Last year, Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona launched a new microgrant program, “Share the Light,” to help Jewish families invite their children’s friends, classmates, and neighbors to Hanukkah parties to celebrate Jewish joy. The program is back this year. Party hosts will receive a Hanukkah party pack from JPSA’s Center for Jewish Resilience to help their event shine and a $100 grant to offset party expenses. Katie Cohen was one of more than a dozen hosts who participated in the program last year. “Every year in our neighborhood, we… Read more »
Guests enjoy a Hanukkah party at the home of Carina Bien-Willner and Matt Reichman in 2024. (Photo courtesy Carina Bien-Willner) Rabbi’s Corner: Hanukkah Joy Is Deeper than Latkes and Dreidels
I once heard a speech quoting a conversation someone had with Albert Einstein. The questioner asked him, “If you could meet a person from a previous generation, who would it be?” Einstein, who was Jewish though not religious, answered, “I would like to meet Moses.” He then added, “I… Read more »
Z3@Tucson Brings Community Together to Talk about Israel, Jewish Life, and Jewish Peoplehood
Senior Community Shlicha Yuval Malka opens the Z3@Tucson conference on Nov. 2, 2025. Tucson hosted its first Z3@ experience on November 2, bringing together community members to explore Israel, identity, and Jewish unity through a framework that emphasizes dialogue across religious and political lines. The half-day gathering at the Tucson Jewish Community Center was intentionally scheduled near the 30th Yahrzeit of Yitzhak Rabin, providing an opportunity to explore ideas of… Read more »
Tucson Health Professionals Pen Maternal Mental Health Guide
Maternal mental health matters. That’s the main message of “You’ve Got This: A Pocket Guide for Maternal Mental Health,” a slim, easy-to-read volume by two local Jewish health care professionals, Robin Giles, a nurse practitioner, and Joy Subrin, a doctor of behavioral health. “During your pregnancy so much attention is given… Read more »
Prompted by Multifaith Coalition, City Council Passes Resolution Reaffirming Transgender Rights
Members of the Tucson Multifaith for Pride Coalition, Tucson City Council, and Mayor Regina Romero gather in the council chambers Nov. 18, 2025 to mark passage of a resolution affirming transgender rights. Lynn Davis, director of the Rabbi Joseph H. Gumbiner Community Action Project at Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center, is fourth from left. Members of Tucson’s Multifaith for Pride Coalition are celebrating the recent passage of a city council resolution that reaffirms the rights of transgender individuals in our community while, at the same time, recognizing the “disproportionate risks of harassment, violence, barriers to essential services, and legislative threats that undermine their human dignity.” Lynn Davis, director of the… Read more »
Arizona Tax Credits Help Community Support Public Schools, Jewish Day Schools
Shelley Pozez looks on as Brenda Landau uses an oversized dreidel to teach the traditional Hanukkah game to Homer Davis Elementary School students in 2023. Landau is director of legacy development at the Jewish Community Foundation at Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona. (Photo: JPSA) Eighty children at Homer Davis Elementary School currently receive snack packs of food to supplement their nutrition each weekend. “They rely on it,” says MaryCarmen Salazar Rubio, a reading instruction assistant and snack pack coordinator at Homer Davis, which is in the Flowing Wells School District. There’s always a waiting… Read more »
Handmaker Plays Host to Community Events
Women prepare care packages for the wives of IDF soldiers at Tucson Torah Center's Oct. 20 event at Handmaker. (Photo: Nanci Levy) “I haven’t been here since my grandmother lived here” is a comment frequently shared by visitors attending Handmaker’s recent community events. When they look around, they are usually amazed at how much Handmaker has changed since their last visit. What began as a 40-bed non-profit nursing home over 60… Read more »
New Tucson Jewish Free Loan Director Aims to ‘Get More Loans Onto the Streets’
Kerry Moss Kerry Moss, executive director of the Tucson Jewish Free Loan, wants to help more people. The Free Loan serves people of all faiths across Southern Arizona, as it has since its founding in 1947, providing interest-free loans of up to $7,500 for a variety of needs, such as home… Read more »
Oct. 7 Spurred Tucson Volunteer’s Urge to Support, Protect Jewish Community
Kameron Norwood and Sara Cash Norwood with their daughters. (Photo: Kristin Bendigo Photography) Over the past two years, Kameron Norwood, 36, has woven himself into the fabric of Tucson’s Jewish community. He’s in his second year of Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona’s two-year Young Men’s Group leadership program, and he and his wife, Sara Cash Norwood, have hosted several YMG and JPSA events at… Read more »
MORE HEADLINES
- My Favorite Things: Suggestions for Old Folks Like Me (P.S. Hanukkah is Coming)
- Bar Mitzvah: Eithan Moss
- Bar Mitzvah: Nathan Jacob Goldstein
- Of Blessed Memory: Donald Novitt
- JPSA Dinner on Antisemitism Informative and Emotional for Community
- Hygiene pantry at JFCS opens as SNAP recipients face delays, reductions
- Bat Mitzvah: Sydney Viscusi
- Of Blessed Memory: Chris Tanz
- Tucson J’s Hanukkah Hot Cocoa Run Celebrates its Ninth Year
