After cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, women get down to the business of playing mah jongg at a Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona event Jan. 8.
A multi-generational group of more than 100 women gathered Jan. 8 at the Harvey and Deanna Evenchik Center for Jewish Philanthropy for an evening of food and drink, mah jongg — with many newcomers learning the game— and giving, hosted by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Young Women’s… Read more »
Sarah Katz, 97, died Dec. 25, 2019. Mrs. Katz moved to Tucson from Skokie, Illinois in 1971. She worked at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging for 25 years, until her retirement. Mrs. Katz was predeceased by her husband of more than 50 years, Jerome Katz. Survivors include her… Read more »
Diana Jo (Zieger) Leeds, 83, died Dec. 26, 2019 in Phoenix. Mrs. Leeds was born in Philadelphia and grew up in New Jersey. She moved to Phoenix in 1953, finished at North High and met her eventual husband, Ron, at Arizona State University. After their marriage, Mrs. Leeds taught… Read more »
Gerald “Jerry/Big D/Grand D” Vegodsky (1929 – 2019) Gerald Vegodsky was born Feb. 12, 1929 in Brooklyn, New York. He married the love of his life, Ruth, in 1950. He was a proud veteran of the Army and did his military service from 1951-1953. He and Ruth moved to… Read more »
Esther Sherberg is the only civilian to be honored with transport toward her final resting place in The Last Alarm Foundation fire truck.
Esther Sherberg, a longtime Tucson resident and Jewish community volunteer, died Jan. 9, 2020, at the age of 86. Services were held Jan. 10 at Evergreen Mortuary, with Rabbi Robert Eisen of Congregation Anshei Israel officiating. Interment was in St. Louis, Missouri. Ms. Sherberg was born Oct. 1, 1933… Read more »
Dr. Jonathan Kay joined Arizona Glaucoma Specialists in June 2019, after graduating from the University of Houston College of Optometry in May 2019. He joined his father, Jeffrey S. Kay, M.D., who founded the practice in 1987, as well as his brother, David B. Kay, M.D., who joined the… Read more »
Emily Miller Grant and David Shapir have announced their engagement. Emily is the daughter of Jennifer Miller Grant and Ron Grant and Stephanie Pearmain, all of Tucson, and the granddaughter of Donna Grant and Gordon Waterfall, Merrill and Virginia Grant, Lee Miller and the late Jerry Miller, and Lee… Read more »
(JTA) — Israel’s culture minister was apparently so worried that she would forget the name of the president of Argentina that she wrote his name in ink on the back of her hand. Miri Regev greeted Alberto Fernandez on Wednesday after his plane touched down at Ben Gurion Airport… Read more »
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Vice President Mike Pence at the U.S. .Embassy in Jerusalem, Jan. 23, 2020. (Koby Gideon, Israeli Government Press Office)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump will meet at the White House on Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz to talk in part about Middle East peace. Vice President Mike Pence extended the invitation at a meeting Thursday in Jerusalem with Netanyahu. The… Read more »
(JTA) — American actor Jesse Eisenberg said he was attracted to the World War II movie “Resistance,” in which he portrays Marcel Marceau, because he lost family during World War II from the same area as the late Jewish mime’s family. The film, scheduled for release in late March,… Read more »
(JTA) — A senior Muslim leader from Saudi Arabia visited Auschwitz with a delegation from the American Jewish Committee. Mohammed al-Issa, the secretary-general of the Mecca-based Muslim World League and a former Saudi justice minister, joined a delegation of Muslim religious leaders from several countries at the site of… Read more »
Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg speaks to voters in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Jan. 15, 2020. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(JTA) — This is the second op-ed in a series of pieces about anti-Semitism and Jewish issues written by 2020 presidential candidates. This one is by Pete Buttigieg, 38, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has sent five questions on the topic to all… Read more »
(JTA) — British Jews protested what they perceived to be a BBC reporter’s claim that the Holocaust has distorted Israelis’ perception of reality and the occupation of Palestinian land. The rebuke Thursday by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Campaign Against Antisemitism and the editor in chief… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli seventh-grader who was foraging for mushrooms near his home unearthed a marble slab with a Greek inscription from the Byzantine period. Stav Meir, 13, of Caesarea, found the artifact last week, according to a statement issued Wednesday by the Israel Antiquities Authority. Stav saw… Read more »
(JTA) — Bradley Cooper will direct, produce and star in a Netflix film about the late Jewish composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. The untitled film is expected to begin production early next year and will be released in theaters before the film premieres on Netflix, Deadline first reported. The… Read more »
(JTA) — Jason Greenblatt said he left his position as special representative for international negotiations in the Trump administration because of political turbulence in Israel — and the financial cost of raising an Orthodox family in America. In an interview with Mishpacha Magazine, one of the most widely read… Read more »
(JTA) — Belgian police will open an online hotline for reporting anti-Semitic and racist incidents, and some Jews hope it will replace the country’s discredited anti-discrimination agency. Michael Freilich, a Jewish member of Belgian parliament, announced the hotline’s opening Wednesday. Going in person to a police station is intimidating… Read more »
WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — A London-based Jewish newspaper did not have to use the term “German Nazis” an appeals court in Warsaw ruled, upholding a lower court decision. The former head of the Polish League Against Defamation, Mira Wszelaka, had sued the Jewish News under Poland’s controversial Holocaust law… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the mother of Naama Issachar, the American-Israeli woman jailed in Russia for drug smuggling, and told her “everything will be all right.” Putin met with Yaffa Issachar during his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. He arrived in… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Trump White House has again credentialed TruNews, the outlet that called the impeachment of President Donald Trump a “Jew coup,” this time to cover Trump’s visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The White House Correspondents Association confirmed to CNN’s Jake Tapper on… Read more »
