Tucson educators visit with Israeli partners in Israel on Tuesday.
The Weintraub Israel Center, in partnership with Tucson Hebrew Academy and local synagogues as part of its school twinning program, sent a group of educators to Israel this week. On Tuesday, the group was visiting the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s partners in Hof Ashkelon and Kiryat Malachi, which… Read more »
This artist’s rendering of the ‘Gan Tikvah’ or ‘Garden of Hope’ at night. The garden is scheduled to open at the Tucson Jewish Community Center in 2019. (Photo: Barbara Grygutis Sculpture LLC)
It is forbidden to live in a city that does not have a garden or greenery – Mishnah Kiddushin 4:12 Gan Tikvah, the Garden of Hope, will be a contemplative oasis designed with the concept of intentionality, and a healing extension from the Tucson Jewish Community Center Sculpture Garden.… Read more »
Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona will present a free two-part training series this month for all those who care for older adults and want to understand how past emotional experiences affect both the people in their care and themselves. The target audience for “Person Centered Trauma… Read more »
The Tzofim (Israel Scouts) Friendship Caravan national tour will stop in Tucson with a free concert of song and dance on Monday, June 18 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The scouts also will perform at Camp J on the morning of June 18 and at… Read more »
Dr. Ellis Friedman This is part two of a series on the Jewish agency volunteers who received 2018 Special Recognition Awards at the Jewish Community Awards Celebration, organized by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, held May 10 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Ellis Friedman, Tucson Hebrew Academy A native of… Read more »
Tucson ‘Lions’ visit the Synagogue of Sienna. Back row (L-R): Deanna Evenchik-Brav, Leslie Glaze, Jane Ash, Ellen Goldstein; third row: Shelly Silverman, Deborah Oseran, Liz Weiner- Schulman, Carol Sears; second row: Fran Katz, Karen Katz, Wendy Sandweiss, Melissa Goldfinger; front row: Karen Faitelson, Judy Berman, Shelley Pozez. Not pictured: Jody Gross. (Courtesy Fran Katz)
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Lion of Judah women’s group spent an action-packed nine days visiting the highlights of Italy on a recent tour. Tandy Kippur was instrumental in planning the late-April trip. “Italy was chosen because of the welcoming atmosphere, the beautiful people . . . and… Read more »
Author Steve North and Elaine Holstein, whose son Jeffrey Miller was killed in the 1970 Kent State shootings, seen in 2016. (Courtesy Steve North)
(JTA)– For nearly half a century, Elaine Holstein was periodically confronted with one of the most haunting images in modern American history: the bone-chilling picture of Kent State University student Jeffrey Miller lying on the pavement seconds after being fatally shot in the mouth by an Ohio National Guardsman… Read more »
Wounded protesters outside Gaza's main hospital, in Gaza City, May 14, 2018. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Of the more than 60 deaths that occurred during the recent clashes between Israel and Palestinians at the Gaza border, none was as divisive as that of Layla Ghandour. Ghandour, an 8-month-old girl, died after an uncle, himself only 12, brought her to the edge of the… Read more »
Lea Hirsch, left, in eastern Poland meets a man who knew her uncle before he was murdered in 1944, June 2017. (Courtesy of Lea Hirsch)
(JTA) — Josef Kopf survived Sobibor by killing a guard and staging the first successful escape from that death camp in Poland, where the Nazis murdered 250,000 Jews. But Kopf, whose unlikely escape in 1943 preceded by several months a full-scale uprising at Sobibor, did not live to see Nazi… Read more »
A view of the NYU Medical Center on First Avenue in New York City in 2014. (Kenneth Wilsey/Wikimedia Commons)
NEW YORK (JTA) — One of this city’s largest hospitals has accused a Hasidic group that visits sick patients of lying about the hospital’s policy to limit access by volunteers to patient floors and rooms. Dr. Andrew Brotman, senior vice president and vice dean for clinical affairs at… Read more »
Demonstrators protest against Israel in New York City, June 2016. (Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Republican and Democratic lawmakers are lining up behind a bill that would define anti-Semitism. The measure introduced Thursday by Reps. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., who is Jewish, and Pete Roskam, R-Ill., a leader on pro-Israel issues in the U.S. House of Representatives, at first looks like a… Read more »
