Our Town

MADYSSEN ZARIN of University High School (left) and RACHAEL WEIN­STEIN of Ironwood Ridge High School were among five Arizona high school juniors chosen by the Jewish National Fund for the Schwartz-Hammer Alexander Muss High School in Israel Impact Fellowship Program. They will attend the Alexander Muss High School in… Read more »

Native Tucsonan JOSH LEDERMAN, an AP White House reporter, will receive the Merriman Smith Memorial Award from the White House Correspondents’ Association at its annual dinner on April 25. The award honors Lederman’s on-the-spot reporting of the Sept. 19 incident when an intruder jumped the White House fence. Lederman… Read more »

BROADWAY IN TUCSON is launching the local edition of the National High School Music Theatre Awards. The Ben Vereen Awards Tucson Sing Off will be held Sunday, May 3 at the Fox Tucson Theatre. The 2015 Ben Vereen Awards Southwest Region Competition (with San Diego) will be held Sunday,… Read more »

Hillel honors Holocaust From Wednesday, March 25 at noon through Thursday, March 26 at noon, the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation sponsored its 24th annual Holocaust vigil. The 24-hour student-led program provides an opportunity to educate all students and community participants on the UA campus. One highlight of this… Read more »

MARTIN REICHGOTT, head swim coach at the TUCSON JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER, has been selected as the lead swim coach for the youth division of the U.S. delegation to the 13th Pan American Maccabi Games, to be held Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Santiago, Chile. Reichgott is in his third year… Read more »

Former Tucsonan RUSSELL WIENER and bandmates in the Los Angeles-based The Title Trackers recently released “Lost Title Tracks.” The vinyl album (with a CD in the package) of classic album title song spoofs has received rave reviews in the L.A. Times and other publications. Wiener attended Tucson Hebrew Academy,… Read more »

See Jane sing The University of Arizona Hillel Foundation held its annual fundraising event on Sunday, March 8 at Centennial Hall. Emmy and Golden Globe award winner Jane Lynch, known for her portrayal of Sue Sylvester on television’s “Glee,” combined acerbic wisecracks with engaging song styling in a cabaret-style… Read more »

On March 4, the Weintraub Israel Center held a Bechayed BePurim (Together on Purim) party with Chabad on River and the Israel American Council. The event included dinner, a Megillah reading and Israeli music. Enjoying the festivities are Shira Barel (center) with, from left, Tamar, Amit, Ofri and Lee Benjamin.

Purim celebrations from around our community                … Read more »

(L-R): Edden Dembsky, Daniel Pressman, Naama Cohen (UA Israel Fellow), Jack Goldberg (AIPAC National Field Organizer), Alma Hernandez, Michael Sheridan, Pablo Granados, Ryan-Ann Armendariz, Shaina Marco, Consuelo Hernandez

UA CATPAC honored Members of CATPAC Wildcats for Israel, the University of Arizona’s bipartisan pro-Israel political club, attended the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference in Washington, D.C., March 1-3. The group won the Duke Rudman Leadership Award, AIPAC’s top honor for student leadership.      … Read more »

LORI RIEGEL, MJEd, was selected to present her research on ethnic studies in urban school districts in the Southwest at the Harvard Graduate School of Education Student Research Conference on April 10.… Read more »

ELEZABETH CAMERON CYR will read her children’s book, “Stone Soup: A Jewish Tale,” a retelling of the classic story, at Barnes & Noble at the Foothills Mall on Saturday, April 4 at 11 a.m.… Read more »

CHAD WILLIAMS, chief operating officer at PEPPER VINER HOMES, has been honored as one of the exceptional 40 Under 40 building executives by Professional Builder Magazine.… Read more »

(L-R) Ryan Armendariz, Naama Cohen (University of Arizona Hillel Israel Fellow), Edden Dembsky, Sivan Shahmoon and Alma Hernandez fundraise for Save A Child’s Heart on the UA Mall.

Hillel supports Save a Child’s Heart The University of Arizona Hillel Foundation’s Wildcats for Israel club held a fundraiser for Save a Child’s Heart on the UA Mall on Feb. 10. Almost $250 was raised over four hours for SACH, an Israel-based nonprofit that provides urgently needed pediatric heart… Read more »

A new bilingual, nonfiction book for all ages by RONI CAPIN RIVERA-ASHFORD, “My Tata’s Remedies/Los Remedios de mi Tata,” has been published by Cinco Puntos Press. The book, which will debut at the Tucson Festival of Books (March 14-15), highlights the relationship between a young boy and his grandfather… Read more »

SARAH LANGERT, leadership development and PR director at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, was among 100 American Taglit Fellows who attended a four-day Taglit-Birthright Israel training in Chicago in August with experts in Jewish, Israel and experiential education. Fellows were selected from a pool of hundreds of applicants. Taglit-Birthright… Read more »

EAST LAWN PALMS MORTUARY AND CEMETERY, a Dignity Memorial provider, has named Michael Landy as family service counselor with special responsibility for Jewish funeral and cemetery needs. Landy, the former executive director of Congregation Anshei Israel in Tucson and Congregation Ohev Shalom in Maitland, Fla., has over 20 years… Read more »

MARIAN SALZMAN has been named the new executive chair of Tucson Values Teachers. Salzman has been CEO of Havas PR North America since 2009 and has been named PRWeek’s U.S. PR Professional of the Year (2012) and Global PR Professional of the Year (2014), among other honors. Salzman also… Read more »

Rabbi Gedaliah Druin talks to University of Arizona students and other members of the community at the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation about the restoration of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies’ Torah scroll on Feb. 10. (John Winchester/Arizona Center for Judaic Studies)

  Rabbi Gedaliah Druin, a master scribe, spent Feb. 10 and 11 working on the restoration of a Torah scroll owned by the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona (left). The scroll, which is thought to be nearly 200 years old and originally used by… Read more »

ANDREA S. GOULD-MARKS, Ph.D., ABPP, a psychologist with private and public practices in New York, is opening a practice for integrative transitional psychotherapy. Offices will be centrally located in Tucson. Gould-Marks is founder of Lucid Learning Systems, LLC, a provider of psycho-educational programs, and director of community development for… Read more »

AMY KRAUSS has been elected to serve on the governing board of the Catalina Foothills School District. Her four-year term began last month. Krauss, an attorney, will join four other board members. Krauss also serves on the steering committee of the Cardozo Society of the Jewish Federation of Southern… Read more »