Rachel Leah Mittleman Women’s learning has been added to the Southwest Torah Institute’s long-running Dr. Paul W. Hoffert Spirit Program, which returns to Tucson Sunday, July 19, through Sunday, Aug. 2. This year’s program, entitled “Torah By Appointment,” allows participants to schedule individual and group appointments with four rabbinic students from the… Read more »
At Hezekiah’s Tunnel in the City of David, from left: Yuval Barel, Ronnie Berkej, Maia Winsberg, Hayden Estrella, Marlee Dell, Hayley Yalen, Danielle Schwartz, Mallory Hulsey, Emberly Davis, Sheina Lewkowicz, Eva Lanoue, Rebecca Dubin, Corey Karp, Maya Levy, Aliya Markowitz
The Tucson Hebrew Academy 2015 trip to Israel marked the 13th such trip for the school, bringing the total of THA students who have visited Israel with their eighth grade classmates to 300. This year, 15 students along with Rabbi Billy Lewkowicz, the school’s director of Judaics/Hebrew studies, and… Read more »
Irene M. Sarver, a longtime Jewish community and civic leader, died July 6, 2015. She was 95. Mrs. Sarver served on the boards and was a member of countless organizations, including Jewish Family & Children’s Services, Hadassah, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona,… Read more »
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi speaks during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (unseen) in Berlin, Germany on June 3, 2015. (Adam Berry/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – A nuclear deal between Iran and the major world powers is due to be finalized by Tuesday. Until now, critics of the emerging deal have argued that it’s bad, getting worse, but it could be improved. Once negotiators on both sides come up with a final deal,… Read more »
Nicholas Winton at a London event honoring him in September 2009. (Peter Maciarmid/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Last week’s passing of Nicholas Winton, the London stockbroker who rescued more than 600 Jewish children from the Nazis on the eve of World War II, has drawn attention to the phenomenon of ordinary individuals who risked their lives to save Jews from the Holocaust. Winton‘s… Read more »
Naomi (Daniel Kitsis) & Eyad (Tawfeek Barhom) in the streets of Jerusalem
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — It is one of the paradoxes of Arab-Jewish relations in Israel that some of the best movies depicting Palestinians as society’s outsiders are made by Jewish directors. Similarly, Palestinian directors often draw more balanced pictures of their Jewish “occupiers” than do some self-lacerating Jewish-Israeli filmmakers.… Read more »
Alex Swieca, a former quarterback at the University of Michigan, throws a pass in a scrimmage at Jerusalem's Kraft Stadium, June 21, 2015. (Ben Sales)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The scent of hamburgers and beer wafted over the field. The fans were bathed in barbecue smoke.The bleachers were cut out of Jerusalem stone, the field was made of artificial turf. The spectators who had come to greet a tour of Pro Football Hall of Famers… Read more »
The new English translation of "The Vilna Vegetarian Cookbook," from 1938. (Schocken Books)
(Jewniverse via JTA) — “It has long been established by the highest medical authorities that food made from fruits and vegetables is far healthier and more suitable for the human organism than food made from meat,” Fania Lewando wrote in 1938. With that Austen-like pronouncement and the publication of… Read more »
B’nai B’rith Sahauro Lodge, which has been putting gravestones on 21 previously unmarked graves in the B’nai B’rith section of Evergreen Cemetery, will hold a service there on Friday, July 10 at 9:30 a.m., to honor the dead. Cantor Avraham Alpert of Congregation Bet Shalom will lead the service… Read more »
Same-sex marriage supporters celebrate outside the supreme court on June 26, 2015. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – How often do you get the opportunity to pack “109 years,” #LoveWins and the rainbow colors into 140 characters? That’s how the American Jewish Committee celebrated the Supreme Court ruling Friday extending marriage rights to gays throughout the United States. “For 109 years AJC has stood for liberty… Read more »
(L-R) Rabbi Jack Silver, Susan Rubin, Cathy Becskehazy, Peter Becskehazy Secular Humanist Jewish Circle Affirmation Shabbat On May 30, the Secular Humanist Jewish Circle celebrated the long term identification of Cathy Becskehazy as a secular humanist Jew. Becskehazy chose her Jewish name and spoke about her journey as a Jew by choice. Rabbi Jack Silver of Tempe, member of… Read more »
KITTY WU has been promoted to fiscal and administrative coordinator at the JEWISH FEDERATION OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA. Wu has been the JFSA bookkeeping and data management assistant for 16 years. CARRIE ADLER-WHEELER has been hired as database manager at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. Most recently she worked… Read more »
ADAM BUKANI, a junior at the University of Arizona, presented his findings from the 2015 Tucson Wellbeing Survey at a community forum on Friday, May 15 at Habitat for Humanity Tucson. The forum was hosted by the UA School of Sociology; the study was part of the 2015 Poverty… Read more »
Rabbi Batsheva Appel In this week’s Torah portion, Chukat, we find that after almost 40 years of journey in the wilderness, Israel has learned more about how to be a community and about how to be a community that has a covenant with God by doing what God wants. Things have changed… Read more »
Caitlin Jensen As Local First Arizona gears up for its 10th annual Independents Week celebration June 26-July 5, the Downtown Tucson Partnership is pleased to say that more than 90 percent of downtown businesses are locally owned. “I think that’s one of the things that truly makes downtown unique, the concentration… Read more »
Atelier de LaFleur 410 N. Toole Ave. • 548-1338 lafleurevents.com Our team of wedding planners, event producers and florists work with you to realize your event decor dreams. Our plantscapes and floral arrangements are designed to go from party to garden and last for years with proper upkeep, reminding you of… Read more »
Re “Supporting worshippers at Phoenix mosque, local Jews met with gratitude” (AJP, 6/12/2015): A beautiful story. I have two reflections. 1. Sarah (and her husband Marty) are not “converted Jews.” Although they were not born Jewish they are “full fledged” Jews; a “ger” — a convert — has all… Read more »
Activists from ACT UP, a group co-founded in 1987 by Larry Kramer, shown in an archival photo from a demonstration. (Courtesy of HBO)
(JTA) — It wasn’t so long ago that gay men were vilified by American society at large. Back in the 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic surfaced, priests railed against them, claiming the disease was God’s revenge for sinful lifestyle choices. That, of course, has changed — mostly. While there… Read more »
Michael Oren, shown speaking at the Holocaust Day of Remembrance ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in 2010, caused a stir with accusations against President Obama in an Op-Ed. (Astrid Riecken/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Israel’s former ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, caused a stir last week by publicly accusing President Barack Obama of abandoning the two core principles that undergird the U.S.-Israel relationship: no public disagreements and no surprises. But should there be no public disagreements – “no daylight,” in diplomatic… Read more »
Therapist Zehava Baruch counsels Ethiopian immigrants Fanta (left) and Weinishe at the welfare department in Kiryat Malachi, Israel. A 2015 grant from the Jewish Community Foundation and Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona to the Kiryat Malachi welfare department will focus on preventing Ethiopian family violence. (AJP file photo)
The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona recently awarded 24 grants totaling $369,817 through its community grants program. These grants are made in three impact areas: Tucson Jewish community, Israel and global Jewry, and Tucson general community. The local Jewish and Israel grants are administered in alignment with the… Read more »
