Our Town

Intergenerational Thanksgiving lunch On Tuesday, Nov.  21, Temple Emanu-El’s Olga and Bob Strauss Early Childhood Center celebrated with residents from Handmaker at the Temple’s second annual intergenerational Thanksgiving Lunch. The ECE’s children presented a short program of Thanksgiving blessings and songs on the themes of friendship, community and gratitude.… Read more »

JESSE CHARLES has opened MAVERICK DESIGN & CONSULTING, featuring a demo theater to help clients design a new audio/video system or improve their current one. Visit avmaverick.com for more information. ELYSA CRUM and SHERRY WEISS have created TASTE OF TUCSON DOWNTOWN CULINARY AND CULTURE TOURS. Longtime Tucson residents with a… Read more »

UA Hillel gets defibrillator The Steven M. Gootter Foundation recently gave an AED (automated external defibrillator) to the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation. Since 2009 the Gootter Foundation, which works to save lives by defeating sudden cardiac death, has donated and distributed hundreds of AEDs to schools, police and… Read more »

MARK ROBERT GORDON has filed to run for Arizona Secretary of State in the 2018 election. Born in Phoenix, he spent much of his youth participating in programs at the old Phoenix Jewish Community Center, Beth El, and Phoenix High School for Jewish Studies. He earned degrees from Princeton… Read more »

Women and girls flock to Mega Challah Bake A record 330 women and girls turned out for Tucson’s fourth annual Mega Challah Bake on Thursday, Oct. 26, hosted by Chabad Tucson and the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Feigie Shemtov, program director at Chabad Tucson, led the evening, which included… Read more »

(L-R): Jim Whitehill, JCF board chair; Tom Warne, JFSA immediate past chair; Deanna Evenchik; Jonathan Rothschild, mayor of Tucson; Stuart Mellan, JFSA president and CEO; and Shelly Silverman, JFSA chair (Martha Lochert)

JFSA and JCF hold grand opening celebration The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Jewish Community Foundation held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house at their new home, the Harvey and Deanna Evenchik Center for Jewish Philanthropy, on Sunday, Oct. 15. More than 150 people attended the event.… Read more »

JEWISH FAMILY & CHILDREN’S SERVICES has been selected as a semi-finalist in Social Venture Partner’s “Fast Pitch” competition. LIZ HERNANDEZ, JFCS director of marketing and development, will talk about the Project Safe Place program. Five attorneys from the law firm FARHANG & MEDCOFF, Robert Bernheim, Robert Garcia, Meredith Marder,… Read more »

ESTHER STERNBERG, M.D., director of research at the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, has been appointed chair of the National Library of Medicine’s Board of Regents. Sternberg also is founding director of the UA Institute on Place and Wellbeing, a professor with the UA College of Medicine–Tucson… Read more »

Guests arrive in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman Grand Foyer of the Harvey and Deanna Evenchik Center for Jewish Philanthropy for the Oct. 1 gala. Above them is a glass, aluminum, steel and acrylic art installation, “Infinite Possibilities” by Art Neptune and Zak Timan. On the balcony is a bronze sculpture by David Unger, “My Beloved,” donated by Kathy and David Unger. The wooden ceiling designed by CDG architect Frank Mascia, with its “welcoming tent” shape, was inspired by the documentary “Raise the Roof” about the reconstruction of the roof of a lost wooden synagogue in Poland. (Martha Lochert)

JFSA thanks building donors with gala Some 250 donors to the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s capital campaign attended a gala on Sunday, Oct. 1 at the Harvey and Deanna Evenchik Center for Jewish Philanthropy, the new home of the Federation and the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona.… Read more »

Devy Wolff (Korene Charnofsky Cohen)

Tucson artist DEVY WOLFF will hold a retrospective show, “Devy Wolff: The New York Years, 1968-1998” at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave., Nov. 1-29. An opening reception will be held Sunday, Nov. 5, 1-3 p.m. Visit devywolff.com.… Read more »

TUCSON HEBREW ACADEMY has hired EMILY ERNST LUNNE as director of finance, a role that also includes human resources and building maintenance oversight. Lunne is a native of Wyoming and a graduate of the University of Wyoming. She has been involved with many nonprofit organizations as an auditor, a… Read more »

Carlos Hernandez

CARLOS A. HERNÁNDEZ, CEO and president of JEWISH FAMILY & CHILDREN’S SERVICES OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA, received a 2017 Influential Health and Medical Leader Award in the category of Mental Health & Psychiatric Services from Tucson Local Media. The awards event was held Sept. 27 at Casino del Sol Resort. … Read more »

Carol Sack at her retirement party on Sept. 25 (Courtesy Tracy Salkowitz)

Celebrating a philanthropic career On Monday, Sept. 25, more than 70 people gathered for a party celebrating the retirement of Carol Sack, who spent more than 30 years working in the Tucson nonprofit community with the last 15 years in the Jewish community, most recently as a senior philanthropic… Read more »

MARVIN J. SLEPIAN, M.D., will receive the AZBio Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Arizona Bioindustry Association at its 2017 awards ceremony on Oct. 11. Slepian is a cardiologist, inventor, entrepreneur and educator. At the University of Arizona, he serves as professor of medicine, professor and associate department… Read more »

Rabbi Robert Eisen presents Lynne Falkow-Strauss with a courtyard paver inscribed with her name.

Congregation Anshei Israel dedicated its Lynne Falkow-Strauss Courtyard and Foyer on Sunday, Sept. 10 in conjunction with its annual end of summer welcome back party. The renovated courtyard and foyer honor Falkow-Strauss, who has been the director of CAI’s Esther B. Feldman Preschool/Kindergarten for the past 45 years and… Read more »

PETER MARCUS, owner of ALLEGRA PRINT-MAIL-SIGNS OF TUCSON ON PARK, was recently awarded two annual sales awards by the Alliance Franchise Brands network. His center received the Sales Excellence Award, which recognizes the top 10 sales leaders in the Alliance Franchise Brands international network of marketing and print services… Read more »

CONGREGATION CHAVERIM has named ITAL IRONSTONE as education director. Ironstone has a bachelor’s degree in Judaic Studies from the University of Arizona. She attended Hebrew school at Chaverim, was president of Tucson’s Kadimah BBYO chapter and studied at Tucson Hebrew Academy. JULIA H. LEVINE has been named operations manager… Read more »

“Til I Am: A Lyric Memoir” by JEN MAIDENBERG was chosen as a finalist for the Autumn House Press full-length book prize for the second year in a row. Maidenberg, a former assistant editor at the Arizona Jewish Post, currently lives in New Jersey.… Read more »

DARKAYNU JEWISH MONTESSORI has added SHARON LOPER as lead Montessori preschool teacher. After training and interning at NCME in San Diego, Loper’s first Montessori teaching position was at the College Center Montessori in San Diego, where she taught for four years before moving to Tucson. Her next position was… Read more »

Southern Arizona well represented at PJ Library conference in Aspen Several local PJ Library benefactors attended a PJ Library leadership gathering in Aspen, Colo., earlier this month. Front row (L-R): Marilyn Einstein, Jill Rosenzweig, Herschel Rosenzweig; back row: Steve Sim, Rosalie Eisen (PJ Library program officer), Harold Grinspoon (PJ… Read more »