Esther Becker will explore “Conversations with G-d” at the annual Women’s Academy of Jewish Studies Women’s Book Brunch, Sunday, Sept. 15 at Congregation Chofetz Chayim. “We live in an era when we all have our challenges to deal with and no one goes unscathed,” says Becker. “I wanted to… Read more »
The Union for Reform Judaism’s Taste of Judaism classes, taught by Temple Emanu-El’s Rabbi Batsheva Appel, will be offered at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on Sundays, Sept. 8, 15, and 22 from 2:30-4:30 p.m., and at Temple Emanu-El on Thursdays, Sept. 12, 19, and 26, from 6-8 p.m.… Read more »
The Shaar Hashamayim congregation in Tondano, Indonesia, on July 20 with Yaakov Baruch, center, AJP's Debe Campbell to his left, and Campbell’s husband, Gil Alvidrez, third from right. (Courtesy Debe Campbell)
Having lived in Indonesia, an Islamic nation, for two decades, I never imagined the opportunity to visit a synagogue there. My first visit to Manado in the early ’90s was as a journalist covering Indonesia’s then-president Soeharto as he opened a new tourism center in North Sulawesi. Almost 30… Read more »
Abbii Cook, a University of Arizona alum, now UA Hillel Foundation’s assistant director, stands in front of Old Main, the first building constructed on the UA campus. (Photo courtesy University of Arizona Hillel Foundation)
It’s very nostalgic to be back in Tucson,” says Abbii Cook, University of Arizona Hillel Foundation’s new assistant director. “I’m so excited to be back at the place that really shaped me. It’s like a full circle,” she says. Cook spent a lot of time at Hillel as a… Read more »
Photo: MyJewishLearning.com
The 2019 Mega Challah Bake, cosponsored by Chabad Tucson and the Tucson Jewish Community Center, will be held Thursday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson J. At this sixth annual event, up to 350 women, teens and girls 9 and older will make the staple round breads… Read more »
Tucsonan Aliya Markowitz in Jerusalem’s Old City during the 2019 March of the Living trip to Poland and Israel. (Photo courtesy Neil Markowitz)
Eighteen-year-old Aliya Markowitz had a goal: maintain a 4.0-grade point average through all four years at Catalina Foothills High School. She achieved this, while being active in BBYO, serving on the youth group’s Tucson and regional boards, and participating in the March of the Living two-week trip to Poland… Read more »
Scott Warren Scott Warren, Ph.D., will be the Gallery Chat speaker at the Jewish History Museum and Holocaust History Center as it reopens for its 2019-2020 season on Friday, Sept. 6, at 11 a.m. He will speak about human migration through the Sonoran desert and how it shapes both memory and… Read more »
Green Valley Fire Captain Mark Lytle, a member of ICSAVE’s team of volunteers, learned about Israeli emergency medical services as part of Tucson’s first Firefighters Without Borders delegation in October 2013. The Magen David Adom (Red Shield of David) is Israel’s national ambulance, blood services, and disaster relief organization. It has been a member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement since 2006. (Photo courtesy Mark Lytle)
Mark Lytle, a native Tucsonan who has worked in the fire service for 24 years, is part of a coalition of first responders who created Integrated Community Solutions to Active Violence Events, or ICSAVE, to provide free active violence trainings to schools, religious institutions, and other groups across Arizona.… Read more »
Parents and siblings can read to babies early in life. (Courtesy PJ Babies and reading are the focus of a lighthearted BYOB (bring your own baby) event coming up at the Tucson Jewish Community Center Early Childhood Education Center next month. “It’s an opportunity to meet other Jewish families with babies,” says Mary Ellen Loebl, coordinator for Southern Arizona’s PJ Library… Read more »
Robert Lopez-Hanshaw directs Tucson’s new Ha’Zamir choir branch. (Photo: Debe Campbell/AJP)
HaZamir Tucson is launching as a new branch of the International Jewish Teen Choir, a musical youth movement of 41 choral chapters across the United States and Israel. An inter-congregational group of local Jewish teens will cap their year of practice with a festival in New York where 450… Read more »
