Tucsonan Josh Landau, left in second row, with teammates at the opening ceremony of the Pan American Maccabi Games in Brazil.

“We were staying in a really nice four-star hotel and you look out our window and across the street is this slum. It was really an awakening experience,” says Landau, who was a member of the U.S. Men’s Open Soccer Team.

While the poorer neighborhoods might have presented a good opportunity for volunteer activities, Landau explains that unlike the JCC Maccabi Games for teens, which always feature a “Day of Caring and Sharing,” the Pan Am games are much more competitive and there was no social action program.

Now a sophomore at the University of San Diego, where he plays soccer and is studying finance and accounting, Landau had played on the Tucson JCC team in 2008.

Nevertheless, participating in the Pan Am games was still an extraordinary experience, says Landau. “We had a lot of really good players, a mix of college players and a couple of professional players,” he says, explaining that the pros were second-tier players who may not be household names but have played against the likes of David Beckham. The U.S. team took the silver medal, losing in the final round to Brazil.

“It was a good bonding experience to get to play with a bunch of new guys who share the same religion, and in a foreign place. It’s not something you get to do often,” says Landau.

Landau was also excited that the U.S. team played in honor of Ethan Zohn, a Maccabi USA alumnus who was the winner of TV’s “Survivor: Africa.” Zohn used his Survivor prize money to co-found Grassroots Soccer, a nonprofit organization that uses the sport to educate African youth about HIV and AIDs. Landau has contributed to Grassroots Soccer through his B’nai Tzedek teen philanthropy fund (B’nai Tzedek is administered by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona in partnership with the Jewish Community Foundation). Zohn, who has Hodgkins lymphoma and recently suffered a relapse, was the honorary coach for the U.S. Men’s Open Soccer Team, whose members wore warm-up T-shirts honoring him, adds Landau.

Tucson teens Shawn Spitzer and Dakota Kordsiemon, who participated in the JCC Maccabi Games in Israel this summer, also were part of the Maccabi USA team in Brazil. Spitzer played on the junior boys’ soccer team, which won a silver medal, and Kordsiemon played on the junior boys’ basketball team, which took bronze.

A marker at the edge of Tombstone’s famous Boot Hill cemetery points the way to a ‘Jewish Cemetery and Memorial,” but most tourists don’t know that no one is actually buried there. It was dedicated in the late 19th century, but “we have no record” of any Jewish citizens buried there, says Eileen Warshaw of the Jewish History Museum. The memorial there now was dedicated in 1984 as a symbol of friendship between Jewish and Native American communities. (Jennifer Goldberg/Jewish News of Greater Phoenix)

Evergreen Cemetery in Tucson contains the grave sites of the men and women that figure prominently in the city’s early Jewish history, including the grave of Harry Arizona Drachman (1867-1951), first Caucasian male born in the Arizona Territory.

“He was honored so much by that fact, he changed his middle name to Arizona,” says Barry Friedman, board president of the Jewish History Museum.

Along the border, the land for the Nogales city cemetery was donated in the 1890s by a Jewish immigrant, Leopold Ephraim. Paul Bracker, a member of Nogales’ Jewish community whose family has lived in the border town since the 1920s, says his late father, Charles, was the one to suggest a Jewish cemetery there. “That was one of my father’s things: You have to give back to your community,” he says.

Buildings rise and fall, but Arizona’s Jewish cemeteries help keep alive the memory of those who have gone before us.

“It’s amazing how many people are there that you can find,” says Eileen Warshaw, executive director of the Jewish History Museum.

Reprinted with permission of Jewish News of Greater Phoenix.

Clara Ferrin, the daughter of German immigrants Joseph and Therese Ferrin, was born in Tucson on July 26, 1881, at her parents’ home. She, along with her sister and brother, attended the Congress Street School, which later became the location of the David Bloom & Sons Clothing Store from 1931 to 1968, named after David Bloom, her then-future husband.

Clara enrolled at the University of Arizona in 1893 and graduated in 1901. After graduation, she worked as a teacher at Safford Elementary School for 11 years, and then married David Bloom on June 9, 1912, just a few months after Arizona statehood.

