Barbara Levy died Dec. 23, 2016. Survivors include her daughters, Linda Levy and Jaie Levy, both of Tucson; and one grandson. Graveside services were held at Evergreen Cemetery with Rabbi Robert Eisen of Congregation Anshei Israel officiating.… Read more »
Yearly Archives 2017
JFSA ready to get its game on for Super Sunday fundraiser
Shelly Silverman, chair of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona 2016 Community Campaign, left, with Super Sunday co-chairs Nina Isaacs and Julie Feldman at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on Jan. 31, 2016
(Martha Lochert)
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will hold its Super Sunday phone-a-thon on Jan. 29 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. During the annual fundraising event, volunteers will reach out to members of the Jewish community for donations to the Federation’s 2017 Community Campaign, which supports humanitarian and educational… Read more »
New adventure brings director back to local Jewish film fest
A scene from “My Hero Brother,” a new film by Israeli filmmaker Yonatan Nir
Yonatan Nir, an Israeli documentary filmmaker and producer, says making movies is an education unto itself. “Every film that I make is a window to a new world,” says Nir. “For me, the camera is a way to communicate, to learn more about the world and to experience it… Read more »
Slipping ‘Behind Enemy Lines,’ petite Jewish spy got key intelligence on Nazi maneuvers
(L-R): Major L. Cohn, M.D.; Marthe Cohn; Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman of Chabad Oro Valley; and Phyllis Gold, director of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Northwest Division, at the Country Club of La Cholla on Dec. 7 (Sarah Chen/Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona)
Marthe Cohn was crossing a field covered with ankle-deep snow. She was alone. There was no moon and she had no compass, no flashlight, nothing written down. As a French Jew, she had enlisted in the army to help defeat the Nazis. Her mission was to cross the border… Read more »
Tucson J to host cellist for pop-up concert
Matt Haimovitz (Steph MacKinnon)
The Tucson Jewish Community Center will join with UA Presents to hold a free “sneak peek” mini concert by cellist Matt Haimovitz on Friday, Jan. 13 at 3 p.m., one day prior to his Jan. 14 concert at 8 p.m. at Crowder Hall. Haimovitz will offer a musical variation… Read more »
Pennsylvania Jewish camp unites local couple
Allison Richter (nee Lachter) and Michael Richter at Capital Camps in Waynesboro, Pa. in 1991. (Courtesy Allison Richter)
As a kid, Allison Richter of Tucson spent many happy hours canoeing, shooting arrows, hiking and crafting at Camp Pearlstein, now called Camp Daisy and Harry Stein, in Prescott. Her parents never thought she would bring home a husband. She didn’t, of course, but those summers began a beautiful… Read more »
‘Israel Through Our Eyes’ topic for Hadassah
Hadassah national board member Cathy Olswing and her husband, Brian, at the ruins in Beit Shean, Israel on Nov. 7 (Courtesy Cathy Olswing)
Cathy Olswing will present “Israel Through Our Eyes,” a report on a recent Hadassah Desert-Mountain Region mission, at a Hadassah Southern Arizona early dinner event on Jan. 15 at 3 p.m. at Skyline Country Club, 5200 E. St Andrews Drive. Olswing, who serves on the national board of Hadassah,… Read more »
How the Israeli army wages war on waistlines
Officer Yaara Bareket oversees stretches at the Wingate army base in Netanya, Israel, Dec. 13, 2016. (Andrew Tobin)
NETANYA, Israel (JTA) – One fit young soldier scales a rope. Two others practice hand-to-hand combat. A large group marches across the sand. But those were just the inspirational photographs on the walls. The actual soldiers crowded in the one-room building here on the Orde Wingate army base were… Read more »
Israel’s top security experts redraw West Bank map for the Trump era
The West Bank security fence running near Jerusalem, April 17, 2016. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) – Israel’s leading security think tank has published a plan to redraw the map of the West Bank in a bid to consolidate major settlements and prevent the spread of others. The plan, presented Monday to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin as part of the Institute for National Security Studies’ yearly strategic… Read more »
Arizona family’s yard menorah vandalized
Vandals twisted a menorah in a Chandler, Ariz., family’s yard into a swastika. (Screenshot from YouTube)
