Our Town

JUDY ROSE SENSIBAR took over as executive director at the JEWISH HISTORY MUSEUM last month, succeeding Eileen Warshaw, who held the post for 10 years. Sensibar has been a middle and high school English and social studies teacher in Tucson; Pittsburgh; and Jakarta, Indonesia. She taught writing at Pima… Read more »

JCC Love of Reading Mayor Jonathan Rothschild read to students in the Tucson Jewish Community Center’s early childhood education program on Wednesday, Feb. 12 as part of Love of Reading Week. Rothschild read “Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons” by Eric Litwin and poems from “A Light… Read more »

Repairing a Torah, stitch by stitch Rabbi Batsheva Appel completed a special project with Temple Emanu-El’s confirmation class on Sunday, Jan. 26. Appel learned from a scribe how to sew a Torah scroll onto new etzei chayim (literally, Trees of Life, the wooden poles to which the parchment is… Read more »

MINDY FAIN, M.D., has been honored with the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson’s Anne and Alden Hart Endowed Chair in Medicine. Fain is professor of medicine and chief of the division of geriatrics, general internal medicine and palliative medicine in the UA Department of Medicine. She is co-director… Read more »

Last week, CITY HIGH SCHOOL unveiled the restored 1941 façade of the Howard & Stofft building at 37 E. Pennington St., next door to its current location. City High School was selected for a façade renovation grant from the Downtown Tucson Partnership. The new site will be the home… Read more »

A Tucson Tu B’Shevat More than 100 people attended a Tu B’Shevat celebration on Thursday, Jan. 16 sponsored by the Weintraub Israel Center, the Tucson Jewish Community Center and the Congregation Or Chadash religious school. The holiday is known as the “New Year for the Trees” and the event… Read more »

EXO ROAST CO. and TAP & BOTTLE are working with the nonprofit Living Streets Alliance (www.livingstreetsal liance.org) to raise funds and create a design for Tucson’s first “parklet” at 403 N. Sixth Ave. QUEEN CREEK OLIVE MILL has opened a Tucson store, Oils and Olives, in the La Encantada… Read more »

An article by former Tucsonan MIMI SCHULTZ, “A Survivor’s Lost Torah Scroll,” was published by The Jewish Daily Forward. See http://forward.co/articles/190723/a-survivor-s-lost-torah-scroll/?p=all.… Read more »

(L-R): Melissa Hall, Nancy Cohen and Rosa Cohen at the blackjack table

Margie Fenton award Some 200 people gathered on Sunday, Jan. 5 at Mercado San Agustin for the annual meeting of the Jewish Community Relations Council and to celebrate 10 years of the Jewish Latino Teen Coalition, a program of the JCRC and the Office of Congressman Raul Grijalva. Eileen… Read more »

ADAM LEHRMAN, a.k.a. Tucson Foodie (www.tucsonfoodie.com), has established two new online businesses. Quizine.com gives dining deals to participants who relate feedback to restaurateurs in real time via their smart phones. Soapbox.sm is a marketing company based on the use of social media to promote businesses. ORI PARNABY and HILARY… Read more »

RABBI BILLY LEWKOWICZ recently completed the Tucson Mara­thon. Known in his native South Africa as the “Running Rabbi,” he ran marathons, “ultra marathons” including the famous “Comrades Marathon” of 56 miles and a charity run of 100 miles. Since immigrating to Tucson in1994, he had not run a marathon.… Read more »

Hadassah regional leader Cathy Olswing was installed as president of Hadassah’s Desert-Mountain Region on Sunday, Dec. 15 at a ceremony at Lodge on the Desert. The region encompasses eight southwestern and mountain states. As president of the region, Olswing will sit on the national board of Hadassah. Rochelle Edelman… Read more »

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY RELATIONS COUNCIL OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA has named EILEEN WARSHAW, executive director of the Jewish History Museum, as the recipient of the 2013 Margie Fenton Award. The award recognizes an individual or group who has made a significant impact on the community with… Read more »

THE RABBI SAMUEL S.  AND A. IRMA COHON MEMORIAL FOUNDATION will present the Cohon Award for 2013 to two winners: Harriet Rossetto, founder and CEO of Beit T’Shvuah, the House of Return in Los Angeles, which uses Jewish spirituality, 12-step recovery and psychotherapy to rescue people from addiction; and… Read more »

KERI SILVYN, a partner in Lazarus, Silvyn & Bangs, P.C., has been selected as the 2013 Woman of the Year by  Greater Tucson Leadership. Silvyn is co-founder and chair of Imagine Greater Tucson, president of the Jewish Communitty Foundation, serves on the boards of the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of… Read more »

Rabbi Yossi Winner cycles the UA Chabad menorah to a new location on campus. (Courtesy UA Chabad)

Mitzvah 613 Torah dedication Hundreds of people gathered on Sunday, Dec. 8, to witness the dedication of Congregation Anshei Israel’s new Torah, the culminating event to a yearlong celebration of the synagogue’s 83rd anniversary. The event included learning stations and art projects for all ages, performances by adult and… Read more »

Giffords honored with Jewish Heritage Award More than 250 people turned out as the Jewish History Museum honored Gabrielle Giffords with the 2013 Jewish Heritage Award on Sunday, Nov. 3 at the Marriott University Park. Barry Friedman, JHM president (pictured at right), presented the award to Giffords as her… Read more »

CONGREGATION ANSHEI ISRAEL has received the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s Centennial Schechter Commendation for the creation of mobile applications for Apple and Android devices that put synagogue communications, programs and events, including Shabbat and holiday information, at users’ fingertips. Congregant Gary Windham created the apps in 2012 after… Read more »

JENNIFER P. SCHNEIDER, M.D., Ph.D., has published “Understand Yourself, Understand Your Partner: The Essential Enneagram Guide to a Better Relationship” with co-author Ron Corn, M.S.W.… Read more »

LORI RIEGEL has rejoined the ARIZONA JEWISH POST as advertising manager. She was a salesperson at the AJP from 2006 to 2008, then served as religious school director at Temple Emanu-El and religious and cultural education coordinator at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, where she currently runs the… Read more »