The Blooms had three sons and two daughters. Their son David and his wife, Leona, established the Bloom Southwest Jewish Archives at the University of Arizona.

But Clara is most well known for helping her mother, Therese, solicit funds for Tucson’s first synagogue, Temple Emanu-El, which opened in 1910. Therese convinced the wealthiest man in town, Albert Steinfeld, to donate a large sum of money. Steinfeld, who was Jewish, pledged $5,000, which covered about two-thirds of the cost. Therese and Clara collected enough extra to build the synagogue.

Clara was active in the Jewish and secular communities of Tucson. She was a life member of the University of Arizona Alumni Association, a founding member of the board of directors of the Tucson Women’s Symphony Association, a charter member of Phi-Kappa-Phi and a member of the National Council of Jewish Women.

Tucson’s Clara Ferrin Bloom Elementary School was built in her honor and was completed a few weeks before her death on April 17, 1973. When Clara died, she was the oldest member of Temple Emanu-El.

Dancing queen

Frances Smith Cohen, 80, founder and director of Center Dance Ensemble at Herberger Theater Center and co-owner of Dance Theater West, both in Phoenix, moved from New Jersey to Tucson in 1936 with her mother and brother when she was 5 years old. Cohen’s father joined them a year later. “We took a train and my mother was so sure when we got off the train that there were going to be Indians,” Cohen says. “She had this whole thought of the Wild West from the movies.”

At that time, Tucson only had about 30 Jewish families, she says, “but of course, there were two synagogues.” Her mother kept a kosher home in New Jersey, but there wasn’t a kosher butcher in Tucson then, according to Cohen. “It was hard to be Orthodox in 1936 in Tucson.”

Cohen remembers the Tucson Jewish community as closeknit. She recalls when her family had just moved to Tucson and attended the Rodeo Day parade downtown. Cohen thought she was clutching her mother’s skirt as they made their way through the crowd, but the skirt belonged to a stranger. The woman took her to the post office and asked people along the way, “Do you know this little girl?” A Jewish woman recognized her as Mrs. Smith’s daughter and took her home about an hour and a half later after running errands. Her mother thought she had been kidnapped. “Only in Tucson at that time was the community small enough,” she says. “That would never happen today.”

Sources: Arizona Jewish Historical Society and The Leona G. and David A. Bloom Southwest Jewish Archives. Reprinted with permission of Jewish News of Greater Phoenix.

The B’nei Menashe, who live in the northeastern Indian province of Manipur, have been recognized by the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel as the descendants of one of the lost tribes of Israel.

The world’s only substantial group of practicing East Asian Jews, the B’nei Menashe came by way of China to live along the India-Myanmar border, hundreds of miles from any major city, and even farther from their nearest Jewish neighbors.

In the film, three Chicagoans travel to this remote area to bring the B’nei Menashe their first Torah scroll. One of them was Sabra Minkus, a producer of the documentary, who will be at the screening and will take part in a discussion after the film.

The event is cosponsored by the Northwest Division of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Sun City Havurah. For more information, contact Anne Lowe at 577-9393, ext. 130 or alowe@jfsa.org.

Susan Kovitz (left) and Susan Claassen rehearse ‘Look Ma, We’re Dancing,’ premiering at The Invisible Theatre. (Tim Fuller)

The Invisible Theatre will stage the world premiere of Janet Neipris’ “Look Ma, We’re Dancing,” a lighthearted comedy about two grown sisters who are still competing for the approval and attention of their long dead mother.

The show will run Feb. 8-26, with a preview performance Feb. 7.

“Janet is a playwright that we have nurtured over 30 years,” says IT Managing Artistic Director Susan Claassen, who notes that IT was founded as a new playwright’s theater. Neipris’ plays have been produced at major theatres worldwide and won her many awards, including two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. As chair of graduate playwriting and screenwriting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, she has taught many of today’s leading playwrights and screenwriters.

Although the characters in “Look Ma” are clearly Jewish — at one point they light a yahrzeit candle —“it’s an interesting universal story,” emphasizes Claassen, who plays one of the sisters, Vi, opposite Susan Kovitz’s Franny. Rounding out the cast are James Blair (Max), Bri Giger (Sophie) and Burney Starks (Avery).

