Local

The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona will offer a second annual Israel Scholarship Grant, providing up to $2,500 for one trip to Israel. Any non-profit organization with 501(c)(3) status that is sponsoring an individual or group trip to Israel may apply for the Goldman Family Israel Scholarship Grant.… Read more »

A Guinness Book of World Records attempt at the world’s largest matzah ball will be a highlight of the third annual Jewish Food Festival & Family Fun Fair on Sunday, Nov. 7. The event will be held at Brandi Fenton Memorial Park, 3482 E. River Road, from 11 a.m.… Read more »

Congregations Or Chadash, Chaverim, and Anshei Israel will hold a community Youth Mitzvah Day on Sunday, Oct. 31, combining their religious school studies. The event, open to all Jewish students from pre-K through 8th grade, will be held at Congregation Or Chadash from 9:30 a.m. to noon. The theme… Read more »

Rabbi Shafir Lobb

A focus on blending heart and mind brings a new congregation to Tucson. Congregation Kol Simchah (voice of joy) will hold its first Friday night Shabbat service and dinner on Nov. 19. “Born of the seed of Ner Tamid,” says Rabbi Shafir Lobb, the new Renewal congregation has emerged… Read more »

William G. Dever

William G. Dever, professor emeritus of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona, will deliver a Shaol Pozez memorial lecture, “The Lives of Ordinary People in Ancient Israel: Where the Bible and Archaeology Intersect” on Monday, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish… Read more »

In response to unprecedented requests for economic assistance from Jewish Tucsonans, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has launched the Local Emergency Assistance Fund to provide assistance with housing costs, food, job placement and more. While pledges to the Federation campaign traditionally are unrestricted, the Federation board is allowing… Read more »

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has awarded grants to five local Jewish agencies and synagogues to create programs for Jewish seniors that will focus on transportation needs, helping seniors stay in their homes, and counseling services. Jewish Family & Children’s Services has received a grant to assist low-income… Read more »

Irene Lloyd

Jewish seniors who are new to Tucson, need transportation or other resources, or want to improve their job skills, can now call Irene Lloyd, coordinator of JEA (Jewish Elder Access) for assistance at 404-4596. JEA, which started on Aug. 2, was created under the auspices of the Jewish Federation… Read more »

In partnership with Tucson’s synagogues and Jewish agencies, the Coalition for Jewish Education of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will host a Global Week of Jewish Learning, Nov. 4-11, in conjunction with the Global Day of Jewish Learning, the first worldwide, trans-denominational event devoted to Jewish learning. On… Read more »

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords prepares to open the Jewish History Museum’s time capsule Oct. 24. (Madeline Friedman/Jewish History Museum)

Hundreds of people crowded around the courtyard of the Jewish History Museum on Sunday to witness the opening of a 100-year-old time capsule. The capsule had been placed under the cornerstone of the building, originally the Stone Avenue Temple, when it was built in 1910. The building was the… Read more »

A photographic exhibit by Tucson Hebrew Academy, “The Art of Making a Difference,” is on display at the Tucson Jewish Community Center’s Fine Art Gallery through the end of the month. Established for THA’s Tikkun Olam event on Oct. 24 honoring Tucson’s rabbis, the exhibit “is a celebration of… Read more »

Rabbi Eliezer Ben-Yehuda enlightened Tucson Hebrew Academy middle school students about the origins of modern spoken Hebrew in a lecture at the school on Monday, Oct. 4. “My grandfather wanted to teach Hebrew as a living language so you could go to the store and buy a Coke,” Ben-Yehuda,… Read more »

The used book section at the 1st-Rate 2nd-Hand Thrift Store

The 1st-Rate 2nd-Hand Thrift Store has moved to new, bigger digs at 5851 E. Speedway Blvd., but the extra 2,000 square feet of space is only part of the improvement, says manager Amy Sandler-Stuchen. The interior of the new store, which is just a few blocks east of the… Read more »

The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has issued a position statement in opposition to Proposition 302 on the 2010 Arizona ballot. The statement notes that in 2009, the JCRC chose to focus its social justice efforts on the needs of local youth at… Read more »

In advance of the Nov. 2 elections, the Arizona Jewish Post sent questions to the Arizona candidates for U.S. Senate and the local candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives. Here are their unedited responses. U.S. Senate Rodney Glassman, Democrat Q: Given the controversy generated by Arizona SB 1070,… Read more »

An inservice workshop, “Teaching the Holocaust through Diaries, Personal Correspondence and Memoir,” with Harvard professor Susan R. Suleiman, will be held on Thursday, Oct. 28 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the University of Arizona Poetry Center, 1508 E. Helen St. Suleiman is C. Douglas Dillon professor of the… Read more »

Clara Davidov, in traditional Bukharan costume, participated in last year’s “Israel Ethnic Epi­curian Gala.” (Photo courtesy of Sue Schergin)

The second annual “Israel Ethnic Epicurean Gala,” sponsored by the TIPS (Tucson, Israel, Phoenix and Seattle) partnership, will be held Nov. 3 with food prepared by nine ethnically diverse Israeli women from our Partnership 2000 region of Kiryat Malachi and Hof Ashkelon. The women, who will spend a week… Read more »

The place is the Warsaw Ghetto, the year 1942, and the black-and-white footage shows fashionably dressed men and women, with yellow Stars of David as accessories, having a high time at a champagne ball. Later we see emaciated kids rooting through mounds of garbage and excrement for scraps of… Read more »

"Man Adrift in Box" by Benjamin Levy

A private collection of works by Israeli artist Benjamin Levy is on display through Monday, Oct. 18 at M.A.S.T., 299 S. Park Ave. The collection includes paintings, drawings, lithographs and prints from the 1960s to 1990s. Much of Levy’s art is rooted in mythic family tales and remembrances. Near… Read more »

On Sept. 17, State Treasurer candidate Andrei Cherny announced his plan to lead an effort to divest Arizona’s stock holdings from companies that do business with Iran and other state sponsors of terrorism. According to Cherny, Arizona owns stock in about two dozen companies that are listed on the… Read more »