Ludmila Lazaurenko, right, with her son Anatoly and mother Nadezhda Belovol at their temporary housing near Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, July 14, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz) DNEPROPETROVSK, Ukraine (JTA) — Anatoly Lazaurenko’s face betrays no emotion as he watches footage of an old woman he used to know lying in the rubble of what once was his home in the war-torn city of Slavyansk. Oblivious to her mangled face, Anatoly, 8, points to a corner… Read more »
Children playing at an impromptu day camp set up for the children of hospital workers in Beersheva. (Ben Sales)
BEERSHEBA, Israel (JTA) — During Israel’s conflict with Hamas in 2009, Eli Nachmani, already using a wheelchair, injured his leg when a rocket hit this southern Israeli city. In the last clash in 2012, Nachmani sustained a head injury when the blast from a rocket knocked him out of… Read more »
Palestinians walking among the rubble of a destroyed house following an Israeli missile strike, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 14, 2014. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90) (JTA) — Israel and Hamas are fighting their third major conflict in six years, and while some things have stayed the same, the battle lines have also shifted in a few notable ways. Here are eight things you need to know about the current conflagration: • Iron Dome has been a… Read more »
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meets with the central committee of the Fatah movement in Ramallah, West Bank, July 13, 2014. (Thaer Ghanaim/Palestinian Press Office via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Mahmoud Abbas has been sitting on the sidelines of the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, with little influence over its outcome. But it hasn’t stopped U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry from consulting closely with the Palestinian Authority president throughout the crisis. A U.S. official who… Read more »
An Iron Dome missile defense battery set up near the southern Israeli town of Ashdod fires an interceptor missile, July 14, 2014. (David Buimovitch/Flash 90)
SDEROT, Israel (JTA) — In the past week, Israel has endured a thousand rockets. Yet not a single Israeli has died so far from a rocket strike during the week-long conflict. In many ways, Israel’s Operation Protective Edge — its third Gaza operation in six years — is much like… Read more »
Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, left, with the organization's head of French operations, Ariel Kandel, at a Paris synagogue, July 2, 2014. (Alain Azria)
PARIS (JTA) — On their 40th wedding anniversary, Avital and Natan Sharansky went sightseeing in the City of Lights. But the Sharanskys didn’t follow the trail of countless couples who come here to kiss at the Eiffel Tower or slip so-called love locks on bridges over the River Seine. Theirs… Read more »
Michael Savlov, left, an attendant at a Tel Aviv gas station, went back to work not long after a shrapnel from a Gaza rocket landed at the site on July 10, 2014. (Ben Sales / JTA) TEL AVIV (JTA) — Had the shrapnel fallen a foot to the right, gas station attendant Michael Savlov would have been destroyed along with the rest of the Dor Alon gas station in southern Tel Aviv. Savlov was with a customer in the station’s office Thursday morning when a… Read more »
A memorial display paying tribute to the three murdered Israeli teens at Camp Solomon Schechter in Olympia, Wash. (Josh Niehaus) (JTA) — On the morning of June 30, the children began arriving at Camp Solomon Schechter in Olympia, Wash., ready for a fun-filled summer. But shortly before the first little feet descended the bus steps, the sleepaway camp’s Israeli counselors learned from back home about the discovery of the… Read more »
Black smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza International Airport in Rafah, July 7, 2014. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Escalations between Hamas and Israel are nothing new. What’s missing this time, analysts say, is the alignment of outside interests that has resolved such fights in the past.Egypt’s government lacks the influence over Hamas of its predecessors and the United States is in hand-washing mode… Read more »