To purchase tickets or for information, call 882-9721, visit the box office at 1400 N. First Ave. at Drachman, or go to invisibletheatre.com and click on the Ovationtix logo.

Charles Moses Strauss, the first Jewish mayor of Tucson, Arizona Territory (elected 1883), with his son, Charles junior. Eileen Warshaw, executive director of the Jewish History Museum, explains that Strauss was actually a very dapper gentleman. The Western “duds” he and his son are wearing in this photo were photographer’s props. (Courtesy Jewish History Museum)

On Saturday, Feb. 11, all downtown museums will offer free admission, including the Jewish History Museum, where a centennial exhibit, “Looking Forward to the Future through the Eyes of History, 1910-2012: Celebrating the Jewish History of Southern Arizona,” will run Feb. 18-March 31. The museum has created a “Shalom Pardner” logo to use on memorabilia.

From a 48-star flag that flew over a Jewish-owned store on Feb. 14, 1912, the day that Arizona became a state, to photos of what Jewish women were wearing that day, the Centennial weekend celebration will have something for everyone.

The late Jewish Tucsonans Monte Mansfeld, a civic leader; Cele Peterson, a business owner; and Madeline Dreyfus Heineman Berger, founder of the Temple of Music and Art, will be portrayed in historic reenactments along with other famous men and women who helped create the State of Arizona and build the Old Pueblo. The event will take place at the Fox Theatre on Feb. 11, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., and will include a montage of films promoting Tucson over the years.

Museum administrators and local volunteers started planning for the Centennial last July, notes Warshaw, but had to find funding, which finally came from the Arizona Centennial Commission & 2012 Foundation on Jan. 6. “Without the help of Jim Click, Fletcher McClusker at the Providence Service Corporation, and Second Saturdays Downtown we couldn’t have done it,” she says. “As the umbrella organization for the weekend Second Saturdays has gone out of their way.”

“Now Tucson and Phoenix will celebrate Arizona’s Centennial on the same weekend,” notes McClusker, chair of Second Saturdays.

Others involved include the University of Arizona, Downtown Tucson Partnership and City of Tucson. Street concerts and musicians, food vendors and fireworks will add to the festivities.

“What a great way for Tucson to celebrate,” says Warshaw. “It’s Tucson-inspired, not a packaged exhibit, and quite honestly, this is the way it should be, because Tucson is where Arizona started.”

Other events of interest to the Jewish community include a free Metropolitan Klezmer concert of Yiddish folk and rock music on Friday, Feb. 10 at 8 p.m. at the Rialto Theatre, and an American Civil Liberties Union, Tucson chapter, panel discussion on “Arizona Civil Rights Memories” on Sunday, Feb. 12, from 2 to 4:30 p.m., at the Scottish Rite Cathedral, 160 S. Scott Ave. The panel will be moderated by former Tucson Mayor George Miller. Former Gov. Raul Castro, retired Arizona Supreme Court Justice Stanley Feldman and retired UA Law School Dean and Professor Emeritus Charles Ares will be on the panel.

For more information, visit jewishhistorymuseum.org, 2ndsaturdays.com or downtowncentennialcelebration.org.

Vered Otmy

Four Israeli artists will spend almost two weeks in Tucson next month, giving workshops and talking about their experiences as artists living in Israel.

“This amazing ‘partnership 2gether’ project, sponsored by the Jewish Agency for Israel, Jewish Federations of North America and our local TIPS (Tucson, Israel, Phoenix, Seattle) committee, helps bring people from Israel and Tucson together,” says Guy Gelbart, director of the Weintraub Israel Center. “It fosters our sense of peoplehood and mutual responsibility by creating real friendships and deeper cultural connections. This human touch, the real faces and real people relationship, is what makes this visit so exciting.”

The artists will work with groups from various organizations, including Tucson Hebrew Academy, Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging and Howenstine Magnet High School. They also will be the special guests at the Israel Center’s “Tu B’Shevat Arty Party” on Thursday, Feb. 9, from 5-6:30 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, where they will teach crafts for children.

