James Gutierrez, “Pieces,” 2016
The Fine Art Gallery at the Tucson Jewish Community Center will present selected artworks from the most recent Mapping Q project through Sept. 29. Mapping Q is a community arts education program where LGBTQ+ youth explore representations of self within art, museums and the wider community. The program originated… Read more »
Rabbi Stephanie Aaron blows a shofar at Jewish Family & Children’s Services’ ethical wills workshop at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging Aug. 11. (Korene Charnofsky Cohen)
An ordinary will is about leaving money and property. But there is also a way to leave the legacy of who you are and your values, philosophy, religious beliefs, what you hold most dear — even your favorite recipe. This is called an ethical will. About 20 people gathered… Read more »
Jewishtucson.org, Tucson’s Jewish community website, has launched Nosh & More, a recipe exchange. At jewishtucson.org/nosh-more, food lovers can submit everything from treasured traditional recipes to contemporary takes on Jewish cuisine. Participants are encouraged to include a bit of history or a fond remembrance on what makes the recipe special… Read more »
Play in progress at the Jewish Federation-Northwest first mah jongg tournament, Nov. 15, 2015.
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Northwest Division will hold its Second Annual Mah Jongg Tournament and Silent Auction on Sunday, Sept. 18, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., with registration at 9:30 a.m. The event, which will include three rounds of tournament play, a breakfast assortment, a buffet lunch, prizes and… Read more »
Children peer out from a doorway as armed soldiers patrol outside their school in the Jewish quarter of the Marais district in Paris, France, Jan. 13, 2015. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
PARIS (JTA) — Twenty-five years after he graduated from a public high school in the French capital, Stephane Tayar recalls favorably his time in one of the world’s most thorough education systems. As for many other French Jews his age, the state-subsidized upbringing has worked out well for Tayar,… Read more »
Immigrants take their oath of U.S. citizenship at the Federal Building in Newark, N.J., Nov. 20, 2014. (John Moore/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — How extreme does vetting need to be to keep anti-Semites from entering the United States, and is Donald Trump’s plan worth the effort? The Republican nominee’s proposal to apply an ideological test to potential immigrants is based on precedent: The United States in the last century instituted… Read more »
Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, right, at the Republican Jewish Coalition spring leadership meeting in Las Vegas, April 25, 2015. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
(JTA) — With the presidential race heating up, a number of progressive Jewish commentators have portrayed the Republicans’ vice presidential candidate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, as a conservative extremist opposed to Jewish beliefs and values. As officers of the only statewide, grassroots Jewish and Israel advocacy organization in Indiana —… Read more »
Then-Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, left, speaks with Rabbi Jack Moline and Moline's son Max at the Virginia Statehouse. (Courtesy of Jack Moline)
(JTA) — American Jewish voters have naturally voted for Democratic candidates because it has meant voting to support strong social justice and a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. Hillary Clinton and her vice presidential choice, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, will continue Democratic action on economic and educational opportunities, retirement security… Read more »
Florida State Sen. Dwight Bullard, wearing a Palestinian kaffiyeh, or headscarf, at the Democratic National Convention, July 2016. (Ben Sales)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Pro-Israel activists in the Miami area plan to protest a Florida state senator active in the Black Lives Matter movement who visited the West Bank as the guest of a group that backs the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Organizers of the protest against Dwight Bullard said… Read more »
The cover of a new Russian translation of the Talmud (Courtesy of Knizhniki publishing house)
(JTA) — A century ago, passages from the Talmud were translated into Russian to be used as evidence in the anti-Semitic show trial of Menahem Mendel Beilis, a Jew charged with — and eventually acquitted of – murdering a Christian boy. The prosecution in that 1915 trial, which was decried… Read more »
Shaul Ladany in his suburban Beersheba home with a prized piece of his Theodor Herzl collection, left. (Hillel Kuttler)
