Bryan Kaplan displays donations for the Casa Alitas migrant shelter from Congregation M’kor Hayim. Congregation M’kor Hayim has supported the Casa Alitas shelter for asylum seekers, run by Catholic Community Services. This month, the congregation answered a call for small size coats, jackets, and sweaters for the women and children who pass through the shelter, often on their way to colder locations. With… Read more »
State Rep. Alma Hernandez with Holocaust survivors and Jewish Family & Children’s Services staff from Southern Arizona at the capitol in Phoenix Jan. 27. (L-R) Erika Dattner, Susan Kasle (JFCS vice president of community services), Raisa Moroz (JFCS Holocaust survivors program manager), Michael Bokor, Wanda Wolosky, Sharon Glassberg (JFCS clinical therapist/wellness and support specialist), Hernandez, Theresa Dulgov, Sara Lichter, Pawel Lichter, Sidney Finkel, Barbara Agee
On Monday, Jan. 27, which was International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, bill #HB2682, submitted by Arizona Rep. Alma Hernandez with bipartisan support, passed unanimously in the House education committee. The bill requires Arizona schools to teach about the Holocaust and other genocides.… Read more »
Women inPower fellows (L-R) Marian Schiltz, Robin Kelley, and Debbie Boggs engage in a self-reflection activity on values.
The Tucson Jewish Community Center launched its 2020 Women inPower Tucson leadership program with a brunch orientation session Jan. 12. The fellows chosen for the pilot program funded by the JCC Association are Elise Bajohr, Debbie Boggs, Gabby Erbst, Katie Filous, Katharine L. Gerst, Maya Horowitz, Robin Kelley, Shannon… Read more »
After cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, women get down to the business of playing mah jongg at a Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona event Jan. 8.
A multi-generational group of more than 100 women gathered Jan. 8 at the Harvey and Deanna Evenchik Center for Jewish Philanthropy for an evening of food and drink, mah jongg — with many newcomers learning the game— and giving, hosted by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Young Women’s… Read more »
Dr. Jonathan Kay joined Arizona Glaucoma Specialists in June 2019, after graduating from the University of Houston College of Optometry in May 2019. He joined his father, Jeffrey S. Kay, M.D., who founded the practice in 1987, as well as his brother, David B. Kay, M.D., who joined the… Read more »
Emily Miller Grant and David Shapir have announced their engagement. Emily is the daughter of Jennifer Miller Grant and Ron Grant and Stephanie Pearmain, all of Tucson, and the granddaughter of Donna Grant and Gordon Waterfall, Merrill and Virginia Grant, Lee Miller and the late Jerry Miller, and Lee… Read more »
Humberto Lopez, left, and Paul Baker, Jewish Latino Teen Coalition quinceañera co-chairs, display wind chimes presented to them and longtime JLTC Leader Shari Gootter (not pictured). Local artist Julie Szerina Stein created the unique pieces, which capture both cultures to make a “milagro-mizrach,” she says, using the Spanish word for a votive folk charm and the Hebrew word for an ornament hung on an eastern wall to indicate the direction for prayer.
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona welcomed more than 150 people Jan. 5 to honor Jewish Latino Teen Coalition founders Humberto Lopez and Paul Baker at a quinceañera/15th year celebration. Young adult alumni shared their stories, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and former Mayor Jonathan Rothschild delivered greetings, and Shari… Read more »
Photo courtesy Temple Emanu-El
Members of Congregation Or Chadash and Temple Emanu-El joined for a 100 Menorah Celebration, an Or Chadash tradition, at Temple Emanu-El on Friday, Dec. 27. After a light supper, participants lit menorahs in the sanctuary, lending their glow to the holiday Shabbat service led by clergy from both congregations.… Read more »
About 150 people attended Temple Emanu-El’s Hanukkah Spectacular on Sunday, Dec. 15, with students from the Kurn Religious School and Strauss ECE singing, dancing, acting, and playing music. Here, Kurn teacher Sarah Fire leads children in “I’m a Little Latke” and “Hanukkah is Here.”… Read more »
About 100 people attended Congregation Chofetz Chayim’s dinner party on Sunday, Dec. 29, celebrating both the final night of Hanukkah and Rabbi and Esther Becker’s 40th year in Tucson.… Read more »
Aaron Winter cheers on his daughter as she colors a menorah at Handmaker, where PJ Library kids and Congregation Or Chadash students joined with residents to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah, Sunday, Dec. 22. Participants also designed menorah drip mats, laminated by PJ Library coordinator Mary Ellen Loebl, and joined in candle lighting, songs, and stories with COC’s Cantor Janece Cohen and rabbinical student Julia Berg.