Dr. Michele Ley Women should get a formal breast cancer risk assessment between the ages of 25 and 30, according to the new guidelines set by The American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS), published in May. According to the organization, one in eight women, or 12 percent of women in the United… Read more »
This very tropical looking plant survives in a desert garden with afternoon shade. Its flowers are visited by hummingbirds. (Photo: Pixabay.com)
Behaviorists have stacks of data highlighting the fact that getting out in nature can calm and restore the human spirit. This applies to all humans, even if you never lived in the country, even if you hate to hike, and no matter what age. Five, 35, or 85, we… Read more »
Fashions by LuLaRoe will be among those modeled by synagogue members at the Congregation Or Chadash/Temple Emanu-El high tea, Sept. 15. (Photo courtesy Congregation Or Chadash Sisterhood) Congregation Or Chadash Sisterhood and Temple Emanu-El Women of Reform Judaism will hold their first major collaboration, a fashion show high tea, on Sunday, Sept. 15, from 2-4 p.m. The event will be catered by L’Chaim Catering and fashions provided by Clique and LuLaRoe will be modeled by members… Read more »
Ben Sargus, left, with Avery Shultz and Hayden Jones of Phoenix, at the Dead Sea
The Big Trip Israel From June 3–July 1, Ben Sargus traveled on Camp Daisy & Harry Stein’s Big Trip Israel. A camper since third grade, Ben, a University High School junior, has been active in NFTY (the Reform Jewish Youth Movement, formerly North American Temple Youth) and is one… Read more »
Heliconius sara longwing at Tucson Botanical Gardens Butterfly Magic exhibit. (Debe Campbell/AJP)
The time to get all aflutter is approaching at Tucson Botanical Gardens, with the annual Butterfly Magic exhibit. Beginning each October, the Cox Butterfly and Orchid Pavilion exhibit offers an exclusive opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the world’s most beautiful and exotic butterflies imported… Read more »
Day 4 of Lynn Rae Lowe’s ‘Let There Be Light’ (Photo courtesy Lynn Rae Lowe)
Award-winning local artist Lynn Rae Lowe will unveil a seven-panel “aluminations” series, “Let There Be Light,” at a one-day exhibit Saturday, Sept. 7 from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. at the Southern Arizona Arts Guild gallery in La Encantada before the work, commissioned by Temple Beth El in West Bloomfield, Michigan,… Read more »
Yaakov Baruch, a ‘born-again’ Indonesian Jew, visits the world’s largest permanent menorah in Manado, Indonesia. (Photo courtesy Yaakov Baruch)
Editor’s note: AJP Assistant Editor Debe Campbell lived and worked in Indonesia for more than 20 years. Returning in July on holiday with her husband, Gilbert Alvidrez, she visited Sulawesi island, where she conducted research and interviews for this story. The world’s largest permanent menorah looms over Manado, the… Read more »
Molly Sheehy joins the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona as a project manager in the campaign department after six years in national service, most recently managing an AmeriCorps VISTA Grant with Arizona Serve. After receiving a degree in human development from Prescott College and serving a term as an… Read more »
Dick Belkin, who divides his time between Tucson and Coronado, California, recently published his second beach-inspired children’s book, “The Coronado Kid,” earning him recognition in the city’s Eagle Journal. Proceeds from the book and its precursor, “Coronado Dog Surfing Olympics,” go to the Coronado Historical Association. An earlier children’s… Read more »
An aliyah “mega event” expo in New Jersey had a special track for health care professionals considering immigrating to Israel, March 10, 2019. (Photo: Shahar Azran/Nefesh B’Nefesh)
When Stephanie Sipzner began thinking about immigrating to Israel, the New Jersey pediatrician had plenty of questions about working as a doctor in a new country. Sipzner worried about adapting to a new language and medical culture. The Teaneck resident also was wary of the bureaucratic difficulty of transferring… Read more »
