Lightened-up kasha varnishkes (Shannon Sarna)
(The Nosher via JTA) — Kasha varnishkes is a much beloved Ashkenazi comfort food dish. Traditionally made with bow tie pasta, onions, schmaltz and kasha (buckwheat), it is filling, comforting peasant food at its best. I wanted to add a little bit of healthfulness into the traditional recipe, so we decided to swap… Read more »
Bryan Davis, executive director of the Jewish History Museum, leads cadets from the Southern Arizona Law Enforcement Training Center on a tour of the Holocaust History Center, Jan. 11, 2017. (Courtesy Jewish History Museum)
Tucson’s Holocaust History Center is raising the consciousness of new law enforcement officers. The “What You Do Matters: Lessons from the Holocaust” program marks a new educational partnership between the Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center and law enforcement in Arizona. The classes focus on teaching new cadets about the… Read more »
Local poet Brandon Shimoda speaks at the Holocaust History Center on Jan. 20. (Samuel Ace)
More than 100 people packed the Holocaust History Center at the Jewish History Museum on Friday, Jan. 20 for a gallery chat, “States of Exile: Arizona’s place, and the place of Arizona, in the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans,” with Tucson poet Brandon Shimoda. After acknowledging the ancestors of… Read more »
The Tucson Jewish Community Center will hold a series of four “Celebration of Heritage” concerts beginning Feb. 15. Roza Simkhovich, a longtime community volunteer and former Tucson J board member, will host the series. All performances will be held at 6:30 p.m. and include: Wednesday, Feb. 15 — The… Read more »
David Alexander Johnston, who plays two Holocaust survivors, takes Germany up on its offer of return, as citizens (Lucille Petty and Steve Wood) bear witness in ‘Lebensraum.’ (Tim Fuller)
Invisible Theatre will stage “Lebensraum” by award-winning playwright Israel Horovitz Feb. 7-19. The play is set at the dawn of the 21st century. The new German chancellor invites 6 million Jews from around the world to make Germany their home as a gesture of reconciliation. Three actors play more… Read more »
Two Ingredient Rugelach Recipe (Shannon Sarna)
(The Nosher via JTA) — Everyone enjoys a good recipe hack, and I think you will love this one: two ingredient rugelach! That’s right: just a package of puff pastry, filling and that’s it. You can make flaky, sweet, indulgent rugelach for your next Shabbat dinner, brunch or just… Read more »
Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” Jan. 1, 1971. (CBS via Getty Images)
(JTA) — There are plenty of paradigms in the history of humor for how Jews and non-Jews get along, or don’t: as persecutors and victims, as saviors and saved, as allies against a common oppressor. All these are fraught with the tensions between the powerful and the disempowered,… Read more »
True Concord performs at Lincoln Center in 2015. (Courtesy True Concord Voices & Orchestra)
True Concord Voices & Orchestra will perform Felix Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” at the 5th annual Tucson Desert Song Festival later this month. Mendelssohn’s oratorio retells events from the life of Prophet Elijah in the Books of Kings. “‘Elijah’ is, like its composer, complex,” says True Concord Musical Director Eric Holtan.… Read more »
Arizona Balalaika Orchestra
The Arizona Balalaika Orchestra will present its 37th annual concert of traditional folk music from Russia, Poland, Ukraine and other Slavic countries, on Saturday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. at Pima Community College Center for the Arts Proscenium Theater, West Campus, 2202 W. Anklam Road. “The audience will certainly… Read more »
"Gate's Pass" by Lauri Kaye
Local artist Lauri Kaye’s “A Tucson Portrait Story” series will be displayed in the Upper Link Gallery at the Tucson International Airport from Feb. 6-March 16. The drawings depict iconic Tucson people, places and events, from the Loft Cinema to street musicians to monsoon rains, in a graphic journalistic… Read more »
"Left Turn Lane #1" by Thelma Scudi Thelma Scudi, a self-trained artist from Tucson, works in cloth and mixed media and credits her talent to her ability to see wonder and beauty in spite of reality. An exhibit of her art quilts, “The Left Turn Lane,” will be on display at the Tucson Jewish Community Center… Read more »
Arsenio Hall Arsenio Hall, a comedian, actor and television star, believes in the healing power of laughter, and he surrounds himself with like-minded people. “The greatest thing in the world is laughter, from my son to my friends, laughter keeps you young and it keeps you alive,” says Hall. Nothing impedes… Read more »
Geza Rohrig in "Son of Saul" (Courtesy Jewish History Museum)
Despite receiving critical acclaim for masterfully portraying the lead role in the Academy Award-winning film “Son of Saul,” Hungarian-born Geza Rohrig does not identify as an actor. “I’m an accidental actor. I’m a writer, that’s what I do. It gives me much more freedom, because I can write whatever… Read more »
A commercial for Sensibo, a “smart” air conditioner. (Screenshot from YouTube)
(JTA) — As any pro-Israel activist will tell you, innovators from the Jewish state have invented products and technologies you use all the time, from instant-messaging technology to Waze, the crowdsourced traffic app. Israel’s tech scene is famously thriving, with about 5,000 startups across the country. Nearly 1,500 of those are in Tel Aviv… Read more »
(Screenshot from YouTube)
(JTA) — As the folks on the next season of “Game of Thrones” might say, “Winter is here.” That means it’s time to get under the covers and engage in the national pastime of binge-watching TV shows. Since Netflix pioneered the streaming model in the late 2000s, other… Read more »
SONY DSC
(The Nosher via JTA) — My 4-year-old, previously meatball-loving child has recently decided, in fact, she does not like meatballs any longer. Or tomato sauce. My husband does not like spaghetti squash. And I am trying to cut back on my carbs just a smidge. In short, dinner is… Read more »
A new exhibit at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum allows visitors to video chat with refugees. (Courtesy of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – He’d rather talk to young women than answer my insistent line of questioning. He speaks in terms that make me feel like a Luddite, and when I bring up stuff he’d rather not talk about, out comes the smartphone. Omar, a Syrian refugee passing time… Read more »
Saul Kaye has released four albums of Jewish blues. (Courtesy of Kaye)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Saul Kaye never wanted to be a “Jewish blues” player. In his opinion, the Jewish music he had heard growing up in Northern California’s Bay Area ranged from “really bad to horrible.” In 2009, he was touring as a rock musician, playing hundreds of… Read more »
(The Nosher via JTA) — Brrrr, it’s cold outside. But we know exactly what you need to warm up: some spicy, hawaij hot cocoa. Hawaij is an important, if not nearly sacred, Yemenite spice blend. It’s one of the most important ingredients in Yemenite cooking, with both savory blends using coriander, turmeric… Read more »
Pawel Sawicki guiding journalists through the so-called central sauna of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dec. 1, 2016. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
OSWIECIM, Poland (JTA) — Long before he moved here to become the spokesman for the Auschwitz museum and lead its social media effort, Pawel Sawicki’s life was intricately connected to this sleepy town near Krakow. A Warsaw-area radio journalist, Sawicki used to visit Oswiecim as a boy on… Read more »
