Posts By Debe Campbell

World’s first privately funded, Israeli lunar mission to launch today at 8:45 p.m. from Cape Canaveral

Beresheet payload (at the top, in gold), the first Israeli lunar spacecraft. (Photo credit: Courtesy of SSL)
February 21, 2019 /

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Feb. 18 – Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) today announced that Israel’s inaugural voyage to the moon – the world’s first privately funded lunar mission – will begin on Feb. 21 at approximately 8:45 p.m. EST, when the lunar lander “Beresheet” (“In the Beginning”)… Read more »

Leonard Coris
February 20, 2019 /
Leonard Coris

Leonard M. Coris, 78, died Jan. 31, 2019, of complications related to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Mr. Coris was born March 29, 1940, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Betty and Al Coris. He attended the Brookline public schools and MIT, where he earned master’s degrees in both food science and finance. He… Read more »

Leadership, community volunteerism set teen apart as choice for mitzvot award

Erika Spivack (Courtesy Erika Spivack)
February 8, 2019 /

Erika Spivack, a University High School senior, will receive the 12th annual Bryna Zehngut Mitzvot Award at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Women’s Philanthropy Connections brunch on Sunday, March 10. The Women’s Philanthropy advisory council, which includes past Women’s Philanthropy chairs and campaign chairs, created the award in… Read more »

Newcomer Lepow brings wealth of community experience to partnership role
February 8, 2019 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor
Dan Lepow

With one eye to retirement and the other to community involvement, Dan Lepow and his wife, Susie, arrived in Tucson last April from St. Paul, Minnesota. They had frequented Tucson over the years, as his sister Rebecca Crow relocated to the Old Pueblo in 1968 and his late mother… Read more »

Finding Grace: A lifelong journey to discovering what is meant to be

Interfaith minister Grace Hartman blesses pets (Courtesy Grace Hartman)
February 8, 2019 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

Growing up in a Conservative Jewish home in Newton, Massachusetts, with her parents and brother, Lois Gail Esterman did all the right things. She attended Hebrew school through eighth grade, became a bat mitzvah, went to Hebrew high school and a Hebrew teacher’s college. She started her career as… Read more »

Find hidden treasures in synagogue gift shops

Tammy Strobel stands before colorful gift items on display at Congregation Anshei Israel’s gift shop. (Yvonne Ethier)
February 8, 2019 / Barbara Russek, Special to the AJP

A few years back, my good friend Fran was giving me details on her upcoming adult bat mitzvah. “No gifts,” she said emphatically. As I smiled and nodded, inwardly my mind was abuzz — where could I find the perfect present? I didn’t have to look far. In what… Read more »

Tucson groom enlists support of Toby, the cat, for proposal to his bride

(L-R): Bruce and Donna Beyer, Amy and Thomas Allen Brannock, and Billie and Thomas Brannock at Skyline Country Club, Oct. 20, 2018 (Steven Palm Photography)
February 8, 2019 /

Amy Rebecca Beyer, daughter of Bruce and Donna Beyer of Tucson, and Thomas Allen Brannock, son of Thomas and Billie Brannock of St. David, Arizona, were married on Oct. 20, 2018, at Skyline Country Club with Rabbi Batsheva Appel officiating. Attendants included Lisa Beyer of San Francisco, sister of… Read more »

Super Sunday pushes Federation campaign toward goal

Leslie Glaze, Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Women’s Philanthropy Campaign co-chair, talks to Super Sunday volunteer Barbara Selznick, Jan. 27. Debe Campbell/AJP)
February 8, 2019 /

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona held its annual Super Sunday phone-a-thon on Jan. 27 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. During the festive, sports-themed event, 120 phone and clerical volunteers reached out to community members, collecting more than 260 pledges and donations for the 2019 Community Campaign, which… Read more »

Agency partners with solo elders to provide surrogate service, support

Elise Bajohr, program manager for older adults and adults with disability services at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, talks with a client. (Courtesy Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona)
February 8, 2019 /

As people grow older, family relationships and resources change. “Solo seniors” is a term for older adults who feel that they do not have a significant other to act on their behalf if or when needed. Reasons vary and may include lack of family and friends in close proximity,… Read more »

People in the news 2.8.19
February 8, 2019 /

Longtime Tucson resident Jami Ober Gan has released her first novel, “The Lost and Found,” about a woman who finds herself heartbroken and stranded in Tucson and is invited to stay at a ranch.   Gan was raised in Tucson and attended the University of Arizona, graduating in 1981… Read more »

Local film screening reminds us of cost to survivors of bearing witness

(L-R): Pawel Lichter, Walter Feiger, Sidney Finkel, and Wolfgang Hellpap pose with their ‘World War II Holocaust Survivor’ caps at the Holocaust History Center in Tucson. (Courtesy Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona)
February 8, 2019 / Sharon Glassberg, Special to the AJP

In an interview published Aug. 27, 2012, five years before his death in 2017 at the age of 87, Elie Wiesel spoke of devoting his life to the principle and the ideal of memory and remembrance. The article was titled “Elie Wiesel on His Fear of Being the Last… Read more »

Gifts from the heart
February 8, 2019 / Rabbi Helen Cohn, Congregation M'kor Hayim
Rabbi Helen T. Cohn

Tzedakah is usually translated as “charity” but a distinction is often made between the meanings of these two words. “Tzedakah” comes from the Hebrew root that means righteousness or justice.  “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof” — “Justice, justice you shall pursue” — is often quoted in support of financial contributions that… Read more »

Handmaker programs enrich residents, community

Residents work on an art project as part of Handmaker’s “Around the World” program. (Angela Salmon)
February 8, 2019 /

Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging offers a variety of enrichment opportunities for residents, many of them open to the public. Monthly Handmaker Lectures Each month from October-April features lectures by a rabbi, Judaic studies professor or other local Jewish educators on a topic of their choosing, related to… Read more »

Comedy writer will bring ‘tribal’ humor to Connections brunch

Carol Leifer
February 8, 2019 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

Award-winning writer and producer, best-selling author, and stand-up comedian Carol Leifer will be the guest speaker at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Women’s Philanthropy 26th annual Connections brunch next month. Her topic will be “Judaism is in My DNA.” “I speak about how the Jewish values imparted to… Read more »

Nexus of disabilities, mental health is summit topic
February 8, 2019 /
Jessica Reese

The Tucson Jewish Community Center Special Needs Initiative in partnership with Jewish Family & Children’s Services, with support from the David and Lura Lovell Foundation, will hold a professional development summit, “Developmental Disabilities and Mental Health: The Intersection of Treatment” on Thursday, Feb. 28, 8:15-3 p.m. The keynote speaker… Read more »

Polsky-Brown wedding

Rachel Polsky and Alex Brown
February 6, 2019 / Lilie Photography

Rachel Ashley Polsky, daughter of David and Tricia Polsky of Tucson, and Alex Thomas Brown, son of Thomas and Karla Brown and Mark and Lynne Gomez, all of Tucson, were married Nov. 4, 2018 at Stillwell House with Rabbi Thomas Louchheim of Congregation Or Chadash officiating. The matron of… Read more »

Martin Fogel
February 6, 2019 /

Martin M. Fogel, Ph.D., 98, died Jan. 6, 2019. Mr. Fogel was born in the Bronx, his father a Polish Catholic tailor, his mother a Russian Jew. Upon graduation from James Monroe High School, Mr. Fogel moved to California, where his father had sought a better livelihood as a… Read more »