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Scholarships for Jewish overnight camps, funded by the Moe and Frances Beren Family Scholarship Fund, are available through the Coalition for Jewish Education of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. “As in past years, these funds are critical in both showing the community’s recognition of the positive impact Jewish… Read more »

The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona has announced the fifth annual Goldman Family Israel Scholarship Grant, with available funding of $2,500. The deadline for application is 5 p.m. on Feb. 7. The Elliot S. Goldman Israel Scholarship Fund and the Goldman Family Scholarship Fund are endowment funds held… Read more »

Gavin Cohen watches a shot.

Tucson is a golfer’s paradise — and not just for retirees and sun-seeking vacationers. Many Tucsonans develop a love of the game at an early age, including several teens in the Jewish community, such as 15-year-old Gavin Cohen. “Gavin Cohen is a pretty good stick,” says Scott Gregoire, general… Read more »

Adisa Ayaso

Adisa Ayaso arrived in Israel in January 1984, but her family’s aliyah wasn’t the typical airplane flight of so many modern-day Jews. Ayaso, now 33, was born in the village of Gedlia Murim in Ethiopia. She was 3 when her family began the 1,000-mile trek across the mountains of… Read more »

Enriqueta Fassler

Enriqueta “Neneng” Fassler is a 71-year-old dynamo who earned her third college degree in May. She was the oldest graduate of Pima Community College, earning her post-graduate certificate — with honors — as a paralegal. Fassler holds two college degrees in education: one in physical education from her native… Read more »

J. Edward Wright, director of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies and the J. Edward Wright Endowed Professor of Judaic Studies, will lead “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow — Israel and Palestine,” a Magellan Circle excursion to Israel from May 25 to June 4. The Magellan Circle excursions are group… Read more »

A scene from 'Out in the Dark'

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s LGBT Jewish Inclusion Project is sponsoring a film, “Out in the Dark,” at the Tucson International Jewish Film Festival on Jan. 23. What begins as a tender romance between a privileged Israeli lawyer and a Palestinian student becomes an edge-of your-seat thriller, says… Read more »

Super Sunday co-chairs Kris and Ben Silverman

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will hold its annual fundraising phone-a-thon, Super Extraordinary Sunday, on Jan. 26 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Several mitzvah projects, including a Red Cross blood drive and a Gift of Life bone marrow registry, will help make the day special. “Arizona is… Read more »

On Jan. 8, 2011, the peace of a sunny Tucson day was shattered at 10:10 a.m. in front of a Northwest Safeway, when a lone gunman killed six Tucsonans and wounded 13 others at a Congress on Your Corner event with U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. One of those wounded… Read more »

Linor Abargil in ‘Brave Miss World’

Nearly two dozen films from around the world will be screened at the 23rd annual Tucson International Jewish Film Festival. Running Jan.16 to 25, this year’s program features several international award winners, Arizona premieres and special guests. A pre-festival kickoff is scheduled Sunday, Jan.12 at the Desert View Performing… Read more »

Thinking about going to Israel in 2014? At least five Tucson congregations would be delighted to have you join them. Congregation Or Chadash is first up with a trip March 5 to 12. Congregation Chofetz Chayim’s trip will be May 4 to 18, followed by Congregation Bet Shalom June… Read more »

Cantor Ivor Lichterman

Cantor Avraham Alpert has gathered an eclectic group of performers for Congregation Bet Shalom’s “An Enchanted Evening: A Jewish Music Concert” on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 8 p.m. at the Berger Performing Arts Center. Cantor Ivor Lichterman will be the special guest artist. “I think everybody knows Cantor Lichterman,”… Read more »

Bruce Magid, dean of the Brandeis University International School of Business, will discuss “Not Business as Usual: How Changes in the Global Economy Will Impact Your Lives,” at the Tucson chapter of the Brandeis National Committee’s annual University on Wheels event on Thursday, Jan. 9 at 9:30 a.m. The… Read more »

Congregation Anshei Israel will present a three-week adult education series offering a wide range of speakers on being Jewish and Judaism. The series will take place on Wednesdays, Jan. 22, 29 and Feb. 5, from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. A different keynote speaker will open each evening from… Read more »

Hava Tirosh-Samuelson

“Judaism and the Contemporary Pursuit of Happiness” will be the topic of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies Shaol & Louis Pozez Memorial Lecture on Monday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m., at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, of Arizona State University, will discuss happiness as a central… Read more »

Twenty-five percent of adults in the United States have a mental illness — from depression and anxiety, to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia — according to a 2011 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, “Mental Illness Surveillance among Adults in the United States.” The percentage of Jewish adults with… Read more »

Aurora tallit by Beth Surdut

                                    Beth Surdut, a designer of tallitot from Santa, Fe., N.M., will discuss the importance of personalized prayer shawls on Sunday, Jan. 12 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish… Read more »

(Above) Members of Team Tamara at Liver Life Walk Tucson on Dec. 14. Front row (L-R): Lavina Tomer, Bryan Kaplan, Tamara Novak, Sandra Wortzel, Judith Weiser, Lyla Michelson, Rabbi Helen Cohn, Joel Alpert; back row: Gabi Zimerman, Linda Horowitz, Renate Wasserman, Carol Weinstein, Marlyne Freedman, Kenny Wortzel, Nan Rubin, Tanya Fleisher, Nancy Lefkowitz, Ann Markewitz, Byron Michelson. (Courtesy Congregation M'kor Hayim)

As my wife, Tamara, and I anxiously awaited news of a liver donor, it seems as if the third time truly was the charm. Three years ago she started gaining weight and experienced an unfamiliar level of fatigue. She could barely make it out of the house for more… Read more »

The Women’s Philanthropy Advisory Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is seeking nominations for the eighth annual Bryna Zehngut Mitzvot Award. The award, honoring the late Bryna Zehngut, recognizes the outstanding achievements of a Jewish teenage girl in Tucson. Award nominees must be high school juniors or… Read more »

Desert Caucus President Chuck Gannon, M.D., in the waiting room of his ophthalmology office. (Nancy Ben-Asher Ozeri)

Although it’s been around for 37 years and currently has over 200 members, the Desert Caucus has a reputation as the best-kept secret in Tucson’s Jewish community. President Chuck Gannon would like to see that change. According to Gannon, an ophthalmologist who has been with the organization for the… Read more »