Back in the ’70s I considered myself an ardent feminist. I displayed a bumper sticker on the back of my pale green Rambler that said “Sexism is a Social Disease.” Most of my closest friends at that time were women and my two older sisters were great influences on… Read more »
Stephanie Neidermyer, LMFT, in the lobby of the new northwest office of Jewish Family & Children’s Services Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona, a nonprofit agency that offers social and behavioral health services to the Jewish and greater Tucson community, recently opened an office on the Northwest side, at the corner of Oracle and Magee Roads. Shoshana Elkins, vice president of programs and services… Read more »
Wearing a tattered house robe and with a cigarette dangling from her hand, the pregnant woman in a low-income neighborhood opened the door. Would she cut down on smoking now that her first child was on the way, the expectant mother was asked by the visiting nurse? The response:… Read more »
Paul Adler On their 1964 honeymoon, Paul Adler and his bride, Clarise, went to Portuguese East Africa from Johannesburg, South Africa, where they met and courted. On that trip, “there was the usual fighting between two tribes,” says Adler. “I had a bit of a flu and went to the hospital.… Read more »
Tom Peled, founder of “Bike for the Fight,” with Israeli President Shimon Peres (Courtesy Tom Peled) Tom Peled has a goal: Livestrong for the Jewish world. The Israeli is finding inspiration in biking champion Lance Armstrong’s cancer awareness organization as he prepares for a 3,000-mile bike trek across the United States to raise money for his own Bike for the Fight to support cancer research… Read more »
HOUSTON — Sunscreen labels can be confusing or misleading. Dermatologists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center applaud new U.S. Food and Drug Administration label changes that help consumers understand exactly what they’re buying. Starting this month, sunscreen makers will be required to use labels with simpler… Read more »
Pam Bridgmon adjusts a cold cap, which reduces hair loss following chemotherapy, on Sharon Arkin. (Sheila Wilensky) Tucsonan Sharon Arkin, 72, leads an energetic life — and she has no intention of letting cancer set any limits. After missing her annual gynecological exam and Pap smear in 2011, she went in January. An examination by her doctor discovered cancer cells, or a thickening in the walls… Read more »
Alzheimer’s disease is a dreaded brain disease that afflicts an estimated 5 million Americans — mostly people over 65 — and half of people over 85. Feared more than cancer by most people, Alzheimer’s disease is expected to increase exponentially as the baby boomer generation swells the ranks of… Read more »
Purim and Passover, which both encourage drinking, may be behind us, but every Kiddush, every simcha is another opportunity to raise a glass and say l’chaim. And to seriously overdo things. In reality, abuse doesn’t need an excuse. And the problem doesn’t stop at alcohol. For a long time,… Read more »
Abraham Verghese, M.D. In this age of high-tech medicine compassion can often be neglected, but the annual Cindy Wool Memorial Seminar helps provide a remedy for healthcare professionals in Tucson. The third seminar and dinner on humanism in medicine, held March 28 at the Marriott University Park Hotel, sought to support physicians… Read more »
Interfaith Community Services will host a conference, “Faith Communities and Mental Illness: Tools for Response and Care,” on Friday, April 27, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at St. Philips in the Hills Episcopal Church. Created in response to the Jan. 8, 2011 shooting tragedy in Tucson, this “first… Read more »
The new ramp makes it easy for wheelchair-bound members of the congregation to come up to the bimah for an aliyah. The dream of wheelchair-bound congregants at Congregation Anshei Israel — to ascend to the bimah like everyone else — has become reality. The congregation’s new wheelchair-accessible ramp, which bridges the previous divide, was dedicated at a Saturday morning Shabbat service on March 24. “I’ve been extremely frustrated that people… Read more »
Wood-burning fireplaces can be a pleasant source of comfort in winter months but for some people, burning wood in a fireplace can literally take their breath away. Wood smoke contains hundreds of chemical compounds and some of them can harm people with heart or respiratory disease, babies, young children… Read more »
(L-R) Dr. Scott Sherman, Dr. Elihu Boroson and his wife, Sarah, with Boroson’s ‘Excalibur’ sculpture, which he donated to the University of Arizona College of Medicine in honor of Sherman, a Parkinson’s researcher. (Photo courtesy AHSC Biomedical Communications) For some people it takes a lifetime to find their passion. Dr. Elihu Boroson, a veterinarian for 23 years, found his when he became a full-time artist in 1980. He and his wife, Sarah, a librarian, lived in Stamford, Conn. She became the breadwinner. “When I stopped working I… Read more »
Tucsonan Bryan Jaret-Schachter relaxes during his second donation of stem cells for a recipient identified by the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation. Blood from his right arm is fed through a machine to separate out the blood-forming cells, then returned to him via his left arm. “Whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” — Babylonian Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 37a Bryan Jaret-Schachter, a 27-year-old financial analyst in Tucson, picked up the phone at work early one morning in September 2010 and was stunned by what he heard. The caller,… Read more »
One of my favorite books of the last decade is Daniel Tammet’s memoir “Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant,” so I was eager to read “Following Ezra: What One Father Learned About Gumby, Otters, Autism, and Love from His Extraordinary Son” by… Read more »
Sam Caron with Elwood The benefits of being a ventriloquist have come full circle for Sam Caron. “At age 6 I was a very sick child” with rheumatic fever, says the Sierra Vista therapist, who has a Ph.D. in guidance and counseling from the University of New Mexico. “When I came home from… Read more »
The Jewish Genetic Disease Center of Greater Phoenix will offer genetic screening on Sunday, Oct. 30 from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. at the Ina Levine Jewish Community campus, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road. One in five Jewish individuals of Ashkenazi/Eastern European descent is a carrier for one or more… Read more »
Susan and Brad Stillman grew concerned following their son Benjamin’s birth in September 1998. He was fussy and congested, had difficulty breastfeeding and didn’t take to the bottle. The parents brought him to the pediatrician and then to a hospital pediatric care unit near their home in Rockville, Md.,… Read more »
Laura Kafif, the house mother at Sava A Child’s Heart, visits with one of her charges, Zeresenay Gebru, as he recovers from heart surgery at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel, May 31, 2011. (Sheila Shalhevet/JTA Photo Service) Just two days earlier, 8-year-old Salha Farjalla Khamis said goodbye to her parents and four siblings in her village on the African island of Zanzibar. Now, in a hospital in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon, tears roll silently down her cheeks as she watches an Israeli nurse attach… Read more »