OMER, Israel (JTA) – Shaul Ladany, a two-time Olympian, acknowledged that he was “very happy” that the International Olympic Committee finally held an official memorial for the 11 Israelis who were killed in a terrorist raid at the 1972 Munich games. But Ladany, an Israeli racewalker who still… Read more »
Marian Lupu Updated Aug. 26,2016 Marian Lupu, born Hannah Marian Koffman, 91, died Aug. 14, 2016. Born in Chicago, Lupu received a master’s degree from the University of Chicago. She married Charles Lupu in 1948 and settled in Tucson in 1966. She was the founding executive director of the Pima Council… Read more »
New York City Mayor David Dinkins, fourth from right, looks on while a Hasidic Jew and a black man argue during riots in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in 1991. (Anthony Pescatore/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Much has changed in Crown Heights in the past 25 years, since the accidental death of a black boy touched off three days of rioting in which black youths attacked religious Jews in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Many called it a riot. Some Jews call the events of… Read more »
A statue of Stepan Bandera in Lviv, Ukraine, September 2014. (Courtesy of Andrey Syasko)
(JTA) — When Vladimir Putin grabbed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, the Russian president claimed it was to protect minorities from anti-Semitic fascists whom Putin maintained were behind the revolution that year that ousted his ally in Kiev, former President Viktor Yanukovych. But a physicist named Josef Zissels, who heads one… Read more »
Aly Raisman competing in the floor exercise at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, Oct. 24, 2015. (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Aly Raisman won the Olympic silver medal in the women’s gymnastics all-around in Rio de Janeiro. The Jewish competitor from Needham, Massachusetts, finished second behind her American teammate Simon Biles on Thursday. Raisman, 22, is the U.S. squad’s captain and was a key part of its gold medal… Read more »
Henry Gross co-founded the ’50s revival group Sha Na Na but may be best known for his 1976 solo hit, “Shannon.” He will bring his one-man show to Tucson Sept. 10.
In his own words, Henry Gross’ life has been “kind of an unusual journey.” He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1951 to a musical family, so it was no surprise when he picked up the guitar at age 12. When he was 18, Gross and a few friends… Read more »
Tucson Jewish Community Center Maccabi Games participants and friends (in white and turquoise T-shirts) play with special needs campers in Columbus, Ohio. Back row (L-R): Oren Riback (delegation head), Max Silverman, Zach Giles, Dimitri Rally (Palo Alto), Zamy (Jake) Zwinger, Jake Blumenthal, Adam Rudy (Louisville). Front: Avin Kreisler, Matthew Gurovich (Palo Alto) and Henry Abrams. Dakota Kordsiemon (basketball coach) is kneeling on the right. (Courtesy Oren Riback)
Thirteen teen athletes represented the Tucson Jewish Community Center at the JCC Maccabi Games in Columbus, Ohio, July 24-29. It was Tucson’s return to the games after a three-year absence due to scheduling conflicts with local schools’ early start dates. Despite the lag, the Tucson boys’ basketball team members… Read more »
Members of Congregation Anshei Israel’s “off the beaten path” Israel mission in June harvested leeks for Leket Israel, an organization that distributes surplus food to the needy. (L-R): Aaron Leonard, Rabbi Robert Eisen, Ron Gray, Margo Gray, Katherine Leonard, Ann Anovitz, Michelle Sigafus, Eugene Kellogg, Michael Schoenholz, Paul Hoffman. Seated, Aurora Kellogg (Courtesy Rabbi Robert Eisen)
Congregation Anshei Israel’s 11-day mission to Israel in June was no ordinary tourist trip. Instead of focusing on history and popular sites, the itinerary delved into the culture, problems, agriculture and technology of modern Israel. Rabbi Robert Eisen says that this is the fourth time he has taken congregation… Read more »
Tucsonan Billie Kozolchyk, right, with Adela Dworin, vice president of the Patronato de la casa de la comunidad Hebrea de Cuba in Havana, the equivalent of a Jewish federation in the United States. (Courtesy Billie Kozolchyk)
So we went to Cuba. Big deal, you say? Everybody’s going to Cuba. It seems not a single U.S. institution, big or small, isn’t arranging tours and oh yes, cruises, too. But our trip was different. My husband, Boris, had left his native Cuba pre-Fidel in 1956, to continue… Read more »
Madyssen Zarin, left, with her twin sister, Rachael, and mother, Patricia (Korene Charnofsky Cohen)
Update: Nefesh B’Nefesh provided this photo of “soon to be IDF soldiers” arriving in Israel Aug. 17. We’re pretty sure we spotted Madyssen Zarin on the far right. Madyssen Zarin is not someone who sits and watches the world go by. She is leaping into the future by making… Read more »
