Danny Cole will perform at Tucson’s Temple of Music and Art Dec. 28, 2013 with Tucson native Eric Buss and juggling champion Ivan Pecel. Danny Cole has been performing magic since he was 10. Now, at 35, he has more than a dozen magic awards to his credit —starting with the Kleinman Award for Most Promising Young Magician at age 15 — and has performed all over the world, from Toledo, Ohio, to… Read more »
(L-R): Scott, Haley, Julie and Dylan Zorn on a family vacation in Lake Tahoe in February 2013 Even though her full-time position as Jewish cultural specialist at the Tucson Jewish Community Center doesn’t begin until Jan. 6, Julie Zorn has been a familiar face at the JCC for almost a decade. Her husband, Scott Zorn, is the director of children, youth and family engagement; her children… Read more »
Zachary, Tyler and Courtney Fenton of Reilly Craft Pizza and Drink There’s an old stereotype about sibling rivalry, but for three sets of Tucson siblings, family and food have only brought them closer. Whether it’s gluten-free baked goods, pizza, or craft beers, co-owning and operating local restaurants have become a way of life for Daphna and Eyal Ron, Aric and… Read more »
Itzhak Perlman Itzhak Perlman is coming to Tucson on Tuesday, Jan. 14, to play Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Perlman has attained the status of superstar — a rarity for a classical musician. He has brought classical music to audiences worldwide through his presence on concert… Read more »
Samuel Asher Sommer In March, dozens of rabbis will shave their heads at the Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis gathering in Chicago. But the 8-year-old boy whose struggle with cancer inspired the rabbis’ campaign will not be there to witness their act of solidarity. Samuel Asher Sommer, the son of… Read more »
Rabbi Yossi Winner cycles the UA Chabad menorah to a new location on campus. (Courtesy UA Chabad) Mitzvah 613 Torah dedication Hundreds of people gathered on Sunday, Dec. 8, to witness the dedication of Congregation Anshei Israel’s new Torah, the culminating event to a yearlong celebration of the synagogue’s 83rd anniversary. The event included learning stations and art projects for all ages, performances by adult and… Read more »
As part of its quest to continue as “the heart of Conservative Judaism in Southern Arizona,” says Rabbi Robert Eisen, Congregation Anshei Israel is launching a search process for one or more professionals to fill the roles of cantor and educator. “Our mission statement is wordy (CAI shall serve… Read more »
Diane Turner Diane Turner, a life coach, psychotherapist and author of “Heart Wisdom: A Concise Companion for Creating a Life of Possibility,” will launch a three-part course at the Tucson Jewish Community Center starting Tuesday, Jan. 7 from 1 to 3 p.m. The sessions will continue on Jan. 14 and 21.… Read more »
Members of Firefighters Without Borders, the seven-man Arizona delegation that traveled to Israel in October, will discuss their trip at Hadassah Southern Arizona’s lunch program on Sunday, Jan. 5. The local firefighters conferred with Israeli firefighters and rescue workers to learn firsthand how to respond to mass casualties. Their… Read more »
Shalom Tucson will host a free bagel brunch for newcomers and anyone interested in the Tucson Jewish community on Sunday, Jan. 12, at 10 a.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Representatives from synagogues, agencies and organizations will provide “one stop shopping for our warm and vibrant Jewish community,”… Read more »
In Washington, D.C., for a 2011 lobbying trip are Jewish Latino Teen Coalition members (L-R) Maia Schneider, Rena Barber, Harrison Avigdor, Roberto Flores, Susan Keovongsa, Amanda Monroy, Brian Molina, Analiza Grabowski, Louie Sanders, Natalia Navarro and Lindsey Bressler. Many will attend the coalition’s anniversary celebration in Tucson on Jan. 5. More than 100 teens who otherwise may have never met have shared their cultures through the Jewish Latino Teen Coalition, a program founded by Rep. Raul Grijalva and the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. The purpose of the coalition, which may be the… Read more »
The century’s largest winter storm in Israel is over, but it left an aftermath of icy roads. You can imagine what fearsome traffic jams materialized. So it was on the morning of Dec. 16 on Road 443, which leads from Modiin to Northern Jerusalem, including our Mount Scopus hospital. The road… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Every decade or so, yet another demographic survey reveals the obvious: The American-Jewish community is in flux, with affiliation falling. Each time, the community circles back to what we know works: high-quality Jewish education, along with Jewish camps and Israel programs. Taken together, these are effective… Read more »
The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends. BALTIMORE (JTA) – Wearing a black jacket and hat with a white shirt buttoned up to the neck, the bearded man sings of poverty and hunger, homelessness and being alone, a family lost. Yet through the pain,… Read more »
Neshama Carlebach onstage at the Union for Reform Judaism's biennial in San Diego, Dec. 14 2013. (URJ) (JTA) — I grew up Jewish. Simply Jewish. My late father, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, raised us in an observant Orthodox household. Our lives were filled with beautiful ritual and we celebrated the wonder of a familial spiritual connection. That said, we also danced along the fine line of progressive… Read more »
The House Budget Committe chair, Rep. Paul Ryan, and the Senate Budget Committee chair, Sen. Patty Murray, walk past the Senate chamber on their way to a press conference to announce a bipartisan budget deal, Dec. 10, 2013. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images) WASHINGTON (JTA) — For Jewish and pro-Israel groups, the congressional year is ending with an odd reversal: the prospect, however fragile, of bipartisan comity on budget issues coupled with a rare partisan disagreement on Middle Eastern policy. The groups that deal with social welfare and justice issues are heartened,… Read more »
A group of women hold hands around the Torah during the Shabbat morning service at the Union for Reform Judaism's biennial conference in San Diego, Dec. 14, 2013. (URJ) SAN DIEGO (JTA) – What do you get when you bring together 5,000 of the Reform movement’s faithful for a conference in sunny San Diego in mid-December? Four days of singing, learning, schmoozing and worrying at a gathering that seemed equal parts pep rally and intervention session. For pep,… Read more »
Young people sit a cafe table set up amid the snow on Jerusalem's Jaffa Road on Dec. 15, 2013. (Hadas Parush/Flash 90) Only about 20 minutes outside of the city did it begin to appear — patches of white on the rough hills abutting the road, sprinklings of flakes on the pines. By the time our bus reached Mevasseret Tzion, near Jerusalem, the snow was blanketing the ground, building up in… Read more »
The city of Rahat is the largest Bedouin settlement in Israel. (Yossi Zamir/Flash 90) WADI AL-NAAM, Israel (JTA) – In this unofficial Bedouin town of 14,000 not far from Beersheva in the Negev Desert, families live in clusters of shanties with intermittent electricity provided by generators or solar panels. A communal structure has soft plastic walls and dirt floors, with a small pit… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Natan Zaidenweber thought the mohel was kidding. His wife, Linda Raab, thought it was some kind of religious formality and didn’t give it a second thought. But the mohel, Cantor Philip Sherman, was serious. Though most fathers demur when he invites them to perform the bris… Read more »
