Tagged HEADLINES

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent an official request to Russian President Vladimir Putin to pardon an Israeli-American woman sentenced in Russia to 7 1/2 years in prison after being convicted of smuggling marijuana into the country. The request submitted on Sunday to pardon Naama Issachar, 26,… Read more »

(JTA) — The chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is under fire for saying that a presentation to residence-hall advisors on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians was anti-Semitic. The presentation, called “Palestine & Great Return March: Palestinian Resistance to 70 Years of Israeli Terror,” prepared… Read more »

(JTA) — More than 10,000 people marched in Berlin against anti-Semitism and in a show of support for the victims of anti-Semitic violence in the city of Halle. The march on Sunday left from Bebelplatz, significant as a site of Nazi book-burning, to the New Synagogue in central Berlin.… Read more »

The Northwest Division of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has launched a special campaign called “The Next Step” to support its expansion to larger premises and operation of The Ruth & Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life. The center’s new facility now in use at 180 W. Magee… Read more »

If you are a Tucson Hebrew Academy student, you have probably met, or at least heard of, Gertrude Shankman, a resident at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging. THA students have been celebrating Shankman’s birthday every year since she turned 100. On Oct. 26, Shankman will turn 105. “It… Read more »

Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona is initiating a free support group for Jewish women of all ages who have been impacted by domestic violence. The LEAH (Let’s End Abusive Households) Support Group represents a safe environment for healing and support. Group activities may help in anxiety… Read more »

In the past seven years, the American Jewish population has grown 10 percent. It remains a population that is mostly liberal, college-educated, and overwhelmingly white. And it’s not getting any younger. This is all according to a new American Jewish population estimate of the 48 contiguous U.S. states put… Read more »

Abba, are you there? You died 4 1/2 years ago, but I still forget sometimes. I was driving in sixth gear the other day. I went to exit the freeway and, on the off-ramp, I downshifted enough that I was able to shift directly into fourth. You taught me… Read more »

As part of its balanced care method, Tucson’s Home Care Assistance caregivers offer adult clients care to help them live longer, happier, more balanced lives. That’s why the caregivers are trained in kosher care, to deliver a Jewish perspective to services and conform with Jewish laws and customs, according… Read more »

Joy Often repeated during the High Holiday season: “What are you celebrating now?” “Who cares? We Jews always pray, eat, and are merry!” During prayers on every Jewish holiday, we mention “Mo’adim L’Simcha,” a holiday to rejoice. Yet, on Sukkot there is an extra emphasis on being happy and… Read more »

Using a recipe Handmaker resident Betty Light shared, Bonnie Gottesman (left) and Rabbi Richard Safran were among a group of residents at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging who enjoyed making honey cakes Sept. 25 in preparation for Rosh Hashanah. Some added nuts and/or raisins, depending on their individual… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Archaeological excavations in northern Israel in preparation to build a highway off-ramp uncovered a 5,000-year-old city that was home to as many as 6,000 residents. It is one of the first and largest early Bronze Age settlements excavated in Israel, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority,… Read more »

WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — Students at the University of Warsaw, one of the largest Polish universities, commemorated the victims of a segregation policy against Jews introduced there 82 years ago. The university’s rector did not participate in the commemoration on Sunday. Ghetto benches, as they were called, were an… Read more »

(JTA) — Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria will “eventually become a nightmare for Israel.” Graham, one of the president’s staunchest supporters in the Senate, called the move “shortsighted and irresponsible” in a series of tweets. “The… Read more »

(JTA) — A 12-year-old girl with a degenerative brain malformation celebrated her bat mitzvah at the Los Angeles hospital where she has spent most of her life. Numa Beron was born with lissencephaly, which has left her unable to stand or speak. She was given three years to live,… Read more »

(JTA) — Midwest Jews may need to find something else to eat when Yom Kippur ends — tons of their bagels are now toast. Some 38,000 pounds of frozen bagels met an unhappy fate on Sunday, just a couple of days ahead of the Jewish Day of Atonement, when… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — The number of hate crimes against Jews in New York City has risen significantly over the first nine months of this year, part of a citywide rise in such offenses. The New York Police Department has reported 311 total hate crimes through September, as opposed… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has launched a Hebrew-language website and syndication service aimed at the Israeli public. The service features original Hebrew articles and videos with Hebrew translations of items published in English by JTA and adapted for Israeli audiences. JTA’s new Hebrew news site… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Police said a Jewish woman reported being harassed in Brooklyn on Rosh Hashanah. The 22-year-old said that she was approached on Sunday evening by a female teenager who “pulled her scarf and wig from her head,” a New York Police detective, Annette Shelton, told the… Read more »

(JTA) — Eric Pleskow, who escaped the Nazis to become a film executive whose movies won the Academy Award for best picture seven times, has died. He was 95. Pleskow was the president of the United Artists studio when it took home the best picture Oscars for “One Flew… Read more »