Dr. Richard J. Ablin In 1970, Dr. Richard J. Ablin discovered the PSA, or prostate-specific antigen, which has been widely used as a screening test for prostate cancer since 1994. That test, he says, is a terrible mistake — a disaster that spawned a multi-billion dollar industry and has destroyed millions of men’s… Read more »
A potluck “Meet, Greet and Eat” brunch for “summer sunbirds” on July 20 will be a chance to connect with other Jews and build community on Tucson’s northwest side, says Anne Lowe, director of the Northwest Division of the Jewish Federation. The event is for singles, couples and families.… Read more »
Temple Emanu-El’s Taste of Judaism outreach and education program celebrates its 15 anniversary this year. The free introductory course offers samplings of Jewish spirituality, values and community in three sessions, taught by Rabbis Samuel M. Cohon and Batsheva Appel. The interactive course is for all, regardless of religious background… Read more »
(L-R) Rabbinic student Avrohom Luban talks with Tucsonans Max Lazar and Al Gordon during a “Spirit” study session. (Courtesy Southwest Torah Institute) The Southwest Torah Institute’s long-running Dr. Paul W. Hoffert Spirit Program returns to Tucson Sunday, Aug. 10 through Friday, Aug. 22. The Spirit program offers two weeks of yeshiva-style learning, open to all Jewish men and boys ages 8 and up. Participants can study virtually any topic of Jewish… Read more »
(L-R) Isaac Zolot, Sarah Cassius, Zohar Amar and Maya Collier celebrate Tu B’Shevat, the birthday of the trees, during a break at Tucson Hebrew High. Tucson Hebrew High will start off its 2014-15 school year with last-minute registration and the first night of classes on Tuesday, Aug. 12 at its host facility, Congregation Anshei Israel. At 6 p.m., incoming freshmen and new students will meet the faculty and join an opening program and pizza… Read more »
The Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) released a study guide titled "Zionism Unsettled" with a companion DVD. NEW YORK (JTA) — The Jewish world has been shaken by the decision of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to divest from three companies that it claims “further the Israeli occupation of Palestine.” The denomination has placed itself squarely on the side of the divestment movement that seeks to hold Israel solely… Read more »
After coaching Maccabi Tel Aviv to a European Championship, David Blatt appears headed to the NBA. (Moshe Shai/FLASH90) LOS ANGELES (JTA) — In 1981, David Blatt moved to Israel in pursuit of a path of lifelong worship — to play professional basketball.Now, more than 30 years later, Blatt is leaving Israel to make a different, and totally unprecedented, form of aliyah — to leave the ranks of Israeli basketball to… Read more »
Members of the Aitz Hayim Center for Jewish Living in Glencoe, Ill., show U.S. and Israeli colors at the 2012 Fourth of July parade in nearby Highland Park. (Todd Jacobs) LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Part “God Bless America,” part “Shabbat Shalom,” the Fourth of July this year falls on a Friday. In this land of religious freedom, how do we plan to observe both? As the sun sets over the “fruited plain,” will we be lighting Shabbat candles and… Read more »
"America's Got Talent" contestant Josh Orlian cracked up the show's judges with raunchy jokes. (Via YouTube) NEW YORK (JTA) — Josh Orlian cracked up the judges on “America’s Got Talent,” but his Orthodox day school wasn’t laughing. The 12-year-old kippah-wearing comic made his national television debut with a raunchyroutine packed with sexual innuendo. The show’s celebrity judges and studio audience seemed both stunned and entertained by… Read more »
Bride Katka Reszke and groom Slawomir Grunberg, made their wedding a celebration of Polish Jewish revival, June 22, 2014. (Ruth Ellen Gruber) WROCLAW, Poland (JTA) — When Katka Reszke and Slawomir Grunberg tied the knot at the historic White Stork synagogue in this southwestern Polish city, they were determined that the occasion would be more than just a wedding. They wanted it to be a symbol of how thousands of Polish… Read more »
WESTFIELD, N.J. (N.J. Jewish News) — Over the years, Temple Emanu-El of Westfield, the largest Reform synagogue in New Jersey, has been on the receiving end of public criticism for a variety of reasons. As a newly arrived rabbi in the late-1960s, I learned how our temple was upbraided… Read more »
