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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
(Tucson, Arizona) May 23, 2014 – The Arizona chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America hosted a quilting bee May 24 in Tucson as part of The Mother’s Dream Quilt Project. This national campaign is bringing moms together to create a series of quilts from fabric submissions… Read more »
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 »
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 »
Jon Ben-Asher, Tucson Hebrew Academy’s new interim head of school, is off and running. He attended THA in the late 1970s and early ’80s and recalls being assigned to watch Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” as homework. “Cosmos” is back on TV, modernized and even more spectacular. So is Ben-Asher’s view… Read more »
Ernesto Portillo, Jr., left, a columnist for the Arizona Daily Star, facilitates a panel discussion at the Jewish Community Relations Council's private screening of "The Dream is Now" on May 13 at the Loft Cinema. “The Dream is Now,” a documentary depicting the plight of young undocumented immigrants, was shown at a private screening for members of the Jewish and Latino communities on May 13 at the Loft Cinema. Following the film, four undocumented college students told their stories about living in America —… Read more »
University of Arizona graduate student Molly Keenan at Masada during her Birthright Israel trip in January. (Courtesy Molly Keenan) Molly Keenan smiles and shakes her head with disbelief at all the work that went into hosting her first Passover Seder last month, which she did with encouragement from NEXT, Birthright Israel’s program for alumni of the free Israel trip. “I’m a procrastinator, and I was kicking myself two… Read more »
Nancy Ben-Asher Ozeri The Arizona Jewish Post has won a first place Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism from the American Jewish Press Association. “Warmth, eye-opening perspective for local firefighters in Israel” by freelance writer Nancy Ben-Asher Ozeri won the excellence in feature writing award for newspapers with circulation under… Read more »
(L-R) Bebe Fischer, Ina Shivack, Hilary Lyons and Billie Maas in Arizona Onstage Production’s ‘25 Questions for a Jewish Mother’ Part memoir, part stand-up routine, “25 Questions for a Jewish Mother” will feature two segments by local residents when it comes to Tucson this month. Comedienne Judy Gold and playwright Kate Moira Ryan weave actual interviews with Jewish mothers across the United States with memories from Gold’s childhood and… Read more »
Nichole Chorny After an extensive national search, Congregation Anshei Israel has appointed Nichole Chorny as cantorial soloist. Chorny will be responsible for conducting congregational services and will coordinate and/or conduct life-cycle events and the B’nai Mitzvah program, in collaboration with Rabbi Robert Eisen. She will also develop and coordinate educational programs… Read more »
The Sisterhood of Congregation Or Chadash will hold a Fashion Show Fete celebrating mothers and daughters on Sunday, May 18 at 3 p.m. Mother and daughter models will be featured. The event, which will include an afternoon tea on the patio with sandwiches and desserts, plus door prizes and… Read more »
Christians United for Israel at the University of Arizona will host its fifth annual Night to Honor Israel at the Tucson Convention Center’s Leo Rich Theater on Thursday, May 15. The keynote speaker will be Deputy Consul General of Israel Uri Resnick, Ph.D. The Gatekeepers community choir will perform.… Read more »
Temple Emanu-El will honor the achievements of adult B’nai Mitzvah with two events this month. On Friday, May 9, at 6:30 p.m., the 13th anniversary of the 2001 adult B’nai Mitzvah class will be celebrated, with nine of the 14 members of Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon’s first adult B’nai… Read more »
Actor Ed Asner, center, led a Freedom Seder on April 21 cosponsored by Temple Emanu-El and Humane Borders. He is pictured with Dinah Bear, president of the board of Humane Borders, and Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon, senior rabbi of Temple Emanu-El. (Simon Rosenblatt) Singing the traditional Passover song Chad Gadya, leaving a cup of wine for the prophet Elijah, reciting poems by Marge Piercy and other secular poets, listening to reflections by members of Tucson’s Latino community — all marked the Freedom Seder held April 21 at Temple Emanu-El, cosponsored by Humane… Read more »
