Yearly Archives 2018

I am writing about the article, “CCC program aims to bolster ‘The Connection,” published in the June 14, 2018 AJP, which promoted a series of events centered around a visit of 12 yeshiva students from The Foxman Yeshiva in New Jersey. I was concerned by the failure of the… Read more »

I’ve been attending the classic series at the Tucson Symphony Orchestra for many years, on Sundays. This past season’s opening concert fell on Sept. 24, the Jewish Fast of Gedaliah. I was fasting. At the end of the concert, the new music director and conductor José Luis Gomez was… Read more »

Tucson native NIKKI BAIM, a sophomore in the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, has won the 2018 Walter S. and Syrena M. Howell essay competition for “The Sports Department of Corrections: How false reports by ESPN criminalized the University of… Read more »

Each time we put together a Congregation Bet Shalom tour, we focus on a different aspect of life in the Holy Land. This time we concentrated on the idea of living as a non-Jew in the Jewish State. This two-week tour was aimed at proving the theory that non-Jews… Read more »

Sidney Finkel ended his self-imposed silence in 1993 about Holocaust survival as a child. At the insistence of his daughter, Ruth, he shared the story with his family of the young boy born Sevek Finkelstein. Born in Poland to a well-to-do family of seven, he lived an idyllic childhood… Read more »

What started as a 24-hour community drive on social media last week turned into a tikkun olam (repairing the world) mission for Tucson Jews for Justice, coinciding with World Refugee Day, June 20. “It’s difficult to hear the news of what’s going on,” says Alma Hernandez, referring to the… Read more »

Janet Belkin felt a compelling need to do something “to insure our democracy continues to exist.” She turned to the local chapter of the League of Women Voters, a group she was a member of in the past in her native New York. “There’s a very strong and useful… Read more »

Summer camp is not just for kids anymore. Summer camps targeted for adults are popping up throughout the country, and Tucson is embracing the trend. The Tucson Jewish Community Center will launch its first One Day Adult Summer Camp on Sunday, July 29. The Foundation for Jewish Camping says,… Read more »

A few months ago I wrote a humor piece titled “Don’t eat off the seder plate, and other tips for non-Jews attending their first seder.” It drew a miffed response from a rabbi friend who often works with interfaith families and suggested “it’s time to drop terms like ‘non-Jew’… Read more »

The Jewish History Museum will stage a digital exhibit, “Mapping Migration,” that documents the trajectory of Jewish community migration to Southern Arizona through triptychs comprising historical to contemporary family photos. The exhibit will open Sept. 1. “Two things I particularly love about this concept are that it is inclusive… Read more »

Cool treats Cool off from the inside out with some of our favorite spots. Atomic Frog Ice Cream Parlor and Café, 9725 N. Thornydale Road, is a perfect example. While it specializes in “Parlor Tricks,” including ice cream, smoothies and sundaes, it’s more than just an ice cream parlor.… Read more »

Fashionistas in Southern Arizona may not embrace big shearling coats and oversize knit scarves with the fervor of their East Coast sisters. But there were many other looks to love on the runways at this February’s Fall Fashion Week in New York. Ann Carroll of Mills Touché boutique in… Read more »

NANCY WALTER SCOTT has joined FIT BODY BOOT CAMP’s Foothills location to lead the Fit Body Forever program, a fitness program designed for adults 55+. She is certified as a functional aging specialist by the Functional Aging Institute in West Lafayette, Indiana. Foothills Fit Body Boot Camp is located… Read more »

Francine Shacter, 90, of Tucson, formerly of Bethesda and Highland, Maryland, died June 14, 2018. Mrs. Shacter was born in Los Angeles, graduated from Hollywood High School, and briefly attended UCLA before marrying and raising four children. Years later, in the middle of life, while working full time, she… Read more »

(JTA) — Growing up in Uganda, Shoshanna Nambi was active in her small Jewish community. She taught songs and the Torah portion to younger children and was a member of her community’s youth group. Learning Hebrew also seemed to come easily. So it seemed obvious to her that she… Read more »

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — As a seasoned ghost writer who specializes in biographies, Miriam Dubi-Gazan says there is no such thing as a boring life story. Her attention to detail, creativity and editing skills yield satisfying results even for clients whose resumes are not exactly the stuff of spy novels… Read more »

SAN FRANCISCO (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — Breaking religious barriers is nothing new for Rabbi Daniel Lehmann. Ordained at New York’s Yeshiva University, the flagship of Modern Orthodoxy, he most recently was president of Hebrew College near Boston, which is devoted to pluralistic Jewish… Read more »

Watch… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Saying a U.S. plan for Middle East peace would be released “soon,” Jared Kushner sharply criticized Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in what appeared to be an intentional gambit to drive a wedge between the Palestinian people and their leadership. Whether that strategy will bring… Read more »

(JTA) — On June 11, the Knesset’s official no smoking day, the Likud party’s Yehudah Glick announced that he was embarking on a hunger strike until the body passed a tax on loose tobacco equal to the tax on cigarettes. Glick’s dramatic gesture was a sign of a seldom-discussed… Read more »