News

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish groups expressed concerns about proposed Obama administration cuts in poverty assistance, but praised the U.S. budget for preserving aid to Israel. The White House’s proposed budget, released Feb. 14, projects cuts in programs such as heating for the poor and in blocs of money funneled… Read more »

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (JTA) — The day after Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak was ousted by a widespread public uprising, I found myself presenting a lecture about Solidarity, the mass trade union movement that convulsed Poland 30 years ago and paved the way for the collapse of the Iron Curtain… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel changed Gabrielle Giffords’ life when the budding politician first visited the country in 2001 and it drew her close to Judaism. After the Arizona congresswoman was shot in the head a month ago, an Israeli innovation invented by an American immigrant to Israel may have… Read more »

Ashlee Hall models antique wedding gown

The Jewish History Museum, 564 S. Stone Ave., will host a style show of vintage and antique wedding dresses on Sunday, Feb. 13 at 1:30 p.m. The story of the Jewish bride who originally wore each dress will be told. Included are an 1880s gown from the Arizona pioneer… Read more »

Bride Rebecca Kunsberg is veiled by her mother, Linda Kunsberg (left), and the groom’s mother, Beanie Rohtbart, in the ‘bedeken’ ceremony, witnessed by Rabbi Robert Eisen (far left) and groom Ted Goodman. (John Hursh - Focus On Events Photography)

Rebecca Kunsberg, 31, daughter of Andrew and Linda Kunsberg of Tucson, and Theodore Goodman, 33, son of Beanie and Markus Rohtbart of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and Don and Gloria Goodman of West Bloomfield, Mich., were married on Nov. 14, 2010 at Westward Look Resort with Rabbi Robert Eisen of… Read more »

The Tucson Jewish Community Library will hold its annual book sale on Sunday, March 6, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Proceeds will be used to support the activities of the library. The library is seeking donations of books (fiction and nonfiction, Jewish… Read more »

Ruthann Pozez

Jewish Family & Children’s Services will honor Ruthann Pozez at its second annual Celebration of Caring complimentary breakfast event on Thursday, March 3. Pozez relocated from Topeka, Kan., to Tucson with her husband, Louis, co-founder of Payless Shoe Source, in 1983 and has been deeply involved with the Jewish… Read more »

Christians United for Israel at the University of Arizona will present a free lecture by Col. Ben Tzion Gruber of the Israel Defense Forces on Monday, Feb. 14 at 6:30 p.m. Gruber, now in the IDF reserves, has served in the military for 30 years and is currently working… Read more »

Lynn Saul

The Jewish History Museum’s Jewish Storytelling Festival will begin with Lynn Saul’s discussion of her book, “Learning to Say Satoraljaujhely,” on Sunday, Feb. 27 at 2 p.m. This collection of poetry, short stories, memoir, and family and contemporary photographs reflects 200 years of Hungarian Jewish history, from the early… Read more »

The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona is presenting a Yiddish festival of lectures and films this spring, coordinated by Gil Ribak, the Schusterman Postdoctoral Fellow in Judaic Studies. The festival began earlier this month with a lecture on Yiddish theater. On Monday, Feb. 28… Read more »

The Tucson Secular Humanist Jewish Circle will hold an adult education/oneg Shabbat get-together on Saturday, Feb. 19 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Himmel Park Library, 1035 N. Treat Ave. The event will include a DVD presentation featuring Rabbi Sherwin Wine, who founded the Humanistic Judaism movement in… Read more »

Arbel Gelbart

PJ Library and Congregation Or Chadash will host “Havdallah in a Bag!” on Sunday, Feb. 13, 3-4:30 p.m. at Or Chadash. Rabbi Thomas Louchheim, accompanied by Cantor Janece Cohen, will tell the story “Too Much of a Good Thing.” Children can make a Havdallah candle, spice bag and Kiddush… Read more »

(L-R) Cast members Norm Gosman(director), Dorrie Roman, Marilyn Forstot and Mike Finkelstein

The Beth Shalom Temple Players will perform a musical program, “Thanks for the Memory,”on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 27 at 2 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center, 1250 W. Continental Road in Green Valley. The production will be a nostalgic journey through the Golden… Read more »

Asher Susser

Asher Susser, visiting scholar in modern Israel studies at the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies, will present “Israel, Jordan and Palestine: One State, Two States or Three?” as part of the center’s Shaol Pozez Memorial Lectureship Series. The talk will be held Monday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. at… Read more »

Kathy Unger, chair of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona board, makes calls on Super Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011.

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona exceeded its Super Sunday phone-a-thon goal of $150,000 on Jan. 30, raising $194,967 toward its 2011 Campaign, with $17,295 of this total going to the Local Emergency Assistance Fund. Over 150 volunteers turned out for the event at the Tucson Jewish Community Center,… Read more »

In a scene from the film "Inside Hana's Suitcase," Hana arrives at Auschwitz in October 1944.

Hallonot, Hebrew for windows, is an annual Coalition for Jewish Education program providing windows into different aspects of the Jewish world. CJE has partnered with the Tucson International Jewish Film Festival and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra to present this year’s Hallonot, “Voices and Views on the Holocaust,” which will… Read more »

Jonathan Rothschild

Jonathan Rothschild’s earliest political memory is of JFK’s assassination in 1963. Following President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974, Rothschild, then a student at Kenyon College in Ohio, became an intern for the National Student Lobby in Washington, D.C. But Rothschild, now 55, didn’t jump into the political fray himself… Read more »

Jewish Community Foundation honoree Mel Zuckerman (right) chats with 8-year-old David Jurkowitz. The Jurkowitz family gave the Zuckermans a gift in appreciation of their support of the PJ Library program. Looking on is David Alberts. [Martha Lochert]

The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona presented Mel and Enid Zuckerman with more than a plaque to thank them for their lifelong philanthropy at JCF’s Jan. 18 “As The Tree Grows” luncheon. “We made a decision to make important contributions, financial contributions, in your name,” Executive Director Carol… Read more »

The pro-Israel group StandWithUs was forced to revise this ad before it could be run on commuter rail platforms around san Francisco. (StandWithUs)

NEW YORK (JTA) — With public bickering over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict already having spilled over into university student senates, corporate pension boards and even local farmers markets, the latest battlefield in the debate over the conflict is municipal transit systems. In several major U.S. cities, advertisements on public buses… Read more »

Protesters pray in front of a tank in Cairo's Tahrir Square, Jan. 30, 2011. With the unrest in Egypt, a debate in Washington is emerging over whether to continue U.S. assistance to the country's military at $1.3 billion a year. (Iman Mosaad)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The consensus on U.S. assistance to Egypt is that it has delivered bang for its buck: The $1.3 billion in annual defense aid has stabilized a key ally and strengthened America’s profile in the Middle East. But in the wake of massive unrest that could unseat… Read more »