Chip Rosenfeld says Oct. 7, 2023, was “a watershed moment” that inspired him to get more involved in Tucson’s Jewish community.
The retired physician was surprised by how deeply he felt “that was my people” under attack.
Rosenfeld and his wife, Sara, attended a community Shabbat gathering at the Tucson Jewish Community Center weeks after the horrific attacks against Israel on Oct. 7. The couple, who subsequently joined Kol Ami Synagogue, returned for this year’s community Shabbat at the J on Nov. 15.
“I have a familial connection” to Israel, Rosenfeld says, explaining that one of his brothers made aliyah 40 years ago and has children and grandchildren there. Rosenfeld has visited Israel numerous times; the first was two weeks after the Six-Day War in 1967, when he was 15 years old. He also spent a college year abroad studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Rosenfeld and his wife divide their time between Tucson and Portland, Ore., where he participates in a monthly Jewish men’s group and belongs to a Conservative synagogue, although his attendance had dwindled to once a year.
He says the global reaction to Oct. 7 reinforced his urge to seek out fellow Jews in Tucson.
“Who would have thought that a massacre of Jews would have led to rabid worldwide antisemitism? I would have thought the opposite,” he says. In defiance, he bought a Jewish star necklace to wear and speaks freely about being Jewish.
Rosenfeld is an example of what Jewish organizations such as the Jewish Federations of North America have dubbed “the surge,” an explosion of new or renewed interest in Jewish life since Oct. 7.
A JFNA survey of American Jews conducted in February and March 2024 found that among the 83% of Jews who identified as “only somewhat,” “not very” or “not at all engaged” before Oct. 7, 40% are now participating in larger numbers in Jewish life.
Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona has seen increases in every metric, from event participation to volunteering to philanthropic giving, says President and CEO Hava Leipzig Holzhauer.
She points to three recent events as examples, including a happy hour celebration of the Ethiopian Jewish holiday of Sigd on Dec. 3, held at a local Ethiopian restaurant and co-sponsored by the Weintraub Israel Center, that drew a crowd of 80 to 90 people. Several longtime JPSA volunteers remarked on the abundance of new faces in the crowd, Leipzig Holzhauer says. Ten teams competed in a “Kosher Chopped” cooking challenge on Dec. 9 organized by Tucson Torah Center and co-sponsored by JPSA’s Young Women’s Cabinet and the University of Arizona Hillel. And 25 people aged 30-40 attended an informational meeting on Dec. 10 about joining JFNA’s National Young Leadership Cabinet.
“It just blew me away to find this many next-generation leaders in the room who are considering a significant commitment of both time and philanthropy,” Leipzig Holzhauer says of the Dec. 10 meeting. “To meet the moment of the surge, it is the job of all of us in Jewish communal service to inspire and provide opportunities for participation, engagement, and support. It feels wonderful to see this happening in real time.”
She adds that several candidates for JPSA’s chief impact officer position have mentioned their desire to leave other fields to join the Jewish communal world.
Other local Jewish organizations are also experiencing the effects of the surge.
The Tucson J has continued to grow in participation and membership since Oct. 7, says President and CEO Todd Rockoff.
“We didn’t have a big drop-off, and we’ve grown both with membership from the Jewish and broader communities,” he says. Philanthropic donations also have increased.
Rockoff believes that “when you are clear and true about who you are” as an organization, it can be a catalyst for growth.
“We have been, over time and certainly in the last year, very clear about our role in the community,” he says, “being an authentic Jewish organization in the programming that we do, and that we are open to the broader community equally, and that we are a proud Zionistic organization.”
In 2024, the J’s summer camp enrollment was the largest in its history.
“In the ballroom, we hung a big Israeli flag and every morning we started camp with Hatikvah,” often while parents from the Jewish and broader communities were present, he says. No one objected, making Rockoff “incredibly proud of us for being true to who we are and the community for responding.”
Synagogue Communities Are Growing
Local synagogues across the denominational spectrum have seen increased participation.
At Kol Ami, current and potential members have said they are looking to connect or reconnect, Rabbi Malcolm Cohen says.
“They’ve been buffeted by the winds of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment during this past year,” he says, “and they’re looking for a safe haven where they can just feel OK about their Jewish identity and also support for Israel.”
One program to help keep members engaged, he says, is a new partnership with Project Zug, which pairs people to study sacred texts together, in person or online.
Cohen also points to the recent arrival of Cantor Jen Benrey, who will hold a series of concerts partnering with musicians in the Jewish world and beyond, helping “to build relationships in a time when people are getting siloed.”
Congregation Bet Shalom’s membership has grown steadily in recent years, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rabbi Avi Alpert says, but he has talked with people who’ve rekindled their Jewish connections and involvement since Oct. 7.
“It’s not like we’ve seen tidal waves of people. It’s more subtle,” he says.
