Tess Gerritsen When international best selling writer Tess Gerritsen writes a mystery, she is sometimes as surprised as her readers and the characters in her story at who did the dirty deed.… Read more »
(L-R): Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin of Chabad Tucson, Sassy Reuven, Marlyne Freedman and Oshrat Barel, director of the Weintraub Israel Center. (Yvette Critchfield)
It was perhaps the most daring hostage rescue mission ever attempted: a middle-of-the-night raid on a Ugandan airport terminal to retrieve more than 100 hostages. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Israel Defense Force’s historic raid on Entebbe, officially known as Operation Thunderbolt. On Jan. 24, veteran… Read more »
Jim Showers The Weintraub Israel Center will present “Thank G-d for Israel,” an event showcasing multifaith support for Israel, on Sunday, Feb. 28 at 2:30 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The keynote speaker will be Jim Showers, executive director of Friends of Israel, a worldwide Christian ministry founded in… Read more »
Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman will present “The DNA Connection — Modern Jews and the Ancient Hebrews” on Wednesday, Feb. 24 at noon at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Kleiman is the director of the Center for Kohanim in Jerusalem and the author of “DNA & Tradition: The Genetic Link to… Read more »
Marcie Sutland drew this illustration in 1966, highlighting the Tucson Jewish community’s annual fundraising campaign and its volunteer leaders.
It was a combination of dry desert air and the Arizona Jewish Post that brought Marcie Sutland’s family to Tucson more than 60 years ago. “When we were deciding to come out West” in the late 1940s, “I wrote to the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and somehow I got… Read more »
The Falkow family in 1955, clockwise from left: Lynne, Bess, Cantor Maurice, Richard and Deena (Courtesy Congregation Anshei Israel)
During holiday musaf services at Congregation Anshei Israel, Jack, Alan and Ian Strauss ascend the bimah to recite the priestly blessing. As the son-in-law, grandson and great-grandson of the late Cantor Maurice Falkow carry on their patriarch’s legacy, they cover their heads with their prayer shawls, raise their arms… Read more »
Stuart Mellan Seventy years! My how the world has changed! While we are always trying to keep up with these changes, we remain very much rooted in our values and our mission. Underlying our Federation’s work is the adage that “community doesn’t just happen, it has to be created,” which begs… Read more »
(Chase Cohen/Tucson Jewish Community Center)
Tucked away in an upstairs corner of the Tucson Jewish Community Center sits a room that would make any kid’s eyes light up. That’s where a new, huge jungle gym lives. Donated by the Diamondbacks baseball team, the structure features tubes and slides and soft climbing stairs. An oversized,… Read more »
The Tucson Jewish Community Center is recruiting young Jewish athletes, ages 13-16, for the 2016 JCC Maccabi Games to be held this summer in Columbus, Ohio. The Tucson J hopes to register 20-25 teens by March 11, with practice starting at the end of March. The games will feature… Read more »
Young Leadership of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will hold its fifth annual Hava Tequila event, “Party Royale,” on Saturday, Feb. 20 beginning at 8 p.m. at Playground, 278 E. Congress St. The James Bond-themed event for ages 21 and over will include hors d’ouevres, drinks, a DJ… Read more »
Congregation Anshei Israel will present its third annual “Wisdom of Jewish Tucson” adult education series on Wednesdays, February 10, 17 and 24, from 7-9 p.m. This year’s program, “What We Need to Know About … Islam, Mormonism & Catholicism” provides an opportunity for interfaith conversations and greater understanding of… Read more »
Joel Alpert with the English translation of a Yizkor book memorializing a lost Jewish community in Ukraine
Have you been asking yourself when you are finally going to get around to researching your Jewish family roots? The opportunity to jump-start your genealogical quest will be available at the Feb. 21 re-opening of Tucson’s Holocaust History Center on the Jewish History Museum Campus. Joel Alpert will have… Read more »
The new entrance of the Holocaust History Center, sharing a plaza with the Jewish History Museum, will allow for easy traffic flow from one museum to the other.
In just over two weeks, Tucsonans will get their first look at the Rose and Maurice Silverman Jewish History Museum Campus, home to the newly expanded Gould Family Holocaust History Center as well as the Friedman Family Jewish History Museum, which also has been refurbished. The grand re-opening on… Read more »
(L-R) Yehonasan Lipshutz, Yonatan Tzarum and Elyahu Reiter
The musical group Simply Tsfat will give a concert on Thursday, Feb. 18, at 7 p.m. at Congregation Chofetz Chayim. Simply Tsfat features Israeli musicians Elyahu Reiter, Yehonasan Lipshutz and Yonatan Tzarum playing classic Hasidic and klezmer music on guitars and violin. “Our aim is to spreat the joy… Read more »
The Tucson Jewish Community Center will present “Why We Keep Going Back to Auschwitz-Birkenau,” a lecture exploring the confluence of the Jewish, Buddhist and human experience in song, story and silence, by the Rev. Francisco Genkoji “Paco” Lugoviña and Reb Shir Yaakov Feit on Thursday, Feb. 25, from 6-9… Read more »
John Messing practices a tai chi movement.
John Messing, a practicing local attorney, will compete in tai chi at the Senior Olympics in Phoenix next month. Messing, 72, started doing tai chi about four years ago, primarily in response to a painful condition that suddenly developed in his left hip due to an IT-band injury, which… Read more »
Certified health coach and author Freddi Pakier will present “It’s the Little Things that Create a Heart Healthy Lifestyle” at a Hadassah Southern Arizona luncheon on Sunday, Feb. 14. Pakier, a former Tucsonan, is the author of “52 Weeks of Food for the Soul,” a cookbook that features gluten… Read more »
Kathleen Erickson as Anne and Jack Neubeck as Bernie in Warren Bodow’s “Deelmayker” (Tim Fuller)
Invisible Theatre will stage the world premier of Tucson playwright Warren Bodow’s “Deelmayker” Feb. 9-21. “Deelmayker” (the spelling refers to an Internet account) tells the story of Bernie Harris, a charismatic 65-year-old wheeler-dealer living in Palm Springs with a wife he adores. Harris realizes that as he’s been getting… Read more »
Rabbi Adam Chalom The Secular Humanist Jewish Circle has planned two lectures this month by Rabbi Adam Chalom of the Kol Hadash Humanistic Congregation in Lincolnshire, Ill. The first, “Holidays Without the Holy: Secular Approaches to Religious Tradition,”will be held Thursday, Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. at the University of Arizona Hillel… Read more »
When the performers of the Capitol Steps take the stage at the Fox Tucson Theater, there’s a good chance Barack Obama will sing a rock song, Joe Biden will sing a show tune and Chris Christie will dance. Even Vladimir Putin, shirtless, of course, cannot stay off the stage.… Read more »
