Local

Since 1970, Jewish Family & Children’s Services has helped local families celebrate a traditional Seder through its annual Matza & More Passover project. JFCS is joined by local synagogues and businesses that help collect and deliver a variety of food items to more than 300 individuals in need. Participating… Read more »

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is partnering with local synagogues for Operation Elijah, an annual effort to ensure that every Jew in Southern Arizona has a seat at a Seder table for Passover. Now in its seventh year, Operation Elijah will match Seder hosts and guests for the… Read more »

At Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona’s third annual Celebration of Caring fundraising event on March 7, there was more that was new than the meal time (lunch instead of breakfast) and the venue (the Doubletree Hotel). After a brief welcome by President and CEO Shira Ledman,… Read more »

Tamir Goodman, the ‘Jewish Jordan,’ is now retired from professional basketball.

Tamir Goodman, 30, has been known as basketball’s “Jewish Jordan” but these days he’s an inspirational speaker promoting Jewish identity, president of Tamir Goodman Sports Consultant LLC, a husband and father of four. A former professional player for the Maryland Nighthawks who’d previously sported jerseys for six seasons with… Read more »

Israeli Ambassador Uri Bar-Ner, left, presents Jewish Community Foundation Executive Director Carol Karsch with a Recognition Award on behalf of the state of Israel at JCF’s 20th anniversary celebration of its Endowment Book of Life on Feb. 7. Holding the award is Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona President and CEO Stuart Mellan. (Martha Lochert)

Nearly 400 community members attended the Jewish Community Foundation’s 20th anniversary celebration of its Endowment Book of Life on Feb. 7. Representatives of 12 community partners participating in Areivim, a nationally and locally funded pilot program to encourage community members to establish legacies to benefit each of the partners,… Read more »

Ron Barber

The Tucson chapter of the America-Israel Friendship League will honor Kate Hoffman and Ron Barber with its Building a Diverse and Vibrant Tucson Award at its annual dinner on Sunday, April 15 at the Westin La Paloma Resort. Hoffman created the nonprofit Live the Solution, which helps Arizona families… Read more »

Tucson Hebrew Academy seventh-grader Maxim Quint and Joseph Gitler, founder of Leket Israel, the National Food Bank of Israel

The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona and the America-Israel Friendship League recently hosted Joseph Gitler, founder and director of Leket Israel, the National Food Bank of Israel. Gitler was invited to visit Tucson because of Leket’s long association with both organizations; through its grants process, JCF has provided… Read more »

Rebecca Katz

Jonathan and Marcia Katz are creating the Rebecca Katz Youth Library at Temple Emanu-El in honor of their daughter, who died two years ago at age 22. A dedication and grand opening will take place in late April. “The inspiration for this library comes from Rebecca’s passion for literature,… Read more »

Anne Lowe

Hadassah: The Women’s Zionist Organization of America is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. As part of the celebration, the national organization is printing a commemorative book due out this spring, “Thin Threads: Real Stories of Hadassah Life Changing Moments.” Hadassah Southern Arizona Co-President Anne Lowe was one of… Read more »

Lisa Robins as author Sherri Mandel in ‘The Blessing of a Broken Heart’

The Phoenix-based Arizona Jewish Theatre Company will present “The Blessing of a Broken Heart,” based on the award- winning book by Sherri Mandel, from March 22 to April 1. Adapted by Todd Salovey, the play depicts a young American mother who moves her family from suburban Maryland to Israel… Read more »

“Food Stamped — A Documentary” will be shown at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on Thursday, March 15 at 7 p.m. The film humorously chronicles a couple who are trying to maintain a healthy, balanced diet while on a food stamp budget. The documentary is part of the Jewish… Read more »

State Sens. Steve Gallardo and Robert Meza, both of Phoenix, walked out of an Arizona Senate hearing March 1 to protest a presentation by Glenn Spencer, a border activist who the Anti-Defamation League calls “an anti-Hispanic, anti-Semitic bigot.” Sen. Sylvia Allen invited Spencer to speak to the Arizona Senate… Read more »

Rabbi Michael Morgan

When Rabbi Michael Morgan, Ph.D., comes to Tucson as Temple Emanu-El’s Bilgray scholar, be ready for some lively intellectual discussion. Morgan, a distinguished scholar in post-Holocaust philosophy and the author of 16 books, will be a scholar-in-residence at Temple Emanu-El March 22 to 24, with his first talk at… Read more »

Stuart Mellan

  The Jewish community will celebrate a longtime leader lat­er this month at “All That Jazz,” a party honoring and starring Stuart Mellan, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona for almost 18 years. “Stuart’s been so terrific,” says Donald Diamond, who initiated the event after… Read more »

Elaina Espinosa (center) hikes in the Judean desert with her host, Inbal Fortus (left), and Inbal’s younger sister, Noga, in November 2011.

  A tree was planted in Israel recently to honor Elaina Espinosa’s great-grandmother. Espinosa isn’t Jewish — neither was her great-grandmother — but she is one of six Tucson high school students who went to Israel in November as youth ambassadors for the Tucson chapter of the America-Israel Friendship… Read more »

(L-R) Gerda Weissman Klein, Diane Eckstein and John Eckstein, with the Eckstein's dog, Kipp, at a ‘Citizenship Counts’ assembly at Mansfeld Middle School in Tucson on Feb. 14. (Sheila Wilensky)

U.S. citizenship matters, especially for Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein. On Feb. 14, the 87-year-old humanitarian told hundreds of eighth graders at Tucson’s Mansfeld Middle School why she founded Citizenship Counts, a national non-partisan, nonprofit organization based in Phoenix. Phoenix attorney Paul Eckstein offered tidbits of Arizona history to… Read more »

Jerami Shecter

Brig. Gen. Yitzhak “Jerry” Gershon’s first reaction when approached about a job opportunity as the national director of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces was to turn down the interview. Although he was retiring from the IDF and needed to find work, he felt the nonprofit world wasn’t for… Read more »

Sol Sylvan will present “The Nine Most Important Words You Need To Know Before Making an Ancestral Visit To Eastern Europe” at the Tucson Genealogy and Oral History Group’s meeting on Sunday, March 11 at 12:30 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Have you ever wanted to breathe… Read more »

2011 Tucson Festival of Books (James S. Wood Photography)

Top-notch authors from Tucson and around the United States will descend on the University of Arizona campus March 10-11 for what’s been called the “Best Book Festival Under the Sun.” The Tucson Festival of Books has grown exponentially since it debuted in 2009, attracting 100,000 book lovers in 2011,… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El will hold a “funraiser” dance on March 3 from 7 to 10 p.m., with a DJ spinning rock and roll music from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. The event is open to ages 21 and up and will include a silent auction. Admission is $9 per single,… Read more »