Yizhar Hess, executive director of the Masorti movement in Israel, right, with then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in Jerusalem at the Bar Mitzvah of Emanuel’s son, Zach, on May 30, 2010 Yizhar Hess is the executive director and CEO of the Masorti (Conservative) movement in Israel. He is a former community shaliach and director of the Israel Center in Tucson.… Read more »
Josh Protas, head of the Washington office of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, pauses in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building on Aug. 4, 2011, on his way to a meeting in the United Methodist building to discuss strategy for interfaith advocacy related to the debt “super committee” and the budget negotiations. Josh Protas is a vice president and director of the Washington office of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. In Tucson, he was director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and JFSA senior vice president for planning and community affairs. Previously, he… Read more »
Mark Naseck, holistic healing teacher and new immigrant to Israel, celebrates Simchat Torah in Tzfat, Israel, on Oct. 1, 2010. Mark Naseck is an internationally known lecturer, practitioner and teacher in the holistic healing arts.… Read more »
Robert Sarver is the principal owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball team. He founded the National Bank of Arizona in 1984 and is currently chair and CEO of Western Alliance Bancorporation. He is also a director of Meritage Homes Corporation and SkyWest Inc. He lives in Paradise Valley, a… Read more »
Kerri Strug is a retired Olympic gold medal gymnast, best known for completing a vault on an injured ankle at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. She is now a program manager in the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.… Read more »
It was a family rumor that set Brook Wilensky-Lanford, 33, on the path that has led to her critically acclaimed new book, “Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden” (Grove Press). As Wilensky-Lanford, the daughter of AJP Assistant Editor Sheila Wilensky, explains in her book’s prologue, in 2004… Read more »
(Originally posted on The Jerusalem Post blogs on July 22, 2011. I ask you to please pass on to your Israeli friends.)) Yesterday, while swimming at the pool with my kids, my friend Daniella called me over to ask me if I heard about the girl who died from… Read more »
I’m sick today (Aug. 2) with yet another cold in a series of countless colds since I moved here. I am not exaggerating when I say that I’ve been ill more times these last eight months than I have in total in the past five years. Countless people have… Read more »
Last night, underneath a full moon, within the sacred space of our kibbutz mikveh, ten women gathered to acknowledge our friend who will be bringing a new life into our community in a few short weeks. Debbie’s due at the end of August and it’s become somewhat of a… Read more »
Congregation Chaverim will observe the first yahrzeit and celebrate the life of Karla Ember on Sunday, Sept. 11 at 9 a.m. Ember was cantorial soloist at Chaverim. She died Sept. 8, 2010, after being attacked Sept. 3, 2010 by a man friends described as either her ex-husband or ex-boyfriend… Read more »
It was an ominous hum. A dozen refrigerated trucks loaded with the body parts of victims of the 9/11 attacks filled a cavernous tent across the street from the office of the city medical examiner, their low-pitched buzz an eerie soundtrack to the solemn work being carried out at… Read more »
Last month’s multifront Palestinian terrorist attack along the Egyptian-Israeli border highlighted two major new challenges to Israel’s national security. First is the breakdown of Egyptian central authority in the Sinai Peninsula, which has created fertile ground for terrorism against Israel. Complicating matters further is a heightened sensitivity in post-Mubarak… Read more »
On July 14, 2011, a severely malnourished baby lies in the pediatric unit of a hospital in Lodwar, Kenya, west of Somalia. The famine in the Horn of Africa is getting worse, human rights group say. A tragedy is unfolding in the Horn of Africa, where hundreds of thousands of children are at immediate risk of death. The disastrous combination of the worst drought in 60 years, high food prices and regional conflict has left 12 million people, including more than 2 million malnourished children,… Read more »
When presented with the opportunity to A) go on a summer trip to Europe, or B) go to a Jewish leadership camp, you could only imagine the look on my parents’ faces when I chose option B! Priceless! This summer I ventured across the country to upstate New York… Read more »
Noah Pensak (left) and Jacob Meyer donate books to the Ocotillo Learning Center library. (Courtesy Ocotillo Learning Center) It started as a novel way to teach Jewish children about philanthropy, social justice and tikkun olam (repairing the world). Today, the mitzvah project has become a cherished part of the Bar and Bat Mitzvah scene. Yet for each child who chooses to take part in this burgeoning tradition,… Read more »
Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Rabbi Levi Matusof, Dec. 12, 2004 (Yasin Aras) The months of the Hebrew calendar can easily be categorized. We have Nissan exploring slavery and freedom. In Tevet, Tammuz and Av we deplore hatred and the destruction it causes and pray for redemption. Shevat is for the trees and Adar involves uplifting joy. The month of Elul, however,… Read more »
As a child, I grew up listening to music on my father’s prized possession, our stereo system, which consisted of a record player nestled deep within a richly oiled mahogany cabinet and two huge speakers that dominated the living room. Sunday mornings were dedicated to classical music, the afternoons… Read more »
Gertrude Shankman, a Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging resident, and Adam DeLuca in front of the B’nai Tzedek triptych, currently on display at Handmaker. The painting includes a poem by DeLuca. (Bryan Davis) Eighteen-year-old Adam DeLuca has participated in the B’nai Tzedek Tucson teen philanthropy program since 2007. Now starting his freshman year at the University of Arizona, DeLuca has also embarked on a lifetime of giving. “Before I joined B’nai Tzedek I understood that charity was a good thing,” DeLuca… Read more »
Girls play at the SEGA Girls’ School in Tanzania, the recipient of Dining for Women’s August 2011 fundraising efforts. (Warren Zelman) Do Jewish women enjoy sharing a meal while contributing to worldwide social justice? Of course — and the Tucson chapter of the national organization, Dining for Women, does just that. Dory Martin, a local psychotherapist, started the chapter two years ago after learning… Read more »
Dr. Lane P. Johnson The Tucson Maimonides Society will present a dinner event on “Medicine and Marijuana” with guest speaker Dr. Lane P. Johnson on Monday, Sept. 19 at 6:30 p.m. at the Westward Look Resort. Johnson is an associate professor of clinical family and community medicine and a clinical associate professor in… Read more »
