Letters to the Editor

I’ve been attending the classic series at the Tucson Symphony Orchestra for many years, on Sundays. This past season’s opening concert fell on Sept. 24, the Jewish Fast of Gedaliah. I was fasting. At the end of the concert, the new music director and conductor José Luis Gomez was… Read more »

We have a special responsibility as Jews to stand up and stop the Administration policy of separating families of undocumented immigrants at the border. When I see the horrible pictures of children in detention centers, it brings to mind the powerful Arizona Theatre Company production of “Diary of Anne… Read more »

The JTA article you published online (“These Jewish Groups are Fighting…Behind the Scene” May 16, 2018) about ZOA criticizing some Jewish groups for their troubling policies and positions had many inaccuracies.  (1) In fact, ZOA legitimately criticized National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) for signing a letter demanding that people stop… Read more »

The Tucson Brandeis National Committee mourns the loss of a special friend and mentor, Elaine Lisberg, who passed away April 29. Elaine had a long-lasting love of Brandeis University and was a good friend of its founding president, Abram Sacher. She was a national president of Brandeis National Women’s… Read more »

According to your May 4 news report, “Exhibit shows ordinary Americans knew a lot about Shoah as it was happening,” the new “Americans and the Holocaust” exhibit at the United States. Holocaust Memorial Museum claims that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was unable to grant haven to Jewish refugees because… Read more »

[L-R): Holocaust survivor Walter Fantl, former President of Austria Heinz Fischer, Holocaust survivor and former Tucsonan Alfred Schreier at the imperial palace in Vienna, Austria, in 2017.

As a former member of the Southern Arizona Holocaust Survivors Group, I was touched by the article about Fort Huachuca (“Army dedicates plaque to survivors at Fort Huachuca Holocaust ceremony,” AJP 4/20/18). I had the privilege of attending the ceremonies on two different occasions while I lived in Sahuarita,… Read more »

On Friday, Feb. 16, 2018 the Board of Appeals of the Central Conference of American Rabbis issued its final opinion in which it voted unanimously “in the interest of substantial fairness” to reverse my suspension (reported here in the Arizona Jewish Post in September) and reinstate me immediately.  I… Read more »

One year ago, the Trump administration announced a highly controversial ban against refugee resettlement in the U.S. For seven months the White House declared that the most vulnerable people on our planet (refugees) – 75 percent of whom are women and children – would not find safe harbor on… Read more »

Regarding “New Israeli shinshinim bring youthful energy to Tucson” (AJP 8/11/17),å how lucky we are that Tucson is one of the cities participating in the shinshinim (Israeli teen volunteers) program, the goal of which is to make connections between Israel and worldwide communities. Our first shinshinim, Leah Avuno and… Read more »

B’nai B’rith Covenant House of Tucson is a low-income HUD housing community for seniors that provides safe, affordable housing for 120 older adults in mid-town. Early in the morning on Sunday, May 14, which was Mother’s Day, 40 residents living in building one were awoken to a blaring fire… Read more »

My wife, Sue, and I are new to Arizona, having moved here from West Chester, Pa., in August 2016. However, we are not new to Judaism or a love of Israel and Jewish culture. But this is not about us, it’s about our daughter, Alexandra Simone Penfil. When Alli… Read more »

I was immensely saddened to learn of recent bomb threats to JCCs in the United States and Canada and of the malicious destruction of headstones at the Chesed Shel Emeth cemetery in my hometown of University City, Mo.  I hope our country will soon know who committed these heinous… Read more »

I’d like to thank David Kohn for his detailed and illuminating response (“Letter on two-state solution got the facts all wrong,” AJP 2/3/17) to Joel Heller’s original letter on the “two state solution” (“Two-state solution could have happened decades ago,” AJP 1/20/17). Educational as it was, I don’t think… Read more »

Until I saw “Lebensraum” on Feb. 9 at the Invisible Theatre, I thought I knew a great deal about the Holocaust; how wrong I was. I had never heard about lebensraum (“living space”), Hitler’s belief that Germany needed more living space to survive, a premise based on the denial… Read more »

I want to express appreciation to the Secular Humanist Jewish Circle and member Joel Unowsky, for his thought-provoking lecture on Feb.11, “Jews and the Civil War.” It was “altogether fitting and proper” (to quote a phrase from the Gettysburg Address) that this lecture should take place one day before… Read more »

On Shabbat morning, Jan. 21, I joined 15,000 of my neighbors at the Women’s March in Tucson. Why did I participate in the march? Because the teachings of our Jewish tradition made it clear that I must. Torah teaches that all of us are created in God’s image (Genesis… Read more »

In the Letters to the Editor (1/20/2017), Joel S. Heller channels Kellyanne Conway by presenting alternative facts about the original partition of Israel/Palestine by the United Nations (“Two-state solution could have happened decades ago”). He states, “In 1948 the United Nations declared a ‘two state solution.’ The two states… Read more »

In the most recent Post there was an opinion piece that noticed the lack of the words “two state solution” in some official pronouncement (“In Congress, a new battle emerges: two states or not two states” (AJP 1/6/17). In 1948, the United Nations declared a “two state solution.” The… Read more »

As most of us watched in horror and felt helpless as multiple fires consumed too much of Israel, fortunately, U.S. firefighters and other firefighters from around the world temporarily set aside their normal lives and went to Israel to help. One wishes that they know how grateful those of… Read more »

Thank you for the wonderful piece you created about THA alumni, a nice choice of students from different “generations,” so to speak (“Making their mark: Tucson Hebrew Academy alumni,” AJP 9/23/16). In keeping with my propensity for nostalgia, small world stories and the conviction that there is less than… Read more »