News

Congregation Chaverim will partner with the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation and the Union for Reform Judaism to hold a bone marrow registration drive at Yom Kippur services. “This new year, 5775, our congregation will be performing pekuach nefesh, saving a life,” says Rabbi Stephanie Aaron. “With the… Read more »

Laurie Dietz, left, coordinator of the Special Needs Inclusion Project of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Coalition for Jewish Education, reviews a visual schedule designed for a student at Congregation Or Chadah with Tianna Liebeskind and Seth Brown. (Courtesy Laurie Dietz)

On an afternoon in 2003, Brenda Landau witnessed an event that would change the way the Tucson Jewish community would provide religious education for students with special learning needs. Landau, currently a senior vice president at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, was serving as the director of education… Read more »

Tessa Haining of Boston, daughter of Hadine Joffe and Nick Haining, with her grandmother, Marcelle Joffe of Tucson

Editor’s note: Tessa Haining, 13, granddaughter of Tucsonans Marcelle and Leonard Joffe, wrote this essay about their family’s Jewish holiday food traditions. The children in the room were getting antsy, scooching around on their chairs and toying with the silverware laid out on the table. They glanced at the… Read more »

Hadassah Southern Arizona will hold its first charity golf tournament on Sunday, Oct. 26, to raise funds for medical research. “We invite you to have a great time golfing, while doing a mitzvah,” says Iris Sapovits, event chair. Noting this summer’s trendy ALS ice bucket challenge, she says, “Hadassah… Read more »

Janni Lee Simner

Janni Lee Simner takes both her writing and her Judaism seriously. Being a full-time writer, with eight published young adult and children’s novels, has influenced her observance of Shabbat, she says. “On Friday night I take a deep breath, light candles in the window,” followed by a Shabbat dinner… Read more »

Rabbi Billy Lewkowicz (left) and David Cutler

David Cutler wanted to do something special with his Catalina Foothills home after his wife, Felicia, passed away in 2009, so he approached Rabbi Billy Lewkowicz and his wife, Ada, about using the home as a synagogue. Lewkowicz, director of Judaic studies at the Tucson Hebrew Academy, jumped at… Read more »

Anti-fascist protesters holding a banner in front of the Athens municipal ampitheater during a swearing-in ceremony for Golden Dawn party member Ilias Kasidiaris, Aug. 29, 2014. (Photo: Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)

ATHENS, Greece (JTA) — Jewish groups say the passage of a bill banning Holocaust denial and imposing harsher penalties for hate speech is an important milestone in the fight against Greece’s rising neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party. “This comes very late, but not too late,” World Jewish Congress CEO Robert… Read more »

Ori Parnaby

This fall, Tucsonans will have two new ways to connect with the many programs and services offered by the Tucson Jewish community: a concierge service and a revamped, interactive jewishtucson.org community website. Ori Parnaby, the concierge, started in her new position Sept. 2. Her office is at the Tucson… Read more »

Abigail Gumbiner

Abigail Gumbiner defies the adage “you can’t go home again.” On Sept. 14 she will speak at the Jewish History Museum of Tucson about photos she and two other artists have contributed to the current exhibit “Temple of Shadows.” The exhibit title refers to the building that many in… Read more »

The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will sponsor Gubernatorial Debate 2014 on Thursday, Sept. 18 at 8 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Cosponsors are the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and YWCA Tucson. Fred Duval, the Democratic candidate; Doug Ducey, the… Read more »

The Tucson Symphony Orchestra will open its 2014-15 season with “Bernstein, Copland, Gershwin: American Essentials” on Friday, Sept. 26 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 28 at 2 p.m. at the Tucson Music Hall. Music Director and Conductor George Hanson will open his 19th and final full season conducting… Read more »

Susan Claassen (left) as Edith Head with Joan Rivers in London in 2008.

Susan Claassen, actress and managing artistic director of the Invisible Theatre, first met comedian Joan Rivers, who died Sept. 4 at the age of 81, in 2008. “It was a dream come true,” says Claassen. “She had been performing her brilliant show ‘A Work in Progress by a Life… Read more »

Roberta Bracker

Growing up in the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles, Roberta Bracker, now 76, took being part of a Jewish community for granted. At her high school, all of the kids were Jewish. Bracker’s mother wanted her three daughters to be knowledgeable about music and Judaic studies. She envisioned her… Read more »

Ben Pozez and his wife, Amy, in New Orleans during the Jewish Federations of North America National Young Leadership Conference — TribeFest in March

For Ben Pozez, involvement in the Jewish community is practically coded into his DNA. His grandparents, the late Shaol and Evie Pozez, were philanthropic and community leaders from the moment they arrived in Tucson in 1979.  His parents, Mitch and Robin, have continued the tradition. So it was only… Read more »

Jack Cole

Jack Cole’s path to leadership began when his life was transformed by Jewish Family & Children’s Services. He and his wife, Joan, adopted Davis, their youngest of three adopted children, through the agency. Cole was motivated to give back so that others could benefit from their services as well.… Read more »

Sarah Singer

For Sarah Heisler Singer, volunteering in the Tucson Jewish community is all about giving back to those who have come before her, and paying that kindness forward for future generations. The mother of two (Celia, 3, and Levi, 8 months) is an attorney at Gadarian and Cacy, PLLC. She… Read more »

Marian Lupu

Marian Lupu, now 89, founded the Pima Council on Aging in 1965. She didn’t retire as executive director until 2006, when she was 82. “If you love what you’re doing, why not?” Lupu asked the AJP. A pioneer in her field, Lupu took one of the first courses ever… Read more »

Adam Goldstein and his wife, Dana, at Young Jewish Tucson’s Roaring 20s-themed Hava Tequila event, Feb. 8.

Adam Goldstein doesn’t see how unique his dedication to Tucson’s Jewish community is. Sitting at his kitchen table, he lists committee after committee he’s chaired, co-chaired, participated in or formed. He was the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Young Man of the Year in 2013. He’s been a member… Read more »

David S. Alberts

David S. Alberts, M.D., has spent 40 years fighting cancer — and he’s not done yet. At age 74, he’s the full-time Regents Professor of Medicine, Pharmacology, Nutritional Science, and Public Health at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. On July 1, 2013, he stepped down after a… Read more »

Amy Beyer (right) at a trade school in Tel Aviv for at-risk youth during a June 2010 Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona women’s mission to Israel. The young man made a pair of earrings that Beyer bought.

If home is where the heart is, then Amy Beyer’s heart beats to the rhythm of Jewish life in Tucson. “The Tucson Jewish community is home for me. It really feels like my extended family,” says Beyer, 36, who began her volunteering “career” at Young Jewish Tucson in 2002.… Read more »