Tu B’Shevat celebration at Temple Emanu-El Children sang about Tu B’Shevat and trees at Temple Emanu-El’s Strauss Early Childhood Education Tu B’Shevat Seder on Tuesday, Jan. 26, led by Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon, Rabbi Batsheva Appel and Cantorial Soloist Marjorie Hochberg. About 130 children and parents celebrated the holiday… Read more »
John E. Koretz, 76, died Jan. 16, 2016. Survivors include his wife of 53 years, Carol Provol Koretz; children, Jim “JK” Koretz of Northbrook, Ill., and Leslie Koretz Heros of Tucson; brothers, Allan (Tracy) Koretz of Las Vegas, and Bill Koretz of Sun Valley, Idaho; and four grandchildren. Services… Read more »
Roberta White, 88, died Jan. 16, 2016. Born in Chicago and raised in Minneapolis, Mrs. White graduated from North High School. When her brother Alvin returned from World War II, he introduced her to Mandell White. They were married in 1947 and built a series of successful businesses in… Read more »
Roslyn Sirota, 91, died Jan. 13, 2016. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised in Connecticut, Mrs. Sirota graduated from The Teacher College of Connecticut and taught in a two-room schoolhouse until moving to Tucson in 1947. She earned master’s degrees in education and art history at the University of… Read more »
The Tucson Jewish Community Center is recruiting young Jewish athletes, ages 13-16, for the 2016 JCC Maccabi Games to be held this summer in Columbus, Ohio. The Tucson J hopes to register 20-25 teens by March 11, with practice starting at the end of March. The games will feature… Read more »
Young Leadership of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will hold its fifth annual Hava Tequila event, “Party Royale,” on Saturday, Feb. 20 beginning at 8 p.m. at Playground, 278 E. Congress St. The James Bond-themed event for ages 21 and over will include hors d’ouevres, drinks, a DJ… Read more »
Congregation Anshei Israel will present its third annual “Wisdom of Jewish Tucson” adult education series on Wednesdays, February 10, 17 and 24, from 7-9 p.m. This year’s program, “What We Need to Know About … Islam, Mormonism & Catholicism” provides an opportunity for interfaith conversations and greater understanding of… Read more »
Joel Alpert with the English translation of a Yizkor book memorializing a lost Jewish community in Ukraine
Have you been asking yourself when you are finally going to get around to researching your Jewish family roots? The opportunity to jump-start your genealogical quest will be available at the Feb. 21 re-opening of Tucson’s Holocaust History Center on the Jewish History Museum Campus. Joel Alpert will have… Read more »
The new entrance of the Holocaust History Center, sharing a plaza with the Jewish History Museum, will allow for easy traffic flow from one museum to the other.
In just over two weeks, Tucsonans will get their first look at the Rose and Maurice Silverman Jewish History Museum Campus, home to the newly expanded Gould Family Holocaust History Center as well as the Friedman Family Jewish History Museum, which also has been refurbished. The grand re-opening on… Read more »
(L-R) Yehonasan Lipshutz, Yonatan Tzarum and Elyahu Reiter
The musical group Simply Tsfat will give a concert on Thursday, Feb. 18, at 7 p.m. at Congregation Chofetz Chayim. Simply Tsfat features Israeli musicians Elyahu Reiter, Yehonasan Lipshutz and Yonatan Tzarum playing classic Hasidic and klezmer music on guitars and violin. “Our aim is to spreat the joy… Read more »
The Tucson Jewish Community Center will present “Why We Keep Going Back to Auschwitz-Birkenau,” a lecture exploring the confluence of the Jewish, Buddhist and human experience in song, story and silence, by the Rev. Francisco Genkoji “Paco” Lugoviña and Reb Shir Yaakov Feit on Thursday, Feb. 25, from 6-9… Read more »
John Messing practices a tai chi movement.
John Messing, a practicing local attorney, will compete in tai chi at the Senior Olympics in Phoenix next month. Messing, 72, started doing tai chi about four years ago, primarily in response to a painful condition that suddenly developed in his left hip due to an IT-band injury, which… Read more »
Yisrael Kristal (JTA) — A Holocaust survivor in Haifa many now be the oldest man in the world. Yisrael Kristal, 112, achieved that status after Yasutaro Koide of Japan, also 112, died on Jan. 12, Haaretz reported. Kristal’s grandson, Oren, received an email from the Gerontology Research Group, an international organization… Read more »
Certified health coach and author Freddi Pakier will present “It’s the Little Things that Create a Heart Healthy Lifestyle” at a Hadassah Southern Arizona luncheon on Sunday, Feb. 14. Pakier, a former Tucsonan, is the author of “52 Weeks of Food for the Soul,” a cookbook that features gluten… Read more »
Kathleen Erickson as Anne and Jack Neubeck as Bernie in Warren Bodow’s “Deelmayker” (Tim Fuller)
Invisible Theatre will stage the world premier of Tucson playwright Warren Bodow’s “Deelmayker” Feb. 9-21. “Deelmayker” (the spelling refers to an Internet account) tells the story of Bernie Harris, a charismatic 65-year-old wheeler-dealer living in Palm Springs with a wife he adores. Harris realizes that as he’s been getting… Read more »
Rabbi Adam Chalom The Secular Humanist Jewish Circle has planned two lectures this month by Rabbi Adam Chalom of the Kol Hadash Humanistic Congregation in Lincolnshire, Ill. The first, “Holidays Without the Holy: Secular Approaches to Religious Tradition,”will be held Thursday, Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. at the University of Arizona Hillel… Read more »
(L-R): Breezy Bochenek, Haven Shepherd, Kelly Ray and Lucy Coombs
The Tucson Jewish Community Center will hold a Consider Yourself Challenged fundraising event on Sunday, Feb. 21, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Admission is free for the family-friendly event, which is designed to inspire able-bodied and physically challenged athletes alike to get active. Adaptive athletes from the University of Arizona will… Read more »
When the performers of the Capitol Steps take the stage at the Fox Tucson Theater, there’s a good chance Barack Obama will sing a rock song, Joe Biden will sing a show tune and Chris Christie will dance. Even Vladimir Putin, shirtless, of course, cannot stay off the stage.… Read more »
Shockwaves were sent throughout the Tucson community on Jan. 18 following the death of local businessman and philanthropist Donald Baker, 59, co-owner of commercial real estate firm Larsen Baker L.L.C., and his wife, Dawn Hunter-Baker, 55, in a plane crash. Baker was piloting his Cessna Citation 525, returning to… Read more »
Elaine Hall with participants from “The Miracle Project,” a theater and expressive arts program for people living with autism and other disabilities (Courtesy Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona)
If she didn’t have it all, Elaine Hall had a lot of it. A Hollywood acting coach at the top of her game, Hall worked with the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and John Goodman. Her specialty was coaching children. Only one thing was missing. What she really wanted was… Read more »
