Tagged HEADLINES

U.S. cuts to Palestinians begin to have impact

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Reports of rollbacks in Palestinian aid projects are emerging as massive cuts in U.S. aid to the Palestinians kick in. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that up to 90,000 Palestinians will not get food aid in programs that are administered by nongovernmental organizations funded by U.S.… Read more »

Terrorist attacks in Israel decrease sharply despite 3 deaths

(JTA) — The number of terrorist attacks against Israelis dropped by 75 percent last month over November, but it was also the deadliest month since March with three people killed. The downturn in attacks was mostly due to Hamas inactivity along the border with Gaza, the Israel Security Agency… Read more »

‘The Invisibles’ tells the story of Jews who somehow survived in Nazi Berlin

Aaron Altaras plays Eugen Friede in "The Invisibles." (Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment)

(JTA) — In May 1943, after years of killings and deportations, the Nazis declared Berlin “judenfrei,” or free of Jews. What they didn’t know was that approximately 7,000 Jews remained in hiding in the city, and not only in attics and basements — often in plain sight. “The Invisibles,”… Read more »

New Yorker wins Israeli honor for helping Syrian refugees

(JTA) – Israeli President Reuven Rivlin honored an American-Jewish academic for her efforts to help Syrian refugees. Rivlin praised the actions of Georgette Bennett at an awards ceremony Thursday in Tel Aviv for eight groups or individuals deemed to have made a positive impact in the developing world. Bennett, 72,… Read more »

Tale of wife’s recovery brims with love, dark humor

"Struck: A Husband's Memoir of Trauma and Triumph"

Douglas Segal’s “Struck: A Husband’s Memoir of Trauma and Triumph” is a riveting book. It’s heartbreaking, inspiring, unflinchingly honest, and often funny as hell, which is something of a surprise in a book that starts off with the author’s wife and 12-year-old daughter caught up in a horrific car… Read more »

UA team uses genetics to tackle brain cancer

Michael Hammer, Ph.D. (left), and Baowei Chen, Ph.D., examine cells in which the WIF-1 gene is silenced. (Kris Hanning)

Glioblastoma is a deadly brain cancer that grabbed headlines for claiming the lives of Sens. Edward Kennedy and John McCain. Michael Hammer, Ph.D., and a team of University of Arizona researchers have discovered that the disease could be “tricked” into sparing more of its victims. The researchers looked for… Read more »

JFSA Super Sunday brings generations together

Volunteers and Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona staff work together at the 2017 Super Sunday. This year’s phone-a-thon is planned for Jan. 27. (Courtesy of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona)

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is gearing up for its annual Super Sunday phone-a-thon on Jan. 27 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, when volunteers will call members of the Tucson Jewish community seeking donations to the Federation’s 2019 Community Campaign. Super Sunday signals that the end of… Read more »

Amos Oz’s fiction is forever, while reality left his politics behind

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin speaks at a memorial service for novelist Amos Oz in Tel Aviv, Dec.31, 2018. (Mark Neiman)

The young nation of Israel has witnessed in recent years a dwindling of its founding generation — from the passing of statesmen like Shimon Peres to the death last month of novelist and political activist Amos Oz. Oz was 79; Israel is but 70. Oz was old enough to… Read more »

Hillel to host Pryor in ‘Fried Chicken and Latkes’

Rain Pryor

Rain Pryor is bringing her one-woman show, “Fried Chicken and Latkes,” to Tucson next month. Pryor, 49, is the daughter of the late comedy icon Richard Pryor and a Jewish go-go dancer-turned-astronomer, Shelley R. Bonus. In the show, she plays 11 different characters, from her famous father to her… Read more »

UA to present concert of Jewish music

Jeremy Huw Williams

Editor’s note: A second concert, in which Argentine pianist and conductor Ricardo Hegman was to play works by the renowned Israeli composer Andres Hadju, was canceled on Jan. 10 because Hegman will not be able to get a visa in time.  Daniel Asia, a composer and University of Arizona… Read more »

Nazi hunters’ memoir wins top national Jewish book award

(JTA) — Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, two prominent French Nazi hunters, won the Jewish Book Council’s top national book award on Wednesday. “Hunting the Truth: Memoirs of Serge and Beate Klarsfeld” includes first person accounts of the couple’s 50-plus years of pursuing Nazi war criminals. The Jewish Book Council… Read more »