Myq Kaplan Comedian Myq Kaplan has appeared on “The Tonight Show,” “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” and his own Comedy Central Presents special. In 2010 he performed in Tucson in the Last Comic Standing Tour. Next month, he’s bringing his act back to… Read more »
(JTA) — When the leaders of Winnipeg’s Jewish federation sat down 13 years ago to try to figure out a way to reverse the community’s decline, they came up with a novel idea: recruit Jews from overseas. The idea was pretty straightforward. Capitalizing on the pro-immigration policies of their… Read more »
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, March 29, 2014. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images) LAS VEGAS (JTA) — The GOP Jewish faithful descended in force on Sin City, turning out in record numbers and striking a feisty, combative tone at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual conference. According to organizers, some 400 people attended the gathering, where they were feted with poker and golf… Read more »
Karina Reizman and Rabbi Ben Herman announce their engagement. The bride-to-be is the daughter of Robin and Ben Dishman of San Diego and Aaron Reizman of Long Beach, Calif. Karina will receive a Bachelor of Arts in family and human development from the University of Arizona in May and… Read more »
Lara and Kim Gould 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… Read more »
Reid Harris Margolis Kotwica, 36, died March 3, 2014 in West Hollywood, Calif. A Tucson native, Mr. Kotwica attended the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Hermosillo, Mexico for a year before transferring to the University of Arizona where he obtained a degree in Spanish, communications and… Read more »
Norbert F. Muhlrad, 91, died March 11, 2014. Mr. Muhlrad was born in Vienna, Austria. A Holocaust survivor, Mr. Muhlrad escaped to the United States. and served in the U.S. Army Military Government during World War II. He worked as a sales rep for children’s clothing. Survivors include his… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Artem Zaptotski, from Lutsk, in western Ukraine, sits in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, sharing his room with a French Hasid. Seeing that I speak Hebrew and wear a kippah, the Hasid asks if he should encourage Zaptotski to put on tefillin. No, I tell him. Zaptotski… Read more »
(JTA) — The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has pitted Jewish leaders from both countries against each other, touching off a discordant exchange between prominent rabbis on opposite sides of the border. The discord had been brewing since the onset of the protests in Ukraine in November, but it… Read more »
BALTIMORE (JTA) – In the biblical tradition of lingering in the desert en route to the Promised Land, Major League Baseball teams are packing up and embarking on their exodus from Arizona (and Florida) spring training sites to begin the new season. Rosters won’t be finalized until this weekend,… Read more »
Rabbi Helen T. Cohn When asked, “What is your name?” we generally respond with our first name or perhaps our full legal name. But each of us has many names, and occasionally it is worthwhile to consider what they are and what they say about us. Our names reveal something about our origins… Read more »
Planning Passover meals is always a wonderful challenge. For the Seders, most of us focus on traditional family recipes because they are tried and proven, and because everyone likes them (and often asks for these favorites dishes). But what about the remaining six days of meals? Once the big… Read more »
Artifacts filmmaker Arnon Goldfinger found in his grandparents’ Tel Aviv apartment reveal a troubling story. A special screening of “The Flat” will take place at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on Sunday, March 30 at 3 p.m. The documentary, in Hebrew/German/English with subtitles, was released in September 2011 in Israel, where it played continuously for 13 months. At age 98, director Arnon Goldfinger’s grandmother… Read more »
Pima Community College has posted its Family Heritage Project website at www.pima.edu/community/the-arts/family-heritage.html. The project was conceived by Todd Poelstra, director of PCC’s production of “Fiddler on the Roof,” in celebration of the musical’s themes of tradition and family. The project includes more than 125 photographs and stories submitted by… Read more »
Can you play a sad, beautiful Hebrew-speaking Israeli in her 30s? The Invisible Theatre will be holding auditions for this female character and two male characters on Sunday, March 30 at 5 p.m. for “Handle With Care,” a romantic comedy by Jason Odell Williams. The play will be part… Read more »
It is no secret that when Israel’s government announced this past September that we would be returning to the table to negotiate with the Palestinians, I was not optimistic about the prospects of this latest round of talks. I knew that as much as we desire peace and normalcy… Read more »
Scarcely a week goes by, it seems, without Israel’s Minister of Defense Moshe Ya’alon getting his name into the headlines for provocative statements about the United States and its leaders. First, he called US Secretary of State John Kerry “obsessive and messianic” for his efforts to mediate a peace… Read more »
After years of fighting against anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union and later in an independent Ukraine, the Ukrainian Jewish community is now confronting a new threat. This threat comes from an unprecedented effort by the Russian government and others to paint a false impression of the state of anti-Semitism… Read more »
If you are looking for a community Passover Seder to attend this year, Tucson’s got you covered. There are first, second, third and seventh night Seders, several chocolate-based festivities and a chance to start the celebrating more than a week before the holiday officially begins. The 18 events below… Read more »
Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub Depression may often seem like an epidemic in today’s society. Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub, a rabbi and licensed therapist, will deliver the first keynote address, “The Dark Night of the Soul: Some Jewish Perspectives on Depression,” at the Interfaith Community Services “Faith Communities and Mental Illness” conference on April… Read more »
