Troop appreciation
On Jan. 8, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Young Women’s Cabinet hosted its second annual Mahj and Mitzvahs event at the Tucson Hebrew Academy. With 55 in attendance, including YWC co-chairs Dana Goldstein and Sarah Singer, the group played the Chinese tile game and assembled care packages for military personnel. Attendees brought and packed individually wrapped snacks and candy, along with a local publication and a personal note. The 20 boxes were shipped to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base servicemen stationed overseas and to Jewish servicemen through The Brave@USCJ, a listserv for families of Jewish active duty military established by the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism.
Sara Goldfarb helped with this mitzvah project. Her husband, Joshua, an Air Force captain and electronic warfare officer, had submitted the names of his D-M colleagues to receive the packages while he was serving in Qatar. Now back from this deployment, he has been reassigned to Hurlburt Field AFB near Pensacola, Fla.
In the past, Sara has attended a United Jewish Communities’ Young Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C.; been a member of Women’s Cabinet; a Young Jewish Tucson co-chair; Young Leadership chair; and a member of the Jewish Community Relations Council executive board. As this special couple will be moving shortly, we bid them farewell and know that Tucson’s loss will be Pensacola’s gain. L’hitraot.
On the border
On Feb. 27, Bob Feinman led a daylong Jewish community bus trip to the Arizona-Mexico border sponsored by the JFSA Jewish Community Relations Council.
Cantor Avraham Alpert of Congregation Bet Shalom spoke of the principle of pekuach nefesh (saving a life) as the ultimate mitzvah a Jew can perform. The humanitarian group Humane Borders, of which Feinman is vice president, performs this mitzvah weekly when its volunteers replenish water stations in the desert for those who may literally be dying of thirst. The bus traveled to a station near Arivaca where Bob explained how, with the blessing of the Border Patrol, volunteers refill the tanks at various locations and repair any that may have been vandalized.
Along the route, immigration attorneys José Vazquez of Tucson and Larry Sandigo of Phoenix addressed issues of undocumented immigration. At lunch in Nogales, Ariz., Jaime Chamberlain, president of the Nogales-based J-C Distributing, Inc., a fresh produce supplier, cited the importance of Nogales in supplying Mexican fruits and vegetables to the United States. He also praised Israeli ingenuity and farming techniques that are used in Mexico today. Chamberlain and Nogales attorney Kip Martin recounted stories of the early Jewish settlers of Nogales, including the Capins and Brackers. The travelers headed to the DeConcini Border Crossing, where they witnessed a busload of undocumented young men and women being sent back to Mexico. The group walked along the border separation fence and continued up Morley Street for a quick tour of Bracker’s Department Store before heading back to Tucson.
Some of the 43 participants on the full bus were Pat Ballard, John Crowe, Joan and Bill Davidson, Elsa and Jay Goldberg, Susan and Alan Kendal, Jeri and David Kozloff, Andy Kunsberg, Judith and David Lugers, Bryan Davis (JCRC director), and Anne Lowe (JFSA Northwest Division director and director of outreach).
A house divided
Don’t call it sibling rivalry but rather collegiate competition.
Amy and Wayne Gould’s household has mixed allegiances. Their twin daughters, Kim and Lara, opted to attend different colleges. Kim is a University of Arizona senior majoring in psychology and Lara is a Syracuse University junior majoring in public relations. This 2013-14 basketball season has highlighted their school spirit. Kim bleeds Wildcat red and blue while Lara dons Syracuse orange. Both the UA and Syracuse opened the season 25-0 and have jockeyed for top spots in the NCAA rankings. On Selection Sunday (March 16), Arizona was named the #1 seed in the West and Syracuse the #3 seed in the South. According to the bracketology, if both teams advance, the only place these two teams could meet would be in the National Championship game on April 7. So much for March Madness hype. Onward.
Time to share
Happy upcoming Passover and keep me posted – 319-1112. L’shalom.
