Local

(Above) Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, still recovering from the Jan. 8 gunshot wounds that nearly took her life, serves a Thanksgiving meal to airmen and retirees at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base on Nov. 24 with her husband, Mark Kelly. (Photo from Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' Facebook page)

Rabbi Stephanie Aaron of Tucson’s Congregation Cha­verim has plenty of “Gabby moments” on her mind these days. Aaron, who has been Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ rabbi for a decade, will never forget the sight of Giffords lying gravely wounded at the University Medical Center when Aaron visited her on Jan.… Read more »

Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging will hold a multicultural holiday celebration on Tuesday, Dec. 20 at 2:30 p.m., focusing on winter holidays from around the world, including Chanukah, Christmas and Kwanzaa. Entertainment will include harpist Vesna Zalusky, who will play a medley of holiday songs. Activities will include… Read more »

The Weintraub Israel Center will hold its first community-wide, family-oriented early Chanukah party on Sunday, Dec. 18, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. “There are only two Jewish communities in which this holiday is so significant — the United States and Israel,” says Guy… Read more »

Tucson artist Lynn Rae Lowe in her Metal Arts Village studio (Sheila Wilensky)

Judaism is a profound part of life for Tucson metal artist Lynn Rae Lowe, who is known for her award-winning chanukiot and other Judaica. But it wasn’t always so. Men like her father who returned from World War II wanted to assimilate into American society. “They didn’t want to… Read more »

This fall, the Jewish Education Tax Credit Organization (JETCO) added another kindergarten to the list of schools that receive scholarships from Tucson’s only Jewish private school tuition tax credit program. Temple Emanu-El’s Olga and Bob Strauss Center for Early Childhood Education and Kindergarten joins Congregation Anshei Israel’s Esther B.… Read more »

Karla Ember

Congregation Chaverim is creating a brick patio in memory of Karla Ember, former cantorial soloist, who was stabbed to death in September 2010. A former boyfriend was convicted of first-degree murder in the case on Dec. 6. “Karla was one of the bright lights of our congregation and there… Read more »

Members of Mitzvah Magic, a program of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, packed Chanukah gift baskets for needy families.

In August, in the heat of the summer, a Boston-area mother of three began to worry about how she would pay for Chanukah gifts. Across the country in San Francisco, a 33-year-old Russian-born mother of six said that thinking about this Chanukah made her cry. Both women — Lauren… Read more »

Art Martin, CEO of Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, at the press conference announcing a $4.5 million dementia care center Handmaker wil build with Tucson Medical Center. The new facility will be located on the Handmaker campus.

Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging and Tucson Medical Center announced Wednesday that they have received a $3 million challenge grant to create a center for dementia care. Handmaker, a beneficiary agency of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, secured the $3 million grant from the Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation… Read more »

Janet Marcotte, left, photographer, signs copy of "Together We Thrive" for Julie Glaser Ray. (Sheila Wilensky)

The angst of the tragic shootings on Jan.8 that killed six people and wounded 13 others, and the  heartfelt responses of Tucsonans,were both present at the book launch of “Together We Thrive” at the YWCA Tucson on Nov. 30. The new book pairs the words of President Barack Obama… Read more »

Madeline Dreyfus Heineman Berger, founder of the Temple of Music and Art

David Ira Goldstein has been artistic director of the Arizona Theatre Company for 20 years. But the ATC’s Jewish legacy in Tucson goes back much further — all the way to the founding of the ATC’s Tucson home, the Temple of Music and Art, by Madeline Dreyfus Heineman Berger,… Read more »

Steve Solomon

Steve Solomon, star and creator of one of the longest running one-man comedy shows in history, “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish & I’m in Therapy,” presents a new show next month at the Invisible Theatre. In “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish and I’m Home for the Holidays:… Read more »

Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz

The Rabbi Samuel S. and A. Irma Cohon Memorial Foundation will award the Cohon Foundation Award for 2011 to Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz, founder of Jews for Judaism International, which has helped young people resist the pull of cults and missionaries and has reunited more than a thousand young Jews… Read more »

The University of Arizona Hillel Foundation will formally dedicate the Meyer Agron Center for Jewish Life on the Harvey & Deanna Evenchik Campus at the University of Arizona on Sunday, Dec. 11 at 3:30 p.m. A capital campaign that began in the fall of 2010 raised funds to renovate… Read more »

An innovative figure emerged in my youth who inspired me in a way that was so different from many others — a rabbi with a guitar and amazing stories who reached into the inner depths of my soul. It was Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who became known as the “sweet… Read more »

The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona is accepting applications from nonprofit organizations for the Goldman Family Israel Scholarship Grant, which provides up to $2,500 for one trip to Israel. Previously, the Jewish Federation’s Coalition for Jewish Education and Tucson Hebrew Academy were awarded this grant and each used… Read more »

Children of all ages and their parents are invited to celebrate at Shalom Tucson’s Hanukkah Mall Madness on Sunday, Dec. 4, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Park Place, near the food court. Local synagogues, organizations, and Jewish agencies will present arts and crafts activities, including holiday cards and… Read more »

(L-R) Itamar Rabinovich, Alon Pinkas, Beth Nakhai (symposium organizer and associate professor, Arizona Center for Judaic Studies), David Makovsky, Gil Riback, Steven Spiegel and Peter Beinart at the University of Arizona’s “Symposium on the U.S.-Israel Relationship” Nov. 9. (Farzad Nakhai)

Middle East experts from the East Coast to the West Coast landed in Tucson to air their views at a “Symposium on the U.S.-Israel Relationship: On the Verge of a Paradigmatic Shift?” on Nov. 9, sponsored by the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona. “There’s… Read more »

J. Edward Wright

The Weintraub Israel Center and Congregation Or Chadash will hold an adult education series, “Israel and Our Jewish Roots,” with nine sessions from Nov. 30 through March 22, 2012. The series will present different aspects of the Jewish connection to the land and country of Israel. J. Edward Wright,… Read more »

A new kosher cookbook, “Havurah Cooks! A Collection of Recipes by Sun City Vistoso Havurah Club” was conceived by board members Ester Leutenberg and Bebe Lewis as a way to fight “activity fatigue” in the club, which was founded in 1993 and now boasts some 160 members. The club’s… Read more »

Neshama Carlebach

Neshama Carlebach sings so that people can feel. “I want people to feel — that’s when healing begins,” says Carlebach, 37, the daughter of the legendary Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who also used music to teach and inspire, recording more than 25 albums. Carlebach will take the concert stage at… Read more »