Yearly Archives 2019

Israeli fallen soldiers mourned in song for Yom Hazikaron

Holocaust survivors lit memorial candles at the 2019 Yom Hazikaron event at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. (L-R): Dov Marhoffer, Wanda Wolosky, Walter Feiger, Pawel Lichter, and Wolfgang Hellpap. (Marty Johnston)
May 31, 2019 /

The Weintraub Israel Center organized a musical tribute to Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror for a local commemoration of Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, on Tuesday, May 7 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center.… Read more »

Lovingkindness-driven initiatives established by JCF/JFSA joint grants

Jewish Family & Children’s Services Program Manager Elise Bajohr, left, demonstrates home-based assessment of an individual’s needs. (Courtesy Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona)
May 31, 2019 / Maya Horowitz, Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona

Sara’s options began to feel limited when, at the age of 72, she met with a series of major life obstacles. Beset with memory challenges, a recent cancer diagnosis, and an urgent need to move out of her apartment due to repairs, she didn’t know where she could turn.… Read more »

With just the right ‘Goldilocks situation,’ herbs can thrive indoors

Fresh herbs have more flavor than dried, and can be easy to keep once you find their “Goldilocks zone.”
May 31, 2019 / Jacqueline A. Soule, Ph.D., Special to the AJP

Full disclosure: you can grow herbs indoors, but it is not easy. There are two “Goldilocks situations” that must be dealt with. These two situations are water and light. Too much or too little of either is bad — you need to get it just right. To add another… Read more »

Outstanding community volunteers recognized
May 31, 2019 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor
Neil Markowitz

This is part one of a series on the Jewish agency volunteers who received 2019 Special Recognition Awards at the Jewish Community Awards celebration held May 9 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The evening also included the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s annual meeting. Neil Markowitz, Jewish Community… Read more »

5,000-year-old yeast used by Israeli scientists to brew a pretty good beer

Beer cruse from Tel Tzafit/Gath archaeological digs, from which Philistine beer was produced. (Yaniv Berman, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority)
May 31, 2019 / Marcy Oster, JTA

Israeli scientists are using ancient yeast to brew a beer fit for a pharaoh. The researchers have isolated yeast from ancient pottery used to brew beer and used it to create the same libation that was presumably drunk by the Egyptian pharaohs, Iron Age rulers, and ancient Jewish leaders.… Read more »

Jews for Justice plan summer community concert
May 31, 2019 /
Bat Florence Portugal

Tucson Jews for Justice will present a “Tucson Jewish Summer Arts Festival — A Night of Music, Laughs and Light” on Saturday, June 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the Jewish History Museum, 564 S. Stone Ave. Tony Zinman, a Tucson Jews for Justice co-founder, explains that the evening was… Read more »

Started from seed, pomegranate bears fruit

Celebrating the Tucson Jewish Community Center’s pomegranate tree, now bearing fruit on its first anniversary, are Early Childhood Education students with (L-R): ECE teacher Kristina Li, Dale Green and Tammy Lewis from the J’s building services department, Lipowich, and Adi Olshansky, Weintraub Israel Center P2G school twinning coordinator. WIC is a joint project of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the J, dedicated to bringing the cultural richness of Israel to Tucson. (Debe Campbell/AJP)
May 31, 2019 /

The pomegranate, said to have 613 seeds corresponding to the 613 mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah, frequently is a symbol of Israel. It is one of the seven species of Israel listed in the Torah, along with wheat, barley, grapes, figs, olives, and dates. As part of building living… Read more »

#MeToo event encourages community-wide conversation

During an exercise at the Jewish community’s “From #MeToo to #WeToo” event May 21, audience members wrote reflections on banners marked “I Learned,” “I Feel,” and “I Commit to.” Colored stickers indicate “likes” from other attendees. (Maya S. Horowitz/JCF)
May 31, 2019 / Maya S. Horowitz, Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona

