Tagged Israel

(L-R) Itamar Rabinovich, Alon Pinkas, Beth Nakhai (symposium organizer and associate professor, Arizona Center for Judaic Studies), David Makovsky, Gil Riback, Steven Spiegel and Peter Beinart at the University of Arizona’s “Symposium on the U.S.-Israel Relationship” Nov. 9. (Farzad Nakhai)

Middle East experts from the East Coast to the West Coast landed in Tucson to air their views at a “Symposium on the U.S.-Israel Relationship: On the Verge of a Paradigmatic Shift?” on Nov. 9, sponsored by the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona. “There’s… Read more »

J. Edward Wright

The Weintraub Israel Center and Congregation Or Chadash will hold an adult education series, “Israel and Our Jewish Roots,” with nine sessions from Nov. 30 through March 22, 2012. The series will present different aspects of the Jewish connection to the land and country of Israel. J. Edward Wright,… 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 »

Stuart and Nancy Mellan with Murray Greenfield (center), an American seaman who smuggled Jews out of Europe into Palestine in 1947, at Atlit, the British detention camp where Greenfield was held with Jewish refugees.

My first trip to Israel was in 1982 (it still seems a bit surreal when I think of it) when I went with the federation national leadership into Lebanon to witness the Israeli military action that resulted in Lebanon’s liberation from the Palestinian Liberation Organization. On that remarkable journey… Read more »

Israel is right,” “Israel is wrong,” Israel should do this or that … wherever I go, whatever I do, it seems many American Jews try to keep their engagement with Israel on a political basis. Sometimes it feels as if the only connection to Israel is through the Israeli-Arab… Read more »

A woman on King George Street in Jerusalem appears perplexed picking from the array of sufganiyot choices for Chanukah. (Nati Shohat/Flash 90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — They’re making sufganiyot on the streets of Israel; Chanukah must be near. Actually it started feeling like Chanukah here about two days after Sukkot, when the first vendors started frying the delicious and caloric doughnuts in vats of oil in front of bakeries and on the… Read more »

Danny Danon, a Knesset member and a leader of the settlement movement, making a point to Herman Cain after leading the Republican presidential candidate on a tour of the tunnels beneath Jerusalem's Western Wall, August 2011. (George Lange Studios)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Call Herman Cain the crash-course pro-Israel candidate. Since stumbling in May on a question about Palestinians and the right of return, the one-time pizza executive who recently rocketed to the top of GOP presidential polls has visited Israel and read up about the Jewish state. “Mr.… Read more »

I have no idea what it’s like to send your son off to the army. And before I moved to Israel, I didn’t much think about it. Of course, my oldest child is not even 9, but still, any mother will tell you that time passes quickly when you are… Read more »

I am writing this several days after Gilad Shalit was released, Muammar Gadhafi was killed and the Jewish people worldwide have celebrated Simchat Torah, which marks the end of Torah readings for one year and the start of Torah readings for the new year. First there was darkness, the… 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 »

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 »

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks on as freed soldier Gilad Shalit is embraced by his father, Noam, at Israel’s Tel Nef Air Force base shortly after Shalit’s release from more than five years of captivity, Oct. 18, 2011. (GPO)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — It seemed that all of Israel breathed a sigh of relief when Gilad Shalit returned to Israel after being transferred from Hamas captivity in Gaza into Egyptian custody. After more than five years of campaigning for Shalit’s release, and seeing little of him other than the… Read more »

A chair for Gilad Shalit was displayed on the bimah at Temple Emanu-El throughout the High Holidays.

During this year’s High Holiday services, an empty, decorated chair was displayed on the bimah at Temple Emanu-El as a reminder of the ongoing captivity of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped by Hamas five years ago and has been held in Gaza. The idea for the chair… Read more »

Uri Banai

As Israeli actor and singer/songwriter Uri Banai takes the concert stage at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on Sunday, Oct. 30, he will take the audience on a journey through the history of his family — one of Israel’s leading entertainment dynasties. Told through songs, video clips, rare photos… Read more »

Israeli scientist Dan Shechtman explaining his Nobel Prize-winning theory to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Oct. 6, 2011. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO/Flash 90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Dan Shechtman remembers the day he was kicked out of a research group because of the theory that last week won him the Nobel Prize in chemistry. “Read this book. What you say is impossible,” the group leader at the National Bureau of Standards in Maryland,… Read more »

KFAR SABA, Israel (JTA) — The Israeli Labor Party’s new leader, Shelly Yachimovich, makes a grand entrance at the annual Rosh Hashanah toast for party activists. Well over an hour after the guests begin munching on puff pastries, she is greeted like a conquering hero as she wades into… 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 »

(L-R) Dakota Kordsiemon, Daniel Goldstein, Shawn Spitzer and Austen Berens paint a mural at a school in Kiryat Shmona during the “Day of Caring, Day of Sharing.” (Courtesy TJCC)

Each year for the past 15 years, the Tucson Jewish Community Center has taken a delegation of young athletes to the JCC Maccabi Games in another U.S. city: Omaha, or Boca Raton, or Dallas. In 2000, Tucson hosted the games, which brought excitement and nachas (pride) to our city… Read more »

Nicole Siegel, a University of Arizona sophomore from Columbia, Md., wears a t-shirt displaying the names of 20 campuses taking part in Hillel’s “Talk Israel: Join the Conversation” initiative. (Sheila Wilensky)

The University of Arizona Mall is often peppered with tents promoting various causes, but on Sept. 21 the discussion inside the UA Hillel Foundation’s “Talk Israel: Join the Conversation” tent was reminiscent of college teach-ins during the 1960s. Around 30 students and faculty were standing around or sitting on… Read more »

President Obama, meeting with his Brazilian counterpart, Dilma Roussef, at the United Nations, is canvassing world leaders to oppose a bid by the Palestinians for statehood recognition, Sept. 20, 2011. (Office of Brazilian president)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Was it a speech to help launch his campaign for re-election, or an address to bury hopes for immediate Palestinian statehood recognition? Both assessments marked the immediate reaction to President Obama’s speech Wednesday at the United Nations General Assembly, and there was ammunition for both arguments.… Read more »