Events

Taika Waititi adapting anti-Semite Roald Dahl’s work is exactly what we need

Taika Waititi will write, direct and executive produce two series based on the work of Roald Dahl for Netflix, starting with "Charlie and the Chocolate Factor." (Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)
March 12, 2020 / A.R. Vishny, JTA

This story originally appeared on Alma. Netflix just announced that the Academy Award-winning Maori-Jewish filmmaker Taika Waititi will write, direct and executive produce two series based on the work of author Roald Dahl for the streaming platform. The first is based on “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” focusing specifically… Read more »

Congregation M’kor Hayim will focus on refugees for special Shabbat service

Gloria Goldman and Teresa Cavendish
March 6, 2020 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

Editor’s note: Due to the spread of coronavirus, Congregation M’kor Hayim has postponed this event. HIAS’ National Refugee Shabbat is a call to congregations across the country to dedicate sacred time on the March 20-21 Shabbat to honor refugees and asylum seekers. Congregation M’kor Hayim will hold a special Friday,… Read more »

Rugelach, Syrian pepper dip on menu for Tucson Festival of Books demo
March 6, 2020 / Lauren Bookwalter, AJP Iintern
Leah Koenig

Leah Koenig will be representing Jewish cuisine at the Tucson Festival of Books with her new cookbook, “The Jewish Cookbook,” which includes recipes from around the globe. Koenig’s recipes have been featured in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine’s Grub Street, and other popular… Read more »

Hear balalaikas ringing out at orchestra’s annual concert of music and dance

Folk dancers, musicians, and singers will join the Arizona Balalaika Orchestra for its 40th anniversary concert in Tucson on Saturday, March 7.
March 6, 2020 /

The Arizona Balalaika Orchestra’s 40th Anniversary Concert of traditional music and dance of Russia, Poland, Ukraine, and other Slavic countries is Saturday, March 7, at 7 p.m. at Pima Community College Center for the Arts. The 25-member orchestra, founded in 1980 by Mia Bulgarin Gay, presents a wide spectrum… Read more »

A 4th-generation Vermont Orthodox Jew is starting the state’s first Jewish day school

Kids in the Chabad-run preschool in Burlington, Vermont, play in the yard. (Courtesy of Draizy Junik)
March 3, 2020 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

(JTA) — Draizy Junik is well acquainted with the challenges of living a Jewish life in Vermont, a state that while home to a well-known Jewish Democratic presidential candidate has a total Jewish population of about 20,000 people. As a kid, Junik was homeschooled until the age of 13… Read more »

Simon Wiesenthal’s granddaughter leads march marking 75 years since Mauthausen’s liberation

Dozens participate in a memorial ceremony at Mauthausen, the sprawling Nazi concentration camp that held nearly 200,000 prisoners during the Holocaust, including famed Nazi-hunter-to-be Simon Wiesenthal, March 1, 2020. (Larry Luxner)
March 3, 2020 / Larry Luxner, JTA

MAUTHAUSEN, Austria (JTA) — Under a bright blue sky, with Austria’s snow-capped Alps in the distance, Racheli Kreisberg set foot for the first time in her life inside Mauthausen — the sprawling Nazi concentration camp that held nearly 200,000 prisoners between 1938 and 1945. Fewer than half of the… Read more »

Bat mitzvah: Josephine Elyse Hanley
February 21, 2020 /
Josephine Elyse Hanley

Josephine Elyse Hanley, daughter of Rebecca and Todd Hanley, will celebrate becoming a bat mitzvah on Saturday, Feb. 29, at Congregation Or Chadash. She is the granddaughter of Shana and Richard Oseran and Pat Dale, all of Tucson. Josephine attends Miles Exploratory Learning Center where she is an honor… Read more »

Israeli violinist Perlman to perform at UA
February 21, 2020 /

Itzhak Perlman, arguably the world’s most famous living violinist, will perform for UA Presents on Sunday, March 1, 6:30 p.m. He will be accompanied by pianist Rohan De Silva. The subject of a 2018 PBS documentary, “Itzhak,” Perlman spoke that year to JTA reporter Curt Schleier. “I’m a violinist.… Read more »

County launches garden emissions voucher program
February 21, 2020 /

To cut down on pollution created by gasoline-powered lawn and garden equipment, the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality, in partnership with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, has created the “Cut Down Pollution” program. “Our region exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s health standard for ground-level ozone on… Read more »

Pick from a plethora of fun-filled community Purim festivities

Kenny Mirman and Marlene Burns celebrate Purim at Chabad Oro Valley. (Photo courtesy Chabad Oro Valley)
February 21, 2020 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

A full array of Southern Arizona Purim parties will ensure that this most fun holiday of the Jewish calendar is action-packed. Take your pick from a string of family-friendly events, submitted by area synagogues and agencies. Friday, March 6 6 p.m.: Purim Shabbat Early Shabbat tot and child-friendly service;… Read more »

Handmaker lecture to explore community’s future from a rabbinic perspective
February 21, 2020 / Debe Campbell, Assistant Editor

Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging continues its annual Three Rabbis Lecture Panel next month, exploring “The Future of the Tucson Jewish Community.” Rabbi Yossie Shemtov of Orthodox Congregation Young Israel, Rabbi Robert Eisen of Conservative Congregation Anshei Israel, and Rabbi Thomas Louchheim of Reform Congregation Or Chadash will… Read more »

Exhibit at Phoenix Art Museum explores India’s influence on fashion

Olivier Lapidus; Dress; Fall 1994; Silk velvet and gold lame with wrapped thread appliqué; Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, gift of Olivier Lapidus in honor of the exhibition Extending the Runway: Tatiana Sorroko Style
February 7, 2020 /

Phoenix Art Museum will present “India: Fashion’s Muse” Feb.  29- June 21, 2020. The exhibition examines the ways in which Indian dress, aesthetic, and artwork have inspired Western fashion designs from streetwear to couture. Spanning the 19th to the 21st centuries, the exhibition showcases nearly 40 garments and more… Read more »

Local workshops will guide unity against harassment, bias

Guila Benchimol, Ph.D., will lead Safety Respect Equity workshops in Tucson Feb. 16-17 for the Jewish community.
February 7, 2020 / Debe Campbell

The national Safety Respect Equity coalition examines issues of sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the Jewish community. The movement addresses privilege and power inequity, and devises solutions to ensure that existing structures no longer negatively influence how community business is done. The focus is on the values and… Read more »

UA international conference to broach global anti-Semitism

Former British Parliament member Luciana Berger will headline the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies international conference on anti-Semitism Feb. 23 in Tucson.
February 7, 2020 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona will host a two-day international conference, “Contradictions and Tropes of Anti-Semitism,” Feb. 23-24. “The conference will address the disturbing rise of anti-Semitism in this country,” says Gil Ribak, Ph.D., organizing committee co-chair with Ed Wright, Ph.D., and Günther… Read more »

At Jewish History Museum, author to share ideas for combating ‘anti-social’ media

Andrew Marantz speaks at an April 2019 TED talk.
February 7, 2020 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

Extremism has hijacked the global social media conversation. Most of our lives — not just social life but news and entertainment that form our worldview — is online. The once-beautiful dream of a free internet — now a huge, irredeemable dumpster fire — is increasingly corrupted by conspiracy and… Read more »