Danielle Levy and Shay Friedwald (Courtesy Weintraub Israel Center)
Shalom shalom to all of our readers. Let’s catch up: We celebrated the High Holidays away from home. Although we kept thinking of our family in Israel, we still had the honor of celebrating here, with our new Tucson family. To be honest, seeing cars driving on the streets… Read more »
Bob Kovitz during his U.S. Army basic training at Fort Ord in Monterey, California, in 1969. Courtesy Bob Kovitz
Fifty years ago, I reported to the U.S. Army induction center in Los Angeles. My father, who was a World War II veteran, later described the experience of driving me to the center as the worst day of his life. Why was a Jewish graduate student from the University… Read more »
Rabbi Robert Eisen Finish the sentence: “If not now, _____” I would venture to guess that most of us would immediately call to mind the famous passage attributed to Hillel the Elder (Pirkei Avot 1:14): If I am not for myself, who is for me? When I am for myself, what am… Read more »
(Zoran Kokanovic/Unsplash and Presley Ann/FilmMagic)/JTA Photo Service
Abba, are you there? You died 4 1/2 years ago, but I still forget sometimes. I was driving in sixth gear the other day. I went to exit the freeway and, on the off-ramp, I downshifted enough that I was able to shift directly into fourth. You taught me… Read more »
Joy Often repeated during the High Holiday season: “What are you celebrating now?” “Who cares? We Jews always pray, eat, and are merry!” During prayers on every Jewish holiday, we mention “Mo’adim L’Simcha,” a holiday to rejoice. Yet, on Sukkot there is an extra emphasis on being happy and… Read more »
Graham Hoffman Traditionally, Rosh Hashanah is viewed as the birthday of the world. We find ourselves now, in the days beforehand, at the culmination of the month of Elul, a time when we, both individually and collectively, take account of the year that has passed and look ahead, celebrating the opportunity… Read more »
Harold Hirshberg’s great-grandsons painted rocks for friends and family to leave on his headstone. (Photo courtesy AMY HIRSHBERG Lederman)
We gathered together in the warm September sun at my father’s gravesite, just 10 days shy of a year since he died. It was the coming together of the family clan, the manifestation of four generations of the legacy that this almost 100-year-old man had inspired. But the unveiling… Read more »
Inbal Shtivi, Tucson’s shlicha, votes in the Israeli election at the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, Sept. 5. (Courtesy Inbal Shtivi)
The dark I-10 road of the Arizona desert was never-ending. Hours and hours of driving, passing dozens of trailer trucks, with both kids sleeping in their seats. Me and my husband, Eran, perfectly awake, fully aware to the dangers of this night ride. We were listening to music downloaded… Read more »
Rabbi Israel Becker As Rosh Hashanah approaches and we take stock of our own spiritual lives, it certainly behooves us to dedicate ourselves to expend every effort in reaching out to our fellow Jews, and especially to our own children and grandchildren. In fact, extending ourselves to help inspire our fellow Jews… Read more »
(L-R): Jane Ash, Gary Kippur, Tandy Kippur, and Bruce Ash at the American cemetery in Normandy on the anniversary of D-Day. D-Day commemoration cruise Bruce and Jane Ash and Gary and Tandy Kippur traveled together on the National WWII Museum 75th anniversary of D-Day cruise. They were part of a University of Arizona Alumni Association contingent, with other schools also represented. Before boarding the ship in Amsterdam, they visited the… Read more »
Danielle Levy and Shay Friedwald, Tucson’s new shinshinim (Israeli teen emissaries) visited Disneyland over the 2019 Labor Day weekend with Congregation Anshei Israel’s B’Yahad madrichim (teen leaders) and USY programs.
Editor’s note: This is a new, occasional column to update the community on the activities of the Weintraub Israel Center’s shinshinim (Israeli teen emissaries). Tuson? Taksen? Tucson? And then we are told that we’re about to live a whole year, in the middle of the desert, with a complete… Read more »
Amy Hirshberg Lederman In October 1965, Columbia Records released a hit song by the Byrds called “Turn, Turn, Turn.” While my friends and I loved its beautiful harmony, I never suspected that its words would accompany me through life, spanning decades of historical and personal events from the Vietnam War to the… Read more »
Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin (Britta Van Vranken) There is a tale about a rabbi whose synagogue was infested with mice. When the conventional method to get rid of them didn’t succeed, he turned to a fellow rabbi for advice. “Simple,” said his colleague, “give them a Bar Mitzvah and they won’t step foot in your synagogue… Read more »
Ben Sargus, left, with Avery Shultz and Hayden Jones of Phoenix, at the Dead Sea
The Big Trip Israel From June 3–July 1, Ben Sargus traveled on Camp Daisy & Harry Stein’s Big Trip Israel. A camper since third grade, Ben, a University High School junior, has been active in NFTY (the Reform Jewish Youth Movement, formerly North American Temple Youth) and is one… Read more »
Ruth C. Goodman with her son, Roy Goodman Centenarians unite On Friday, May 3, the Pima Council on Aging and Tucson Medical Center sponsored the 32nd annual Salute to Centenarians event at TMC’s Marshall Conference Center. This gathering, the largest known convergence of centenarians in the United States, attracted close to 50 attendees, ages 99+, accompanied by… Read more »
Every day during the month of Iyar, we observe the mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer, or counting the Omer. This mitzvah begins on the second day of Passover and continues until the eve of Shavuot. The counting is practiced daily after nightfall with some counting from a Siddur (prayer book),… Read more »
Graham Hoffman We may find it convenient to believe that because young adults in our community are not exhibiting the same historically Jewish behaviors as their parents, they do not feel a strong connection to Jewish life. Nevertheless, consistently, when polled, millennial Jews report having strong, positive feelings about being Jewish.… Read more »
(L-R): Marlyne Freedman, Steve Silverman, Stuart Mellan (Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona president and CEO), Shelly Silverman (JFSA board chair), Hila Yogev-Keren (Partnership2Gether director), Hila Kordana, Vered Hengali-Maschiach, Deborah Oseran (incoming JFSA board chair), Isaac Amar, Shneor Katash, Edit Asor, Yedidya Green, and Steve Caine at a post-budget meeting dinner at the Silverman home [Oshrat Barel)
Reciprocal hospitality The Weintraub Israel Center’s Partnership2Gether Israeli and Tucson teams gathered here March 3-8 for the P2G 2019-20 annual budget meeting. Since 1996, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has participated in P2G, a Jewish Agency for Israel program connecting Jewish communities around the world. One year the… Read more »
Graham Hoffman We live at a turning point in the history of Jewish philanthropy. Over the next few decades, more than $30 trillion will be passed down from the baby boomer generation to their children. As these considerable assets change hands, so too will the power to shape the philanthropic sector.… Read more »
Mourners at the Mount of Olives in February 2019 (Amy Hirshberg Lederman)
On a cold and windy day in February, I drove an hour and a half from Haifa to Jerusalem in search of my great-great-grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Yehudah Franco. I had learned about him from stories my mother told me and a family tree carefully constructed by relatives who were… Read more »
