Scene from inside the "Balint Haz" Jewish Community Center in Budapest. (Ruth Ellen Gruber) BUDAPEST, Hungary (JTA) — A generation after the fall of communism, Jews in Central Europe feel comfortable where they live but are concerned about anti-Semitism. They like to visit Israel but don’t want to move there. And they feel that they don’t have to be religious to be a… Read more »
Susan Eileen Sussman, 60, died April 29, 2011. Survivers include her sister, Carol (Tom) Baker of Tucson; brother Michael (Lois) Sussman of Tempe, Ariz.; three nieces and one nephew. Graveside services were held at Shaarei Shalom Cemetery, with Rabbi Samuel Cohon of Temple Emanu-El officiating. Arrangements were made by… Read more »
Sidney “Poppi” Liebeskind, 100, died April 28, 2011. A long time Tucson resident, Mr. Liebeskind was born in Newark, N.J. Survivors include his wife, Florence Hass Liebeskind; children, Gail (Cal) Rudner and Wayne (Patty) Liebeskind; three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Graveside services were held in the Cong. Anshei Israel… Read more »
Herbert E. Sim, 87, died April 13, 2011. Mr. Sim was preceded in death by his wife, Sylvia. Survivors include his children, Randolph (Diane) Sim of Washington, D.C., Charles (Katherine) Sim of Indianapolis, Ind., Steven Sim (Marilyn Einstein) of Tucson, Marguerite (Steven) Gleitman of Santa Monica, Calif., and Ernestine… Read more »
Isaac Irving Senor, 86, died April 1, 2011. Mr. Senor was born in Salonika, Greece. When he was 16, the Nazis took the town’s young men to build a rail line and sent the rest of the Jewish population to concentration camps. He spent time in five different camps… Read more »
Friends at 100: Evelyn Bersh and Solomon Steinfeld Destination Bar Mitzvah Just as there are destination weddings, so are there destination Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebrations. At the end of March, MSNBC.com had an article entitled “Mazel tov! Traditional Jewish ceremonies take to the road.” The writer mentioned Tucsonan Sam Gordon’s December 2010 Bar Mitzvah during a Caribbean cruise.… Read more »
With conservative lawmakers across the United States trying to outlaw sharia, or Islamic religious law, Jewish organizations are concerned that halachah could be next. If the state legislative initiatives targeting sharia are successful, they would gut a central tenet of American Jewish religious communal life: The ability under U.S.… Read more »
A report by the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control shows that Arizona’s cancer incidence rates are the lowest in the nation. According to the United States Cancer Statistics Incidence and Mortality Web-based Report, which compares the rates of cancer across 49 states, six metropolitan areas… Read more »
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is one of two recipients this year of the Beacon Award for Courage and Dedication, which will be presented by the International Brain Mapping and Intraoperative Surgical Planning Society at its 8th annual congress next month. The society will honor Giffords and… Read more »
Children enjoy the pool at the Tucson Jewish Community Center (Larry Haas) Hearing about the rising incidence of obesity in children makes Mary Burns cringe. Burns, the group fitness coordinator at the Tucson Jewish Community Center is working with other JCC staffers, including children, youth and camping services director Scott Zorn; sports and wellness coordinator/ aquatics supervisor Mindy Grodzki; and sports… Read more »
Morgain Friedman Morgan Friedman loves the way people talk. He wants others to love it, too. The 35-year-old social media entrepreneur, formerly of Brooklyn, N.Y., and now living in Buenos Aires, launches new digital projects like marshmallows from an air gun. Pow! Here’s Overheardinnewyork.com, a site for offbeat conversations that his… Read more »
In the showdown over the 2012 U.S. budget, Jewish organizations clearly fall on one particular side of the partisan divide: the Democratic one. But as the battle between Republicans and Democrats over spending gets under way, the trick the organizations are trying to pull off is appealing to both… Read more »
Congregation Or Chadash is “the congregation that’s been wandering in the desert forever,” says Cantor Janece Cohen. Not any more. Or Chadash’s May 20 Shabbat service will be held in a new community room on its property at 3939 N. Alvernon Way, which the congregation will use for virtually… Read more »
Thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank cityof Ramallah hold a rally advocating Fatah-Hamas reconciliation, March 15, 2011. A reconciliation deal was announced in late April (Ruben Salvador/Flash 90/JTA) Skeptics and optimists in Israel are squaring off following the surprise reconciliation between the two rival Palestinian factions. The skeptics argue that by mending fences with Hamas, a terrorist organization that denies Israel’s right to exist, the secular Fatah party led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has shown… Read more »
A breakfast meeting cosponsored by Hadassah Southern Arizona and the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Foundation of Southern Arizona, “Views on Recovery and Progress: A Conversation with Tucson City Council Members and Pima County Board of Supervisors,” held at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on April… Read more »
I am seeking Holocaust survivors and 2ndG people to interview who either were or are artists. The information being gathered is for a college undergraduate level course being taken this summer at Prescott College, Tucson Center. Please respond to pcbresume@yahoo.com. —Patricia C. Bischof… Read more »
We read and thoroughly enjoyed Joel Chasnoff’s book (“‘Crybaby Brigade’ author to perform at men’s event,” AJP 4/8/2011). Mr. Chasnoff told his readers that he learned in boot camp that the IDF has a phrase for anything that goes astray or does not work out as planned: “A fukim.”… Read more »
We were so pleased to read about the Golan Heights Winery award in Italy and particularly about Victor Schoenfeld (News Briefs — AJP, 4/22/11). We have been friends with the Schoenfeld family for many years as we all belonged to Congregation Ner Tamid in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. The… Read more »
Re-Vital Dance Ensemble will perform its new show, “Hatikvah,” at the Israel 63 Festival on May 15, 2011. A dance performance by Israel’s acclaimed Re-Vital Dance Ensemble, which played to a standing-room-only crowd here two years ago, will be the climax of Tucson’s Israel 63 Festival, to be held Sunday, May 15 from 1 to 6 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. But the festival, celebrating… Read more »
(L-R) Debi Chess-Mabie, Shelley Lipowich and Maria Rodriguez participate in a Habitat for Humanity build on March 23. Following the passage of Arizona SB 1070, an anti-illegal immigrant measure that critics say encourages racial profiling of Hispanics, in April 2010, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, considered ways to support Tucson’s Hispanic community, says Brenda Landau, JFSA director of women’s philanthropy… Read more »
