Local First Arizona will celebrate its annual “Independents Week” June 29-July 7. During Independents Week, LFA encourages Arizonans to “go local” by supporting as many locally owned businesses as possible. For the entire week, consumers can use LFA’s Golden Coupon for 20 percent discounts at hundreds of participating businesses… Read more »
Participants on Tucson Hebrew Academy’s 18th annual eighth grade Israel trip and their Partnership2Gether school twinning counterparts on Zikim Beach in southern Israel, May 2019. Standing, from left: Adi Shacham, Hodaya Shoshani, Yuval Cohen, Carly Wright, Ziv Yona, Lily Goldberg, Robin Garcia, Yoni Green, Yuval Nir, Gaya Benaim, Lila Season, Adamari ‘Mari’ Pasillas, Ben O., and Ziv Gibli; seated: Noam Amitay, Avia Gez, Talya Fleisher, Isabella ‘Izzy’ Garcia, Rylee Herman, Dahlia Tolby, Hadlie Polonski, Orli Levy, Eitan Otmasgin, Shahar Kahana, Davis Yalen, Bodhi Teufel, and Eli Kahana (Courtesy Tucson Hebrew Academy)
Last month, Tucson Hebrew Academy graduate Davis Yalen had the kind of Israel experience every Jewish parent and educator dreams of. He enjoyed floating in the Dead Sea: “It was such a cool experience, because I’ve heard about it, and learned about it in school.” Riding on the world’s… Read more »
Volunteers from Truly Nolen filled food bags for 60 Homer Davis students to supplement their summer nutrition. (L-R) Robert Folino, Brian Harper, Joshua King, Michael Barcelo, Spain Sivley, Tracy Masterson, and Reuben Hill. Front: Jeremy Christopherson (Photo: Mary Ellen Loebl)
On May 29, community volunteers from Truly Nolen Pest & Termite Control packed 240 bags of food to supplement nutrition for students at Homer Davis Elementary School over the summer break, when kids can’t get meals at school. The food program is part of the Jewish Federation of Southern… Read more »
Joaquin Ruiz speaks at a Jewish Family & Children’s Services event at the Mexican Consulate June 4. (Photo: Pi Poletta)
Some 60 community members gathered on Tuesday, June 4, at the Mexican Consulate to hear Joaquin Ruiz, Ph.D., dean of the College of Science at the University of Arizona, speak about his life and work, highlighting Tucson’s geology, diversity, and extensive natural wonders. Ruiz is a member of both… Read more »
Rabbi Stephanie Aaron of Congregation Chaverim, Tucson, Arizona, speaks at the Faith Floods the Courtroom Interfaith Prayer Service in front of the US Court in support of Dr. Scott Warren, on trial for rendering humanitarian aid to migrants. (Debe Campbell/AJP)
Updated 6.13.19 Dozens of faith leaders from across Southwestern borderlands, including two local rabbis, rallied June 5 in front of the U.S. District Courthouse in downtown Tucson in solidarity with Arizona State University geography instructor and activist Scott Warren, Ph.D. A volunteer with the Tucson-based aid group No More… Read more »
Tucson, AZ (June 4, 2019) Every summer thousands of Tucsonans visit the gardens at Tohono Chul to catch a glimpse of the majesty and beauty of the Queen of the Night, the night-blooming cereus Peniocereus greggii. The gardens have the world’s largest collection of this plant. When the summer… Read more »
Melissa Landau was honored with Tucson Hebrew Academy’s 2019 Teacher Excellence Award at the THA annual meeting on May 15. Two THA parents, Robyn Kessler and Martha Sampson, established the award at the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona. First presented in 2005, the award includes $1,500 for the… Read more »
Former Tucsonan Jacob S. Louchheim is appearing in the musical “Ragtime” at the Serenbe Playhouse in Atlanta through June 9. Louchheim, who plays Tateh, is one of three actors named as particularly outstanding in Atlanta InTown’s review.… Read more »
Congregation Anshei Israel's B'Yachad students will participate in experiential activities with Nichole Chorney, cantorial soloist.
