News

(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 »

Rep. Jane Harmon, shown speaking at an October 2009 event of the Center for American Progress, hinted at her frustration with an increasingly polarized Congress in explaining her resignation to constituents. [Center for American Progress]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jane Harman, a Jewish Democrat who made her reputation in Congress as a tough-talking advocate for carrying a big stick, is transitioning to the world of speaking softly. Harman, 65, a tireless advocate in Congress of both the U.S.-Israel relationship and of strengthening the intelligence community’s… Read more »

An Egyptian flag flies from an army outpost on the Egyptian side of the border with Israel near the moshav of Kadesh Barnea. (Dina Kraft)

BE’ER MILKA, Israel (JTA) — Driving along the Israel-Egypt border near this southern Israeli town, rusted metal posts strung with barbed wire give way to sand dunes and an exposed, open border as wide open as the question of what will become of the countries’ relations now that Egypt… Read more »

Gabe Zimmerman at Kinderland Camp in the summer of 2001. [Photo courtesy Maria Falconi-Sachs]

It is, perhaps, only in America that a congresswoman named Gabrielle Giffords could reclaim the Jewish identity of her father’s family — originally named Hornstein — after living much of her life apart from the Jewish community. And it is no less of a tribute to American fluidity, however… Read more »

Smoke from a burning government building fills the sky above the Eyptian Museum in Cairo, Jan. 29. The photograph was taken from a tour bus window. (Joan Elder)

When Tucsonan Joan Elder signed up for a 10-day late-January trip to Egypt to celebrate her 70th birthday, she had no idea that her adventure would be interrupted by massive anti-government demonstrations. Apparently, the Egyptian people were just as stunned by the uprising. “No one expected anything like this… Read more »

Pro-Israel groups are caught in a dilemma over whether to back Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak or his opponents, such as those seen here gathering in Cairo on Jan. 25, 2011 to call for his ouster. (Muhammad Ghafari)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — As Egypt convulses, pro-Israel groups and U.S. Congress members are seized by the ancient maternal dilemma: If you have nothing nice to say, should you say anything at all? The question of whether to stake a claim in the protests against 30 years of President Hosni… Read more »

Mark Rubin

MARK RUBIN has joined Mesch, Clark & Rothschild, P.C. His practice areas include business, real estate, probate and fiduciary law. Rubin, who has practiced law in Tucson since 1981, was a sole practitioner for 10 years. He also practiced with the firm of Slutes, Sakrison, Grant, Hill & Rubin,… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El will host a Jewish camp night on Saturday, Jan. 29 at 5:30 pm at Reid Park Ramada #20 and a Jewish camp fair on Sunday, Jan. 30 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the synagogue. Representatives from Jewish overnight camps from across the country will be… Read more »

Joseph Regenstein

You are what you eat. So what does that mean for your morality? Do the choices you make about food affect your ethics? And can food standards unite Jews and Muslims as nothing else does? These and other questions will be answered by scholar-in-resi­dence Joseph Regenstein, who will explore… Read more »

Rabbi David Golinkin

“Israel: From Dream to Reality” is the theme for Congregation Anshei Israel’s scholar-in-residence, Rabbi David Golinkin, who will give talks on Feb. 11 and 12. Golinkin is president and professor of Jewish Law at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. On Friday, Feb. 11 at 8 p.m.,… Read more »

William Link

The Tucson chapter of the Brandeis National Committee will hold two Book and Author events next month, an evening soiree on Feb. 9 and a lunch program on Feb. 10. Featured authors ­— all with a mystery or history bent — are William Link, Douglas Starr, Rhys Bowen and… Read more »

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona approved the Jewish History Museum as a Federation community partner at its Nov. 3 board meeting. Founded in 1947, the Tucson Jewish Community Council became the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona in 1989. The agencies of the Council were given new autonomy with… Read more »

Paulette Gootter [Photos by Martha Lochert]

“If you want something done, your best bet is to ask a Jewish woman to do it,” Rep. Gabrielle Giffords said during her 2004 campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. On Sunday, Jan. 9, the day after Giffords, 40, was gravely wounded in a Tucson shooting rampage, a… Read more »