Tagged HEADLINES

Here’s a Passover menu that’s low on calories and carbs

I’m a big fan of whole grains, but they can easily become heavy — even the healthy ones. I’m offering a lighter, lower calorie and lower carbohydrate option for Passover meals this year. I love cauliflower as a stand-in for potatoes and rice. Not only is it delicious, it’s… Read more »

Why this cherished, home-based holiday is about a lot more than good food

A scene from Exodus

What is the essence of Passover? On the one hand, it seems obvious: Passover is about gathering together with loved ones to recall, through sumptuous home rituals, the exodus from Egypt. We gather round our seder tables and quickly become engulfed in the warmth of family and friends, the… Read more »

These North American baby boomers teach Israeli kids English

IsraelConnect, which pairs Israeli students with senior citizen English tutors in North America, works mostly with schools on Israel's periphery. (Courtesy of Israel Connect)

(JTA) — There’s no reason Hodaya Koskas and Barrett Brickell would know each other. Koskas, 14, is a high school student from a small city in central Israel who takes ballet classes and hopes to be a dancer. Brickell, 71, is a retired schoolteacher from Ottawa, Canada. But they’ve… Read more »

OP-ED: We need a rabbinic resistance to the religious right

A Torah reading at the Central Conference of American Rabbis' annual convention. (CCAR)

IRVINE, Calif. (JTA) — When most people think about the intersection of faith and political activism, the religious right comes to mind. And there’s no doubt that the current leaders of our government are closely aligned with the agenda of religious conservatives, even if they often don’t live up… Read more »

5 Haggadahs and other Passover supplements to modernize your seder this year

Even an 18th-century Haggadah from Switzerland like the one seen here could benefit from a link to the present. (Godong/UIG via Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Although Jews have celebrated Passover by reading from the Haggadah in one form or another for 2,000 years, Jewish organizations and publishers strive each year to connect the holiday to modern times with fresh Haggadahs as well as supplements. If you’re looking to give your seder a… Read more »

OP-ED: ‘Nobody is talking about anti-Semitism.’ You’re kidding, right?

White supremacists sparring with counterprotesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Emancipation Park in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12, 2017. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Slate podcaster Mike Pesca has a theory that whenever President Donald Trump says “everybody” it means “almost nobody,” and when he says “nobody” or “anybody” it means “almost everybody.” Try it: When Trump said, “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated” — well, nearly everybody disagreed. And when he says,… Read more »

OP-ED: Why I led my Orthodox Jewish classmates on the national gun control walkout

Students at the Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Skokie, Ill., holding a sign at their walkout to protest gun violence, March 14, 2018. (Ida Crown Jewish Academy)

CHICAGO (JTA) — I’m a sophomore at Ida Crown Jewish Academy, the largest Modern Orthodox high school in the Chicagoland area. When I heard about the #ENOUGH national school walkout, I immediately wondered how my school could participate. Our school motto is “Inspiring Bnei and Bnot Torah to thrive… Read more »

OP-ED: Poland was a world leader in the cause of Holocaust remembrance. It can be again.

A view of the barracks from Auschwitz-Birkenau in the U.S. Holocaust Museum's permanent exhibition. (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Recent alarming events in Poland, most notably a law “protecting the reputation of the Polish nation” by criminalizing certain speech regarding the Holocaust, have led me to reflect on my own relationship with that country. It’s a relationship that spans three decades, dozens of visits, various… Read more »

A refreshing romantic comedy about an autistic couple who meet at a Jewish community center

Samantha Elisofon and Brandon Polansky in a scene from "Keep the Change." (Kino Lorber Films)

(JTA) — On the surface, the indie comedy “Keep the Change” tells a conventional love story: A snooty rich boy meets a poor girl. They start dating, despite the objections of his parents, who assume that she’s a gold digger. The two argue. They part. Ultimately the snooty rich… Read more »

Your government is funding houses of worship. Here’s why no one noticed.

Piles of ruined books from United Orthodox Synagogues of Houston. The congregation lost many of its prayer books during Hurricane Harvey and replenished them through donations. (Courtesy of United Orthodox Synagogues)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President George W. Bush’s first act as president, on Jan. 29, 2001, was to open an office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Church-state separations that had hindered such partnerships, he said in a statement, were “inherently unfair.” Jewish groups, civil libertarians and Democrats immediately raised concerns,… Read more »

Trump administration backs PLO in terror lawsuit, angering conservatives

A view of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., Dec. 4, 2017. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Trump administration sided with the Palestine Liberation Organization in a terrorism lawsuit that the Supreme Court may soon consider, drawing an angry rebuke from conservatives, including one of its most steadfast Jewish community defenders, the Zionist Organization of America. In 2015, a federal jury in… Read more »

Jews agree that Farrakhan is anti-Semitic. After that, it gets complicated.

Louis Farrakhan at a basketball game at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, July 23, 2017. (Streeter Lecka/BIG3/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Both have unequivocally condemned Louis Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism. Both say that fighting anti-Semitism is a necessary part of the broader struggle against bigotry and oppression. Both seek to build alliances with other minority groups in that fight. So an alliance would seem natural between the Anti-Defamation League, a… Read more »

Why some Jews in Russia don’t think Putin’s comment about them was anti-Semitic

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, left, and Alexander Boroda, head of the Federation of Jewish Communities, during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Dec. 28, 2016. (Alexei Druzhinin/AFP/Getty Images)

(JTA) — When Boruch Gorin, a well-known rabbi in Moscow, traveled for the first time from Russia to the United States, a U.S. Customs officer asked him whether he was Russian. “I said, ‘No, I’m not Russian — I’m Jewish,’” Gorin recalled Monday, 27 years after the exchange at… Read more »

Making Passover possible for those in need

Volunteers Adidi Juma (left) and Barbara Brumer assemble Passover packages at Jewish Family & Children’s Services. (Courtesy Jewish Family & Children's Services)

The annual Matza & More program has served thousands of households in Tucson. The project ensures that needy Jewish individuals and families in the community have the necessities to celebrate Passover with joy and dignity. For more than 40 years, Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona has… Read more »

Second volume preserving local survivor stories available

Volume 2 of “To Tell Our Stories: Holocaust Survivors of Southern Arizona” will be among hundreds of  books represented at this weekend’s Tucson Festival of Books,  March 10-11 at the University of Arizona. The newly-released book chronicles 45 local Holocaust survivors’ stories. It is the second book in a… Read more »

THA STEM, health fests to offer fun, knowledge

Cuddle a cockroach, go nose to nose with a skunk, or fly a drone. It’s kids’ choice at Tucson Hebrew Academy’s 4th Annual STEM Festival, Sunday, March 18. STEM encompasses science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The free, family fun fair will offer 50 different exhibits with hands-on activities or… Read more »

CCAR reverses suspension, reinstates local rabbi

On Friday, Feb. 16, 2018 the Board of Appeals of the Central Conference of American Rabbis issued its final opinion in which it voted unanimously “in the interest of substantial fairness” to reverse my suspension (reported here in the Arizona Jewish Post in September) and reinstate me immediately.  I… Read more »