How do you break into the circle? A concierge service to help people navigate the Jewish community is one of several new initiatives to come out of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s strategic planning process. (Allegro Photography, http://allegrophotography.com)
May 15, 2013
By Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor
Looking for a way to jump into a Jewish community “can be a very lonely place,” says Liz Kanter Groskind, a member of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona strategic planning steering committee. That’s why a “concierge” service to help people at various stages of life find Jewish community programs, events and services to suit [...]
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Sridhar Silberfein, raised in a Jewish family on Long Island, N.Y., is the founder of the Hindu yoga festival Bhakti Fest. (Rebecca Spence)
May 21, 2013
By Rebecca Spence, JTA
JOSHUA TREE, Calif. (JTA) — In 1968, only six years after founding the AEPi chapter at his Long Island University campus, Steven Silberfein took one of the thousand names of the Hindu god Vishnu and became Sridhar Silberfein. A year later, the one-time Jewish fraternity brother escorted the Hindu teacher Swami Satchidananda to the stage [...]
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Shira Ledman, president and CEO of Jewish Family & Children's Services
May 15, 2013
By Renee Claire, Special to the AJP
“Eileen” is struggling. Once an independent business woman, she now finds herself isolated and depressed due to age-related macular degeneration and limited mobility. Her isolation is ironic, since her three grown children have moved back in with her. But as each of these adult children has either a mental or physical disability, Eileen doesn’t get [...]
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Gwen Harvey, author of ‘Esperanza Means Hope,’ with Tucson Hebrew Academy fourth graders Breanna Yalen and Jonah Parnaby, holding their painting inspired by characters in the book. (Sheila Wilensky/AJP)
What could be more exciting for fourth graders than to read a book and have the author visit their classroom? On April 26, Gwen Harvey, former director of education at the Arizona Historical Society and the author of “Esperanza Means Hope,” visited Tucson Hebrew Academy. “They’re so excited,” said their general studies teacher, Chris Graves. [...]
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Ilan Fluss from Mashav, the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s aid agency, helps to implement an advanced irrigation system in Senegal in 2011. (Israel21c)
May 15, 2013
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Struggling to be heard over a flock of bleating sheep, Israel’s ambassador to Senegal invites a crowd of impoverished Muslims to help themselves to about 100 sacrificial animals that the embassy corralled at a dusty community center here. The October distribution, held as French troops battled Islamists in neighboring Mali and one month after Muslim [...]
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