Local

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 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 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 »

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 »

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, 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 »

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 »

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 »

An interfaith worship service and candlelight vigil marking the fourth anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., will be held Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. at St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church, 3809 E. Third St. Rabbi Stephanie Aaron of Congregation Chaverim will be among the… Read more »

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Northwest Division and Chabad Oro Valley will present Marthe Cohn,  author of “Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany,” on Wednesday, Dec. 7 at 4 p.m. at the Country Club of La Cholla, 8700 N. La… Read more »

Judge Daniel Butler will present “Your Son Has a Half Hour to Live and They’re Towing Your Car: Making the Most of a Bad Day” at a combined event of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Cardozo and Maimonides societies on Monday, Dec. 12. The dinner will be held… Read more »

The holiday shopping season is officially underway, with Americans expected to spend more than $650 billion on gifts, food, celebrations and other holiday needs. Local organizations are ramping up their efforts to encourage consumers to “shop local,” with gift cards and other promotions to sweeten the pot. “Arizonans should… Read more »

The Jewish History Museum in partnership with the Tucson Museum of Art will present “Kaddish,” a one-person theatrical adaptation of a novel by Nobel Prize-winner and Auschwitz survivor Imre Kertész, on Thursday, Dec. 8 at the Tucson Museum of Art., with performances at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. “This… Read more »

If a trip abroad were in your future, you’d undoubtedly make careful plans, from financial arrangements to who’ll take care of your house and dependents during your absence. But despite the realities of aging and death, many of us are less proactive when it comes to estate planning or… Read more »

Tucson’s Jewish Culture Shuk, a night of classes and discussions led by local rabbis and Jewish educators, is something Debbie Gubernick looks forward to every year. Gubernick, founder of Agents of STEAM, a local organization that helps facilitate events and literacy in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, has attended… Read more »

For more than two decades, Lynn Rae Lowe, an awarding-winning local artist, has strived to empower people through her symbolic work. “Ancient symbols give us access into the collective unconscious, and through that we can raise up ourselves,” says Lowe. And the arts can help communities make sense of… Read more »