Our Town

(L-R) Hirsch Handmaker (Kalmanovitz campaign co-chair), Jane Kivel (Handmaker Foundation past chair), Lowell Rothschild (Kalmanovitz campaign co-chair), Terry Perl (Handmaker board chair), Art Martin (Handmaker president and CEO), Alice Baker, Myles Beck (Handmaker past chair), Mayor Jonathan Rothschild and Paul Baker. The Bakers are among the top donors to the Kalmanovitz campaign, along with the Steven Ohren Foundation. (Frederick Clark Photography)

Kalmanovitz Center dedication Some 200 guests attended the dedication of the Paul and Lydia Kalmanovitz Elder Care Center on Monday, Oct. 27. Located on the campus of Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, the center is a partnership between Handmaker and Tucson Medical Center. The Kalmanovitz Foundation pledged $3… Read more »

JENNI STEINBERG PAGANO  has launched RIVETED, a design shop housed in a vintage 1972 Shasta travel trailer. The shop sells vintage items as well as up-cycled handmade pieces.  Pagano, who has a degree in design from University of California, Los Angeles, formerly managed the 1st Rate 2nd Hand Thrift… Read more »

Ellen Freeman

ELLEN FREEMAN was elected to the board of Keshet, a national grassroots organization that works for the full equality and inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Jews in Jewish life. Freeman was program coordinator of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s LGBT Jewish Inclusion Project and is a… Read more »

Advertising Manager LORI RIE­GEL, MJEd, of the ARIZONA JEWISH POST has won a 2014 Excellence in Advertising Award from the Arizona Newspaper Association for Best Special Section (third place) for “Shop Downtown 2013,” which appeared in the Nov. 8, 2013 issue. The COMMUNITY FOOD BANK OF ARIZONA is a… Read more »

SHARON MEGDAL, Ph.D., director of the Water Resources Research Center at the University of Arizona, will give a keynote lecture, “Thirsty Rivers in Water-Scarce Regions: Experiences from the Colorado River” at an international conference in Israel. The conference on the rehabilitation of the lower Jordan River and the development… Read more »

(L-R): Tova Braunstein and Tsipi Goeta-Kreisler assemble packages.

The Jewish Women’s Circle of Chabad on River gathered 20 women on Sunday, Sept. 21 to pack honey cakes, apples and honey for the residents of Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging. The Jewish Women’s Circle has sponsored this project for more than 10 years.… Read more »

GARY BACHMAN, a program manager in the Pima County community development and neighborhood conservation department, received a 2014 Housing Hero Award from the Arizona Department of Housing. Bachman has been an advocate for affordable housing and community development planning in Southern Arizona for nearly 30 years, including the last… Read more »

ARIZONA PUBLIC MEDIA has received 23 Emmy nominations from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Rocky Mountain chapter. The nominations, more than any other public broadcaster in the region, include 36 staff members and mark the best performance in AZPM’s history. The winners will be announced on… Read more »

Mayor Jonathan Rothschild presents a proclamation declaring “Education and Sharing Day” on March 31, 2015 in honor of the Rebbe to the five Chabad leadership couples in the area. (L-R): Rabbi Ram Bigelman, Rabbi Yossi Winner, Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman, Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin, Rabbi Yossie Shemtov, Rothschild, Chanie Shemtov, Feigie Ceitlin, Naomi Winner, Chani Bigelman and Mushkie Zimmerman (JW Photographers)

Some 400 people filled the Tucson Jewish Community Center ballroom to hear Rabbi Joseph Telushkin discuss his New York Times best-seller, “Rebbe: The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, the Most Influential Rabbi in Modern History” on Sept. 15 in an event organized by the JCC, Chabad Tucson… Read more »

The TUCSON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA has named Mark Blake­man president and CEO. He comes to the TSO from the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, where he was chief operating officer.  His work to restore the Schermerhorn Symphony Center after a flood helped win a 2011 Award of Engineering Excellence from the American… Read more »

AMY HIRSHBERG LEDERMAN’s award-winning book, “To Life! Jewish Reflections on Everyday Living,” is now in its second printing. Lederman has written more than 300 columns and essays that have been published nationwide, debuting in the Arizona Jewish Post. Her second book, “One Life, Many Paths: Finding Meaning and Inspiration… Read more »

The Weintraub Israel Center arranged for 400 pencil cases filled with back to school supplies to be distributed to students in Tucson’s Partnership2Gether region in Israel.  Tucsonan Asher Amar initatiated the project. The message on the cases reads, “(Wishing you) a successful school year, with love, Partnership2Gether family, the… Read more »

BARRY WEISBAND has been hired as director of planning and partner relationships at the JEWISH FEDERATION OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA. Weisband’s 30 years of marketing and business development experience ranges from nonprofit to for-profit organizations, including large multinational corporations, and planning and launching new ventures.  He has an extensive background… Read more »

STEVEN MECKLER will be inducted into the Tucson Advertising Hall of Fame on Thursday, Sept. 11. Meckler owns Steven Meckler Photography. He has been active with the American Advertising Federation Tucson board of directors since 1998 and was recognized by AAFT with the 2006 Advertising Professional of the Year… Read more »

ALLIE LONDON has been appointed program officer for the JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA. She is responsible for overseeing the Foundation’s grants program. A native New Yorker who recently relocated to Tucson from Chicago, she has over two decades of experience in marketing, copywriting and client engagement, including… Read more »

Sunrise Drive Elementary School first grade teacher ALLYCYN NA­DELL JACOBS recently returned from a 10-day teacher development program in China, through the Catalina Foothills School District’s partnership with Yangtze International Study Abroad. Jacobs was one of 10 CFSD participants. She teaches the English component of Sunrise Drive’s Chinese immersion… Read more »

LOGAN RIEGEL was awarded a scholarship to participate in the Galway Flute Festival in Athens, Ga., June 26-July 1. Logan was coached by Lady Jeanne Galway and participated in master classes on orchestral music, chamber ensemble music and jazz improvisation taught by Sir James Galway. She has been playing… Read more »

Sharon Glassberg

SHARON GLASSBERG, director of the Coalition for Jewish Education and vice president for programming and organizational development at the JEWISH FEDERATION OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA, was installed as vice president of the North American Association of Community and Congregational Hebrew High Schools at the annual NAACCHHS conference held June 9-10… Read more »

(L-R): Dani LeCompte, Foothills Club giving chair; Bryan Davis, JCRC director; Justin Martinez, National Bank of Arizona vice president and incoming Foothills Club president; Lew Hamburger, JCRC Homer Davis Project co-chair

  Supporting Homer Davis The Foothills Club, a nonprofit organization that raises funds to support community programs for children and families in need, recently donated $1,500 to the Jewish Community Relations Council’s Homer Davis Project, which provides food assistance, tutoring and other support for children at Homer Davis Elementary… Read more »

MARILYN FORSTOT, a Sahuarita resident, recently published a novel, “More Precious than Rubies,” available as an e-book through amazon. com. Set during and after the American Revolution, the novel shows early American life from a Jewish perspective. Forstot is a member of Beth Shalom Temple Center of Green Valley,… Read more »