Liz Kanter Groskind, JPSA Board Chair 2023-24 Following its annual Board of Trustees meeting earlier this month, Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona (JPSA) announced a new Executive Committee for 2023-24 and introduced six new Board members. Liz Kanter Groskind was elected as the new Board Chair, replacing outgoing Chair Bruce Ash, who will remain on the… Read more »
As I have referred to in a variety of different circles, the Weintraub Israel Center, a partnership between the Tucson J and Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona (JPSA), has developed a generative mission statement that invites each of us to go on a self-propelled journey to individually connect in… Read more »
Since 2004, nonprofit organizations around the country, including many in our local Jewish community, have benefited from the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program. This initiative, spearheaded by Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), provides support for physical security enhancements and activities, including planning and training, to nonprofit organizations that… Read more »
The Jewish Ecosystem of Southern Arizona held its third meeting, May 2 at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging. The meeting, attended by 37 representatives from various local Jewish organizations, furthered the mission and agenda of the Ecosystem’s first two meetings (here and here) in 2022. The goal of… Read more »
Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona (JFCS) is partnering with Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona on a new endeavor—Project Shalom. Project Shalom is a volunteer-based holiday program for Jewish older adults and adults with disabilities. “We came up with the idea for Project Shalom as a result… Read more »
The Hebrew High program at Tucson Hebrew Academy (THA) is designed to provide continued education in Hebrew language studies and to promote an immersion in Israeli culture. The curriculum offers high school students in 9th through 12th grades a path in which they can further explore and expand upon… Read more »
P. Elayne Poston, Handmaker VP of Operations, attended her first ever Israel Festival at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on April 30. It was a wonderful introduction to the Tucson Jewish Community. She met so many people and had her very first taste of falafel too! Elayne was joined… Read more »
I’ve written in Post-Its over the last two years about the methods by which UArizona Hillel was increasing engagement. Now, two years after the University reopened post-COVID, I’m pleased to report on the results of our methods. This academic year, UArizona Hillel reached 953 students, including 284 at great… Read more »
This article first appeared on PrideSource.com and in Between The Lines, Detroit Metro’s award-winning biweekly LGBTQ+ print publication. The nametag stopped me in my tracks. I immediately swung around to talk to the gray-haired woman with a friendly face sitting in the author booth at the March 2023 Tucson… Read more »
I was nervous about coming to Tucson because I knew I would be a co-rabbi with Rabbi Thomas Louchheim. He seemed nice at my interview weekend, but how would this work in practice?! Would it be awkward? Would it be unclear who had rabbinic authority? What would be the… Read more »
Arizona. California. Israel. Peru. Boston. No matter what state, country, time zone or zip code, I call my mother every day. And at 97, she still answers the phone with energy and excitement. Calling home was a decision I made over two decades ago to intentionally stay connected to… Read more »
Burton (Burt) E. Becker (born January 11, 1941) passed away Tuesday, April 25, preceded in death by his wife Phyllis, after a prolonged battle with cancer. He is survived by his daughters Beth Becker of Silver Spring, Md. and Amy Platizky (Adam Platizky) of Phoenix. He is also survived… Read more »
To commemorate Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), the Tucson Hebrew Academy’s (THA’s) Hebrew and Humanities departments collaborated to design an assembly presented by the sixth-grade students to acknowledge the 1.2 million children that were murdered by the Nazis. The assembly began with the students reminding the audience that a butterfly… Read more »
Why is the Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center (TJMHC) hosting a book club that is reading Beyond Magenta: Transgender and Nonbinary Teens Speak Out? This question was posed to me recently and honestly, it’s a question that I was happy to answer. Why is an organization that focuses… Read more »
As Jewish people, we are connected with a global Jewish peoplehood past and present; as a Jewish Community Center, one way we maintain and deepen that connection is by strengthening our bond with other JCC’s in the JCC Movement. On Sunday, March 26, the Tucson J had the honor… Read more »
For many years, Handmaker Passover Seders were large events with children and grandchildren joining parents, grandparents and great-grandparents for this wonderful holiday celebration. The Handmaker Seders for the last several years have been more intimate events, due to COVID restrictions, but not so much this year. For the first… Read more »
“Absolutely life changing.” “The most extraordinary experience of my life.” “Will inform how I consider literally every conflict going forward.” These are just a few pieces of student feedback from UArizona Hillel’s first Perspectives trip to Israel and Palestine, funded by the national Maccabee Task Force. The trip is… Read more »
On Sunday, March 26, Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona (JPSA) reintroduced Super Sunday, the largest annual, one-day fundraising event for the organization. The event, shuttered in 2020 due to the COVID outbreak, returned this year and raised nearly double its goal of $60,000. A total of $118,785 will be… Read more »
Thomas Alan Louchheim was born on February 9, 1957, in Los Angeles, California, the third child of Sandy z”l and Marlene Louchheim. He graduated Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and Finance in 1979. Tom remained in Washington, where he… Read more »
This article was originally published by the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix. Artist Beth Surdut is a wildlife illustrator, environmental educator, stained glass designer and writer. She began painting on silk in the 1980s, starting with scarves, which have been on display in the Smithsonian, in Washington, D.C., and… Read more »
