Nineteen years ago, Harold Grinspoon started PJ Library by sending books to families raising Jewish children in Massachusetts with the goal of sharing Jewish stories that empower families and inspire joyful Jewish living. From those humble beginnings, today, PJ Library sends out more than 670,000 books to 40 countries… Read more »
Capturing natural beauty with a camera brings peace to Howard Paley and joy to thousands who see the breathtaking images he posts daily on Facebook and Instagram. Along with landscapes, sunrises, and sunsets, the longtime Tucsonan’s favorite subjects include wildlife, from hummingbirds to bison; lightning storms and cloudscapes; ancient… Read more »
Tucsonan Mo Goldman remembers his maternal grandmother, Esther Praw, a Holocaust survivor, as a frail and anxious woman, haunted by the losses and the atrocities she endured. Esther immigrated to the U.S. in 1949 with her first husband and their infant daughter, Gloria, Goldman’s mother. In 1969, widowed ten… Read more »
Jessica Elisheva Emerson is happy her smart, steamy first novel, “Olive Days,” made the Los Angeles Daily News and Jewish Book Council summer reading lists, even though the book won’t be published until Sept. 10. When pitching it to agents, Emerson described “Olive Days” as “Unorthodox” meets “The End… Read more »
From the Song of Songs, we find a beautiful text elaborating on the beauty of spring. “For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers are seen in the land. The time of the nightingale is come, and the voice of the turtle dove… Read more »
This past Sunday, Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center (TJMHC) unveiled our new mural to the public. The mural was painted by high school students participating in the Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson’s Minor Mutiny Teen Council, which provides teens with the opportunity to participate in public art projects… Read more »
Remembrance and hope, in Hebrew zikaron v’tikvah, are the themes of the Butterfly Project, an international effort to teach social justice through the lessons of the Holocaust. On Sunday, Jan. 28, from 1 to 4 p.m., Southern Arizona residents and visitors can travel Tucson’s Butterfly Trail, seven installations of… Read more »
Lights… camera… action! The Tucson J International Film Festival opens January 11, with in-person and virtual screenings and post-film programs for select films through January 21, and virtual screenings of most films continuing through January 31. The 2024 Tucson J International Film Festival is multi-access, running from January 11… Read more »
What comes to mind when you think of a parade? Music, dancing, fanciful clothing, even a float or two? A Pride parade is all that and more: it marks an exuberant and enthusiastic celebration for and by the LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual) community. (The… Read more »
All are invited to join The Tucson Jewish Community Center (the J or the Tucson J) for Dara Horn, “Setting Our Minds Toward the New Year” on Sunday, September 10 at 6:30pm. The acclaimed National Book Award Winner and author of six books including, People Love Dead Jews will… Read more »
On Saturday, June 24th, Arizona List will be hosting a one-time-only screening and Arizona theatrical premier of Under G-d, a groundbreaking new film by Peabody-Award-winning Jewish filmmaker Paula Eiselt (Aftershock, 93Queen). The film won rave reviews at its Sundance premier a few months ago, and this will be the… Read more »
This article first appeared on PrideSource.com and in Between The Lines, Detroit Metro’s award-winning biweekly LGBTQ+ print publication. The nametag stopped me in my tracks. I immediately swung around to talk to the gray-haired woman with a friendly face sitting in the author booth at the March 2023 Tucson… Read more »
This article was originally published by the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix. Artist Beth Surdut is a wildlife illustrator, environmental educator, stained glass designer and writer. She began painting on silk in the 1980s, starting with scarves, which have been on display in the Smithsonian, in Washington, D.C., and… Read more »
The Tucson J invites the entire community to campus Sunday, March 12 from 1-4pm for “Tucson Portrait Story Art(ish) LIVE Festival,” an immersive art experience in partnership with local artist and long-time community member, Lauri Kaye of Create for the People Ventures, and Southern Arizona Arts + Culture Alliance.… Read more »
Stepping back to 9:00 AM Saturday, October 27th, 2018, Ari Mittleman and countless American Jews deemed the United States of America as perhaps the greatest country for modern Jewry outside the State of Israel. This stood in contrast to the antisemitism that plagued Jewish history. Indeed, the United States… Read more »
When Josephine Marcus ran away from home in 1880, it is hard to imagine just how shocked her California-based parents must have felt. Teenage Josephine dreamt of becoming an actress and a dancer. These weren’t exactly the plans made by her Jewish immigrant family and Hollywood didn’t yet exist.… Read more »
Howard Kline is a kinesthetic artist. “Music inspires my art,” he says, and it has been a major influence on his paintings. Visual artists work with their sense of touch or sight, but Kline warms up and initiates his day in the studio by first stepping into a soundproof… Read more »
Geraldine Brooks Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks has just finished writing a new novel, inspired by the story of a racehorse during the 1850s and ’60s. It is the first of her novels in which religion is not a dominant theme, which made it the hardest to write, because religion is… Read more »
Gugulethu Moyo, executive director of the Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center in Tucson (Photo courtesy Moyo)
Gugulethu Moyo, the new executive director of Tucson’s Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center, comes to the job with a unique set of qualifications, encompassing both her career as an international human rights lawyer and her personal Jewish journey. In November, the museum’s board of directors unanimously approved her appointment… Read more »
A Congregation Bet Shalom member shows off eggs laid by the shul's chickens, in the short film 'Feeding Our Souls." (Courtesy Tucson International Jewish Film Festival)
Congregation Bet Shalom members young and old — but mostly young — are featured in a short film, “Feeding Our Souls,” that will debut as part of the Tucson International Jewish Film Festival. But the chickens are definitely the stars. Raising chickens has been a central part of the… Read more »