(JTA) A large menorah in the front yard of an Arizona family was twisted into the shape of a swastika. The Hanukkah candelabra was made of gold spray-painted PVC pipes and solar-powered lights. Parents Naomi and Seth Ellis told the Washington Post they built the 7-foot menorah in front… Read more »
Or Chadash plans 2017 casino night, poker tournament
Congregation Or Chadash will hold a Texas Hold-Em poker tournament, plus a dinner and casino night, on Saturday, Feb. 4 at the Tucson Scottish Rite Cathedral, 160 S. Scott Ave. The poker tournament, limited to 150 players, will begin at 6 p.m., with onsite registration open at 5 p.m.… Read more »
Brandeis expert to discuss American musicals
Ryan McKittrick Ryan McKittrick, assistant professor of theater arts at Brandeis University, will present “The American Musical from the 19th Century to ‘Hamilton’” at the Brandeis National Committee’s University on Wheels breakfast on Thursday, Jan. 12 at 9:30 a.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. McKittrick’s talk will feature scenes from… Read more »
Cohon foundation to present two awards
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein Temple Emanu-El will host the 2016 Cohon Memorial Foundation Awards at Shabbat evening services on Friday, Jan. 13, at 7:30 p.m. Rabbi Baruch J. Cohon and Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon will present the awards to this year’s winners, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and president of the International Fellowship of… Read more »
Jewish life in Europe focus of Green Valley exhibit, talk
The art gallery at the Beth Shalom Temple Center in Green Valley is presenting “Visiting Your Roots,” featuring photographs and pamphlets from recent trips to Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Poland, through Feb. 15. Photographs from BSTC members, family and friends highlight memorials, camps, synagogues and museums.… Read more »
Wildcat coach to speak at Hillel alumni pre-game dinner
Joe Pasternack (University of Arizona) The University of Arizona Hillel Foundation will host its annual alumni and friends event on Thursday, Jan. 26 at 5:15 p.m. The evening will feature Joe Pasternack, UA associate head basketball coach under Coach Sean Miller, who will brief attendees on this year’s Wildcat team. His talk will be… Read more »
UA Cancer Center and Tucson J team up for education series
The University of Arizona Cancer Center is partnering with the Tucson Jewish Community Center to deliver a free, four-part educational series on cancer starting in February. Classes will focus on trends in research and clinical care, from precision medicine to novel drug development to the new frontiers of immunology.… Read more »
Play at LTW is set in Streisand’s basement
Keith Wick in “Buyer & Cellar”
Live Theatre Workshop will stage “Buyer & Cellar” by Jonathan Tolins, a one-man show that begins with the premise of an underemployed actor going to work as a shopkeeper in the basement of Barbra Streisand’s Malibu home, Thursdays-Sundays through Feb. 11. “This seriously funny slice of absurdist whimsy creates… Read more »
Taylor of ‘Nanny’ fame to talk diets, show biz
Renee Taylor with her husband, Joe Bologna
Invisible Theatre will present Renée Taylor in “My Life on a Diet” at the Berger Performing Arts Center, 1200 W. Speedway Blvd., on Saturday, Jan. 7 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 8 at 3 p.m. Taylor, best known for her Emmy-nominated role as Fran Drescher’s Jewish mother on… Read more »
Weintraub Israel Center event will honor firefighters who helped Israel in crisis
On Sunday, Jan. 8, the Weintraub Israel Center will hold an event to thank the Greater Tucson Fire Foundation and the Tucson area firefighters who traveled to Israel in November to help control the hundreds of fires there. The event will be held at 5 p.m. at the Tucson… Read more »
In Congress, a new battle emerges: two states or not two states
Rep. Ed Royce participates in a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Nov. 4, 2015. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – There’s a striking difference between competing bids in Congress addressing last month’s U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements. It’s not that they differ on the United Nations – the two nonbinding congressional resolutions under consideration condemn the Security Council, as well as the outgoing Obama… Read more »