Vered Otmy, who has lived on Moshav Geha for the last 23 years, specializes in

papier-maché. Her works have been displayed in Tel Aviv, London, New York and Chicago and most recently in Belgium and France.

Saraleh Haitman also lives on Moshav Geha and studied art at the Oranim Kibbutz Seminar. She works in ceramics, paint, jewelry and sculpture, and has taught art, communications and film at Israeli schools and colleges.

Yehudit Orinsky, from Moshav Kochav Michael, is originally from Minneapolis. After volunteering on a kibbutz, she made aliyah 40 years ago. Orinsky studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Her specialty is mosaics. She has taught adults and children and also trains art teachers.

Ada Bouganim

Ada Bouganim, who has lived in Nitzan Aleph for the last 13 years, grew up in Kibbutz Yavne. She has travelled through Asia and Australia and lived for a short while in Los Angeles, where she worked as an interior designer. She now designs events and helps participants design and construct props and decorations.

The Tu B’Shevat Arty Party, cosponsored by Tucson Hebrew Academy, will be held in the JCC’s Heritage Room and Sculpture Garden. Admission is $5 per child under 12. For more information about the artists’ visit, contact. Jennifer Ferrell at 577-9393, ext. 133 or IsraelCen ter@jfsa.org.

(L-R): Nina Isaac, Randi Levin, Cheryl Wortzel, Shaun Kozolchyk and David Plotkin at JFSA’s Hava Tequila Young Leadership Bash last year.

The 2nd Annual Hava Tequila Bash, sponsored by the Jewish Federation’s Young Leadership Cabinet and the Tucson Jewish Community Center, will take place Feb. 4, from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the JCC. Co-chaired by Andrew and Nina Isaac and Phil and Dani Bregman, Hava Tequila offers a nightclub atmosphere for ages 21 and over. The event will include a DJ, a dessert bar sponsored by Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, tequila drinks and other alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

“We had a fantastic time at the last Hava Tequila and we hope to make this the biggest annual Jewish social event for young adults,” says Dani Bregman.

The co-chairs have again designated the event proceeds to benefit the Local Emergency Assistance Fund, or LEAF. The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona launched LEAF in 2009 to provide assistance with housing costs, food, job placement and more for Tucson families in need. “We realize that the needs have not gone away so we decided to continue connecting our friends to an incredible cause,” says Nina Isaac.

Hava Tequila reservations are $25 before Feb. 3 and $30 at the door. To RSVP, contact Karen Graham at kgraham@jfsa.org or 577-9393.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords hugs Daniel Hernandez, the former congressional intern who helped save her life, at a private gathering Jan. 23. (Facebook.com)

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was wounded in an assassination attempt on Jan. 8, 2011, announced Sunday that she would resign from Congress. In a dramatic two-minute video posted on her congressional website, Giffords said she will step down as she continues her recovery.

“I have more work to do on my recovery, so to do what is best for Arizona, I will step down this week,” she said. “I’m getting better. Every day my spirit is high. I will return, and we will work together for Arizona and this great country.”

Speaking slowly but clearly, Giffords thanked viewers for their prayers and said that she will always remember the trust her constitutents placed in her.

Tucsonans were quick to weigh in on Giffords’ resignation on Facebook.  Mayor Jonathan Rothschild posted the following message:  “Gabby, Tucson loves you. We wish you all the best in your amazing recovery. We are grateful for your service in Congress and, before that, in the Arizona Legislature. I know that you will continue to inspire, to lead, and to accomplish great things.”

Giffords was shot through the left side of her brain at a Congress on Your Corner event last January outside a Safeway in northwest Tucson.  Six people were killed and 13 others, including Giffords, were wounded. The accused gunman, Jared Loughner, is being treated in a Missouri federal prison in an attempt to make him psychologically fit to stand trial. In the video, Giffords said she doesn’t “remember much from that horrible day.”

On Monday, her last day in Tucson as a member of Congress, the 41-year-old Giffords held a private gathering with some of the people who were at the Jan. 8, 2011 event, including some of the citizens who aided injured people and others who subdued the gunman.  She also visited the Gabrielle Giffords Family Assistance Center at the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, established with donations made in her honor after the shooting.