Some people don’t want to be Jewish because of antisemitism, but others “even want to become Jewish,” says Alpert, who adds that he calls the process of becoming a Jew by choice not “conversion” but “naturalization, to join our nation.”
Bet Shalom has plenty of events and programs to bolster Jewish connections, Alpert says. He adds that newlyweds Talya and Melech Mizrachi have been holding Shabbat events in their home, hosting 75-100 people in their 20s and 30s, “young people that have been coming out of the woodwork.”
At Congregation Anshei Israel, surges in attendance have ebbed and flowed with the news coming out of Israel, Rabbi Sara Metz says.
When there is hopeful or tragic news, she says, people feel “that while they have other friends, it’s their Jewish community who really can empathize with how they’re feeling and their connection to Israel.” This is true, she says, even of those who have no friends or family in Israel and have never traveled there.
“Just after Oct. 7, a number of people reached out to our clergy and came to events, programming, and services” and this continues to happen, she says. “People will say they just need to be in a room with people who get it.”
Along with prayer and educational opportunities, Metz says, Anshei Israel offers many ways for people to connect with others, including Jewish art workshops and a new outdoor adventure group for hiking enthusiasts.
“We know people connect differently and we are offering something for everyone,” she says.
Chabad centers across Southern Arizona have seen increased participation in the last year. Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin of Chabad Tucson sees this as more than a temporary surge.
He says that similar to the young people who came of age after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., there will be a 10/7 Jewish generation shaped by the attacks and their aftermath.
“We are going to have people who lived with a renewed awareness of anti-Jewish hate, of the need to connect to each other, the need to strengthen Jewish identity and not take anything we have for granted, as perhaps a previous generation or two may have,” he says.
Beyond spikes in attendance, Ceitlin points to signs of a new or renewed commitment to live Jewishly that can be harder to quantify because they take place in the privacy of people’s homes, such as lighting Shabbat candles or saying Tehillim (Psalms).
Local Chabad centers have increased programming in response to demand, Ceitin says, including new classes, a teen club, and monthly Shabbat dinners at Chabad Tucson with attendance from 60-100.
In August, Chabad Tucson brought in four rabbinical students from New York for a year. They offer daily learning sessions and visit offices and homes to help people put on tefillin and give out Shabbat candles and challah.
“Oct. 7 infused our activity and gave us a sense of urgency in what we do,” Ceitlin says.
Other Community Organizations Feel, Respond to Surge
At the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies, class enrollments are up this year, but this may be a result of changes in scheduling, with several classes now offered for seven-and-a-half-weeks online, says David Graizbord, Curson Professor of Judaic Studies and director of the Center.
But he notes that the recent $2 million gift to establish the Center’s Edwin and Alma Lakin Holocaust, Human Rights, and Comparative Genocide Endowed Chair was prompted in part by the anonymous donor’s “concern for Jewish students’ safety in this period of surging antisemitism.”
The Weintraub Israel Center, a joint project of the Tucson J and JPSA, recently collaborated with the UA Hillel and Jewish Family & Children’s Services on a “Parenting in Challenging Times” course for parents of college students.
The Tucson Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center has seen an uptick in visitors and event participation since Oct. 7, Executive Director Lori Shepherd says.
“We have seen a marked increase in participation in programs such as our Lakin Lecture Series on Antisemitism from both Jewish and non-Jewish community members. Our team attributes much of this increase to a pragmatic desire to be a part of combating the real and perceived increases in Jewish hatred that can be seen globally and nationally,” she says.
Seeking Community
Jodi Gross, who attended a Nov. 17 Tucson talk by Rabbi Sharon Brous presented by TJMHC and JFCS, says after 14 years in Tucson she’s looking for a Jewish home, whether in a synagogue or elsewhere.
Gross formerly lived in Berkeley, where there was a progressive Jewish community with which she felt comfortable. Since the COVID pandemic, she’s watched services online from various sources, especially Brous’ IKAR community.
While she enjoys Jewish meditation services with Rabbi Brian Yosef Schacter-Brooks, offered on Zoom through Bet Shalom, Gross is looking for an in-person experience.
“It’s complicated. I feel like my whole life there’s been this struggle but even more since October, of leaning into my Judaism and also not wanting to show it,” she says, noting that many of her Jewish friends avoid wearing a Jewish star necklace because they want to be safe.
Opportunities Abound
While lamenting the horrendous events that inspired many people to seek closer connections to the Jewish community, Leipzig Holzhauer says, “We are in the moment and all we can do is move forward.”
“What’s exciting about having a community that is offering such a variety of experiences,” she says, is “there are a lot of choices about what people can be involved in and ways to show up.”
Part of Jewish professionals’ role is to help make these opportunities known to community members, she says, “to make that shidduch, that match, so they can be there and let what inspires them flourish and grow.”
