Cantor Janece Cohen Congregation Or Chadash will celebrate its 18th anniversary with “Chai Hopes: a musical celebration honoring 18 years of life, faith, and community” on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 3:30 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The number 18 is significant in Jewish tradition because it is the sum of… Read more »
The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona will hold a community signing event for its Endowment Book of Life on Tuesday, Feb. 4 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Tucson’s Endowment Book of Life, now in its 23rd year, is a living document that… Read more »
A color-enhanced image shows outcrops that are likely volcanic (basalt) in origin, in Mars’ Valles Marineris canyon. Ari Espinoza, outreach coordinator for HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) at the University of Arizona, wants to help Hebrew speakers learn about Mars. The HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been taking photos of the planet since 2006. In 2010, HiRISE started working with volunteers… Read more »
In conjunction with its performing arts department’s spring musical, “Fiddler on the Roof,” Pima Community College is creating a Family Heritage Celebration. The college is seeking submissions for a multimedia presentation showcasing the heritage of its students, faculty, staff and community, which will culminate in a public celebration on… Read more »
Chabad of Tucson will hold a “Spa for the Soul” event for women on Sunday, Feb. 16, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Hacienda Del Sol Guest Ranch Resort. The event will begin with an hour of mini spa treatments and health and beauty consultations, plus vendor tables and… Read more »
Scholarships for Jewish overnight summer camp are available through the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Coalition for Jewish Education. Forms are available for need-based scholarships for students currently attending Tucson’s religious schools or Tucson Hebrew Academy. The scholarships, funded by the Moe and Frances Beren Family Scholarship Fund at… Read more »
Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin [Britta Van Vranken) There’s television footage currently going viral on the web showing a group of Chabad yeshiva students dancing on Interstate Highway 80 during a traffic jam. “I’ve been covering weather stories for 20 years now and never have I seen what we are about to show you,” said WPXI-TV/ Channel… Read more »
Rabbi David Wolpe David Wolpe — named the most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek magazine and one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world by the Jerusalem Post — will speak in support of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona 2014 Community Campaign on Wednesday, Feb. 12. The… Read more »
When the Israeli mobile maps start-up Waze accepted a buyout from Google for more than $1 billion in June, each of the company’s 100 employees walked away with an average of $1.2 million from the sale. An even bigger check, though, went to Baruch Lipner, a Canadian Israeli who… Read more »
A modern Orthodox high school in New York recently announced it will allow girls to lay tefillin. Another school has quietly done so since the 1990s. The announcement last week that SAR, a modern Orthodox high school in New York, is allowing girls to lay tefillin is helping expose an increasingly sharp fault line within Orthodoxy. For decades, it has been difficult to sort out the precise dividing lines between the varieties of Orthodoxy —… Read more »
The Taglit-Birthright Israel program has expanded eligibility for its free 10-day trips to Israel for Jewish young adults ages 18-26, JNS.org has learned. Teenagers who went on an educational trip to Israel during high school were previously not eligible for Birthright trips, but can now participate, confirmed Noa Bauer,… Read more »
(L-R): Melissa Hall, Nancy Cohen and Rosa Cohen at the blackjack table Margie Fenton award Some 200 people gathered on Sunday, Jan. 5 at Mercado San Agustin for the annual meeting of the Jewish Community Relations Council and to celebrate 10 years of the Jewish Latino Teen Coalition, a program of the JCRC and the Office of Congressman Raul Grijalva. Eileen… Read more »
ADAM LEHRMAN, a.k.a. Tucson Foodie (www.tucsonfoodie.com), has established two new online businesses. Quizine.com gives dining deals to participants who relate feedback to restaurateurs in real time via their smart phones. Soapbox.sm is a marketing company based on the use of social media to promote businesses. ORI PARNABY and HILARY… Read more »
RABBI BILLY LEWKOWICZ recently completed the Tucson Marathon. Known in his native South Africa as the “Running Rabbi,” he ran marathons, “ultra marathons” including the famous “Comrades Marathon” of 56 miles and a charity run of 100 miles. Since immigrating to Tucson in1994, he had not run a marathon.… Read more »
Zoey Simcha Leipsic, daughter of John and Staci Leipsic, will celebrate becoming a Bat Mitzvah on Saturday, Jan. 25 with Congregation Or Chadash at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. She is the granddaughter of Jack and Cynthia Krupinsky of Vail, Ariz., Dyanne Krupinsky of Boynton Beach, Fla., Susan Storch… Read more »
Juliet Elizabeth Webster, daughter of Nancy Tepper and Patrick Webster, will celebrate becoming a Bat Mitzvah on Friday, Jan. 31 at Congregation Chaverim. She is the granddaughter of Sheila and Jack Tepper of Tucson and the late Robert and Beverly Webster. Juliet attends Dodge Middle School where she is… Read more »
Rena Susanne Blum, 83, died Dec. 28, 2013. Born and educated in New York, Mrs. Blum married in 1951 and worked as a real estate agent. She was active in Hadassah. She and her husband retired to Boca Raton in 1989 and moved to Tucson in 1998. Mrs. Blum… Read more »
Herbert Julius Schwager, 88, died Jan. 3, 2014. Born in New York, Mr. Schwager moved to Tucson in 1943. He worked as a stock broker at E.F. Hutton. He was a member of Temple Emanu-El, Congregation Anshei Israel and Congregation Young Israel. Mr. Schwager was preceded in death by… Read more »
Ernest Allen “Ernie” Cohen, 76, died Jan. 8, 2014. Originally from Brooklyn, Mr. Cohen and his wife, Marsha, raised three children in Teaneck, N.J. before moving to Tucson in 1986. He served as president of the Teaneck Political Assembly, a non-partisan organization. He ran as a Democratic candidate for… Read more »
Oshrat Barel Pluralism in Israel Israel is known for its pluralism, yet there is still room for improvement. Lately, two different events made me realize that Israel is making progress even more rapidly. First, a national monument that honors 15,000 Jewish and non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust who were persecuted by… Read more »
