Tagged HEADLINES

With new measures tightening sanctions on Iran, the United States moved one step further toward effectively cutting off the Islamic Republic’s economy from the West. President Obama issued the measures Monday in the form of an executive order. At a news conference the same day, Secretary of State Hillary… Read more »

Children of all ages and their parents are invited to celebrate at Shalom Tucson’s Hanukkah Mall Madness on Sunday, Dec. 4, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Park Place, near the food court. Local synagogues, organizations, and Jewish agencies will present arts and crafts activities, including holiday cards and… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (The Jewish Journal) — The USC Shoah Foundation Institute is home to more than 52,000 videotaped testimonies about the Holocaust, and people searching the archive’s index enter a single keyword into their queries more than any other: “Auschwitz.” “Auschwitz seems to be the one that people go… Read more »

Dennis Ross, shown speaking at a Washington Institute for Near East Policy conference, and the White House cited his desire to spend more time with his family as the reason for stepping down as President Obama's top Middle East strategist. (Stan Barouh, courtesy of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Dennis Ross got back in the driver’s seat, yet three years later the peace is still missing. Ross, a veteran of four failed presidential pushes for Middle East peace, announced Nov. 10 that he would be leaving his post as President Obama’s top Middle East strategist… Read more »

Ari Zivotofsky and his son Menachem speak to the press outside the U.S. Supreme Court Nov. 8. (Richard Greenberg)

The U.S. Supreme Court convened Monday to ponder the implications of a single word that is conspicuously missing from the passport of a 9-year-old boy who was born in Jerusalem. His name is Menachem Binyamin Zivotofsky, the son of Ari and Naomi Siegman Zivotofsky, Americans who made aliyah in… Read more »

Southern Arizona congregations and organizations will offer a Global Week of Jewish Learning Nov. 11-17, again expanding on the Global Day of Jewish Learning inaugurated last year in celebration of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz’s completion of his multi-volume Talmud translation. This year’s theme is the unity of the Jewish people… Read more »

Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon

Every now and then there are some times when being a congregational rabbi is just, well, hard. Some of this is seasonal: of course there are the High Holy Days, with the increased expectations and attendance, plethora of services to officiate and sermons to deliver, complex and demanding music… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — They may have scored a victory at UNESCO, but the Palestinians are running into new obstacles on their push for statehood recognition at the United Nations. The effort to pursue the issue at the U.N. Security Council has encountered a stumbling block in Bosnia, where the… Read more »

This is the 73rd anniversary of Kristallnacht, and the first one I will mark without my father.  Kristallnacht is referred to as the “night of broken glass.” But it was much more. It was the beginning of the end of most of European Jewry. It was two days of… Read more »

The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona will present a symposium on “The U.S.-Israel Relationship: On the Verge of a Paradigmatic Shift?” on Wednesday, Nov. 9, from 1 to 9 p.m. The event, with experts from the East and West Coasts and the UA, will… Read more »

Unveiling of the monument on Chaplains Hill in Arlington National Cemetary to 14 Jewish chaplains who died in service to the United States during World War II, the early years of the Cold War and in Southeast Asia. (Karen Wendkos)

ARLINGTON, Va. (JTA) — Fourteen Jewish military chaplains who gave their lives in service to their country finally have a place of honor in Arlington National Cemetery. Family members of the fallen chaplains were joined Monday by community leaders, politicians, and current and retired military personnel for a ceremony… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — In her final months as a political science major at the University of Pittsburgh, Susanna Zlotnikov had a positive outlook about landing a job. But as the months passed and her network of contacts led only to dead ends, Zlotnikov decided she needed a backup.… Read more »

The price of allowing murders to go free By Sherri Mandell Why is it that terror victims are seemingly the only ones against the prisoner exchange? While other Israelis are rejoicing, we are in despair. Arnold and Frimet Roth circulated a petition against the release of Ahlam Tamimi, an… Read more »

An Occupy Wall Street protestor who says his name is David Smith holds a sign in Zuccotti Park in New York that offers an overtly anti-Jewish message, Oct. 11­. (neolibertariannet via YouTube)

NEW YORK (JTA) — The most unloved man in Zuccotti Park, the epicenter of the Occupy Wall Street protests, isn’t a Wall Street banker but a fellow who wears a baseball cap and carries signs denouncing “Jewish bankers.” The man, who told Slate his name is David Smith, comes… Read more »

Rep. Kay granger, the chairwoman of the foreign operations subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, greets Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a subcommittee hearing while Rep. Nita Lowey, the subcommittee's senior Democrat, looks on, March 11, 2011. (Courtesy office of rep. Kay Granger)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — In any other town at any other time they would be a boring, if worthy, pair: Wonkish grandmothers sorting through nitty-gritty foreign policy and budgetary details to keep their country influential and safe. But in Washington at a time of intense partisan rancor, the friendly and… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Republican presidents have been guiding Israel toward the peace table — sometimes not so gently — almost since the Jewish state was born more than six decades ago. But in the recent round of debates, the crop of candidates vying for the GOP nomination have been… Read more »

It’s so confusing … You’ve heard the arguments. All the spin, the ads, the furious blogs and heated discussions about a possible U.N. vote to acclaim an “Independent, Unified Palestinian State.” What lofty language. Independent. Unified. Words and concepts dear to our hearts. But would such a state, merely… Read more »

PHILADELPHIA (Jewish Exponent) — By now, the whole world knows the name and face of Joshua Fattal, the 29-year-old Elkins Park, Pa., native who spent 26 months in an Iranian prison before being reunited with his family last week in Oman and arriving back on U.S. soil on Sunday.… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Mahmoud Abbas outlined a vision for an independent Palestine that hewed to the two-state formula but also revived rhetoric that hearkened back to an era of Palestinian belligerence. Shortly after concluding his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Friday, the Palestinian Authority president was… Read more »

Asked why we fast on Yom Kippur, the prophet Isaiah responded, “Is it not to share your bread with the hungry?” (Isaiah 58:6) Each year, the local Jewish community honors Isaiah with the Project Isaiah High Holidays food drive benefiting the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona. This year,… Read more »