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“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 »

Tucson diners will now be able to go out on the town while still paying attention to calories. Twenty-seven restaurant owners joined nutritional experts earlier this month to launch the “Smart Choices for Healthy Dining” program. The program is one of the crowning achievements of the $16 million grant… Read more »

Melissa Hamilton, a violist with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, is organizing 16 TSO members to perform at this year’s community-wide Yom HaShoah commemoration on Sunday, April 22. Hamilton and TSO pianist Marie Sierra will hold a fundraising recital for the Yom HaShoah event on Saturday, March 3 at 7:30… Read more »

Congregation Bet Shalom will hold its 9th annual Wine Tasting Event on Saturday, March 10, from 7:30 to 11 p.m. This year’s theme is “Wines from Around the World,” with wines from Israel, Australia, Italy and the United States provided by event sponsor Total Wine & More. The evening… Read more »

Paulina Goldberg (left) and Raisa Moroz, Holocaust case manager at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, review paperwork at Goldberg’s Council House apartment.

Raisa Moroz, Holocaust case manager/program manager at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, has more than 80 clients on her caseload. But she wants more. “I want people to know this program is available,” says Moroz, who estimates that there are 120 or more Holocaust survivors in Southern Arizona. Every… Read more »

The Claims Conference recently negotiated changes with the German government that should make more Holocaust survivors eligible to collect ghetto pension and one-time ghetto fund payments. Raisa Moroz, Holocaust case manager at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, explains that under previous ghetto pension rules, people had to have lived… Read more »

Mira Awad (left) and Noa

Israeli star Noa and her touring partner Mira Awad will give a UApresents concert on Sunday, March 25 at 6:30 p.m. at Centennial Hall. “Noa and Mira are amazing Jewish Israeli and Palestinian Israeli singers; they bring a fresh musical approach to peace that shows that there can be… Read more »

Anna Greenberg at Sabino Canyon in a “Run with Anna” t-shirt. One of her brothers, Aaron, created “Run with Anna” events as a way to promote regular physical activity. See facbeook.com/RUNwithANNA.

Get healthy — it could save your life. That may sound incredibly obvious, but in the case of Tucson native Anna Greenberg, it’s the start of a remarkable story. Greenberg, 26, was told two years ago that her weight was jeopardizing her health. Her doctor, also a family friend,… Read more »

For the second year, the Tucson Jewish Community Library and the Weintraub Israel Center will present “Israel to Go,” a three-part series for people interested in traveling to Israel. The seminars will be held Feb. 15, March 29 and April 4 at 7 p.m. in the library, which is… Read more »

With four notable authors, including world-renowned “Clan of the Cave Bear” author Jean M. Auel and former University of Arizona President Peter Likins, the 16th Annual Brandeis National Committee, Tucson Chapter, Book & Author events promise to be a treat for readers. The Evening Soirée with authors Auel, Likins,… Read more »

Nancy K. Miller

A Jewish uncle who was the first mayor of South Tucson, a family past discovered as an adult, ownership of unknown property in Israel — all this, and more, contribute to the story of Nancy K. Miller’s family. Miller, the author of “What They Saved: Pieces of a Jewish… Read more »