News

UA Cancer Center optimistic on new research

Andrew S. Kraft, M.D.

The University of Arizona Cancer Center performed experiments indicating that a triple-combination therapy might significantly boost the immune system’s ability to fight cancer and improve patient survival. Collaborating with researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina, the team published its results online in “Clinical Cancer Research” in October… Read more »

CHAI Circle brings power, connection to local women living with cancer

Irene Gefter, Jewish Family & Children's Services executive office Aaministrator; Helene Rothstein, CHAI Circle volunteer; Alice Steinfeld, CHAI Circle volunteer; Susan Kasle, JFCS vice president of community services.(Courtesy Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona)

One Sunday each month, two dedicated psychotherapists come together to provide a salutary space for female cancer patients and survivors in the Tucson Jewish community. Alice Steinfeld and Helene Rothstein are therapists and friends who facilitate the cancer support group, CHAI Circle. CHAI (Cancer, Healing and Inspiration) Circle has… Read more »

Unity marks interfaith vigil honoring Muslim terror victims

Unity marks interfaith vigil honoring Muslim terror victims [Debe Campbell/AJP)

Tucson community members attended a vigil at the Muslim Community Center of Tucson on Monday to express solidarity and commemorate the 50 people killed in the March 14 shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Another 50 people were wounded in the shootings. Mayor Jonathan Rothschild spoke on… Read more »

Kippur to be honored at JFSA Men’s Night Out

Gary Kippur

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s annual Men’s Night Out event is getting a new format this year. There will be no keynote speaker for the event on Tuesday, April 9. Instead, it will begin at 6 p.m. in the Tucson Jewish Community Center Sculpture Garden with a whiskey… Read more »

Rabbis’ talk to probe why ‘bad people’ prosper

(L-R) Rabbis Yossie Shemtov, Robert Eisen and Thomas Louchheim

Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging will present a three-rabbi panel lecture next month, “Why good things happen to bad people,” presenting the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jewish perspectives with Rabbi Yossie Shemtov of Congregation Young Israel, Rabbi Robert Eisen of Congregation Anshei Israel, and Rabbi Thomas Louchheim of… Read more »

At Tucson’s old Benedictine monastery, Jewish health practitioners aid migrants

(L-R): Medical volunteers Audrey Russell-Kibble, D.N.P., F.N.P.C., F.A.A.N.P.; Richard Wahl, M.D.; and Kenneth Iserson, M.D., on Feb. 24, in the Benedictine monastery chapel in Tucson that serves as a dormitory for asylum-seekers. (Debe Campbell/AJP)

Disembarking without fanfare and frequently no forewarning, asylum-seekers file, dozens at a time, into the old Benedictine monastery in midtown Tucson.  Since Jan. 26, the monastery has been a makeshift “hospitality center” providing a safe place for families released from custody after applying for asylum at the Mexican border.… Read more »

Tucson sluggers aim Team Israel at ’20 Olympics

Alexis ‘A.J.’ Kaiser, seen here at bat for Syracuse University, grew up in Tucson and will be a member of Team Israel in women's softball. (Courtesy A.J. Kaiser)

Softball players across the country are coming together this summer to train for the Team Israel women’s softball team, which will be led by Stacey Iveson, the University of Arizona women’s softball director of recruiting-operations. Iveson is a former Wildcat player and coach, and won four junior college national… Read more »

Sarver family matching funds spur transformation of Tucson J tennis center

Chuck Reisig, Tucson Jewish Community Center director of tennis, poses in a forklift prior to the removal of the tennis courts’ current surface. (Photo: Andrew Rosenfeld/Tucson Jewish Community Center)

The late Jack Sarver was an excellent tennis player. In fact, he started at the University of Michigan on a tennis scholarship, but his need to support his mother, three sisters and a brother made it impossible to continue his studies, says his daughter, Betty Anne Sarver. When Jack,… Read more »

Laughter, activity, support help Tucson Cancer Conquerers boost wellness

(L-R): Gila Ben-Jamin, Arlene Kutoroff, and Sheryl Boris at a recent University of Arizona women’s basketball game where cancer survivors were recognized, with Tucson Cancer Conquerors participating.(Courtesy Marlyne Freedman)

For nearly a half-century, Gila Ben-Jamin had a secret she refused to share. She reluctantly accompanied a friend to a meeting of Tucson Cancer Conquerors 17 months ago and called it life-changing. There, for the first time, she was able to talk about what had once been a taboo… Read more »

In Focus 3.22.19: UA Hillel commemorates Holocaust

Holocaust survivor Yulia Geninatalk makes a tile at the 28th Annual Holocaust Vigil on the University of Arizona mall.