It is our collective responsibility as members of this community to examine the part that we play in these frameworks,” Graham Hoffman, president and CEO of the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, told the audience at a recent community event addressing sexual harassment in the Jewish communal world.… Read more »

PJ Library kids learn value of helping others

Goldie Goldstein and her daughter share a loving moment while preparing a thank you letter to PJ Library founder Harold Grinspoon. (Photo: Mary Ellen Loebl/JFSA)
May 31, 2019 /

PJ Library hosted a “Kids Helping Kids” afternoon May 19 at Jewish Family & Children’s Services. Children and families gathered to learn about the mitzvah of helping others. Sharon Glassberg shared an educational presentation, reading from the book “Mitzvah Pizza.” Participants expressed their gratitude in drawings and letters to… Read more »

Seniors celebrate a century and intergenerational friendships
May 31, 2019 / Sharon Klein, Special to the AJP
Ruth C. Goodman with her son, Roy Goodman

Centenarians unite On Friday, May 3, the Pima Council on Aging and Tucson Medical Center sponsored the 32nd annual Salute to Centenarians event at TMC’s Marshall Conference Center. This gathering, the largest known convergence of centenarians in the United States, attracted close to 50 attendees, ages 99+, accompanied by… Read more »

Cactus king that boosts landscaping takes centuries to mature

Once in about 50,000 plants, a saguaro grows an odd cristate crown. No one knows what causes this fascinating deformity. (Photo: National Park Service)
May 31, 2019 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

A sage survivor in the Sonoran desert, the stately saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) reigns over Tucson’s Southwestern landscape. The largest known cactus is symbolic of Arizona (the state flower) and iconic in classic Western films. Casting eerie, human-like shadows across the desert floor, they evoke images of solitude, expansive… Read more »

Tucson J’s Elder Camp proves summer fun isn’t just for the grandkids anymore

Sylvia Levkovitz takes part in a cup stacking challenge at the Tucson Jewish Community Center’s Elder Camp 2018. {Courtesy Sharon Arkin)
May 31, 2019 /

Seniors who look back fondly on summer camp fun and frolic can now relive those golden days of yore. Following a banner first-year experiment, the Tucson Jewish Community Center is announcing open registration for its second season of Elder Camp. Camp will take place on four consecutive Sunday afternoons,… Read more »

Israel is holding new elections. What comes next?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the media after the Knesset voted to dissolve itself, May 30, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
May 30, 2019 / Marcy Oster, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The blame game started shortly after midnight Thursday morning. The Knesset’s vote to dissolve itself and hold a second national election in five months had hardly been posted on the chyrons of news networks in Israel and around the world when the major players in the… Read more »

For lactose intolerant Jews, Shavuot’s dairy diet is a test of intestinal fortitude

Many traditional Shavuot foods, like cheesecake, are hard for lactose-intolerant Jews to digest. (Pixabay)
May 30, 2019 / Sarah Gold, JTA

(JTA) — Many modern-day Jews aren’t all that familiar with Shavuot, which celebrates the day when the Israelites first received the Torah from God and falls seven weeks after Passover marked their Exodus from Egypt. Jews with some familiarity of Shavuot probably know the holiday as a day for… Read more »

These sweet cheese buns are perfect for Shavuot

(Rachel Ringler)
May 30, 2019 / Rachel Ringler, JTA

This story originally appeared on The Nosher. You’ve probably heard of cheesecake or blintzes as traditional foods to enjoy for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, but get ready to fall in love with a cheese-filled carb treat you have never heard of: Bessarabian cheese buns. This family recipes come… Read more »

What is it like to be a female combat soldier in Israel? A photographer provides a unique look.

Two Artillery Corps fighters and instructors in Shivta, Israel (Debbie Zimelman)
May 30, 2019 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

(JTA) — Women served as combat soldiers during Israel’s War of Independence, when the fledgling country needed all the fighters it could get. But following the 1948 war, it took half a century before they were allowed back in combat. Since the late 1990s, when some units started allowing… Read more »