Congregation Anshei Israel is revamping its youth and family education models, tearing down silos, and merging them into a new program, aptly called B’Yachad (together). This new name builds on the synagogue’s tagline and vision: “Living Y/Our Judaism Together.” Religious school programs evolved post-World War II in America’s suburban… Read more »
JFSA Young Leadership Campaign volunteer Sarah Singer (left) presents a check to Tucson Hebrew Academy Head of School Laurence Kutler (center) and outgoing THA Board Chair Neil Kleinman. (Martha Lochert)
Two Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Young Leadership special teams received funds to disburse in the community, which they presented at the JFSA Annual Meeting and Community Awards Celebration on Thursday, May 9 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Recipient agencies included the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation, Jewish… Read more »
David Tannenbaum at the 2018 Three Bears time trial in Eloy, Arizona. [Sam Almesfer)
David Tannenbaum has proven that riding a bicycle is indeed “like riding a bicycle.” After 23 years out of the saddle, Tannenbaum entered the 2014 annual Cochise County Cycling Classic in Douglas, Arizona, and pedaled 27 miles to second place in one hour and 20 minutes. He’s been riding… Read more »
Holocaust survivors lit memorial candles at the 2019 Yom Hazikaron event at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. (L-R): Dov Marhoffer, Wanda Wolosky, Walter Feiger, Pawel Lichter, and Wolfgang Hellpap. (Marty Johnston)
The Weintraub Israel Center organized a musical tribute to Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror for a local commemoration of Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, on Tuesday, May 7 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center.… Read more »
Jewish Family & Children’s Services Program Manager Elise Bajohr, left, demonstrates home-based assessment of an individual’s needs. (Courtesy Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona)
Sara’s options began to feel limited when, at the age of 72, she met with a series of major life obstacles. Beset with memory challenges, a recent cancer diagnosis, and an urgent need to move out of her apartment due to repairs, she didn’t know where she could turn.… Read more »
Neil Markowitz This is part one of a series on the Jewish agency volunteers who received 2019 Special Recognition Awards at the Jewish Community Awards celebration held May 9 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The evening also included the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s annual meeting. Neil Markowitz, Jewish Community… Read more »
Bat Florence Portugal Tucson Jews for Justice will present a “Tucson Jewish Summer Arts Festival — A Night of Music, Laughs and Light” on Saturday, June 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the Jewish History Museum, 564 S. Stone Ave. Tony Zinman, a Tucson Jews for Justice co-founder, explains that the evening was… Read more »
Celebrating the Tucson Jewish Community Center’s pomegranate tree, now bearing fruit on its first anniversary, are Early Childhood Education students with (L-R): ECE teacher Kristina Li, Dale Green and Tammy Lewis from the J’s building services department, Lipowich, and Adi Olshansky, Weintraub Israel Center P2G school twinning coordinator. WIC is a joint project of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the J, dedicated to bringing the cultural richness of Israel to Tucson. (Debe Campbell/AJP)
The pomegranate, said to have 613 seeds corresponding to the 613 mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah, frequently is a symbol of Israel. It is one of the seven species of Israel listed in the Torah, along with wheat, barley, grapes, figs, olives, and dates. As part of building living… Read more »
Chanoch Redlich on the trail in Tucson on April 26. (Photo: Damion Alexander)
Israeli elite mountain bike racer Chanoch Redlich won the 750-mile Arizona Trail Race, a self-supported ride that stretches from Mexico to Utah. Redlich won this year’s ride in just over eight days, riding in 20-22 hour stretches with two to four hours of sleep before the next stretch. Redlich… Read more »
During an exercise at the Jewish community’s “From #MeToo to #WeToo” event May 21, audience members wrote reflections on banners marked “I Learned,” “I Feel,” and “I Commit to.” Colored stickers indicate “likes” from other attendees. (Maya S. Horowitz/JCF)
It is our collective responsibility as members of this community to examine the part that we play in these frameworks,” Graham Hoffman, president and CEO of the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, told the audience at a recent community event addressing sexual harassment in the Jewish communal world.… Read more »
Ruth C. Goodman with her son, Roy Goodman Centenarians unite On Friday, May 3, the Pima Council on Aging and Tucson Medical Center sponsored the 32nd annual Salute to Centenarians event at TMC’s Marshall Conference Center. This gathering, the largest known convergence of centenarians in the United States, attracted close to 50 attendees, ages 99+, accompanied by… Read more »
Once in about 50,000 plants, a saguaro grows an odd cristate crown. No one knows what causes this fascinating deformity. (Photo: National Park Service)
A sage survivor in the Sonoran desert, the stately saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) reigns over Tucson’s Southwestern landscape. The largest known cactus is symbolic of Arizona (the state flower) and iconic in classic Western films. Casting eerie, human-like shadows across the desert floor, they evoke images of solitude, expansive… Read more »
