Allan Mendelsberg at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Great Strides walk in Tucson on March 29
Allan Mendelsberg serves on the community advisory board for the Special Olympics. He began volunteering for the organization when he was a high school student in Denver. “I really enjoyed working with the kids and when I moved to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona, I just stayed… Read more »
Jonathan Ben-Asher It’s time for school, and the view from THA is tremendously exciting! At the eagle’s perspective, you’ll see our beautiful building (designed like a tallit, or prayer shawl) and grounds, ready to embrace teaching and learning every day; our wonderful, engaged, energized community of students, parents, teachers and staff… Read more »
President Barack Obama speaking about the Iran nuclear agreement at American University in Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2015. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
CHICAGO (JTA) — Debaters know that when they are losing an argument, a good tactic is to change the subject. So it goes with the current accusations, completely untethered from reality, that President Obama is resorting to anti-Jewish “dog whistles” in his defense of the nuclear deal with Iran.… Read more »
(L-R): Patrice White, Naomi Present, Max Harris and Barbara Holtzman of Congregation Chaverim are recognized for their service to Poz Cafe at Tucson Interfatih HIV/AIDS Network in March.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a diagnosis of HIV or AIDS was essentially a death sentence. Pharmaceutical representative Patrice White was fresh out of grad school at that time and employed as a social worker for the local hospitals. “It was just awful,” says White of the… Read more »
As students sharpen their pencils and charge their laptops and smartphones for the new school year, Tucson’s Jewish schools are keeping their programs fresh with everything from new electives to new teachers. Temple Emanu-El’s Kurn Religious School will hold a geniza (archive) ceremony field trip as students learn about… Read more »
Lola Lieber “A World After This” will be the focus of the Women’s Academy of Jewish Studies eighth annual High Holy Days season book brunch with Esther Becker on Sunday, Sept. 20 at Congregation Chofetz Chayim. A memoir by Holocaust survivor Lola Lieber, “A World After This” spans 91 years, moving… Read more »
Iris-folded pomegranate card by Anne Lowe Jewish Tucson will hold a bagel brunch on Sunday, Aug. 30, 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The event will allow newcomers, and those looking for a deeper connection within the Jewish community, to meet representatives of synagogues and local Jewish agencies and organizations and… Read more »
The Jewish History Museum, which reopens Aug. 15, will present “Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Postcards from the Permanent Collection,” Aug. 19-Dec. 20. The collection of handwritten cards shows Southern Arizona from the early 1900s through the 1960s. Visitors will have the opportunity to write their own postcards and send them… Read more »
RABBI BENZION SHEMTOV was recently featured in the Sierra Vista Herald, which reported on his 10-day visit to Jews in Southern Arizona communities including Sierra Vista, Bisbee and Green Valley (http:// svherald.com/content/sierra-vista-news/2015/07/27/397799). Shemtov, the son of Rabbi Yossie and Chanie Shemtov of Chabad of Tucson, grew up in Tucson… Read more »
Tucson Jewish Montessori, Tucson’s first Jewish Montessori preschool, founded by Rabbi Israel and Esther Becker, will open Monday, Aug. 31. Classes are aimed at 3- to 6-year-olds, and will run from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday through Friday, with childcare available before and after classes. “Our focus is honoring the… Read more »
TUCSON HEBREW ACADEMY has hired several new teachers. JENNIFER GOULD will fill the new position of mathematics department chair and teach middle school mathematics. Gould received her Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Education degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles. She comes to THA from Fay School… Read more »
Stephen Shore For some students who have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder or Asperger’s syndrome, the start of a new school year can be especially difficult. Adjusting to new teachers, schedules, classmates and rules can be hard for all children, but for children with ASD or Asperger’s syndrome, changes in… Read more »
At a stop on the drive back to Jerusalem from Masada and the Dead Sea, Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona leadership mission participants, from left, Dinah Lucas, Roe Callahan, Linda Immerman-Stoffers, Ellen Freeman and Priscilla Storm prepare to ride a camel — an activity, says JFSA President and CEO Stuart Mellan, that was “strictly optional.”
“Israel is an inspirational and complicated place,” Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild said upon returning from the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona interfaith community leadership mission last month. “Visiting Israel teaches that one must have great resolve and still, at the same time, be very open to hear competing views.”… Read more »
Tu Nidito is reaching out to college students and other young adults who may need support as they cope with the death of a loved one. More than 31,600 students will be returning to the University of Arizona this month, and odds are more than 6,300 of them will… Read more »
Alina Adams (Kveller via JTA) — A Christian inspirational romance novel that retells the Book of Esther, setting it in a Nazi concentration camp with the main characters being a German guard and his Jewish prisoner, was nominated for two industry awards by the Romance Writers of America, or RWA. Adding… Read more »
Sen. Charles Schumer was the subject of a cartoon that some saw as questioning his loyalty to the United States. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Congress and the American people are focused on what everyone agrees is a historic, serious and consequential foreign policy decision — the fate of the nuclear deal with Iran. While we all hope for a debate based on substance and conducted with civility, the truth… Read more »
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (Wikimedia Commons)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — This month, there is one question concerning the future safety and security of the United States and Israel: the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreed upon between the six world powers and Iran. We must decide what costs and risks are acceptable in order to avert… Read more »
A house under construction for Gaza evacuees in the town of Beer Ganim. (Ben Sales)
NITZAN B, Israel (JTA) — Ask Aviel Eliaz and Itzik Wazana about their evacuation from Gaza 10 years ago this month and both will tell you it’s like a tree. For Eliaz, it’s an olive tree sitting in a large pot in his front yard. He planted the tree… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The dredging up of the dual loyalty charge — that lawmakers who reject the Iran nuclear agreement and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is lobbying against it, are more closely aligned with Israel than the United States — illustrates just how tense the debate over the… Read more »
From left, Jill Totenberg, Nina Totenberg and Amy Totenberg viewing their father's Stadivarius violin, which was stolen after a concert 35 years ago, at an FBI news conference in New York City announcing the recovery of the violin, Aug. 6, 2015. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Jewish violin virtuoso Roman Totenberg enjoyed a long life, making it to the ripe old age of 101. But that wasn’t quite long enough to be reunited with the prized instrument that was stolen from him in 1980. The FBI officially announced Thursday that it had recovered Totenberg’s… Read more »
