Yearly Archives 2011

Seymour “Sy” Oliven, 78, died Sept. 21, 2011. Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Mr. Oliven graduated from Flatbush Yeshiva and Abraham Lincoln High School. After serving in the U.S. Army, he graduated from New York University and the American Institute of Banking. He was a volunteer in the… Read more »

Herbert E. Ennis, 89, died Aug. 5, 2011. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Mr. Ennis graduated from The Cooper Union. He developed fiberglass artificial limbs for the U.S. Navy. In 1967, he moved to Chicago as president of the defense division for Brunswick Corp. Mr. Ennis worked with the Israeli… Read more »

Palestinian prisoners who were freed from Israeli jails as part of the exchange deal for Gilad Shalit arriving at the Rafah crossing border in the Gaza Strip, Oct. 18, 2011. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90)

(JTA) — In exchange for Gilad Shalit’s release, Israel is freeing 1,027 Palestinian security prisoners. The first 477, agreed upon with Hamas, were released Tuesday. Most had been serving life sentences for their roles in attacks against Israelis, and they included the organizers or perpetrators of many of the… Read more »

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks on as freed soldier Gilad Shalit is embraced by his father, Noam, at Israel’s Tel Nef Air Force base shortly after Shalit’s release from more than five years of captivity, Oct. 18, 2011. (GPO)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — It seemed that all of Israel breathed a sigh of relief when Gilad Shalit returned to Israel after being transferred from Hamas captivity in Gaza into Egyptian custody. After more than five years of campaigning for Shalit’s release, and seeing little of him other than the… Read more »

Former Duke University basketball star Jon Scheyer, who will be playing pro ball for Maccabi Tel Aviv, at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel following his group aliyah flight, Aug. 30, 2011. (Sasson Tiram)

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Call it circumstantial Zionism. There’s been a recent uptick in North American aliyah — of basketball players. More than a dozen North American players have become Israeli citizens and joined professional Israeli basketball teams and second division squads in the past few years. It’s not exactly… Read more »

Bonnie Sedlmayr-Emerson at Melanoma Walk ’11

Aged to perfection This title describes newly minted centenarian Ruth Protas. Over Labor Day weekend, Ruth’s family and friends from near and far feted her on this milestone occasion. Official greetings from the White House congratulated her for a century of memories representing an important part of the American… Read more »

  Although restaurants that cater to new trends are always popping up in Tucson, many diners still crave traditional Italian, Mexican or French cuisine. Luckily, whatever the dining preferences, Tucson restaurants satisfy myriad tastes. After travels to Paris or Montreal, locals can come home to enjoy paté or chateau… Read more »

Mitt Romney is the whack-a-mole front-runner: He consistently leads the Republican pack, but only by beating back one conservative challenger after another. First it was Michele Bachmann, then Rick Perry, and now a surging Herman Cain. His contradictory status — as a front-runner caught in a constant rearguard action… Read more »

Art Spiegelman answers questions at a book talk in Los Angeles about the 25th anniversary of his Pulitzer Prize-winning ‘Maus’ series and the new book and DVD ‘MetaMouse.’ (Micah Cordy)

  Wearing a three-piece suit and looking more elder statesman than the artist he is, Art Spiegelman was addressing an audience of about 100 at the high-toned Soho House on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. The occasion was the taping of a conversation with book scholar Michael Silverblatt,… Read more »

  The Holocaust has inevitably played an important role in the way I view the world and our responsibility to our neighbors. Knowing the facts of this genocide and the world’s complete failure to act in the face of it has led me to commit to do whatever I… Read more »

Scene from the 2010 Tucon Meet Yourself Festival (Steven Meckler)

Tucson’s Jewish community will have a significant presence at the Tucson Meet Yourself Festival this weekend. In celebration of the weeklong Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which started Thursday, the Jewish History Museum will house its festival booth in a sukkah (which is apropos, as the word “sukkah” means “booth”)… Read more »

The Jewish Genetic Disease Center of Greater Phoenix will offer genetic screening on Sunday, Oct. 30 from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. at the Ina Levine Jewish Community campus, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road. One in five Jewish individuals of Ashkenazi/Eastern European descent is a carrier for one or more… Read more »

Susan and Brad Stillman grew concerned following their son Benjamin’s birth in September 1998. He was fussy and congested, had difficulty breastfeeding and didn’t take to the bottle. The parents brought him to the pediatrician and then to a hospital pediatric care unit near their home in Rockville, Md.,… Read more »

Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging will hold its third annual “Celebration of Tucson’s Oldest Jewish Residents” on Tuesday, Oct. 25 at 11 a.m. The free lunch is a celebration of Jewish Tucsonans ages 90 and older. The lunch will begin with a color guard presentation by Tucson’s Jewish… Read more »

Jewish Family & Children’s Services will hold events celebrating two programs next month. The LEAH — Let’s End Abusive Households program, which serves victims of domestic violence within a Jewish cultural and religious context, will mark its 11th year of service with a free house party at Covenant House… Read more »

In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Civil War, the Jewish History Museum, in partnership with the Tucson Jewish Community Center, will present a free screening of “Jewish Soldiers in Blue & Gray” on Sunday, Oct. 23 at 2 p.m. at the JCC. The film reveals the… Read more »

Shalom Tucson will hold a free bagel brunch on Sunday, Oct. 23, 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, with the theme “One Stop Shopping for the Tucson Jewish Community!” Geared toward newcomers and those interested in connecting to Jewish Tucson, the event will include the… Read more »

Participants embrace prior to Occupy Wall Street's Kol Nidre service across from Zuccotti Park in downtown New York, Oct. 7, 2011. (Danielle Fleischman)

Rachel Feldman originally had meant to attend a traditional synagogue Kol Nidre service. Aimee Weiss hadn’t found a place to daven but was looking for something more interesting than a “big box synagogue.” Come Yom Kippur eve, they and several hundred other Jews found themselves drawn to lower Manhattan,… Read more »

Pope John Paul II visits Rome’s Great Synagogue with Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff in April 1986, the first recorded papal visit to a synagogue.

The Northwest Division of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is sponsoring a bus trip to Phoenix on Tuesday, Nov. 29 to attend the exhibit, “A Blessing to One Another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People.” The 2,000 square foot, multi-media traveling exhibit chronicles the friendship of… Read more »

Robert Morris

Growing up in Tucson during the 1950s, Robert Morris, Jr. learned about the importance of fresh vegetables from a local Jewish peddler. “When I was elementary school age Toby would let me ride on his truck for a few blocks,” says Morris. Today, fresh vegetables have often disappeared from… Read more »