Susan Claassen
Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Women’s Philanthropy will present an event for Lion of Judah and Pomegranate members, “Jewish Arts & Culture: From the Historical to the Hysterical with Susan Claassen,” on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 4:30-6:30 p.m. at a private home. Claassen is celebrating her 43rd year with Invisible… Read more »
Zoe Holtzman is last year’s Bryna Zehngut Mitzvot Award winner.
The Women’s Philanthropy Advisory Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is seeking nominees for its 12th annual Bryna Zehngut Mitzvot Award, recognizing an outstanding Jewish teenage girl. Along with some of Bryna’s closest friends, the Advisory Council created this award to honor Zehngut, a community leader who… Read more »
Editor’s note: The time of this concert has been changed to 6:30 p.m. Many holiday songs were written by Jewish composers, including Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”; “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” by Sammy Cahn (born Cohen) and Jule Styne (who also wrote “The Christmas Waltz”… Read more »
Eileen McNamara, left, and Maura Jane Farrelly, Ph.D.
The Tucson Chapter of Brandeis National Committee and the Tucson Jewish Community Center will sponsor a BNC University On Wheels program next month, “From Election to Investigation and all the ‘Fake News’ in Between: Media Coverage of This Presidency.” Eileen McNamara, Brandeis University professor of the practice of journalism… Read more »
Tucson’s Men’s Next Gen Group and Chai Life Men’s Group on a San Diego fishing boat. Back row (L-R): Rob Glaser, Alex Chaffin, David Goldstein, Gary Kippur, Nolan Shifren, Barry Baker, Christian Yoder, Jeff Katz, Matt Landau, Daniel Ash, Mike Ash, Doron Sears, Lex Sears, Paul Baker, Michael Shiner; front row: Tom Warne, Steve Silverman, Larry Selig, Josh Hurand, Jeff Wortzel, Bobby Present, Adam Goldstein, Stuart Mellan, Mitch Pozez, Ben Pozez, Josh Silverman, Ben Silverman, Damion Alexander, Todd Sadow
The Tucson Jewish community’s Men’s Next Gen group and the Chai Life Men’s Group took a weekend in San Diego Nov. 3-5 to build intergenerational relationships. While the trip included a fishing excursion (perhaps with a small wager on who would haul in the largest fish), great food, and… Read more »
A scene from 'The MeshugaNutrcracker!' (Betsy Kershner)
“The MeshugaNutcracker!,” featuring a Klezmer-ized orchestration of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite,” debuts in movie theatres nationwide for one night, on Tuesday, Dec. 19. Called an “enchanting festival of light-hearted glee and meaningful warmth” (Los Angeles Times), this Hanukkah-themed musical comedy arrives on the last night of the holiday, presented by… Read more »
A scene from 'Fanny's Journey,' coming to the Tucson International Jewish Film Festival
Movies about Jews evading the Holocaust are, frankly, irresistible. We never tire of these celluloid beacons of hope, not least because we can never forget that the victims greatly outnumbered the escapees. The challenge that filmmakers face in this area is keeping the rays of light in proportion to… Read more »
This is one of the nearly 200 menorahs at the Museum of Lights in Casale Monferrato (Foundation for Jewish Art, History, and Culture at Casale Monferrato and in Eastern Piedmont - Onlus)
It’s always Hanukkah in this picturesque town in northern Italy’s Piedmont region. Jews have lived in Casale Monferrato for more than 500 years, with the community reaching its peak of 850 members at about the time Jews here were granted civil rights in 1848. The town still boasts one… Read more »
A view from the second floor of the Harvey and Deanna Evenchik Center for Jewish Philanthropy. (David J. Del Grande/AJP)
When the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona began designing its new building, not only did Federation leaders want to modernize their workspace, they wanted to create a sacred landmark, says President and CEO Stuart Mellan. “We really wanted the building to be a place of meaning,” says Mellan. “We… Read more »
(JTA collage)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jared Kushner stands up to bullies. He makes new friends. His academic progress — well, the first year is more about socialization than acing tests, right? President Donald Trump, in the first fraught months of his administration, heralded the promise of his Jewish daughter, Ivanka, and… Read more »
Michael Masters rose through police ranks in Chicago and elsewhere in Cook County, Ill. (Andrew Collings/Jewish Federations of North America)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. Jewish community is more secure than it was a decade ago but must brace for new challenges, according to the officials who oversee communal security. These include lone wolves weaponizing easy-to-access items like cars; increasingly disruptive protests on campuses; the persistence of attackers inspired… Read more »
Nissim Guedj unpacks merchandise at a kosher meat shop in Amsterdam, Oct. 26, 2017. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
PARIS (JTA) – When Jerry Levy’s family opened one of the first gourmet kosher meat shops in France, they had some of the country’s best-laid business plans. Hailing from a long line of Jewish butchers in their native Algeria, they had the expertise and diligence in 1977 to cater… Read more »
Anthony Scaramucci, center, speaks
alongside officials of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce at a news conference at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, Nov. 21, 2017. (Courtesy of Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce)
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Anthony Scaramucci, the short-lived White House communications director, is not a member of the tribe. But he came close to declaring himself one during a visit to Israel this week. “A few more days here and I’d probably convert to Judaism,” Scaramucci joked to JTA… Read more »
Henny Goudeketing, left, and Anne van de Geest at the main hall of the Immanuel Jewish hospice in Amsterdam, Nov. 1, 2017. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Henny Goudeketting, a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor, is ailing and preparing to leave the world. Goudeketting, who was sterilized in Nazi medical experiments at Auschwitz, has neither children nor other relatives to care for her. Now, after multiple infections and recurrent falls, she’s readying to say goodbye.… Read more »
Rep. Eliot Engel is featured on a Kosovo postage stamp in what may be a first. (Office of Eliot Engel)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rep. Eliot Engel has become the first U.S. congressman to be featured on a postage stamp in Kosovo. Engel, a New York Democrat, may be the first Jewish member of Congress on a stamp, period. Bella Abzug helped inspire a 1999 stamp celebrating the women’s rights… Read more »
Rose Holm at her apartment holding a photo of her late husband, Joe, Oct. 31, 2017. (Josefin Dolsten)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Nazis came for Rose Holm’s family in the afternoon. By the evening, the 16-year-old was lying among corpses in the underground bunker where she and her family had been hiding. “I was between those dead ones, and I didn’t know if I’m alive or I’m… Read more »
Contributions to the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Community Campaign help support the JDC — and a variety of other causes in Tucson, Israel, and around the world.… Read more »
Women at work in the communal workspace of ICON. (Ben Sales)
SUNNYVALE, Calif. (JTA) — Before she boarded the plane from Israel to Silicon Valley, Darya Henig Shaked already was bucking stereotypes of women in tech. Among married Israeli techies in the Bay Area, it’s assumed that the man in the marriage was the one who obtained a work visa… Read more »
The flag of the Palestine Liberation Organization seen above its offices in Washington, D.C., Nov. 18, 2017. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In 1987, Congress passed legislation that declared there would never be an office of the Palestine Liberation Organization on U.S. soil. President Ronald Reagan agreed and signed the law. Seven years later the law was still on the books. But that year the PLO opened an… Read more »
A photo of Avraham Mengistu on a shirt worn by a relative protesting in Israel, Aug. 17, 2015. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Ilan Mengistu knows his pitch to rescue his brother, Avera, should be a no-brainer to Jews — “pidyon shvuyim,” the redemption of the hostage, is among the greatest of commandments. But Mengistu also knows that the story he has to tell is not the straightforward narrative… Read more »
