LORI RIEGEL has rejoined the ARIZONA JEWISH POST as advertising manager. She was a salesperson at the AJP from 2006 to 2008, then served as religious school director at Temple Emanu-El and religious and cultural education coordinator at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, where she currently runs the… Read more »
Mitchel (Mickey) David Berens, 83, died Oct. 7, 2013. Raised in Chicago and Whitehall, Ill., Mr. Berens graduated from high school and briefly attended college. He started an automobile dealership business that expanded into four dealerships, then moved to Tucson in 1970. Survivors include his wife of 58 years,… Read more »
Joy Ladin leads a full and productive life, but her path has not been easy. “Very early on, there was an awareness that I wasn’t in the right gender,” Ladin told the AJP from her home in Hadley, Mass. The first openly transgender person to work at an Orthodox… Read more »
This wall at the Holocaust History Center presents information on 120 of the survivors who have lived in Southern Arizona since the 1940s. The center is seeking information on 110 other survivors who have lived here. (Martha Lochert) The Holocaust History Center at the Jewish History Museum held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Sunday, Oct. 20. The inaugural exhibit at the center goes “from dark to light,” with one long wall presenting the history of the Holocaust and the opposite wall dedicated to the lives of 230… Read more »
Shannon Rzucidlo After Shannon Rzucidlo, 26, went on a Birthright Israel trip this summer, NEXT, a division of the Birthright Israel Foundation, reached out to keep her connected, offering resources to help her create a Rosh Hashanah meal for friends. “I think my NEXT High Holiday meal was my ‘coming out’… Read more »
(L-R) Capt. Kyle Canty, Northwest Fire Department; Capt. Richard Johnson, Tucson Fire Department; Division Chief Kelly McCoy, Northwest Fire Department; Capt. Mark Lytle, Green Valley Fire District; Capt. Scott Laird, Rincon Valley Fire District; Tzvia and Emil Riven (in front of Laird); Lt. Thomas Tucker, Tucson Airport Authority Fire Department; and Capt. Kris Blum, Tuscon Fire Department, plant a tree on Mount Carmel to honor the Rivens’ son, Elad, who died in 2010 fighting Israel’s worst forest fire. (Courtesy Greater Tucson Fire Foundation) “We went as seven firefighters and came back as seven ambassadors for Israel,” says Capt. Scott Laird of the Rincon Valley Fire District, who spent Oct. 15-25 in Israel as part of Southern Arizona’s first Firefighters Without Borders delegation. The group sought to learn, firsthand, about how Israel’s… Read more »
From entertainment at the Fox Tucson Theatre to a cornucopia of new restaurants, to entrepreneurial innovations, downtown Tucson has been transformed — and more changes are on the way. “It’s been very gratifying and good for the Fox to offer significant programming downtown,” says Craig Sumberg, executive director of… Read more »
Southern Arizona will take part in the fourth annual “Global Day of Jewish Learning” on Sunday, Nov. 17, joining Jewish communities in more than 40 countries across six continents. A project of the Aleph Society and Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, the day is an opportunity for people in Southern Arizona… Read more »
(L-R) David Zoller, Ariel Hirsh, Scott Lacritz, Dov Hirsch, Yakir Hirsch and Sammy Zoller play ‘Shabbat Showdown.’ (Benji Zoller) Adding entertainment and education to the Shabbat table didn’t happen overnight for Shabbat Showdown game creator David Zoller. The deck of Jewish-themed trivia cards evolved organically as Zoller helped his children with their studies. “My kids were coming home from their third and fourth grade day-school classes with so… Read more »
Armenians are marched to a nearby prison in Mezireh by armed Turkish soldiers in Kharpert, Armenia, in April 1915. (Photo: Project SAVE via Wikimedia Commons) Ninety-nine years after the Turkish genocide of the Armenians, one of the most poignant symbols of Armenian suffering is being held hostage — by the White House. The prisoner is an 18-foot long rug. It was woven by four hundred Armenian orphan girls living in exile in Lebanon, as… Read more »
As the 112th Congress drew to a close last winter, nearly two-thirds of the U.S. Senate voted to ratify an international treaty that would help ensure millions of people with disabilities around the world have basic rights, open markets to American business abroad, and reassert the United States as… Read more »
The Reid Park Zoo will host a Chanukah celebration for the Jewish community on Monday, Dec. 2 at 5 p.m. Chabad of Tucson will rent the 17-acre venue from the City of Tucson to mark the fifth night of Chanukah with a display of holiday lights, light sculptures and… Read more »
If the Great Jewish Novel is lurking inside you but you can’t get it out (or get it published), there are people who want to help. Now is the time to end the procrastination and excuses — and banish your Jewish writer’s block. The first and best stop is… Read more »
Samantha Orzech in ‘The Laramie Project’ at Pima Community College (Courtesy Pima Community College Center for the Arts) Pima Community College Theatre Arts will present “The Laramie Project” by Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theatre Project, directed by Nancy Davis Booth, Nov. 14-24. In 1998 University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, who was gay, was kidnapped, beaten and left to die tied to a fence… Read more »
Handmaker Youth Leadership Team will participate in two community service projects with residents at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, this month and next. On Sunday, Nov. 17 at 2 p.m., youth participants and residents will pack care packages for clients of Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network. A speaker will… Read more »
Nov. 4-8, 2013, BBYO teens will lead peers worldwide in Speak UP Week, an international initiative that explores Israel education, awareness and advocacy through formal, informal and experiential lenses. Leading up to Speak UP Week, BBYO invites the Jewish community to share their personal connections to Israel through a… Read more »
Barbara K. Shore, Ph.D., 92, died Oct. 23, 2013. Raised in Pittsburgh, Dr. Shore earned a BS in social work at Carnegie Tech (now CMU), graduating summa cum laude, and an MS in social work from the University of Pittsburgh. She married Jack Shore in 1942 and they left… Read more »
(Jenni Steinberg Pagano) Want an interesting home that doesn’t look like you called a catalog company and ordered one of everything? Shop thrift stores! You can find very high-end items for low-end prices. You can make your house look like you’ve been all over the world or have inherited the collections of… Read more »
Watershed Management Group will hold three seminars in its “Simple Solutions for Sustainable Living” series next month at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. On Thursday, Nov. 7 at 6:30 p.m., Tory Syracuse will present “Responsible Home Ownership in the Desert,” focusing on strategies such as rainwater and greywater harvesting… Read more »
(StatePoint)—Shopping for gardeners this holiday season? Here are a few ideas that will put a smile on the face of those green-thumbed family members and friends: Make a statement Upgrade a hobby wardrobe with gear that’s not only stylish, but functional too. If your gardener is still watering, hedging,… Read more »
