Local | People in the News

People in the news 9.11.20

Mary Jo Pollack won the Phoenix Moth Story Slam in July. Pollack has told stories live in Tucson for Odyssey Storytelling, FST! Female Storytellers, and Tellers of Tales Tucson, where she is second vice president.

rabbi_baruch_cohon_our_townRabbi Baruch J. Cohon, vice president of the Tucson-based Rabbi Samuel S. and A. Irma Cohon Memorial Foundation, has published “Learning Torah All Over Again?” (Xlibris Publishing). Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of Global Social Action for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, calls it “an absolute delight … pithy, profound, relevant, historic, and humorous.”

Roberta Elliott was elected the national president of the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom, an organization of 5,000 women in 170 chapters across the country. Elliott, who divides her time between Tucson and New Jersey, has been a member of the Arizona Jewish Post advisory board, the grants committee of the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, and the social action committee of Congregation M’kor Hayim. She was formerly vice president of media and communications at HIAS and director of public affairs at Hadassah.

“MisTaken Identities” by Michael B Schwartz, a collection of paintings and drawings inspired by Jewish invisibility in the Southwest is on display through Oct. 2   at the virtual gallery at michaelbschwartz.com. Schwartz has worked with organizations nationwide on community arts and engagement projects.

Alma Hernandez

Fuse Media selected Arizona State Rep. Alma Hernandez as a Future Hispanic History honoree in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month in September/October. Hernandez is the first Jewish Latina and the youngest woman elected to the state legislature