At least 500 people stopped by the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation’s 28th Annual Holocaust Vigil, held over 24 hours beginning at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, March 13. Volunteers read the names of victims throughout the vigil. Visitors also had the opportunity to participate in an art project, meet… Read more »

New ‘Fiddler’ bursting with global, personal connections

Yehezkel Lazarov as Tevye in Broadway in Tucson’s ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ (Joan Marcus)

At 45, Israeli actor and theatre director Yehezkel Lazarov may at first seem too young to star as Tevye in the national tour of “Fiddler on the Roof,” which Broadway in Tucson is bringing to Centennial Hall for a one-week run beginning April 9. Audiences have gotten used to… Read more »

Israel-based Mayumana’s energetic ‘Currents’ coming to Fox

The battle between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla inspired Mayumana founders Eylon Nuphar and Boaz Berman to create ‘Currents.’ (Courtesy Fox Tucson Theatre)

If you like Stomp you’ll love Mayumana” promises the Fox Tucson Theatre, which is presenting “Currents by Mayumana,” an Israeli dance/rhythm/acrobatics spectacular, with the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona on Thursday, April 4 at 7:30 p.m. “Currents” is inspired by the historic battle between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla… Read more »

Talk will trace family link to ‘Freud’s Butcher’

Siegmund Kornmehl’s butcher shop was at 19 Berggasse in Vienna. Note the swastika on the awning to the right. (Courtesy Edie Jarolim)

You’ve heard of Sigmund Freud, but what about Siegmund Kornmehl? Kornmehl’s butcher shop shared Freud’s famous Vienna address of 19 Berggasse for 44 years. The butcher was forced to sign over his business to the Nazis in 1938, the same year the Freud family escaped from Austria. Kornmehl’s great-niece,… Read more »

Expert to lead pre-Pesach kosher grocery tour

Rabbi Eliezer Eidlitz (right) leads a tour of kosher products at an Albertson’s supermarket in Tucson on March 19, 2017. [AJP Archive)

Renowned kosher authority Rabbi Eliezer Eidlitz is returning to Tucson to lead his acclaimed “Yes, It’s Kosher!” supermarket walking tour on Sunday, March 31, in advance of Passover.  Eidlitz last led the tour in Tucson in 2017. This year’s event will be held from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at… Read more »

Tucson J plans new sculpture exhibition

The Sculpture Garden at the Tucson Jewish Community Center will open its ninth annual exhibition of new work, featuring nine new artists, with a brunch event on Sunday, March 24, beginning at 10 a.m. with mimosas and time to wander the garden. Artists will be on hand to discuss… Read more »

Composing prayers as a response to the world

Rabbi Hazzan Avraham Alpert

Do you get frustrated from reading the news? If you are like me, you find it difficult to restrain yourself from posting and reposting on social media in response to the stories that upset you. It’s good, though, to have other ways to answer the irritations that come with… Read more »

Jewish journalist’s Purim prank about fleeing anti-Semitism shocks Holland

Esther Voet is the editor in chief of the Nieuw Israëlietisch Weekblad. (Courtesy of NIW)

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — The Netherlands’ main Jewish weekly is the kingdom’s oldest commercial magazine and one of its most reputable publications. Which is why many Dutch were shocked to read a column Tuesday by its editor announcing that she is leaving for Israel because of rising anti-Semitism here. “I am… Read more »

Benjamin Netanyahu’s views on a Palestinian state, explained

Benny Gantz, left, is challenging Benjamin Netanyahu in the upcoming Israeli elections. (Wikimedia Commons/Getty Images)

(JTA) — It wasn’t so long ago that most major Israeli politicians supported establishing a Palestinian state. Now it’s not clear that any of them do, including the current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu began his political career in the 1970s opposing a Palestinian state, an idea that once… Read more »

Former AIPAC officials launch bipartisan political action committee

Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House majority leader, walks to the Capitol for a vote, Feb. 26, 2019. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Two former top AIPAC staffers are helming a new political action committee that will steer donations to candidates in both parties who adopt a centrist pro-Israel position at a time when that gold standard for pro-Israel giving is being challenged by the right and the left.… Read more »