News

The first exit polls for Israel’s Election Day are in. It’s close.

Blue and White party chairman Benny Gantz casts his ballot at a voting station in Rosh Haayin, Israel, on Election Day, Sept. 17, 2019. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)
September 17, 2019 / Marcy Oster, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and the Blue and White were again locked in a virtual dead heat at the close of voting in Israel, exit polls on Tuesday showed. Both Blue and White, which is led by Benny Gantz, a former military chief of… Read more »

Sackler family-owned Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy
September 16, 2019 / Marcy Oster, JTA

(JTA) — The Sackler family-owned Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy as part of a tentative $12 billion settlement with dozens of state and local governments that filed lawsuits accusing the company of fueling and profiting from the opioid epidemic. The company’s board met Sunday evening to approve the move,… Read more »

7 things to look for in Israel’s elections on Tuesday

An Israeli election billboard for the Likud party shows President Donald Trump shaking hands with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also the Likud party chairman, on a street in Jerusalem, Sept. 16, 2019. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images)
September 16, 2019 / Marcy Oster, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israelis head to the polls for the second time this year on Tuesday. Exit polls from the country are notoriously fickle, so the real results of the election may leave onlookers in suspense for a bit. Here are some of the more important things to look… Read more »

Israeli elections and analysis available online in English
September 16, 2019 /

Almost 6 million voters, over 11,000 ballots. Sept. 17 is national Elections Day for the 22nd Knesset. This is the second time in 2019 that the Israeli public is called to actively participate in the democratic process. First results of this 2nd round are expected to be published tomorrow… Read more »

Annual Project Isaiah food drive to help the hungry

A food drive collection box is available in the lobby of the Harvey and Deanna Evenchik Center for Jewish Philanthropy, home of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, at 3718 E. River Road. (Phyllis Braun/AJP)
September 13, 2019 /

Project Isaiah, the Jewish community’s annual High Holidays food drive benefiting the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, begins Sept. 15 and runs through Oct. 15. When asked why we fast on Yom Kippur, the prophet Isaiah responded, “Is it not to share your bread with the hungry?” (Isaiah… Read more »

Young Men’s Group aims for community interaction

Back row (L-R): Oren Riback, Matt Landau, Tom Brannock, Stephen Segal, Isaac Figueroa (past co-chair), Jeff Winkelman (co-chair), Howard Cohen, David Kornberg, Alec Berens, Christian Yoder. Front row: Adam Miller, Eric Mellan (co-chair), Antar Davidson, Sam Bowman, Eric Natter.
September 13, 2019 /

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Young Men’s group held its annual leadership development retreat Aug. 23-25 on Mt. Lemmon, facilitated by Jewish Federations of North America National Young Leadership Cabinet co-chair Adam Miller, from Orange County, California. The 13 young men participated in leadership development programming including community… Read more »

Young Women’s Cabinet plans to ‘Be the Change’

(L-R) Lindsay Berkman, Elyse Adams, Kathy Gerst (co-chair), Trinh Tofel, Miriam Emerson, Caitlyn Citrin Low, Mary Rose Goldstein, Jamie Kippur, Aimee Katz, Bronwyn Sternberg, Lillie Hansen, Meg Knight, Jenny Rothschild (co-chair), Katie Stellitano-Rosen. Not pictured: Jennifer Selco and Karen Sadow.
September 13, 2019 /

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Young Women’s Cabinet held its annual retreat Aug. 17-18, themed “Be the Change.” The Cabinet spent 24 hours celebrating Shabbat, getting to know each other, learning about the Tucson Jewish Community, and the mission of the Federation.… Read more »

Men connect through ChaiLife gathering

L-R: Nolan Shifren, Todd Sadow, Ted Glenn, Damion Alexander, Michael Wexler, Jeff Wortzel (co-chair), Ben Pozez, Michael Shiner, Adam Goldstein (co-chair), Josh Hurand, Isaac Figueroa.
September 13, 2019 /

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona ChaiLife members gathered Saturday, Aug. 24 to reconnect. ChaiLife was created for those men who have graduated from the Young Men’s Group and want to remain connected to the Federation and their chevra (group).… Read more »

