Mazel tov to OOROO founder and CEO Jeff Artzi on the opening of a new OOROO Auto location at Wetmore and 1st (behind Starbucks, at 765 E. Wetmore Road) on Aug. 1. Award-winning OOROO provides complete car care services at their shops and with their mobile services. For more… Read more »
Olivia Mitchel The University of Arizona Hillel Foundation awarded Olivia Mitchel, a third-year medical student at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, the Shirley D. Curson Medical Student Scholarship, a two-year award that provides $17,500 a year for a student’s third and fourth years of medical school. The… Read more »
Jean Helene Glassberg died May 29, 2025, three weeks after her 88th birthday. She was born in the Bronx, New York. Her family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, for a healthier life for her brother, who suffered from asthma. She arrived in Phoenix in time to begin high school, but… Read more »
Barbara and Larry Subrin will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary on June 20. They were married in Chicago on June 20, 1965. They met as teenagers at a BBYO dance in Chicago. They now have three children, Brian, Marcy (Jacob), and Joy (Derek), and “are the best Bubbie and… Read more »
This past week, a colleague and I shared these thoughts about the tragic and senseless murders of two Israeli Embassy Staff members in Washington. We are heartbroken by the tragic murders of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky in Washington, D.C., outside the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday, May 22.… Read more »
Congratulations to Lynn Davis, director of the Rabbi Joseph H. Gumbiner Community Action Project at the Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center, for earning her Master of Arts in Jewish Professional Studies from the Spertus Institute. Davis completed the 18-month program along with a cohort of other Jewish professionals… Read more »
Mazel tov to Tucson composer Daniel Asia, whose opera “The Tin Angel” will premiere on June 28 and 29 with Teatro Grattacielo at the Ellen Stewart Theater at La Mama in New York City. Asia’s Jewish heritage deeply informs his music, which integrates Jewish texts and traditions, merging classical… Read more »
Rabbi Arnold Task, 92, died on May 8, 2025, surrounded by his wife, Judy, and daughters, Sherri Gouterman, Susan Israel, and Laurie Klein. Rabbi Task was born in Chicago on October 21, 1932. He and Judy were married on Sept. 4, 1955. Rabbi Task completed his undergraduate degree at… Read more »
On Sunday, April 27, at this year’s Southern Arizona Yom HaShoah Commemoration, we will come together as a community to commemorate 80 years since the end of the Holocaust. As in years past, we will gather to memorialize the more than six million Jews, including one and a half… Read more »
Emily McDonnell Jewish Women’s Archive has named Emily McDonnell to its inaugural cohort of Pomegranate Writing Fellows, a new fellowship for Jewish Women of Color. McDonnell is a fourth-year PhD candidate at UNC Chapel Hill, where she researches Indigenous geographies, tourism, and contemporary identity. Originally from Arizona, she is a proud citizen of… Read more »
At its April 2, 2025, board of governors meeting, Pima Community College honored Lisa Grabell for 20-plus years as a student mentor in PCC’s Teacher Certification program. Grabell is a Holocaust survivor from Vienna, Austria. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Mills College of Education in New York City,… Read more »
We’ve just come out of the Seders on Passover — the festival of freedom. We sat at the Seder table, retold the story, tasted the bitter and the sweet, and declared once again, “In every generation, a person must see themselves as if they personally left Egypt.” But if… Read more »
Chaim Grade On Wednesday, Feb. 26, The New York Times ran a front-page article by Joseph Berger entitled “A Discovery of Lost Pages Brings to Light a ‘Last Great Yiddish Novel.’” The article detailed the search for a missing manuscript by a giant of 20th century Yiddish literature, Chaim Grade, its… Read more »
This year, Tucson Hebrew Academy (THA) is incredibly proud to see our 8th-grade class embarking on exciting high school journeys. Our graduates are heading to top schools like Catalina Foothills High School, the Arts Magnet Program at Tucson High School, The Gregory School, and five have been accepted to… Read more »
Chazal, our sages, teach that often after having celebrated a holiday, we want to linger a few days, remaining in the essence of the holy day. Our days in Shushan have ended for this year, yet there is a way of staying here a bit longer because Purim is… Read more »
Daniella Ironi is Tucson’s newest shlicha, or Israeli emissary, here to support this summer’s JCC Maccabi Games & Access® at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Ironi is helping design fun yet educational programs for the “Hang Time” space, where athletes will spend time socializing when they are not competing.… Read more »
Scarlett Van Damme and Jacob Meyer were married on Saturday, February 15, 2025, at Wild Horse Ranch in Tucson, Arizona. Rabbi Malcolm Cohen of Kol Ami Synagogue officiated the ceremony beautifully following sunset. The happy couple did not host a traditional wedding party, but were honored by the attendance… Read more »
International chef and author Debbie Matzkin says she was born “in a palace of shadows.” “My family lived in a world of elegance and affluence,” she told almost 300 women gathered March 2 at Tanque Verde Ranch for Connections, the signature program of Women’s Philanthropy at Jewish Philanthropies of… Read more »
He was standing at a busy intersection when I drove by. What caught my attention was the small dog wrapped in a blanket that he pushed in a stroller. Also, his sign had a name on it: Leo. It seemed every major intersection had people with signs, pleading for… Read more »
When David Wien’s wife, Fran, died of cancer in 2020, he found it hard to cope. But after 18 months, he says, “All of a sudden, I got this, maybe message from HaShem, I don’t know, but I got this thought in my head that said, ‘Take the focus… Read more »