Tucsonans Bruce Ash (right) and Gary Kippur attended the White House Hanukkah reception Dec. 11, and witnessed President Donald Trump signing the Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism. (Photo Courtesy Gary Kippur)
Photo: AJP Phyllis Braun
Inbal Shtivi, director of the Weintraub Israel Center and one of Tucson’s shlichim (Israeli emissaries), and her family hosted a Hanukkah open house on Thursday, Dec. 26, the fifth night of the holiday, with food, fellowship, and song. Here, Shtivi (left) and Cantorial Soloist Sara Golan Mussman prepare to… Read more »
Back row (L-R): Scott Casey (grandfather), Jacob White (father); middle row: Rachel Casey White (mother) with baby Eli, Kim Ronkin Casey (grandmother), Pam Weston (great-grandmother), Sandy Ostroff (great-grandfather), Sarah Casey (aunt); front row: Yeta Bart Weston (great-great-grandmother)
Yeta Weston, 104, one of the earlier members of Beth Shalom Temple Center in Green Valley, recently became a great-great-grandmother. She returned to BSTC to celebrate the naming of Eli White. The baby and parents were in town for the special service on Friday, Dec. 27, conducted by Rabbi… Read more »
J Street founder and President Jeremy Ben Ami (right) honored Larry Gellman Dec. 16 at the first major event the pro-Israel group hosted in Tucson. More than 110 people, including a broad range of political leaders, rabbis, and Jewish professional and community leaders, attended. The event featured a timely… Read more »
State Rep. Alma Hernandez was named to The Forward’s list of 50 “Machers and Shakers Who Influenced, Intrigued and Inspired Us This Year.” Hernandez also was appointed this month to be the Young Democrats of America Jewish Caucus Southwest regional director. Steve Brass, a Tucson-based “stun and run” self-defense… Read more »
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, area synagogues, and community members recently conducted the annual Project Isaiah food drive, collecting more than 3,636 pounds of food and $512 in donations for the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona. Many other donations were collected directly from local synagogues.… Read more »
Rabbi Norman T. Roman Beth Shalom Temple Center of Green Valley has hired Rabbi Norman T. Roman as its first part-time rabbi, beginning Jan. 1. Roman was rabbi emeritus at Temple Kol Ami in West Bloomfield, Michigan, after serving as senior rabbi there for 30 years. Roman, born in New York City and… Read more »
(L-R): Carol Weinstein; Janice Brumer, a member of the Union for Reform Judaism national board; and Rabbi Helen Cohn Photo courtesy Congregation M’kor Hayim
Congregation M’kor Hayim has joined the Union for Reform Judaism, the association of nearly 900 Reform congregations in North America. “Our congregation began in 2008. Now that we are fully established locally, we felt it was time to connect with the wider Jewish community,” Rabbi Helen Cohn said. She… Read more »
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About 85 community members joined a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Nogales, Arizona, on Wednesday, Nov. 20. The bus trip, hosted by the Ruth and Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life and Hadassah Southern Arizona, included several speakers along the journey: immigration attorneys Alexandra Miller from Humane… Read more »
