(L-R) Brad Tofel, Trinh Tofel, Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, Sallie Tofel, and Steven Tofel at the grand opening of Sister Jose Women's Center on April 20.
Helping Sister Jose Women’s Center renovate a 9,000 square foot warehouse on South Park Avenue took far more of Steven Tofel’s time than he’d anticipated. But he has no regrets. “I’m 100 percent glad I did it,” he says. Tofel, 75, the founder and president of Tofel Construction, ended… Read more »
Stanley Feldman
Stanley G. Feldman, LL.B., has been a leading champion of civil rights in Arizona, and beyond, for 60 years and counting. He served as an Arizona Supreme Court justice for 21 years, from 1982 to 2002, including five years as chief justice. Born in the Bronx in 1933, and… Read more »
Deborah Howard Jacob
Deborah Howard Jacob keeps a relatively low profile. For someone so involved in the Tucson community, her name doesn’t ring a lot of bells with Google. But to the people she helps and to those who know her work, Jacob’s name looms large. “She is kindness and caring personified!,”… Read more »
Carolin Haase Atchison For more than three years, I have been researching my family’s history — and I’m still at it. When I received the results of my DNA test a couple of years ago, I was surprised, like the actors in the Ancestry TV ads. Instead of being of mainly German… Read more »
Sherrie Kay at the Sister Jose Women's Center For Sherrie Kay, giving back to the community and helping those at risk is simply a way of life. “Growing up, my family was always involved in Jewish life and tikkun olam and all the different avenues that represents. Somehow that transferred to me. The more injustice I saw… Read more »
These records are part of a collection recently donated to the Jewish History Museum.
The Jewish History Museum is asking the public to donate their Jewish music collections — vinyl records only, please. In the summer of 2016, the museum received two dozen vinyl records of Jewish music, and now they want to pump up the volume. The museum wants to bolster its… Read more »
Roberta Elliott sorts shoes donated for refugees in Vienna in October 2015.
Roberta Elliott’s exploration of what it means to be a refugee started when she had her bat mitzvah at the age of 60. But it really started long before that. She helps refugees because she grew up with refugees in her own family. For many years she has been… Read more »
Jill Rich and her husband, Jim, serve dinner at the Primavera Shelter, July 30. (Courtesy Jill Rich)
How do you create a philanthropic heart? Make an early start. Jill Rich has been a volunteer for nearly all of her 69 years. Her first foray into raising money to help others began with her curiosity. At age 4 she wanted to understand what was meant by the… Read more »
Gail Birin
No matter where she’s lived, Gail Birin says being tapped into the Jewish community has always been an essential part of her life. “I feel I’m just continuing my life’s work, the work I grew up with and the culture I grew up with,” says Birin. “The ones who… Read more »
On Sunday, Sept. 10, the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies will live stream an international conference, “Looking Back, Looking Forward: 100 Years of the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” hosted at Brandeis University by the Crown Center for Middle East Studies. The broadcast will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Tucson Jewish… Read more »
The Arizona Jewish Post and Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will be relocating to our new home at the Harvey and Deanna Evenchik Center for Jewish Philanthropy. We will share this new site with the Jewish Community Foundation. The move is scheduled for Sept. & and 8. We will resume… Read more »
What: “White Supremacy, Monuments and Memory: Charlottesville in Historical Context,” a panel discussion with experts from the University of Arizona history department When: 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 30 Where: Integrated Learning Center, 1500 E. University Blvd., Room 120 TUCSON, Ariz. — In light of recent events, cities across the… Read more »
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has joined with the Jewish Federations of North America to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey, now a tropical storm. In an email to the community today, Stuart Mellan, JFSA president and CEO, and Shelly Silverman, JFSA chair, wrote: “Over the past few… Read more »
Tucssonans Gabe Green (front row, fourth from left) and Gabe Friedman (back row, third from left) were part of a multi-city team that won gold for 14U soccer. (Denise Wolf)
Ten teen-aged athletes from Tucson teamed up with other Jewish athletes from across the United States, Israel and Ukraine for the 2017 Maccabi Games in Birmingham, Ala., this summer. And they’re already looking forward to next summer’s games — not just for the sports or the fun, but for… Read more »
Aimee Katz (bottom left) with co-teacher Mali Geva (center) and students at the Eli Cohen Elementary School in Kiryat Malachi, Israel. (Courtesy Aimee Katz)
Not everyone gets the opportunity to follow their passions, so when I happened upon a program that would enable me to pursue my two greatest loves – travel and teaching – it was an easy decision to apply. TALMA, a teaching fellowship sponsored by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman… Read more »
Regina Spektor
Even if you don’t follow pop music, you may have heard pianist and songwriter Regina Spektor singing the catchy “Orange Is the New Black” theme song, “You’ve Got Time,” covering The Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in the animated feature “Kubo and the Two Strings,” or in numerous… Read more »
Project Isaiah, the Jewish community’s annual High Holidays food drive benefiting the Community Food Bank, begins Sept. 1 and runs through Oct. 2. The project is named for the Prophet Isaiah, who when asked why we fast on Yom Kippur, responded, “Is it not to share your bread with… Read more »
The Tucson Jewish Community Center and Chabad Tucson will present “Tales of a Hollywood Screenwriter” at the Tucson J on Thursday, Sept. 7, at 7 p.m. David Weiss will share stories of his wild ride to success and spirituality as screenwriter of the Academy Award-nominated “Shrek 2,” “Jimmy Neutron:… Read more »
Asher Susser Professor Asher Susser, Ph.D., will return to the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies to give the first lecture of the 2017-18 season, “Fifty Years Since the Six Day War — How the Middle East Has Changed,” on Tuesday, Sept. 5. The Six Day War of June 1967 was a… Read more »
Binyamin Wood-Isenberg
The train was packed. It was rush hour on a Thursday evening traveling back from work in Manhattan. Most people had in their ear phones, some had out books, and a few people stared blankly into space. As I sat there with the Hebrew text of Toras Menachem on… Read more »
