Tagged HEADLINES

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Call it the age of “playlist Judaism.” That’s how Rabbi Kerry Olitzky describes engagement in Jewish life for the seemingly ever-increasing group showing up as “other” or “just Jewish” on recent American Jewish identity surveys. “I no longer have to buy the entire package in order… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Growing up outside of Chicago, Jillian Schwartz never expected that one day she would be an Israeli citizen. Now the hardest part of her immigrant experience is leaving Tel Aviv — with her roughly 17-feet-long Olympic equipment. “Trying to get out of here with poles… Read more »

Aaron Sorkin, the playwright, television writer and Oscar-winning screenwriter of “The Social Network,” is causing a stir with his new HBO series, “The Newsroom,” about the inside antics of a cable news show and its commentary on American journalism. Sorkin’s “The West Wing” and “Sports Night,” among others, have… Read more »

CHISINAU, Moldova (JTA) — To tour the largely empty Jewish communities of Moldova and its capital, Chisinau — once known by Jews the world over as Kishinev — is not to wonder where did all the Jews go but why there are any remaining. Overgrown cemeteries are all that… Read more »

Chief Justice John Roberts, an appointee of President George W. Bush, surprised many in voting to uphold President Obama's Affordable Care Act. (United States Supreme Court)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — American Jewish groups — with the notable exception of the Republican Jewish Coalition — were largely satisfied with the U.S. Supreme Court’s vote to uphold President Obama’s landmark Affordable Care Act in a 5-4 vote. Nancy Kaufman, CEO of the National Council for Jewish Women, was “thrilled”… Read more »

Michael Levin

I took my twin ten-year-old sons to a couple of Angels games this week, and I was shocked—shocked!—to discover just how little they knew about baseball. I don’t mean to criticize my sons. They know an awful lot about things that I’ll never know. Juggling. Magic. Origami. And technology,… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Swedish rescuer Raoul Wallenberg was born 100 years ago this summer, and his centennial is being commemorated with events in many cities across Europe and North America. On July 26, a symposium in his memory will be held at Yad Vashem’s International Institute for Holocaust… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — There is a solution to get us beyond the seemingly endless stalemates and complications that continue to characterize the ongoing debate over Holocaust-era insurance claims. And I do not believe it can be found in the well-intentioned bill before the U.S. Congress. This different approach… Read more »

Israel's national lacrosse team practices as it prepares for the European Lacrosse Championships, its first tournament. (Israel Lacrosse Facebook Page)

(JTA) — Israel’s national lacrosse team is clinging to a one-goal lead with 20 seconds remaining when the referee blows his whistle — the Wales coach wants a stick check on an Israeli player. The challenge fails, the stick is legal and the Israelis go on to upset heavily… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — My “Spidey Sense” is tingling! Almost half a century after the comic book superhero Spider-Man was conceived by Jewish writer Stan Lee, a Jewish actor named Andrew Garfield will don the red and blue Spandex for the forthcoming cinematic reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. As… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Several important Jewish organizations are standing behind a critical international treaty to support civil rights, dignity and hope for people with disabilities. However, grass-roots help is urgently needed to get it approved by the U.S. Senate before the political season overtakes the ability to get things… Read more »

The Northwest Division of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has a new space to call home. On July 2, the Jewish Federation — Northwest will open at 190 W. Magee Road, Suite 162, at the northeast corner of Magee and Oracle Roads. The Northwest Division will share the… Read more »

The Conservative movement — affirming that same-sex marriages have “the same sense of holiness and joy as that expressed in heterosexual marriages” — last month established rituals for same-sex wedding ceremonies. The landmark vote by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly follows… Read more »

Michael Fuerst enlisted in the Bundeswehr, West Germany’s armed forces paratroopers unit, in 1966. (Photo courtesy Michael Fuerst)

In an office amid a labyrinth of hallways in Germany’s Ministry of Defense, a short jaunt from where Claus von Stauffenberg was executed in 1944 for trying to kill Adolf Hitler, sits Bernhard Fischer, lieutenant colonel and Jew. What’s a nice Jewish guy doing in a place like this?… Read more »

Pam Bridgmon adjusts a cold cap, which reduces hair loss following chemotherapy, on Sharon Arkin. (Sheila Wilensky)

Tucsonan Sharon Arkin, 72, leads an energetic life — and she has no intention of letting cancer set any limits. After missing her annual gynecological exam and Pap smear in 2011, she went in January. An examination by her doctor discovered cancer cells, or a thickening in the walls… Read more »

Peter Singer speaking at a Veritas Forum event on the Massachusetts Institute of technology campus, March 2009. (Joel Travis Sage via CC)

SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) — He’s been brandished “the most dangerous man on earth,” accused of being a “public advocate of genocide” and likened to Josef Mengele, the notorious Nazi “Angel of Death.” Yet he’s also been hailed as “one of the world’s 100 most influential people” and “among the… Read more »

(JTA) — The 2011 Jewish Community Study of New York was released with some fanfare earlier this month. Some of the UJA-Federation of New York’s survey results came as somewhat of a surprise. After a decrease from about 2 million Jews in 1970 to 1.4 million in both 1991… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Most Jewish groups who have weighed in on Arizona’s controversial immigration law saw progress in the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to repeal three of the law’s four parts, but had concerns that law enforcement officials would still be allowed to check the legal immigration status of… Read more »

Randy Altschuler, right, a Republican candidate in the race for New York's first congressional district, campaigning with Rep. Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader and the only Republican Jewish lawmaker in Congress, during Altshuler's losing 2010 race against Rep. Tim Bishop. (Courtesy Randy Altschuler for Congress)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish Republicans nationwide are hoping that a heated congressional race rematch in the New York suburbs puts a second Jewish Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives. Following a narrow 593-vote defeat two years ago to Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.), Jewish businessman Randy Altschuler again is… Read more »

Israel’s government coupled its compliance with a Supreme Court order to remove buildings from a neighborhood on the outskirts of the Beit El settlement with the announcement of new construction in several West Bank areas. The latter action drew a sharp rebuke from the United States and others. Meanwhile,… Read more »