Tagged HEADLINES

CHICAGO — It is a familiar mantra following a hate crime: Representatives of both the targeted and other minority groups decry the attack as being not just against the victims, but “against all Americans.” At a moment when a particular community feels vulnerable, that principle affirms our nation’s noblest… Read more »

From Commemoration to Celebration The uniqueness and in a way, also the beauty, of Israel’s Independence Day (Yom Haatzmaut) is that it doesn’t stand on its own. Holocaust Memorial Day (Yom HaShoah) and the Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror (Yom Hazikaron) serve as the buildup,… Read more »

Students in the Tafnit program at the Amit State Religious High School in Kiryat Malachi, Tucson’s Partnership2Gether sister city, eat dinner during a study marathon.

While Arizona high school students have to take a test called AIMS, Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards, Israeli students need to face bagrut matriculation exams in at least eight subjects to finish high school with a degree recognized by the Israeli university system and used by the army and… Read more »

Bruce and Alayne Greenberg have been awarded the $2,500 Goldman Family Israel Scholarship Award from the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona for the Southwest Torah Institute 2014 Israel Experience Trip slated for May 4-18. Announcing the award on behalf of the Southwest Torah Institute, Rabbi Israel Becker expressed… Read more »

Young Women’s Cabinet, a two-year leadership development program through the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, is seeking young women of all Jewish backgrounds who are in their mid-20s through early 40s. The Young Women’s Cabinet consists of about 12 women each year who gain leadership development skills and exposure… Read more »

Supporters of Alan Gross, who has been imprisoned in Cuba since 2009, rally outside the White House on Dec. 3, 2013. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Alan Gross did not warn his family he was launching a hunger strike, but hearing the news, they understood why: The U.S. government subcontractor languishing in a Cuban prison feels forgotten. Gross,  a 64-year-old Jewish father of two from Potomac, Md., is currently serving a 15-year sentence… Read more »

“Berlin Diary” was the title of a book by William Shirer (author of the classic “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”) describing his experiences as a reporter in the dark days of Berlin in the late 1930s, as the early steps toward the Shoah were taking place.… Read more »

Israeli President Shimon Peres and Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite attend a remembrance ceremony at Panerial Memorial on Aug. 1, 2013 near Vilnius, Lithuania. Around 100,000 victims, more than half of them Jewish, were murdered at the site by the Germans and Lithuanian groups during World War II. (Moshe Milner/Israeli Government Press Office via Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — When a 2009 Holocaust-era assets conference concluded with a landmark statement of principles on Holocaust restitution, many restitution advocates had high hopes that a corner had been turned in the struggle for survivor justice. The Terezin Declaration, which had the support of 46 countries participating… Read more »

(JTA) — U.S. Secretary Of State John Kerry condemned as “grotesque” fliers that called on Jews in parts of Ukraine to register and pay a special tax to pro-Russian separatists. The fliers’ authenticity and origins are not clear. They appeared last week in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk,… Read more »

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (JTA) — Every Friday at noon, my 2-year-old daughter and I rush through the doors of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City here to meet my father for lunch. We are usually late, and the JCC’s Heritage Center, catering to active seniors (and their… Read more »

“You do not come to Israel to learn. You come to Israel to feel,” said a speaker at Israel Independence Hall. My feelings were so deep and profound that tears welled up uncontrollably often on Congregation Or Chadash’s mission to Israel, March 5 to 12. Let me try to… Read more »

Amy Hirshberg Lederman

Ever since I can remember, I have been in a relationship with God. Despite growing up in a family of agnostics, I always believed in, and even felt, the presence of God in my world. My idea of God as a child was that of a Biblical God —… Read more »

Rabbi Yossi Winner and his wife, Naomi, set up a Chabad tent on the University of Arizona mall each week.

Every Tuesday, my wife, Naomi, and I sit on campus under a tent meeting with students as they pass by in between their classes. One such Tuesday, a few weeks ago, I encountered an individual holding a big sign that read, “You all deserve hell.” After about an hour,… Read more »

Stuart Mellan

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has announced its slate of recommended officers and directors for the 2014-15 program year. The list of 26 names (see below: Nominees for JFSA officers, board named ) marks a significant restructuring of the JFSA board, which previously numbered more than 100 members.… Read more »

Rosie Eilat Kahn and Terry Allen Perl, JFSA Woman and Man of the Year

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will honor its 2014 award winners at its annual meeting and awards celebration on Thursday, May 1 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. “Feddy’s,” the custom metal and glass awards designed by Lynn Rae Lowe for the Federation, and other… Read more »

Ronnie Sebold

For more than 30 years Ronnie Sebold has been involved with the Tucson Hebrew Academy. She volunteered for 22 years, held two staff positions and her three children attended THA for a total of 19 years straight. Next month THA will honor Sebold at its annual Guardian Appreciation Brunch.… Read more »

Alan Baker (Courtesy Alan Baker)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — When New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie apologized to Republican donor Sheldon Adelson for using the term “occupied territories” to refer to the West Bank, critics pounced. Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” ridiculed the apology, insisting that the phrase is “widely accepted” and accurate. While the… Read more »

Yair Lapid says he would leave the coalition if the Israeli government did not "exhaust all options" in its peace negotiations with the Palestinians. (Elad Gutman)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid said he supports freezing settlement growth to help jump-start peace negotiations and vowed that his centrist Yesh Atid party would leave Israel’s governing coalition if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were responsible for the collapse of the peace process. In an… Read more »

The Etablissements Rene Neymann matzah factory is located in the Alsatian city of Wasselonne. (Courtesy of Etablissements Rene Neymann)

(JTA) — For most Jews, matzah season comes once a year. But for Jean-Claude Neymann, matzah, or “pain azyme” in French, is a defining family tradition. Neymann runs the oldest matzah bakery in France, located in the town of Wasselonne near the German border. The family company, Etablissements Rene… Read more »

Passover foods. Two words. Oy vey! I start moaning and complaining about Passover weeks before its arrival. Seder foods aside, which I actually enjoy, the intermediary days can be dreadful, as far as dietary restrictions are concerned. Besides refraining from eating gluten, grains, etc., I do not eat meat,… Read more »