Tagged HEADLINES

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A day after Israel’s Cabinet announced that it would consider making a loyalty oath mandatory for non-Jewish immigrants, the question put to The Israel Project’s president and founder was simple enough. “How did your organization react?” Natasha Mozgovoya, the Washington correspondent for Israel’s daily Haaretz, asked… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — For the first time in history, a U.S. Supreme Court convened last week with three Jewish justices. And Jewish defense organizations had their eyes on … Arizona. Two of the three cases on the docket this session attracting special attention from Jewish groups come from the… Read more »

Let’s not be fooled. The opening weeks of the United Nations General Assembly feature numerous side meetings between Jewish organizations and dozens of visiting dignitaries. Many of the Europeans, and possibly some Arab delegates as well, will be expressing sympathy if not encouragement for Israel’s potential need to attack… Read more »

In the four weeks since direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks resumed, settlement construction has been identified widely as the most immediate obstacle to the survival of negotiations. In media accounts about the diplomatic standoff over the issue, Israel’s decision not to extend its self-imposed 10-month freeze on settlement building has… Read more »

Zev Garber will present “Shoah at the University: New Considerations in Holocaust Education” as part of the Shaol Pozez Memorial Lecture Series on Monday, Oct. 4 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Garber, emeritus professor and chair of Jewish studies and philosophy at Los Angeles Valley… Read more »

Sharon Glassberg

Sharon Glassberg, director of the Coalition for Jewish Education of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, and Guy Gelbart, director of the Israel Center, will present talks at Pima Community College Downtown Campus during Ethnic Studies Week, Oct. 1-7. Glassberg will discuss Jewish identity from a historical and modern… Read more »

Beloved: A Multifaith Pride Service to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and two-spirit communities, will be held Thursday, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El. Co-sponsored by the Wingspan Multifaith Working Group and the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s LGBT Jewish Inclusion Project, the service will… Read more »

Tucson’s Jewish History Museum, housed in Arizona’s first synagogue building at 564 S. Stone Ave., will open a century-old time capsule at its centennial celebration on Sunday, Oct. 24. The celebration will begin at noon with a street festival. The capsule will be opened at 2 p.m. Placed in… Read more »

Tedd Goldfinger

The Tucson Maimonides Society will present “Wine and Your Heart: Wine Tasting & Dinner” with guest speaker Dr. Tedd Goldfinger on Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010, at Skyline Country Club. Goldfinger is the founder of Desert Cardiology of Tucson Heart Center and chaired a Tucson Cardiology Update Colloquium for 13… Read more »

A recent survey of British Jewry showed a decline in every Jewish denomination since 1990 except for two groups: the strictly Orthodox haredi and the Masorti, or Conservative movement. Over those 20 years, both have nearly doubled. Researchers behind the report, published in May by the Board of Deputies… Read more »

The Third Annual Sukkot Water Drawing Celebration will be held Sunday, Sept. 26 at 4 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. It will focus on sustainability not only with respect to water, but also in community life. The PJ Library, a program administered by the Jewish Federation of… Read more »

Six fine kosher wines will be featured at the Temple Emanu-El Women of Reform Judaism “Beyond Manischewitz” Kosher Wine Tasting on Sunday, Sept. 16, from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Temple Emanu-El sukkah. Five local chefs will pair samples of their favorite recipes with the wines. Chefs will… Read more »

Steven Lightman

Philanthropist Steven Lightman will be honored at the Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging annual dinner on Sunday, Oct. 10 at 5 p.m. at Loews Ventana Canyon. The event will feature “Encore: A Salute to Musical Theatre” by performers from the University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film and… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — At Rosh Hashanah 5706, 65 years ago, World War II had just ended. For those few European Jews who had survived the Holocaust, the end of the war meant a slow and painful process of beginning anew and trying to rebuild shredded lives. While at… Read more »

Mandy Patinkin plays a man obsessed with the story of Anne Frank in "Compulsion," opening Sept. 16 in Berkeley, Calif.

BERKELEY, Calif. (JTA) — Mandy Patinkin says he only plays Jewish characters. Che Guevara, his Tony Award-winning role in the 1980 Broadway play, “Evita”? Jewish. Inigo “prepare to die” Montoya in “The Princess Bride”? Also Jewish. “Everything I do is Jewish. It’s who I am. It’s my soul,” said… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — While most people equate Sukkot with autumn vegetables, I picture the holiday as a tea party. Among Jews who build sukkahs, the evening meal is the most popular time to gather inside these modern-day harvest huts. Because temperatures often dip at night, I much prefer… Read more »

Imam Rauf

Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2010 9:31 AM Initially the controversy over building a $100-million Muslim community center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero was about location, location, location. Increasingly, however, attention has turned to the 61-year-old Sufi imam behind the project. Depending on who you ask, Rauf —… Read more »

We call ourselves “People of the Book” because of the commandment that every Jew study Torah. Over generations, this moniker has also come to signify a more general esteem for books and learning.  The metaphor of the book so permeates our identity that during this High Holiday season, we… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — High on the list of Jewish martyr stories still retold, or at least alluded to, every Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is the terrible medieval tale of Rabbi Amnon of Mainz. For refusing to appear before the Bishop of Regensburg, who had requested that Amnon… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — On a fall day in 1963, Abraham Joshua Heschel unburdened his soul. Speaking the truth without regard for whether it scandalized or hurt was something he would do fairly often in that decade of social upheaval. Already branded as an eccentric and an outsider, that… Read more »