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Tucson holds memorial service for Israeli teens

(L-R): Rabbi Thomas Louchheim, cantorial soloist Nichole Chorny, Rabbi Batsheva Appel, Steven Seltzer, Cantor Avraham Alpert, Rebecca Crow, Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon and Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin on stage at Tucson's community service memorial for three murdered Israeli teens, July 2, 2014 (Courtesy Simon Rosenblatt)

About 250 people came together Tuesday at the Tucson Jewish Community Center for a memorial service for three Israeli teenagers kidnapped June 12 and found murdered Monday. The service was organized by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, the JCC and local clergy. Against a backdrop of photos of… Read more »

‘Storyteller’ is focal point for local sculptor’s one-man show in Santa Fe

“The Storyteller,” life-size bronze sculpture by David Unger

Tucson sculptor David Unger will have a one-man show July 4-31 at Bill Hester Fine Art in Santa Fe, N.M. The show will feature more than 30 of his bronze sculptures, and Unger is particularly excited about his life-size piece, “The Storyteller.” “The Storyteller” can hold children in its… Read more »

Passion for Torah infuses CCC/STI Israel trip

Trip members on the promenade at the port at Tel Aviv. Back row (L-R): Howard Peck, Meir Eisenman, Claire Peck, Carolyn Crowder, Esther Becker, Rabbi Israel Becker; front row: Howard Toff, Cheryl Toff, Renee Geffen, Carol Zuckert, Marcia Winick, Alayne Greenberg, Bruce Greenberg; seated: Lyn Lewis, Clifford Altfeld, Ruth Swedarsky

                        My wife, Lyn, and I recently returned from the Congregation Chofetz Chayim/Southwest Torah Institute 2014 Israel Experience, filled with enthusiasm for the trip and the many unique experiences we shared with a group of 13 led by… Read more »

Combined grants program awards more than $410,000

This year, the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona and the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona combined multiple grant programs into one, the 2014 Community Impact Grants. Through the new, aligned grants program, the JCF and the JFSA awarded more than $410,000, which includes $268,472 to Jewish organizations in… Read more »

UA doctor: We all have good days and bad days

When people in their 70s or 80s walk into a hospital emergency room with no obvious physical symptoms, medical residents often think their problem must be brain impairment. But that’s “nonsense,” said Ole J. Thienhaus, M.D., of the University of Arizona department of psychiatry, speaking at the “Aging and… Read more »

Tucsonan Gladys Hanfling is a people person — and a synagogue stalwart

Gladys Hanfling holds a Torah with a needlepoint mantle she created in 2003 for Temple Emanu-El.

Gladys Hanfling, 87, isn’t afraid of anything. “I’m chutzpahdik,” she says, smiling. Life is full of experiences so why should anything stop her? As for her age, “I don’t look it. I don’t act it. I don’t think it,” Hanfling told the AJP. Born in the Bronx, N.Y., she… Read more »

Mitzvah Magic gives financial, spiritual boost to local families

Deborah Kalar-Crowder, emergency financial assistance manager at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, receives packages for Mitzvah Magic.

For a family struggling to make ends meet, the gifts and holiday items provided by Tucson’s Mitzvah Magic program are “a godsend,” one recipient recently told the AJP. We’ll call her “Rachel.” Mitzvah Magic, a program of Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Women’s Philanthropy and Jewish Family & Children’s… Read more »

Beat the summer heat with ice cream, yogurt and gelato

Allegro Il Gelato Naturale 446 N. Campbell Ave., #120 207-1991 • www.gelatoallegro.com Allegro uses only natural ingredients and you can really taste the difference. Our coffee gelato is made with Lavazza, Italy’s favorite coffee, and for our chocolate we’ve chosen Valrhona, the Grand Cru of cocoa powder. We know… Read more »

Tucson pizza eateries spice up summer dining

  1702 1702 E. Speedway Blvd. 325-1702 • www.1702az.com All our ingredients are brought in daily and our sauce and dough are made daily as well. We serve any combo of toppings you want on our giant slices that are sure to impress. Caruso’s Italian Restaurant 434 N. 4th… Read more »