THA Tikkun Olam dinner to celebrate co-founder Bertie Levkowitz
September 13, 2019 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor
Bertie Levkowitz

Tucson Hebrew Academy will honor one of its founders, Bertie Levkowitz, at its 2019 Tikkun Olam Celebration next month. Daniel Asia, president of THA’s board of trustees, remembers meeting her back in 1988. “When we first got to Tucson I met Bertie and her then-husband, Jack, and I went… Read more »

Tucson J introduces goat yoga – no kidding!
September 13, 2019 /

Participants at the Tucson Jewish Community Center weekly Goat Yoga class get a workout and then some. They are joined by miniature kids from Goats of Tucson Yoga. At the hour-long evening program, the yogis usually are more interested in the costumed creatures than yoga poses, especially when plank,… Read more »

Israeli to bring intercultural storytelling power

Noa Baum (Sam Kinter)
September 13, 2019 /

Award-winning storyteller, author and educator Noa Baum returns to Tucson this month for several public events as well as workshops for high school students, college students and faculty, and nonprofit leaders, all aimed at fostering intercultural understanding. “We believe in the power of story to reach across the divides… Read more »

Shinshinim’s first weeks in Tucson end with road trip

Danielle Levy and Shay Friedwald, Tucson’s new shinshinim (Israeli teen emissaries) visited Disneyland over the 2019 Labor Day weekend with Congregation Anshei Israel’s B’Yahad madrichim (teen leaders) and USY programs.
September 13, 2019 / Shay Friedwald and Danielle Levy, JFSA Shinshinim

Editor’s note: This is a new, occasional column to update the community on the activities of the Weintraub Israel Center’s shinshinim (Israeli teen emissaries). Tuson? Taksen? Tucson? And then we are told that we’re about to live a whole year, in the middle of the desert, with a complete… Read more »

In Israel’s south, English classes give kids a leg up

Tucsonan Aimee Katz (front right) with third-grade students at the Alfassi school in Mitzpe Ramon, Israel. Katz taught English in Mitzpe Ramon during the 2018-19 school year. (Courtesy Aimee Katz)
September 13, 2019 / Aimee Katz, Special to AJP

Leaving home is difficult, especially since I had lived nowhere else besides Tucson, except for sleepaway camp and teaching in Israel for short stints during the summers. A year ago, however, I traded in the Arizona desert for Mitzpe Ramon, a small southern Israeli desert town in the middle… Read more »

PJ Library program offers cash for multi-family gatherings
September 13, 2019 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

If you’ve been meaning to get together with friends but haven’t found the time, here’s an additional incentive: PJ Library’s Get Together program offers up to $100 reimbursement for hosting two or more families to gather and have some fun. PJ Library of Southern Arizona is participating in Get… Read more »

Chat on migration opens Jewish History Museum season

Scott Warren listens to a question from the audience at the Jewish History Museum gallery chat, Sept. 6. (Debe Campbell)
September 13, 2019 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

Tucson’s Jewish History Museum marked its reopening for the 2019-2020 season with a gallery chat by Scott Warren, Ph.D., a humanitarian aid worker and academic geographer. Focusing on the topographies of migration, Warren addressed the geographic sense of landscape and place and how memory and erasure can affect them.… Read more »

Israeli cannabis researcher to speak at UA symposium
September 13, 2019 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor
David Meiri

Professor David “Dedi” Meiri of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming University of Arizona Inaugural Interdisciplinary Cannabis Symposium. The symposium, sponsored by the UA’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, BIO5 Institute, College of Medicine-Tucson, and College of Science,… Read more »

Growth at Chabad Oro Valley inspires new facility, more leaders

Adeli and Rabbi Boruch Zimmerman, with son Mendel, join the leadership team at Chabad Oro Valley. (Courtesy Rabbi Boruch Zimmerman)
September 13, 2019 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

Since opening in 2012, Chabad Oro Valley, led by Rabbi Ephraim and Mushkie Zimmerman, has grown its roster of participants to about 500 — and outgrown its current space. For the High Holidays, Chabad Oro Valley will celebrate in a new 3,388-square-foot home in Sun City’s Mountain View Plaza,… Read more »