Vandals twisted a menorah in a Chandler, Ariz., family’s yard into a swastika. (Screenshot from YouTube)
(JTA) A large menorah in the front yard of an Arizona family was twisted into the shape of a swastika. The Hanukkah candelabra was made of gold spray-painted PVC pipes and solar-powered lights. Parents Naomi and Seth Ellis told the Washington Post they built the 7-foot menorah in front… Read more »
Congregation Or Chadash will hold a Texas Hold-Em poker tournament, plus a dinner and casino night, on Saturday, Feb. 4 at the Tucson Scottish Rite Cathedral, 160 S. Scott Ave. The poker tournament, limited to 150 players, will begin at 6 p.m., with onsite registration open at 5 p.m.… Read more »
Ryan McKittrick Ryan McKittrick, assistant professor of theater arts at Brandeis University, will present “The American Musical from the 19th Century to ‘Hamilton’” at the Brandeis National Committee’s University on Wheels breakfast on Thursday, Jan. 12 at 9:30 a.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. McKittrick’s talk will feature scenes from… Read more »
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein Temple Emanu-El will host the 2016 Cohon Memorial Foundation Awards at Shabbat evening services on Friday, Jan. 13, at 7:30 p.m. Rabbi Baruch J. Cohon and Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon will present the awards to this year’s winners, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and president of the International Fellowship of… Read more »
The art gallery at the Beth Shalom Temple Center in Green Valley is presenting “Visiting Your Roots,” featuring photographs and pamphlets from recent trips to Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Poland, through Feb. 15. Photographs from BSTC members, family and friends highlight memorials, camps, synagogues and museums.… Read more »
Joe Pasternack (University of Arizona) The University of Arizona Hillel Foundation will host its annual alumni and friends event on Thursday, Jan. 26 at 5:15 p.m. The evening will feature Joe Pasternack, UA associate head basketball coach under Coach Sean Miller, who will brief attendees on this year’s Wildcat team. His talk will be… Read more »
The University of Arizona Cancer Center is partnering with the Tucson Jewish Community Center to deliver a free, four-part educational series on cancer starting in February. Classes will focus on trends in research and clinical care, from precision medicine to novel drug development to the new frontiers of immunology.… Read more »
Renee Taylor with her husband, Joe Bologna
Invisible Theatre will present Renée Taylor in “My Life on a Diet” at the Berger Performing Arts Center, 1200 W. Speedway Blvd., on Saturday, Jan. 7 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 8 at 3 p.m. Taylor, best known for her Emmy-nominated role as Fran Drescher’s Jewish mother on… Read more »
On Sunday, Jan. 8, the Weintraub Israel Center will hold an event to thank the Greater Tucson Fire Foundation and the Tucson area firefighters who traveled to Israel in November to help control the hundreds of fires there. The event will be held at 5 p.m. at the Tucson… Read more »
“This is Hunger,” a multimedia touring exhibit created by MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger and housed in a 53-foot double trailer, reveals the diverse faces of people facing food insecurity in America.
“This Is Hunger,” a multimedia traveling exhibition created by MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, will be at the Tucson Jewish Community Center Jan. 5-8. The free exhibit, housed in a 53-foot trailer that opens to reveal almost 1,000 square feet of exhibit space, uses state-of-the-art storytelling techniques and… Read more »
Jonathan Elkhoury at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv
Jonathan Elkhoury represents multiple minority groups in Israel. He told his life story to a rapt group of students at the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation on Dec. 1. His father fought for the South Lebanese Army against the Palestine Liberation Organization and fled to Israel when the Israel… Read more »
A scene from ‘The Pickle Recipe’
The 26th annual Tucson Jewish International Film Festival will present more than 20 films from around the world, Jan. 12-22. All films will be screened at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, with two exceptions: a pre-festival kickoff in SaddleBrooke and the opening night film at the Loft Cinema, 3233… Read more »
Adam Nimoy with his father, Leonard Nimoy, in a scene from the film “For the Love of Spock”
When Leonard Nimoy announced in 1949 that he wanted to be an actor, and was leaving Boston for Hollywood, his Russian-Jewish parents were stunned. “My grandfather said that he should take up the accordion,” says Adam Nimoy, Leonard’s son and the director of the new documentary “For the Love… Read more »
Micah Halpern
Micah Halpern, a syndicated columnist and political analyst, says traveling the country as a guest speaker gives him the opportunity to help local communities and really get a sense of what’s going on in the Jewish world. “And that’s really the best part about this whole thing; it charges… Read more »
The third annual Limmud AZ, a daylong smorgasbord of Jewish learning, will be held Sunday, Feb. 12 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Arizona State University Memorial Union Student Conference Center in Tempe. Limmud AZ will include dozens of workshops, discussions, art, music, performances and text-study sessions,… Read more »
Temple Emanu-El and the Tucson Jewish Community Center are joining forces to bring the free “Taste of Judaism” class to the Tucson community on Sundays, Jan. 8, 15 and 22 from 2-4 p.m. at the J. Taught by Rabbis Samuel M. Cohon and Batsheva Appel, the Taste of Judaism… Read more »
The Women’s Philanthropy Advisory Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is seeking nominees for its ninth annual Bryna Zehngut Mitzvot Award, recognizing an outstanding Jewish teenage girl. The award was created to honor the memory of Zehngut, a community leader who died in 2005. Award nominees must… Read more »
Bryce Megdal Native Tucsonan Bryce Megdal will hold a concert, “Home for Hanukkah,” on Dec. 29 at the Jewish History Museum, 564 S. Stone Ave. The evening will begin at 6 p.m. with light refreshments. At 7 p.m., there will be a menorah lighting — participants may bring their own menorahs… Read more »
Randy Odgen, right, who retired Dec. 5 from Mt. Lemmon Fire District, where he served as fire chief for six and a half years, helps battle a five-story apartment fire in Jerusalem on Nov. 29. All residents were evacuated safely and the fire was contained. Ogden, who retired from the Tucson Fire Department in June 2010 after 33 years of service, says of his Israel deployment, “I am privileged to end my career as I began it, running calls and hauling hoses as a firefighter.” (Arik Abouloff)
As soon as she heard about the hundreds of fires raging through Israel late last month, Marcela Donovan Hammond expected a call. Having just completed her Emergency Volunteer Project training in Israel in September the Nogales firefighter, arson investigator and mother of six was prepared to drop everything at… Read more »
THA fifth grade students Omer Ron, left, and Aiden Goldberg
Chen Shterenbach, a teacher at Tucson Hebrew Academy, recently held a Hebrew poetry contest for his students. The students had the liberty of choosing any topic. The judges were Rabbi Billy Lewkowicz and Windy Jones. Lewkowicz was the representative for THA’s Hebrew and Judaics department and Jones, THA’s middle school… Read more »