Local works: buying local strengthens our communities

Erika Mitnik-White

Why buy local? When you buy from locally owned businesses, you support your friends and neighbors in the community. These are the people who buy homes locally, pay taxes locally and support our local charities. In fact, local businesses contribute twice their percentage of profits to charity than non-local… Read more »

Anshei Israel hires religious school administrator

Sarah Artzi

Congregation Anshei Israel has appointed Sarah Artzi as interim religious school administrator. In this new role, Artzi will oversee day-to-day operations of the school and its teachers. Born and raised in Tucson, Artzi is a lifelong member of CAI. She is the daughter of Sue and the late Saul… Read more »

JCC seeks input on Alzheimer’s proposal

The Tucson Jewish Community Center is seeking to assess interest in an intergenerational fitness/volunteer program for memory-impaired seniors and teen volunteers. The program would recreate a successful Alzheimer’s disease rehabilitation program that retired research scientist Sharon Arkin, Psy.D., ran at the University of Arizona from 1996 to 2001. The… Read more »

Chabad rabbi to discuss book about Rebbe

Rabbi Yossie Shemtov, regional director of Chabad Tucson, will lead a discussion of a new book about his spiritual mentor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneer­son, on Wednesday, June 11 at 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble at 5130 E. Broadway. Shemtov will share his personal thoughts on “Rebbe: The Life… Read more »

‘Skullcaps and Shul Hats’ on display at JHM

A photo of Sara Kaplowitz Greenberg in the early 1940s is surrounded by a few of her beloved shul hats. (Courtesy Jewish History Museum)

The Jewish History Museum’s summer exhibit, “Skullcaps and Shul Hats,” which runs through June 30, focuses on two family collections of head coverings. One is a collection of elegant shul hats worn by Tucsonan Nicki Lasky’s mother, Sara Kaplowitz Greenberg. They range from “fascinators,” small, often feathered decorative headpieces,… Read more »

From PA to AZ, a passion for philanthropy

Evan Mendelson

Evan Mendelson has worked most of her life in Jewish philanthropy, including as the founding executive director of the Jewish Funders Network in New York. In January 2013 in Tucson, she was named the first non-family member executive director of the David C. and Lura M. Lovell Foundation. Previously,… Read more »

Tucson Museum of Art shows ‘Rose Cabat at 100’

Rose Cabat, “Feelies,” c. 1960s-1980s, porcelain, collection of the artist (Carissa Castillo)

                                    The Tucson Museum of Art is presenting “Rose Cabat at 100: A Retrospective Exhibition of Ceramics,” through Sept. 14. Cabat, who lives in Tucson, is considered one of the most important… Read more »

The Jews of Bisbee, Arizona: diverse, passionate and proud

Howard Kline welcomes patrons to his art gallery on the sunny side of Bisbee’s Main Street. (Heather Green)

A visual artist who started out as a rock drummer in the ’60s, a bookstore owner about to make aliyah, a Harvard Law School graduate who headed west to practice on the Navajo reservation — these are three of the 40 to 50 Jews currently living in Bisbee. Although… Read more »

Rabbi takes part in Tucson “Why Marriage Matters” event

Rabbi Thomas Louchheim

Rabbi Thomas Louchheim of Congregation Or Chadash was one of the 10 Tucson clergy who took part in an interfaith “Why Marriage Matters Arizona” event, voicing support for the freedom for all couples to be able to marry, on Tuesday, May 27 at 6 p.m. at Casas Adobes Congregational… Read more »

Largest Tucson delegation joins March of Living in Poland, Israel

The March of the Living Western region delegation approaches the memorial at the Majdanek concentration camp. In front, (L-R): Hallie Goldstein, Kelsey Luria and Gabby Levy (Tucson Hebrew High Facebook page)

The beauty of the Polish countryside was eerie, says Cameron Busby, one of 12 Tucson teens to participate in this year’s March of the Living, an annual education program that unites Jewish teens worldwide in Poland on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, to march between the Auschwitz and Birkenau… Read more »