Local

The Jewish Culture Shuk (Hebrew for “marketplace”) returns Sunday, Nov. 15 with an evening of adult education classes taught by more than a dozen local rabbis and educators. Presented by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Coalition for Jewish Education and the Synagogue-Federation Dialogue and held at Tucson Hebrew… Read more »

Bob Harris

Bob Harris, a former policy and management expert with the federal government, will lead a four-part discussion series sponsored by Hadassah Southern Arizona at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, beginning Thursday, Nov. 12. Topics will be “Combating the Islamic State or ISIS” on Nov. 12; “Debt Crisis from Greece… Read more »

Cyrel Bandy

The Beth Shalom Temple Center, serving Green Valley and Sahuarita, will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a full weekend of activities beginning on Nov. 20. Located at 1751 N. Rio Mayo in Green Valley, the Temple Center is the successor to a grassroots organization that began in the early… Read more »

Rabbi Joel Oseran

Rabbi Joel Oseran, D.D., vice president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, will present “The ‘New’ Jews Face the ‘New’ Anti-Semitism in the ‘New’ Europe — Implications for Reform Jews in Europe and Around the World,” at Temple Emanu-El’s Shabbat evening service, Friday, Nov. 13 at 7:30 p.m.… Read more »

Beth Greenberg

Beth Greenberg is the new director of opera at the University of Arizona. She joined the faculty of the UA’s Fred Fox School of Music this fall after serving as a resident stage director at the New York City Opera for more than 20 years. Under Greenberg’s direction, the… Read more »

Lauren Grossman

Tucson author Lauren B. Grossman found the inspiration for her second novel, “The Golden Peacock,” in a souvenir from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. When visiting the museum about a decade ago, Grossman was handed the identity card of a Holocaust survivor, randomly selected from a bin. She… Read more »

Dennis Ross

Former Middle East peace envoy Dennis Ross, author of the new book “Doomed to Succeed: The U.S.-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama,” will speak at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s free Together community event on Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. at Congregation Anshei Israel. The event will… Read more »

“You’re Driving Me Nuts,” a program on the ethics of driving for teens, will take place Sunday, Nov. 1 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Congregation Or Chadash. “Every year we see too many accidents and other issues related to teens and driving, some stemming from lack of… Read more »

A delegation from the Israel Public Diplomacy Forum will present a series of free discussions in Tucson Nov. 3-4. IPD Forum is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization established to advance international understanding of Israel and the Middle East. On Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 6:30 p.m., “Shifting Alliances in the… Read more »

The Jewish History Museum will hold its seventh annual fall fundraiser next month, honoring Tucson’s Jewish mayors. Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, the current incumbent — and the city’s fifth Jewish mayor — will be a special guest. The event, a champagne brunch, will be held Sunday, Nov. 8 at 10… Read more »

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont spoke Oct. 9 to an estimated crowd of 11,000 at the Demeester Outdoor Performance Center at Reid Park. The rally marked the first large-scale event in Tucson by a national Jewish candidate and brought Sanders his first congressional endorsement. Former Connecticut… Read more »

Itamar Rabinovich

In the wake of the “Arab Spring,” the Middle East has been rocked by national conflicts, sectarian civil wars and economic challenges. Iran’s nuclear program has increased political tensions and threatens to further destabilize the region. As Shiite Iran and its proxies battle for regional hegemony against their Sunni… Read more »

Lex Sears

Tucson Hebrew Academy will honor Lex Sears, a former THA trustee, at its annual Tikkun Olam Award dinner on Sunday, Nov. 1. “It is with deep gratitude that we recognize Lex Sears this year with the Tikkun Olam Award for the incredible work he’s done for THA and the… Read more »

Helping voters make sense of the 2015 Pima County bond election was the focus of a presentation jointly sponsored by Congregation Or Chadash’s social action committee and the Pima County Interfaith Council on Oct. 1. Cycling advocate and realtor Damion Alexander and his daughter, Sophia, a freshman at Catalina… Read more »

Rabbi Elijah Schochet

Rabbi Elijah Schochet will be Congregation Bet Shalom’s scholar-in-residence Oct. 23 and 24. He will speak on “The Value of a Jewish Life,” exploring both superficial and deep reasons behind anti-Semitism, at the Shabbat evening service on Friday, Oct. 23 at 5:30 p.m. At the Oct. 24 Shabbat service… Read more »

Arizona Theater Company’s production of “Disgraced,” Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a successful Muslim-American lawyer whose dinner guests’ discussion of race and identity explodes into chaos, plays at the Temple of Music and Art through Nov. 7. I n“Disgraced,” corporate lawyer Amir Kapoor is happy, in love and… Read more »

The JDRF will hold its 2015 Southern Arizona One Walk to raise money for Type 1 diabetes research on Sunday, Nov. 8 at the University of Arizona. “There are many Jewish kids and adults in our community living with type 1 diabetes,” says Rosi Vogel, who is president of… Read more »

Roxanne Frankenberg

Young teenagers at Tucson synagogues work hard to prepare for their b’nai mitzvah ceremonies. In addition to learning to chant Torah and Haftorah, and prepare and deliver a sermon, these motivated young people commit hours and energy to charitable causes in their community and beyond. In a spirit of… Read more »

Community Gardens of Tucson, a nonprofit started in 1990 by author George Brookbank, will host a fundraising event in his honor at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, the site of its 25th garden, on Sunday, Oct. 25.  The celebration will kick off in the Tucson J’s sculpture garden at… Read more »

Since moving to Tucson 10 years ago, Len and Harriet Kronman have supported a wide range of charitable organizations, offering ideas and aid to help them expand. They have served as board members, tutors, program developers and chefs. “Now that we’re retired, we have time to volunteer more,” says… Read more »