered Shabbat morning service that would use musical instruments, he didn’t encounter much resistance. Over the two decades he had led the Hebrew Educational Alliance in Denver, attendance… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — With the conclusion of a framework agreement over Iran’s nuclear agreement last week, many remain profoundly unsure whether the deal will successfully prevent Tehran’s acquisition of a nuclear weapon. Under the terms of the agreement, much of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure will remain in place. Its Shahab-3… Read more »
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — When attorney E. Randol (Randy) Schoenberg saw himself portrayed on the big screen by hunky Ryan Reynolds in the movie “Woman in Gold,” he immediately spotted a difference. “Obviously, I’m not the sexiest man alive,” Schoenberg acknowledged in an interview at his West Los Angeles… Read more »
This year’s Yom HaShoah community-wide Holocaust commemoration, exploring the many dimensions of liberation from the perspective of liberators and the liberated, will take place on Sunday, April 19 at 2 p.m. at Congregation Anshei Israel. “May I see the other ladies?” he asked. “Ladies!” my brain repeated. He probably… Read more »
Rabbi Helen T. Cohn I recently read a long document about how to make a kitchen kosher for Passover. The work involved at that level of detail took my breath away. Transforming a kitchen to the highest level of observance is on one end of a continuum.The Jews who can’t be bothered to… Read more »
Ori Parnaby Dear Jewish Community Concierge, I just found out about you and I was wondering what is it exactly that you do? Sincerely, Jonathan Dear Jonathan, Great question! The Jewish Concierge is a brand new position created by Tucson’s Jewish Community Roundtable, a group of representatives from the Board of… Read more »
Pinchas Zohm Pinchas Zohav, a Jewish chaplain and counselor, will present “Relationships Thrive Within a We-ality, not a Me-ality” at Hadassah Southern Arizona’s luncheon on Sunday, May 3 at noon at the Lodge on the Desert, 306 N. Alvernon Way. Zohav is the author of “Creating an Extraordinary Relationship: The Art… Read more »
American Muslims are expected to be more numerous than American Jews by the year 2035, according to a new study. (Adam Berry/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) – In 20 years, there will be more Muslims in North America than Jews, according to a new Pew Research Center report. The report, which was released Thursday, also found that more American Jews are leaving Judaism than non-Jews are joining the Jewish people. According to… Read more »
Georges Biard/Wikimedia Commons (JTA) — Last summer our family went to southern Europe on holiday. During our stay at a hotel, our son Dylan went to the swimming pool. A short time later he came running back to the room, upset. A man at the pool had started hurling insults at him.… Read more »
Participants at one of Michael Hebb's "test" seders use the resources from Seder2015.org. (Scott Macklin)
An appreciation for classics and architecture does not necessarily foster interest in the Passover seder. However, those interests are what have led Michael Hebb, a former restaurateur and the founder of meal-related projects such as Death Over Dinner and Drugs Over Dinner, to adapt Passover to the digital age.… Read more »
Ilya and Luba Tolkachov and their 22-month-old son in the tiny one-room apartment they share with Ilya's mother. (Ben Sales/JTA)
KIEV (JTA) — In a crowded room of the Tolkachov family’s tiny apartment here, a couch and twin bed sit kitty-corner from each other, sandwiching a small crib. In another corner, a wooden table is cluttered with a computer and some toys. Since October, three generations of the Tolkachov… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Barack Obama’s refusal to accept Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ostensible recommitment to a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has watchers of the U.S.-Israel relationship wondering if the recent crisis is a mere speed bump or a sign of a deeper shift in ties… Read more »
A mourner near the fresh graves of the seven children from the Sassoon family during their funeral in Jerusalem, March 23, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
NEW YORK (JTA) – Even in a city accustomed to deadly fires, this one stood out for the sheer scale of the tragedy: seven children, ranging in age from 5 to 16, killed in the middle of the night after awakening from their Sabbath slumber to smoke and flames.… Read more »
