Posts By Sara Harelson

Staff at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging are being offered opportunities to improve their careers in healthcare through the generosity of community philanthropists Diane and Ron Weintraub. The couple recently collaborated with Handmaker President and CEO Arthur Martin to establish parameters for the grant. It offers individuals up… Read more »

Tucsonan Charlotte Low with "the Boss" who oversaw her volunteer job on an Israel Defense Forces base.

This is not your worried bubbe’s idea of a tourist tour of the Holy Land. For that you get one picture on a camel (careful!) and stay in four-star hotels. If you crave an insider’s view, being a Volunteer For Israel is adventurous and transformational. Serious fun. My own… Read more »

Fran Katz

Katz completes eighth Boston Marathon Jewish Federation Senior Vice President Fran Katz completed her eighth Boston Marathon on Monday, with a finish time of 4:07:34, qualifying her for next year’s race. She showed up for work bright and early Tuesday morning, unscathed. “I’ve never run in conditions like that… Read more »

Saffron rice with pine nuts is made all over the Middle East. Sometimes it is spiced with a little ground coriander, cinnamon and cumin, or flaked almonds are used instead of the pine nuts. Saffron rice is often served for Rosh Hashanah as the addition of raisins is said… Read more »

Integral Jewish Meditation is a synthesis of the best traditional meditation modalities, brought together into a simple practice that is easy to learn, yet radical in its effectiveness, says Tucsonan Reb Brian Yosef Schacter-Brooks, who developed the program. It includes chanting, focused intention, contemplation of sacred text, body movement,… Read more »

Pinchas Paul Zohav

Before becoming a hospice chaplain, I did not know that one the highest honors of this role would be attending and serving our veterans, the men and women who have served us. The places they’ve gone, the people they’ve seen, the history they have made, astounds me each and… Read more »

A familiar face at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, Rhina Gerhauser in March marked a quarter-century there as a group fitness instructor and personal trainer. Her motto is, “It’s never too late to start living healthier. And always too soon to stop.” In 2015, she was voted Tucson’s Top Group… Read more »

A coalition of local businesses and nonprofits throughout the state are collaborating to develop and launch a new pilot program that will make it easier for local businesses to save energy and money by implementing sustainable practices. The Sustainable Communities Accessing Lending and Expertise Upon Performance (SCALE UP) program will… Read more »

Samuel Ostrofsky

Samuel Ostrofsky, 92, died April 6, 2018. Born in Boswell, Pennsylvania, he was a founder of Temple Beth El in Midland, Michigan, and worked locally at Tattoo Manufacturing before retiring 10 years ago. Survivors include his sister, Thelma Nathanson of Tucson; brother, Joe (Polly) Ostrofsky of Midland; and many… Read more »

Martin Abelson

Martin Neil Abelson, 89, died March 31, 2018. Mr. Abelson was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Abraham “Artie” and Isabelle (Weiss) Abelson. He graduated from New York University, Howard University and Columbia University and later received his Diplomate in Orthodontia from the American Board of Orthodontics. He was… Read more »

THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA has hired CAROL SACK as the Jewish community concierge. Sack spent more than 30 years working in the Tucson nonprofit community with the last 15 years in the Jewish community. Most recently she was a senior philanthropic advisor at the Jewish Community Foundation… Read more »

EDWARD J. SCHWAGER, M.D.

EDWARD J. SCHWAGER, M.D., FAAFP was honored April 6 as the Arizona Family Physician of the Year by the Arizona Academy of Family Physicians during its annual clinical education conference in Carefree, Arizona.  A native Tucsonan, Schwager graduated with honors from the University of Arizona College of Medicine in… Read more »

Talya Ruth Fleisher

Talya Ruth Fleisher, daughter of Andrea and Jason Fleisher, will celebrate becoming a bat mitzvah on Saturday, April 28, at Congregation Or Chadash. She is the granddaughter of Rhoda and Nate Miller of Tucson, Roma Fleisher and Bruce Favish of Los Angeles, and Sander Fleisher of Tucson. Talya attends… Read more »

(The Nosher via JTA) — Cauliflower is probably my favorite vegetable, and I could eat it cooked like this every day. One of my chefs, Matthew Wihongi, created this recipe for our catering business and it really wows. If you don’t have time to slow roast the cauliflower, parboil… Read more »

RIGA, Latvia (JTA) — Each year on March 16, a macabre event unfolds on the square around this capital city’s most famous monument. Known as the Memorial for Latvian Legionnaires, it is the world’s only march by veterans of Nazi Germany’s elite SS unit. A handful of them, including… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — This won’t be the first time Jewish Currents, a 72-year-old magazine for the secular left, undergoes a transformation. It was founded in 1946 as a communist magazine, clashing with other Jewish institutions such as the socialist Workmen’s Circle. The magazine later abandoned communism as its political ideology,… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Ben Cardin, a pro-Israel stalwart in the Democratic Party, lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a J Street conference, breaking with a party tradition of avoiding confrontations with Israel’s leaders. Cardin, D-Md., in his speech Monday stood by his bill that would… Read more »

PRINCETON, New Jersey (JTA) — Does Jewish law allow — or even require — torture? That’s the question six teams of college students from across the country set out to answer at a moot Jewish court competition at Princeton University Sunday. And they came back with a unanimous response:… Read more »

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — When Barry Vingerling asked his employers at the Anne Frank House whether it was okay for him to start coming to work wearing a kippah, he did it mostly as a courtesy. “I hadn’t expected this to be an issue,” Vingerling, 25, told the Dutch-Jewish NIW… Read more »

(JTA) — For years, the nation’s capital had only one full-fledged kosher restaurant. But as of this week, that changed. The clergy at Ohev Shalom-The National Synagogue, a Washington D.C. Modern Orthodox congregation, have given kosher certification to three vegan restaurants in the District (along with two others in the suburbs).… Read more »