With a career encompassing national and international security, defense and counter-terrorism, former Tucson Hebrew Academy student Gerri Pozez has taken the Jewish values she learned from THA, her family and the Tucson Jewish community to a global level. Practicing tikkun olam, making the world a better place, and l’dor… Read more »
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Lisa Youngerman
Lisa Himmelstein Youngerman, a 1978 graduate of Tucson Hebrew Academy, says her experiences there inspired her continuing involvement in the Jewish community. She passed on this tradition to her two daughters, also THA graduates. Youngerman’s parents, Paula and the late Stephen Himmelstein, were among several families that founded THA.… Read more »
Shoham Ozeri
Shoham Ozeri, daughter of Nancy Ben-Asher Ozeri and Tidhar Ozeri, was born in Israel and spent her first eight years there. Attending Tucson Hebrew Academy helped her identify as Israeli even after her move to the United States with her family before third grade, she says. Continuing her Jewish education… Read more »
Rabbi Ruven Barkan
Rabbi Ruven Barkan says his first and second grade teacher at Tucson Hebrew Academy “introduced me to God.” Morah Brandwein (the title means “teacher” in Hebrew) spoke to her students in glowing terms of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. “She planted a Jewish seed in my… Read more »
Isaac Greenberg
Isaac Greenberg, a solution engineer at Deloitte, a business consulting firm, says Tucson Hebrew Academy provides its students a strong sense of family and of the importance of community service. “And doing something without recognition is one the most honorable life experiences,” says Greenberg. Greenberg, 33, who grew up… Read more »
Brooke Sebold
Brooke Sebold does. See boldly, that is. The 1995 Tucson Hebrew Academy graduate is a movie director, producer, writer and editor in Los Angeles. Her films have won numerous awards across the United States and many can be seen on NBC, PBS, the Sundance Channel and other entertainment platforms.… Read more »
Abbie Kozolchyk
Professional writer and editor Abbie Kozolchyk credits her sixth- and seventh-grade attendance at Tucson Hebrew Academy as the most formative of her school years, fostering both her Jewish identity and her love of language. Growing up in a Jewish family provided a firm foundation in Jewish tradition, including membership… Read more »
New, inclusive prayer book wins local fans
Congregation M’kor Hayim will start the new year with a new High Holidays machzor, or prayer book, recently published by the Reform Movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis. The two-volume machzor, Mishkan HaNefesh, should “add new energy and meaning to our High Holidays services,” says Rabbi Helen Cohn. Among… Read more »
Second Stone Avenue Block party will celebrate Jewish and Mexican cultures
As the sun goes down on Thursday, Sept. 29, live music by Mexico City’s Benjamin Shwartz y Los Jreins will heat up the night at the second annual Stone Avenue Block Party, presented by the Jewish History Museum and the Consulate of Mexico in Tucson. The party, which starts… Read more »
Wellness seminar for women coming to J
The Tucson Jewish Community Center will host Simply Well for Women, a two-day seminar with Drs. Kathleen N. Mueller and Gloria “Gigi” Dunn, on Oct. 8 and 9, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Two of only 1,000 physicians in the world to have completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship… Read more »
Jewish Federation, Foundation to share building on Jewish community campus
After decades of putting the needs of other Jewish community agencies first, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is ready to break ground on a new home of its own. The new 18,000 square foot building, which will house the Federation and the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona,… Read more »
Arab lawmaker Aymen Odeh wants to save the Israeli left, but not join it
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Aymen Odeh has a tough job. He is the first person to represent all of Israel’s Arab political parties in the Knesset, or parliament. The parties, whose members range from secular communists to pious Muslims, came together as the Joint List to run in the 2015… Read more »
Even Israel doesn’t do ethnic profiling the way Donald Trump thinks it does
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Donald Trump wants to profile likely terrorists the way Israel does it. The problem is, Israel and the United States already profile in similar ways – and neither in the way Trump prefers. The Republican presidential nominee’s proposal to blanket-profile entire communities would be unwieldy and… Read more »
Burkini debate in France exposes a divide in its Jewish community
(JTA) — Like their constituents, the mainstream representatives of French Jewry are not known for passing up opportunities to express their opinion on subjects of national debate. And Jewish institutions in France, like those in the United States, regularly comment on a host of issues, including divisive ones that lie… Read more »
The alt-right meets the media — and debates the Jewish question
WASHINGTON (JTA) — This was the unveiling of the alt-right, this was its moment, its confident stride onto the national stage, and there was unity — until there was internal dissent, until there was pronounced disagreement, until there was almost – almost – a voice raised against one’s white… Read more »
Lacking status in Israel, Jews in Uganda see new synagogue as ‘our Jerusalem’
(JTA) — When there was no more space in the synagogue in Nabagoye, Uganda, congregants would go outside, gathering under trees. But the branches weren’t enough to shield them from the rain during the East African country’s wet seasons, which last about half the year. A new 7,000-square-foot… Read more »
Indian-American student becomes pro-Israel symbol for trying to stay neutral
(JTA) — When Milan Chatterjee arrived at UCLA’s law school in 2014, Middle East politics wasn’t one of his core interests. He describes himself as an Indian American interested in corporate law who has strong connections to his South Asian and Hindu heritage. He has played the Indian tabla drums on… Read more »
How all sides view Netanyahu’s ‘ethnic cleansing’ remarks
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued earlier this month that the Palestinian leadership is supporting “ethnic cleansing” by refusing to accept Israeli settlers in its future state. “Yet the Palestinian leadership actually demands a Palestinian state with one precondition: No Jews. There’s a phrase for that: It’s called ethnic… Read more »
Obama’s $38B aid package to Israel comes with caveats: It’s generous, but on his terms
WASHINGTON (JTA) – President Barack Obama’s near parting gift to Israel, a guarantee of $38 billion in defense assistance over a decade, distills into a single document what he’s been saying throughout eight fraught years: I have your back, but on my terms. The agreement signed Wednesday in the State Department’s… Read more »
Medical condition of former Israeli President Shimon Peres improves
Ramat Gan (TPS) – The medical condition of former Israeli President Shimon Peres has improved to the level where he is stable and responsive, according to the most recent update from Sheba Medical Center where he is receiving care. “After 24 hours of evaluating the ninth president, Mr. Peres,… Read more »