Local

Evocative ‘Lebensraum’ coming to local stage

David Alexander Johnston, who plays two Holocaust survivors, takes Germany up on its offer of return, as citizens (Lucille Petty and Steve Wood) bear witness in ‘Lebensraum.’ (Tim Fuller)
February 2, 2017 /

Invisible Theatre will stage “Lebensraum” by award-winning playwright Israel Horovitz Feb. 7-19. The play is set at the dawn of the 21st century. The new German chancellor invites 6 million Jews from around the world to make Germany their home as a gesture of reconciliation. Three actors play more… Read more »

Activist rabbi to speak at JFSA women’s Connections brunch
February 2, 2017 / Kaye Patchett, Special to the AJP
Rabbi Susan Silverman

Activism and family values are in Rabbi Susan Silverman’s DNA. Raised in a secular Jewish home in New Hampshire by parents committed to liberal politics, she is active on behalf of asylum seekers in Israel, advocates for liberal Judaism and is founding director of Second Nurture, which promotes adoption… Read more »

JFSA ‘Purse and Paint Party’ will benefit homeless women
January 19, 2017 /

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Women’s Philanthropy social action committee will hold a Purse and Paint Party to benefit Sister Jose Women’s Center next month. The party will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 6:30 p.m. at Tucson Hebrew Academy. Women are asked to donate new or… Read more »

CJE accepting scholarship applications for Jewish camps
January 19, 2017 /

The Coalition for Jewish Education of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is accepting applications for scholarships to Jewish overnight camps for the summer of 2017. The need-based camp scholarship is funded by the Mo and Frances Beren Family Scholarship Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona.… Read more »

True Concord to bring ‘Elijah’ to Desert Song Festival

True Concord performs at Lincoln Center in 2015. (Courtesy True Concord Voices & Orchestra)
January 19, 2017 / Leslie Glaze, Special to the AJP

True Concord Voices & Orchestra will perform Felix Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” at the 5th annual Tucson Desert Song Festival later this month. Mendelssohn’s oratorio retells events from the life of Prophet Elijah in the Books of Kings.  “‘Elijah’ is, like its composer, complex,” says True Concord Musical Director Eric Holtan.… Read more »

Local quilt artist coming to Tucson J
January 19, 2017 /
"Left Turn Lane #1" by Thelma Scudi

Thelma Scudi, a self-trained artist from Tucson, works in cloth and mixed media and credits her talent to her ability to see wonder and beauty in spite of reality. An exhibit of her art quilts, “The Left Turn Lane,” will be on display at the Tucson Jewish Community Center… Read more »

Arsenio Hall, UA Hillel benefit performer, believes in power of laughter
January 19, 2017 / David J. Del Grande, AJP Staff Writer
Arsenio Hall

Arsenio Hall, a comedian, actor and television star, believes in the healing power of laughter, and he surrounds himself with like-minded people. “The greatest thing in the world is laughter, from my son to my friends, laughter keeps you young and it keeps you alive,” says Hall. Nothing impedes… Read more »

UA Hillel director continues to grow Jewish community
January 19, 2017 / David J Del Grande, AJP Staff Writer
Michelle Blumenberg

Michelle Blumenberg, executive director at the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation, has spent her career helping to secure and expand a vibrant Jewish community in Tucson and beyond. “I feel that it’s important to give what I can to help ensure that we have a Jewish community in the… Read more »

Exhibit on hunger informs, moves Tucsonans

René and Anya Schaap visited the ‘This Is Hunger’ exhibit in Tucson. (Courtesy Denise Uyehara)
January 19, 2017 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor

The statistics are disturbing, but it is the faces and the stories of “This Is Hunger” that remain with viewers. The double trailer that houses “This Is Hunger,” a multimedia exhibit created by the national nonprofit MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, was parked at the Tucson Jewish Community… Read more »

Consul general on hand to thank firefighters

Nogales firefighter Marcela Donovan Hammond and Israeli Consul General Sam Grundwerg at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on Jan. 8. (Marty Johnston)
January 19, 2017 / Nancy Ben-Asher Ozeri, Special to the AJP

At a ceremony on Jan. 8 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center honoring local firefighters who helped battle fires in Israel in November, Sam Grundwerg, consul general of Israel to the Southwest United States, commended the volunteers on being their “brother’s keeper,” comparing them to Judah, who, according to… Read more »

Cohon awards honor leaders in rescue, unity
January 19, 2017 / David J. Del Grande, AJP Staff Reporter
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, says as his career began he realized creating a partnership between Jews and Evangelical Christian had huge potential. “I looked at it in terms of the Jewish people, and the need to have relationships between… Read more »

Tucson shlicha’s late father honored in Israeli ceremony

Mayor Rafael Ben-Sheetrit, left, and Rabbi Joseph Lasry unveil a sign that renames a Beit She’an street ‘Derech Hashisha’ or ‘Road of the Six.’ (Courtesy Oshrat Barel)
January 19, 2017 /

Oshrat Barel, who serves as director of the Weintraub Israel Center and Tucson’s community shlicha (Israeli emissary), visited her hometown of Beit She’an last month for a memorial ceremony marking 14 years since the murder of her father and five others in a terrorist attack on the Likud party… Read more »

‘Accidental actor’ to speak on award-winning film, Holocaust

Geza Rohrig in "Son of Saul" (Courtesy Jewish History Museum)
January 19, 2017 / Laura Etter, Special to the AJP

Despite receiving critical acclaim for masterfully portraying the lead role in the Academy Award-winning film “Son of Saul,” Hungarian-born Geza Rohrig does not identify as an actor. “I’m an accidental actor. I’m a writer, that’s what I do. It gives me much more freedom, because I can write whatever… Read more »

Children’s hospital benefactor and community volunteer Joan Diamond dies
January 19, 2017 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor

Joan B. Diamond, 87, philanthropist and Jewish community volunteer, died Dec. 28, 2016. Diamond was an early supporter of the University of Arizona Steele Children’s Research Center, which opened in 1992, and joined her husband, real estate developer Donald Diamond, in providing the lead gift to establish the Diamond… Read more »

Solomon Littman, journalist, scholar, author and Nazi hunter, dies at 96
January 19, 2017 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor

Solomon I. “Sol” Littman, 96, a journalist, scholar, author and hunter of Nazi war criminals, died Jan. 2, 2017. Littman was born in Toronto and educated at the University of Toronto, State College of Washington and University of Wisconsin. After 14 years as a director of the Anti-Defamation League… Read more »

Slipping ‘Behind Enemy Lines,’ petite Jewish spy got key intelligence on Nazi maneuvers

(L-R): Major L. Cohn, M.D.; Marthe Cohn; Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman of Chabad Oro Valley; and Phyllis Gold, director of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Northwest Division, at the Country Club of La Cholla on Dec. 7 (Sarah Chen/Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona)
January 6, 2017 / Korene Charnofsky Cohen, Special to the AJP

Marthe Cohn was crossing a field covered with ankle-deep snow. She was alone. There was no moon and she had no compass, no flashlight, nothing written down. As a French Jew, she had enlisted in the army to help defeat the Nazis. Her mission was to cross the border… Read more »