THA converts STEM to STEAM
Some 1,200 people visited Tucson Hebrew Academy’s third annual STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) Festival on Sunday, March 26. Jennifer Lehrfeld, STEM coordinator and science department head at THA, included an art component this year, turning STEM to STEAM. The festival’s hands-on exhibits included everything from a catapult to build-and-fly rocketry workshop.
Kosher in Disguise tour
Some 60 Tucsonans took part in a “Kosher in Disguise” supermarket tour on Sunday, March 19 at Albertson’s, 6600 E. Grant Road, led by Rabbi Eliezer Eidlitz, director of the Kosher Information Bureau. Congregation Chofetz Chayim, the Southwest Torah Institute and Albertson’s cosponsored the event. Eidlitz identified the most reliable kosher labels as well as products that are kosher and kosher for Passover even without an identifying label. The participants represented a broad spectrum of the Jewish community, says Rabbi Israel Becker.
Connections gets PURSE-onal
Nearly 300 women gathered on March 5 for Connections, an annual brunch hosted by Women’s Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and held at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The featured speaker was Rabbi Susan Silverman, author of the memoir, “Casting Lots: Creating a Family in a Beautiful, Broken World.”
This year’s event was dubbed “Let’s Get PURSE-onal.” Throughout the year, the Connections steering committee and Women’s Philanthropy social action committee held a purse collection drive, netting more than 150 donated purses. Some of the purses were auctioned at the event, raising more than $3,400 for Sister Jose Women’s Center, JFSA’s 70th anniversary project. The Young Women’s Cabinet also collected toiletries for Sister Jose as part of its mitzvah project. The YWC filled more than 75 purses that will be donated to the women of Sister Jose at a later date.
The Women’s Philanthropy advisory council presented the 11th annual Bryna Zehngut Mitzvot Award, recognizing an outstanding Jewish teenage girl, to Zoe Holtzman.
Intergenerational arts and crafts at Handmaker
Temple Emanu-El students joined Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging residents to make Passover crafts on Sunday, March 26.
