Yearly Archives 2012

Gov. Mitt Romney has made some outrageous comments and taken some extreme positions in this presidential campaign. But few, if any, are more baffling than his latest statement on his plans for the U.S.-Israel relationship. Asked last weekend what he would do to strengthen America’s alliance with Israel, he… Read more »

Woody Allen quipped that when he was a kid, he used to get beaten up by Quakers. That happened to me (figuratively) just last week at the Churches for Middle East Peace Advocacy Conference in Washington. I was the only rabbi at the conference and with the exception of… Read more »

Paul Adler

On their 1964 honeymoon, Paul Adler and his bride, Clarise, went to Portuguese East Africa from Johannesburg, South Africa, where they met and courted. On that trip, “there was the usual fighting between two tribes,” says Adler. “I had a bit of a flu and went to the hospital.… Read more »

Tom Peled, founder of “Bike for the Fight,” with Israeli President Shimon Peres (Courtesy Tom Peled)

Tom Peled has a goal: Livestrong for the Jewish world. The Israeli is finding inspiration in biking champion Lance Armstrong’s cancer awareness organization as he prepares for a 3,000-mile bike trek across the United States to raise money for his own Bike for the Fight to support cancer research… Read more »

HOUSTON — Sunscreen labels can be confusing or misleading. Dermatologists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center applaud new U.S. Food and Drug Administration label changes that help consumers understand exactly what they’re buying. Starting this month, sunscreen makers will be required to use labels with simpler… Read more »

Dr. Paul W. Hoffert with the 2009 Spirit program team

Congregation Chofetz Chayim will offer the Dr. Paul W. Hoffert Spirit Program for two weeks beginning July 25. The program gives men and boys the opportunity to study, yeshiva-style, with five visiting students from the Rabbinical Seminary of America. The program has been named “in memory of our beloved… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El is celebrating Taste of Judaism’s 13th year in Tucson. Led by Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon and Rabbi Jason Holtz, Taste of Judaism is a free, interactive three-part series on Jewish spirituality, values and community. It is open to all who want to deepen their knowledge of Jewish… Read more »

The Northwest Division of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has a new space to call home. On July 2, the Jewish Federation — Northwest will open at 190 W. Magee Road, Suite 162, at the northeast corner of Magee and Oracle Roads. The Northwest Division will share the… Read more »

The Conservative movement — affirming that same-sex marriages have “the same sense of holiness and joy as that expressed in heterosexual marriages” — last month established rituals for same-sex wedding ceremonies. The landmark vote by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly follows… Read more »

Paul Ash in 1957, when he won the U.S. national weightlifting championship (Courtesy Bruce Ash)

Real estate executive, world-class athlete and Tucson community leader Paul Ash, 81, died in Encinitas, Calif., on June 24, 2012. “When the term ‘the greatest generation’ was coined, Paul Ash could very well have been the prototype,” says Stuart Mellan, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Southern… Read more »

Michael Fuerst enlisted in the Bundeswehr, West Germany’s armed forces paratroopers unit, in 1966. (Photo courtesy Michael Fuerst)

In an office amid a labyrinth of hallways in Germany’s Ministry of Defense, a short jaunt from where Claus von Stauffenberg was executed in 1944 for trying to kill Adolf Hitler, sits Bernhard Fischer, lieutenant colonel and Jew. What’s a nice Jewish guy doing in a place like this?… Read more »

Pam Bridgmon adjusts a cold cap, which reduces hair loss following chemotherapy, on Sharon Arkin. (Sheila Wilensky)

Tucsonan Sharon Arkin, 72, leads an energetic life — and she has no intention of letting cancer set any limits. After missing her annual gynecological exam and Pap smear in 2011, she went in January. An examination by her doctor discovered cancer cells, or a thickening in the walls… Read more »

Cantor Avraham Alpert

  Congregation Bet Shalom has hired Cantor Avraham Alpert as its full-time clergy, starting July 14. An Arizona native, Alpert was most recently cantor at Temple Beth Sholom in Las Vegas and had previously served as cantor of the Mosaic Law Congregation in Sacramento, Calif. He holds a bachelor’s… Read more »

Rabbi Robert Eisen

Congregation Anshei Israel will hold a Siyum HaShas celebration on Thursday, Aug. 2 at 7 p.m. to mark Rabbi Robert Eisen’s completion of studying the entire Talmud. In the early part of the 20th century, the practice called Daf Yomi (page-a-day) of reading one two-side page of the Talmud… Read more »

(L-R) Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Young Men’s Leadership Mission participants Ed Baruch, Andrew Isaac, Jeff Wortzel, Guy Gelbart (JFSA staff), Michael Wexler, Daniel Nadowo (Ethiopian National Project staff), Nadav Kersh (tour guide), Todd Sadow and Adisu Tzahai (ENP staff) in the Alma Cave in Israel’s Naphtali Mountains. Not pictured: David Plotkin, Grace Rodnitzki (ENP staff), Larry Tishkoff (Jewish Federations of North America staff)

A life changing week — that’s how participants in Tucson’s first Young Men’s Leadership Mission described their eight days in Israel earlier this month. This mission, which was tailored to meet the interests of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Young Men’s Group, integrated Jewish history, visits to JFSA… Read more »

Rabbi Lev Baesh, center, marrying Jared and Laurie Berezin, an interfaith couple from Boston, Aug.19, 2011. (Courtesy Jared and Laurie Berezin)

BOSTON (JTA) — Danny Richter and his fiancee, Lauren Perkins, have never been to a Jewish wedding. That’s about to change. This fall, the interfaith couple is planning to be married in a Jewish wedding ceremony. The wedding marks other significant firsts: It also will be the first time… Read more »

  A composition by MIKE LEVY, “Sonata for Four Native Flutes,” will be performed at a Vatican ceremony in October when the pope canonizes a Native American woman who lived in the 17th century, known as the blessed Kateri. Native flutist Vince Redhouse commissioned Levy to write the piece… Read more »

ART MARTIN, chief executive officer of HANDMAKER JEWISH SERVICES FOR THE AGING, received a 2012 ACHCA Facility Leadership Award from the American College of Health Care Administrators last month. The award, based on skilled nursing facility survey data collected by eHealthDataSolutions, recognizes Handmaker for excellence in three years of performance on the health… Read more »

ARIEL LAMDAN, son of Cherie and Oded Lamdan, will celebrate becoming a Bar Mitzvah on Thursday, July 12  at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Israel. He is the grandson of Eileen Metz of Cincinnati, Ohio and Ruth and Victor Lamdan of Haifa, Israel. Ariel attends Orange Grove Middle School,… Read more »

JACOB PAUL GORDON, son of Richard Gordon and Amy Krauss, celebrated becoming a Bar Mitzvah on Monday, June 4  at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Israel, during Temple Emanu-El’s 2012 Israel Pilgrammage Tour. He is the grandson of Allen and the late Harriet Krause and Arthur and the late… Read more »