Yearly Archives 2020

(JTA) — Yeshiva University rejected the formation of a campus group for queer students but said it was putting in place new policies to help LGBTQ students feel safe. The flagship Modern Orthodox college in New York sent a statement to students Thursday addressing a yearlong battle over whether… Read more »

Jone Koran Hughes, 89, formerly of Tucson, died July 7, 2020. She was born in New York City to John J. Koran and Matilda Lutcha Koran. Jone survived polio as a child and carried a disability her whole life. The first in her family to earn a degree, from… Read more »

Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona, in collaboration with the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation, the Tucson Jewish Community Center, and Arizona Youth Partnership, will present “Increased Risk in Troubling Times: Suicide Prevention for Today,” on Thursday, Sept. 10, which is World Suicide Prevention Day. The online… Read more »

(JTA) — Hundreds of synagogues have been shuttered for months. Jewish organizations are slashing budgets and staff. Jewish community centers, saddled with empty gyms and child care centers, have laid off masses of employees. Jewish camps closed this summer, Jewish day schools will hold only virtual sessions in the… Read more »

Ancestry, the global leader in family history and consumer genomics, has completed a significant philanthropic initiative to digitize and make searchable millions of Holocaust and Nazi persecution-related records. Building on its commitment to preserve at-risk history, there are now more than 19 million Holocaust records available globally, for free… Read more »

(JTA) — In early June, as anti-racism protests swept the country in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, Beth Hillel Temple in Kenosha, Wisconsin, signed onto an interfaith letter supporting peaceful protest and condemning “a broken societal system which disproportionately affects communities of color.” This week,… Read more »

(JTA) — Residents of Uman, Ukraine, scuffled with Orthodox Jews who were seeking to enter a building in the city that is the site of an annual  Jewish pilgrimage. In a video posted to Facebook on Friday by Sergiy Alekseev, a city council member representing the far-right Svoboda party, several… Read more »

(JTA) — El Al, Israel’s national airline, is scheduled to make its first publicly advertised flight to the United Arab Emirates. The flight, which appears to be reserved for dignitaries, is set to leave Ben Gurion Airport on Monday bound for Abu Dhabi, the Associated Press reported. The flight… Read more »

(JTA) — Only one person has ever officially fulfilled the traditional Jewish birthday blessing of living “until 120,” but Rosalie Wolpe from South Africa is well on her way. Wolpe celebrated her 111th birthday last week at her Cape Town retirement facility, Highlands House Home for Jewish Aged, with… Read more »

(JTA) — Four years ago, the Movement for Black Lives put out a platform that, among a long list of detailed policy recommendations, accused Israel of genocide. Several major Jewish organizations expressed their outrage and put out statements condemning the platform. On Friday, the Movement for Black Lives convened… Read more »

(J. the Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — Goyim TV, an anti-Semitic video-sharing website that was promoted with a “banner drop” from a Los Angeles freeway overpass on Saturday, has been taken down by its domain host under a flood of complaints. Jon Minadeo Jr., 37, was behind both… Read more »

(JTA) — The Vatican both fought efforts efforts to reunite two Holocaust orphans with their relatives and urged Pope Pius XII not to protest the Nazi deportation of Italian Jews, Brown University historian David I. Kertzer has found. Kertzer published the results of his investigation into Vatican documents unsealed… Read more »

Terri L. Freed, 73, of Green Valley, died Aug. 1, 2020 from complications of pancreatic cancer. Terri was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, lived much of her adult life in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, and relocated to Green Valley in 2007 along with several members of her family for her… Read more »

Abraham Lackow, 93, died July 11, 2020. He was born in Brooklyn, New York on Oct. 14, 1926. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and graduated from Brooklyn College as a biology major after his service. He served as a docent at the… Read more »

Marc Peter Cohen, 66, died Aug. 14, 2020 after a brave fight with cancer. Born in the Bronx, New York, he was preceded in death by his mother, Ray; his father, Saul; and his sister, Paula. Marc worked for many years in the transportation department of Tucson Unified School… Read more »

Arthur M. Goldberg, M.D., died July 27, 2020, just prior to his 86th birthday. Arthur was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but he had been a resident of Tucson for over 50 years. Arthur was a caring and compassionate doctor to thousands of his patients in Southern Arizona.… Read more »

Morton “Mort” Alan Sadowsky, 86, died Aug. 10, 2020. Mort was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Irving and Marcine Sadowsky and moved to Tucson when he was 7. A successful businessman, Mort was known for his quick wit and his love of family and friends Survivors include his… Read more »

Gertrude A. Shankman, 105, died July 24, 2020. Gertrude was born Oct. 26, 1914 in Brooklyn, New York. She was a longtime resident at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, where students from Tucson Hebrew Academy had visited to celebrate her birthday ever year since she turned 100. “As… Read more »

Chabad of Oro Valley will hold three socially-distanced Shofar blowing events outside its premises at 1171 E. Rancho Vistoso Blvd. #131 on Sunday, Sept. 20. The times are 9:15 a.m., 12:15 p.m. and 6 p.m. Each will include a 10-minute service in the parking lot. No registration is required.… Read more »

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, causing millions to lose their jobs and hunger levels to skyrocket, the Jewish environmental organization Hazon knew it had to dramatically reconfigure its priorities. Normally focused on running immersive Jewish environmental educational programs and promoting sustainable food and farming, the group suddenly shifted from… Read more »