Local

I grew up in Israel, where everyone sings and dances,” says Rina Paz, who created the Israel Center’s “Learn to Sing in Hebrew” class/choir in 2008 with the help of Moshe Babel-Pour, who recently left Tucson after serving for four years as the center’s director. The group, which meets… Read more »

Koby Shochat wears the tallit his father wore at his Bar Mitzvah. Koby’s mitzvah project involved donations of used tallitot.

One of the explicit and implicit tenets of Judaism is that we are supposed to live our lives doing mitzvot, literally translated as “commandments” but informally known as “good deeds.” In addition to the usual whirlwind of activity associated with B’nai Mitzvah preparation, such as learning Torah, attending services,… Read more »

B’nai Tzedek Tucson, a teen philanthropy program, will hold its annual kickoff event on Sunday, Aug. 29, at 1 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The program allows teens to create endowment funds in their own names by contributing $180 (subsidized participation available), to which $320 will be… Read more »

Local Jewish residents over the age of 80 are once again invited to the Handmaker “Celebrating Tucson’s Oldest Jewish Residents” luncheon on Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 11:30 a.m. “The event is an opportunity for this select group of seniors to see old friends, meet new ones, enjoy an interesting… Read more »

A Secular Humanist Jewish Circle has formed in Tucson. The group will hold its first event, an observance of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, on Saturday, Sept. 11. Secular Humanist Judaism “places emphasis on human beings having the innate ability to make moral and ethical decisions based on evidence… Read more »

Hebrew High, a program of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Coalition for Jewish Education, will hold its orientation on Tuesday, Aug. 24 at Congregation Anshei Israel. Orientation for incoming students and parents will begin at 6 p.m., with an opportunity to meet teachers, enjoy pizza and ice cream,… Read more »

As the Jewish community comes together to celebrate the holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is coordinating Project Isaiah, an annual effort to address hunger in our community. JCRC is working with local synagogues and Jewish… Read more »

This dress, worn at the Arizona Statehood celebration on Feb. 4, 1912, is part of the Jewish History Museum’s Centennial Exhibit.

The Jewish History Museum’s Centennial Exhibit is on display now through Dec. 23, celebrating 100 years since the building — originally the Stone Avenue Temple, the first home of Temple Emanu-El — was built. Saved from the wrecking ball in 1998, the building has been restored and is now… Read more »

Tucsonan Fran Katz, right, and Kim Rosenberg of Portland, Ore., haul rubble during a Jewish Federations of North America fact-finding mission to Haiti.

Tucsonan Fran Katz joined a national Jewish Federation of North America fact-finding tour to Haiti, from July 5 to 7, to see firsthand how American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee funds have aided Haitians since the January earthquake, which killed an estimated 200,000 people and displaced more than 1.2 million.… Read more »

Ella Starobinska [Sheila Wilensky/AJP]

Ella Starobinska is an enthusiastic 20-year-old college student at the University of Arizona, but her path to the Tucson campus took a different route than most. On March 1, 2005, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society brought Starobinska and her parents from Kiev, Ukraine, to Tucson to join her brother,… Read more »

The Foundation for Cardiovascular Health, a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization, will offer two free presentations next month on reversing coronary artery disease. The first was on Sunday, Aug. 8, 1:30-3:30 p.m., at the Northwest YMCA Pima County Community Center, 7770 N. Shannon Road, and the second will be on… Read more »

Applications for the 2010 Cohon Award are being accepted through Sept. 1. The $25,000 prize will be awarded by the Rabbi Samuel S. and A. Irma Cohon Memorial Foundation for “accomplishments that benefit  Klal Yisroel — the entire Jewish people,” recognizing achievements in the fields of Jewish unity, education… Read more »

A Taste of Judaism, a free outreach program, will celebrate its 10th anniversary at Temple Emanu-El with a new family class. More than 3,500 people have completed the course offered by Temple Emanu-El, an interactive exploration of the history and practice of Judaism in three two-hour sessions on spirituality,… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El will hold a completion ceremony (siyyum) for its 100th Anniversary Linda Nadell Centennial Torah on Sunday, Aug. 29 at 9:30 a.m. During this celebration the scribe, Rabbi Shmuel Miller, along with a few honored members of the congregation, will fill in the last letters of the Torah… Read more »

Mitzvah Magic, a joint endeavor of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Woman’s Philanthropy and Jewish Family & Children’s Services, is beginning its second year of bringing together women in the Jewish community to perform hands-on tzedakah for local families needing assistance. Last year’s Co-Chairs Pamela Dubin and Stephanie… Read more »

Rabbi Robert Eisen has created a new tzedakah box program at Congregation Anshei Israel. Collapsible cardboard boxes imprinted with the synagogue’s name and logo, some general information and a quote from the Talmud were mailed recently to all congregants. “I remember a tzedakah box near my mother’s Shabbat candlesticks.… Read more »

Shalom Tucson will present its 8th annual “Gateway to our Synagogues” free bagel brunch on Sunday, Aug. 15, from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The program provides an opportunity for newcomers and anyone newly interested to chat with representatives of Tucson’s synagogues, including many… Read more »

Ari Ginsburg, a member of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona's LGBT Jewish Inclusion Project steering committee, left, with Marc Paley, project coordinator, in Berkeley at the 2010 LGBT Jewish Movement-Building Convening(Bynna Fish)

Who are we? Where did we come from? How do we get started? Where do we want to go and how are we a part of our Jewish community? While these questions ring true for everyone, they’re especially true for members of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender community looking… Read more »

Rachel Green reads a newspaper while floating in the Dead Sea

Sixteen Jewish women, ages 32 to 45, plus group leader Amy Hirshberg Lederman, departed from Tucson in June on a 10-day Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona mission that many say changed their lives.  “It was a pretty emotional trip. If the personal is political then this was a political… Read more »

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will take baseball fans out to the ballgame for the inaugural Jewish Heritage Day at Chase Field in Phoenix on Sunday, Aug. 22. The Colorado Rockies will play the Arizona Diamondbacks at 1:10 p.m. and fans will celebrate Arizona’s Jewish heritage with special… Read more »