Maickel Melamed (in ski mask and rain poncho) running in the Boston Marathon. (Maickel Melamed Facebook page)
BOSTON (JTA) —Twenty hours after the start of Monday’s Boston Marathon, Venezuelan long-distance runner Maickel Melamed crossed the finish line, prompting an impromptu City Hall ceremony in his honor later that morning. Melamed finished far behind the marathon’s winners, but he nonetheless received a medal. That’s because Melamed, who is Jewish,… Read more »
Back row: Michael Gibson, Sarah Jones, Joshua Arden, Kacie Bauer, Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon, Rabbi Batsheva Appel, Cantorial Soloist Marjorie Hochberg. Front row: Gabriel Cohon, Isabella Brody, Dalya Parker, Meghan Ramirez, Athena Focazio-Moran, Rebecca Bauer (Joe Steiner) Temple Emanu-El confirmation Temple Emanu-El’s 5775 confirmation class led the Shabbat evening service on Friday, May 22. Music of the Night On May 9, Congregation Or Chadash honored Cantor Janece Cohen on the 25th anniversary of her ordination as a cantor and the receipt of… Read more »
MALIWAN JOANIQUE TOVA ROCKLAND, daughter of Jeffrey and Suwatana Rockland, will celebrate becoming a bat mitzvah on Saturday, June 20 at Temple Emanu-El.. She is the granddaughter of Michael Rockland and Patricia Ard of Morristown, N.J., Mae and Myron Tupa of Brookline, Mass., and Samart and Bangorn Apairatana of… Read more »
BENJAMIN ROBERT HELMING, son of Suzanne Baron Helming and Bruce Helming, will celebrate becoming a bar mitzvah on Saturday, June 13 at University of Arizona Hillel with Congregation Chaverim. He is the grandson of Martha Baron and the late Allen Baron, and Carol and Bob Helming, all of Tucson.… Read more »
ROBYN DAFOE has been named vice president for clinical services for JEWISH FAMILY & CHILDREN’S SERVICES OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA. Previously, she was the director for quality management and utilization management at Pantano Behavioral Health Services, where she worked for the past 10 years. Dafoe also has worked for Child… Read more »
“A Beggar at the Door: Longer and Shorter Psalms” by Tucson poet and painter JOSH GOLDBERG has been published by Albion-Andalus Books. Goldberg teaches at The Drawing Studio in Tucson and his artwork can be seen at Davis Dominguez Gallery and joshgoldbergtucson.com.… Read more »
Ruth J. Weinstein, 87, died May 29, 2015. Born in Newark, N.J., Mrs. Weinstein lived in New Jersey until 1977 when she and her husband moved to Tucson. She was a congregant of Temple Emanu-El for 38 years and volunteered on many committees and assisted in the office until… Read more »
Steven B.Nasati CHICAGO (JTA) — There are many important endeavors already underway to combat the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, as the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman argues in his recent JTA Op-Ed. From educating and mobilizing our own community to engaging non-Jewish leaders and institutions, much work is being done. But… Read more »
Deborah Rosenbloom WASHINGTON (JTA) — When I read the article in The New York Times detailing the accusations against Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt of the Riverdale Jewish Center, I was deeply saddened. This is the synagogue and community where I grew up. My parents moved to Riverdale in the 1950s and are among the RJC’s… Read more »
Oshrat Barel Israeli culture in Tucson Bringing Israeli culture to Tucson is one of the central goals of the Tucson Jewish Community Center, and this summer it is my pleasure to spend part of the summer here and see the great work of the two Israeli camp counselors, Dar Katz and… Read more »
Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman of Chabad of Tucson affixes the mezuzah at the grand opening of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona's Northwest office in October 2012. (Phyllis Braun)
The Town of Oro Valley is running two campaigns to bolster local spending and keep dollars in the community. The first, Shop Oro Valley Summer Campaign, which runs through July 3, is open to anyone who shops at an Oro Valley business and spends at least $25. Participants are… Read more »
Ed Stolmaker Ed Stolmaker grew up in Hawthorne, N.J., but almost 16 years ago, he made an impetuous move to unincorporated Pima County. The current president and CEO of the Marana Chamber of Commerce was visiting Tucson with his wife, Marianne, on New Year’s Eve 1998. “We weren’t planning on moving… Read more »
Rabbi Manis Friedman speaks at the Tucson Jewish Community Center May 26. Good health and happiness can be achieved, says Rabbi Manis Friedman. During his talk, “A Healthy, Joyous and Fulfilling Life, A Holistic and Kabalistic Perspective,” attended by about 50 people on May 26 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, Friedman highlighted ways for people to look at life and… Read more »
I recently attended one of the excellent talks at the JCC given by Dr. Eyal Fruchter of the IDF on post-traumatic stress disorder in Israel. While his medical points were accurate and incisive to me, he made a pair of demographic statements at the talk and in print in… Read more »
Phil Zuckerman Phil Zuckerman, author of “Living the Secular Life,” will give two free lectures on Sunday, June 21 at the DuVal Auditorium at Banner-University Medical Center, 1501 N. Campbell Ave. He will present “The Rise of the Nones: Causes and Consequences of Rising Irreligion in the USA,” sponsored by Free… Read more »
Members of a Partnership2Gether group celebrate together in Israel. (Jewish Agency for Israel)
The Weintraub Israel Center has embraced the mission of creating a “living bridge” between Southern Arizona and Israel since it was founded in 1997. At the forefront of this mission are the Israeli shlichim — Hebrew for “messengers” or “emissaries” — who serve as directors of the WIC during… Read more »
A slideshow at the May 29 event to showcase plans for the Holocaust History Center expansion included this artist's rendering of an interactive testimonial wall (SBBL Architecture and Planning)
Many local schoolchildren may never get the opportunity to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., or the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. But Tucson’s Holocaust History Center at the Jewish History Museum can put that kind of learning within reach, Bryan… Read more »
For the second year in a row, the Arizona Jewish Post has won a first place Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism from the American Jewish Press Association. The award is also a repeat for AJP freelance writer Nancy Ben-Asher Ozeri, who took home last year’s first… Read more »
Sarah Johnston, center, a Jewish woman from Tucson, with other proponents of religious tolerance who gathered May 29 outside a Phoenix mosque to counter an anti-Muslim protest. The photo includes representatives of the three Abrahamic faiths, Islam, Judaism and Christianity, says Johnston. (Marty Johnston)
Recently, Jon Ritzheimer, a former Marine and self-described “patriot” announced on Facebook that he was holding a “protest” and a “draw Muhammed” contest at the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix during their May 29 Friday night prayers. He invited bikers whom he encouraged to come armed. My husband heard… Read more »
Andrea Siemens Even discussing domestic abuse can be controversial. Jewish women face cultural and religious stigmatization when they get out of their abusive relationships, said Andrea Siemens of Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona at a joint presentation with Robin Memel Fox of the Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse,… Read more »
