News

PITTSBURGH (JTA) — Cecil Rosenthal would always ask after your sick mother or inquire about your marriage — or divorce. His brother, David, a jokester, loved the police and every year would buy the same sunglasses with mirrored lenses. At a moving ceremony Tuesday, relatives stood before… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The deadly shooting at a Conservative synagogue in Pittsburgh has underlined tensions in Israel over the haredi Orthodox rabbinic establishment’s disenfranchisement of the Diaspora’s non-Orthodox Jewish streams. Following Saturday’s rampage by a gunman that left 11 worshippers dead, an Israeli government minister and the country’s opposition… Read more »

In the wake of the shootings at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh on Saturday, the Jewish Federation of the Southern Arizona, local synagogues and Jewish agencies are holding a multifaith vigil tonight at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center Sculpture Garden. An email announcement from… Read more »

This is a developing story. (JTA) — The chief medical examiner of Pittsburgh’s Allegheny County released the names of the 11 victims of the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh Saturday. The victims include two brothers, as well as a husband and wife. The youngest victim was 59 and the… Read more »

PITTSBURGH (JTA) — It is after all, as any local will tell you, Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. People here look out for one another. So when a group of students from Alderdice, a high school in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, emerged from their synagogues, their homes, their cafes… Read more »

(JTA) — The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting should be a turning point for the security of American Jewish institutions, a former leader of Belgian Jewry said. Joel Rubinfeld, a former president of the CCOJB umbrella group of Belgian Jewish communities and the current president of the Belgian League Against Anti-Semitism,… Read more »

(JTA) — The shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue that has left 11 people dead has been described as “horrific,” “heinous” and “devastating” by Jewish leaders, politicians and Israeli leaders. “Our hearts are broken,” the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh posted on Facebook, saying it was making an exception and… Read more »

(JTA) — The alleged gunman who killed 11 people and injured six at a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday assailed the Jewish resettlement agency HIAS on his web page and said “I’m going in.” The shooting occurred shortly before 10 a.m. during a bris circumcision ceremony at The… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Federal authorities arrested a man on Friday in Florida in connection with a series of mail bombs sent to figures who have been the target of President Donald Trump’s rhetoric. The media reported that the man was in his 50s. At least 12 explosive devices have… Read more »

Jon Simon

Jazz composer and performer Jon Simon will headline an evening of music and dining on Tuesday, Nov. 27 to launch the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Northwest Division’s annual campaign. Simon tours North America performing selections from his ninth and latest album, “SOAR,” as well as five highly successful… Read more »

"Kristallnacht: Shattered, Yet Unbroken" mandala by Robert Wertz

Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, refers to the windows broken at synagogues, homes, and Jewish-owned businesses that were plundered and destroyed during a wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms on Nov. 9 and 10, 1938 throughout Germany, Austria, and the Czech Sudetenland. The event is commonly thought to… Read more »

Nancy Johnson, left, and Tim Hartin

Two Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona affinity groups will hold a joint event next month to discuss America’s growing opioid crisis and its effects on the local community. The Tucson Maimonides Society and Tucson Cardozo Society will host two local experts on the subject. Nancy Johnson, R.N., Ph.D., the… Read more »

Between heading local organizations or sitting on boards, volunteering with humanitarian efforts or creating art, Anne Lowe, 70, finds time for everything and shows no sign of stopping. For nine years, she served as Northwest Jewish Connections coordinator (later Northwest Division director) and outreach director for the Jewish… Read more »

Honey Manson loves the people of Tucson. Along with the warm weather, they are her favorite thing about the city. Unfortunately, the hard water of Arizona has been less kind to her. A plumbing leak caused by corrosion recently left her and her husband without water for five hours.… Read more »

The Arizona Jewish Post received an award in the Arizona Newspapers Association 2018 Better Newspapers Contest. The AJP won second place for Departmental News and Copy Editing Excellence in its division, non-dailies with a circulation of 3,500 to 10,000. The ANA presented the awards Oct. 6 at its annual… Read more »

Rabbi Israel Becker

A new musical program, Music, Memories, and Mitzvot, will weave song, stories, and learning about Jewish celebrations with the mitzvah of bringing joy to the elderly, says Rabbi Israel Becker of Congregation Chofetz Chayim. The program, for children ages 5-11, includes three Sunday classes in preparation for each of… Read more »

A middle school, elementary and special education teacher for 42 years in rural Vermont, Ellen Saltonstall pioneered Holocaust studies in her school district. “There aren’t many Jewish people in Vermont,” she notes. She won a scholarship for an educators’ tour to Israel in 2009 where she had a chance… Read more »

David Syme

Internationally renowned concert pianist David Syme will perform at Temple Emanu-El, Saturday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. Syme is a distinguished soloist, an alumnus of Juilliard, and has over 20 CDs to his name. He makes regular appearances with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony,… Read more »

The Trump Administration recently proposed an unprecedented expansion in our country’s public charge rules for applicants for citizenship. For the first time, a legal immigrant to the United States can be considered ineligible for citizenship simply because they utilize SNAP — our nation’s food stamp program. These new public… Read more »

I don’t know if I want to do it anymore,” I said to my friend Darren. And by “it” I meant live. Three weeks later, I was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer and given a 40 percent chance of surviving more than five years. At 34 years old, I… Read more »