A view of the Ronald O. Perelman Emergency Center at NYU Langone hospital in 2014. (Governor Andrew Cuomo/Flickr)
NEW YORK (JTA) — For years, volunteers from the Satmar hasidic movement have fanned out daily across the city, boarding private buses and carrying bags full of kosher food cooked each morning (except Saturday) at the organization’s commercial kitchen in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Members of the Satmar Bikur Cholim go to a… Read more »
Andrew Intrater, on right, with USC Shoah Foundation board member Mickey Shapiro, left, Steven Spielberg and William Clay Ford, Jr. in Dearborn, Mich., Sept. 10, 2015. (Duane Prokop/Getty Images for the USC Shoah Foundation)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The special prosecutor’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election offers an unsettling journey for anyone steeped in Russian Jewry, and the transition from the repression of the former Soviet Union to the relative freedoms of the Russian Federation. Of 10 billionaires with Kremlin ties… Read more »
Jamila Humphries, left, and Emily Schorr Lesnick are an interfaith couple that is taking part in an aufruf ceremony in a Conservative synagogue. (Courtesy of Humphries and Schorr Lesnick)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Emily Schorr Lesnick and Jamila Humphrie always knew that Judaism would play a part in the life they wanted to build together. But experiences with Conservative Jewish institutions had made the couple feel less than welcome. Schorr Lesnick, 28, remembers encountering homophobia at her Jewish… Read more »
Employees of Sus Ye'or, a Mexican restaurant in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market, pose behind the counter. Small eateries have taken the place of many traditional food shops in the market. (Ben Sales)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — In another life, Kobi Frig would have been sitting behind vats of spices in Jerusalem’s bustling, labyrinthine Mahane Yehuda market, hawking paprika, zaatar and cinnamon like his grandfather and father did before him. Instead, Frig obeyed his father’s wishes, went to college, and started a chain… Read more »
Philip Roth at the National Humanities Medal ceremony at the White House, March 2, 2011. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Philip Roth, whose notorious novels about the sex drives of American men gave way to some of the most probing examinations of the American Jewish condition in the 20th and 21st centuries, has died. He was 85. His death was confirmed to The New York Times by… Read more »
Mickey-Miles Felton has been active in lacrosse in both Tucson and Israel. (Debe Campbell)
Editor’s note: This article has been corrected to reflect that Felton is being inducted into the University of Arizona Men’s Lacrosse Club Team Hall of Fame in October. The name of the association in which the UA plays has also been corrected; it is the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association.… Read more »
Splendido resident John Hemann attributes his good health to a daily walk around the community. (Courtesy Splendido)
Research shows that taking your exercise outdoors compared to working out in a gym offers unique benefits for physical, cognitive, and emotional health. There are plenty of natural places around Tucson for hiking, biking, golfing, and other pastimes — or simply taking a stroll. Many locals enjoy regular outdoor… Read more »
At Villa Hermosa, a Tucson senior living community, Bill Kugelman listens as Cantor Janece Cohen of Congregation Or Chadash plays Hanukkah songs on Dec. 13. (Courtesy Congregation Or Chadash)
Sharing ideas and family recipes enables Jewish residents of senior living communities to keep up family connections and traditions. Staff members appreciate their input, saying that coordinating Shabbat and other Jewish holiday celebrations is part of how they help residents to be happier and healthier. Villa Hermosa Aimee Pichardo,… Read more »
Talya Fanger-Vexler trained Sapphire to be a service dog with the help of Handi-Dogs, a Tucson nonprofit organization. (Debe Campbell)
Talya Simha Fanger-Vexler fell in love one day with a fluffy puppy in a pet shop window. It had sparkling blue eyes and a calm, composed demeanor. Talya pictured long hikes and active adventures with the bouncy sable Sheltie at her side. Five years later, the lovable fur ball… Read more »