Giffords attended President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday evening at the Capital. She sat between U.S. Reps. Jeff Flake, a Republican, and Raul Grijalva, a Democrat. At last year’s State of the Union address, shortly after Giffords was shot, the Arizona congressmen flanked an empty seat reserved for Giffords.

President Obama invited Giffords’ husband, Mark Kelly, to be his guest at the address. Kelly sat with First Lady Michelle Obama.

The National Jewish Democratic Council wished Giffords, the first Jewish woman to be elected to Congress from Arizona, “continued quick healing on her path to recovery” and looked forward to “the occasion when we can welcome her back to public life.”

“We are so tremendously proud of the remarkable determination and resiliency that Gabby has shown in her amazing recovery; indeed all Americans have watched in awe as she has taken her first steps and grown stronger and stronger,” NJDC chair Marc Stanley and vice-chair Marc Winkelman said in a statement. “While we have all eagerly hoped for the day that Gabby would rejoin her colleagues on a daily basis on Capitol Hill, it’s a sign of how highly she values her constituents and her district that she has made this very difficult decision to step aside.”

Giffords, a third-generation Arizonan who served for five years in the state legislature before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2006, was sworn in for her third term just  days before the shooting tragedy.

After she joined Congress on Jan. 4, 2007, Giffords cast herself as a champion of border security, energy independence and the needs of military families and veterans.

According to her congressional office, Giffords was proud that her 9,000-square mile district included Tombstone, the town “too tough to die.”

Giffords, who was honored in an emotional farewell on the House floor, submitted her letter of resignation Wednesday to  Speaker John Boehner. She also submitted her letter to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. The governor will set a date for special primary and general elections this spring to determine who will serve the remainder of Giffords’ term until January 2013, followed by the regular primary and general elections in the fall.

Former Tucson Mayor Tom Volgy, a political science professor at the University of Arizona, predicted in Monday’s Arizona Daily Star, “There is an enormous amount of good will toward Gabby, and whoever she would endorse would likely win the special election.”

Republican National Committeeman Bruce Ash told the AJP that “a Giffords endorsement will mean something more in the primary than in the general election.”

“Being a member of Congress is just a job,” he added. “Gabby and her family know what is most important is her full recovery and return to full health. All of her friends feel the same way. She has served her constituents very well. She is a patriot. We all look forward to what we hope is a long healthy life.”

Rabbi Stephanie Aaron of Congregation Chaverim, where Giffords is a member, told the AJP, “I’m very, very sad. It’s an acute feeling that our state, our country, our world has been deprived of a great leader. For her it was the right thing to do. It will take a combination of a lot of strong prayer for Gabby’s continued recovery, and hope that she returns to public service as the powerful Gabby Giffords we all know and love.”

To view Rep. Giffords’ resignation video, go to  giffordsforcongress.com. JTA contributed to this article.

The memorial stone to be dedicated Jan. 29 reads ‘Remembering the Victims of the Holocaust’

Beth Shalom Temple Center of Green Valley will host a free community gathering in honor of International Holocaust Remem­brance Day on Sunday, Jan. 29 at 10 a.m. in the chapel of Green Valley Mortuary and Cemetery, 18751 S. La Canada Dr.

The program will feature historical perspectives, readings, poetry, music and thoughts shared by local Holocaust survivor Alfred Schreier.

Following the ceremony attendees will congregate in the Jewish section of the cemetery to unveil a granite pedestal dedicated to all the victims of the Holocaust, which was donated by Shelly and Freda Fiebel and the Green Valley Cemetery.

“The congregation of Beth Shalom Temple Center hopes that many people, of all faiths, will attend to show our resolve that we will never forget,” says congregant Norman Gosman, who will lead the commemorative service.

“As the fallen victims continue to inhabit our spiritual consciousness, we take inspiration from the fact that unimaginable evil could not ultimately subdue or extinguish the spiritual vigor and light within these stalwart souls,” adds Gosman, who hopes the event will inspire a renewed commitment to human rights and “a worldwide call to end oppression, prejudice, racism, discrimination and crimes fueled by hatred.”

For more information, contact Gosman at 625-6010.