Special Sections

I went out, Lord. People were coming and going, Walking and running. Everything was rushing: Cars, trucks, the street, the whole town. People were rushing not to waste time. They were rushing after time, To catch up with time. To gain time. Good-bye, excuse me, I haven’t time. I’ll… Read more »

In his 1971 Yom Kippur sermon, Rabbi Arthur R. Oleisky of Congregation Anshei Israel called for the formation of a Jewish day school in Tucson. Rising to the challenge, Bertie and the late Jack Levkowitz and David and Judy Leonard joined the rabbi and his wife, Betejoy, as the… Read more »

Back when he attended Tucson Hebrew Academy, Head of School Jon Ben-Asher was a bit of a Dungeons & Dragons geek. Ben-Asher, one of nine students in THA’s 1982 graduating class, remembers “this whole life of connectedness,” which encompassed the school, Congregation Anshei Israel (where classes were held and… Read more »

Lindsey Baker, director of program development at Feeding America, says millions of fond memories flood her thoughts when she recalls her time at Tucson Hebrew Academy. But most important is the powerful feeling of belonging to a community that still resonates today. “THA gave me a sense of identity… Read more »

In 1977, Miriam Geffen Meyers was among the first students to graduate from Tucson Hebrew Academy. As THA did not yet have its River Road campus, the school leased classrooms and office space from Congregation Anshei Israel. Meyers, 53, says that because the number of students in each grade… Read more »

Howard Levkowitz, co-founder and CEO at Tennenbaum Capital Partners L.L.C., a venture capital and private equity firm in Los Angeles, Calif., says he is very happy to see his good friend and former classmate Jon Ben-Asher working as head of school at Tucson Hebrew Academy. The Levkowitz’s were among… Read more »

With a career encompassing national and international security, defense and counter-terrorism, former Tucson Hebrew Academy student Gerri Pozez has taken the Jewish values she learned from THA, her family and the Tucson Jewish community to a global level. Practicing tikkun olam, making the world a better place, and l’dor… Read more »

Lisa Himmelstein Youngerman, a 1978 graduate of Tucson Hebrew Academy, says her experiences there inspired her continuing involvement in the Jewish community. She passed on this tradition to her two daughters, also THA graduates. Youngerman’s parents, Paula and the late Stephen Himmelstein, were among several families that founded THA.… Read more »

Shoham Ozeri, daughter of Nancy Ben-Asher Ozeri and Tidhar Ozeri, was born in Israel and spent her first eight years there. Attending Tucson Hebrew Academy helped her identify as Israeli even after her move to the United States with her family before third grade, she says. Continuing her Jewish education… Read more »

Rabbi Ruven Barkan says his first and second grade teacher at Tucson Hebrew Academy “introduced me to God.” Morah Brandwein (the title means “teacher” in Hebrew) spoke to her students in glowing terms of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. “She planted a Jewish seed in my… Read more »

Isaac Greenberg, a solution engineer at Deloitte, a business consulting firm, says Tucson Hebrew Academy provides its students a strong sense of family and of the importance of community service. “And doing something without recognition is one the most honorable life experiences,” says Greenberg. Greenberg, 33, who grew up… Read more »

Brooke Sebold does. See boldly, that is. The 1995 Tucson Hebrew Academy graduate is a movie director, producer, writer and editor in Los Angeles. Her films have won numerous awards across the United States and many can be seen on NBC, PBS, the Sundance Channel and other entertainment platforms.… Read more »

Professional writer and editor Abbie Kozolchyk credits her sixth- and seventh-grade attendance at Tucson Hebrew Academy as the most formative of her school years, fostering both her Jewish identity and her love of language. Growing up in a Jewish family provided a firm foundation in Jewish tradition, including membership… Read more »

Rabbi Helen T. Cohn

Congregation M’kor Hayim will start the new year with a new High Holidays machzor, or prayer book, recently published by the Reform Movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis. The two-volume machzor, Mishkan HaNefesh, should “add new energy and meaning to our High Holidays services,” says Rabbi Helen Cohn. Among… Read more »

The Tucson Jewish Community Center will host Simply Well for Women, a two-day seminar with Drs. Kathleen N. Mueller and Gloria “Gigi” Dunn, on Oct. 8 and 9, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Two of only 1,000 physicians in the world to have completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship… Read more »

(JTA) — For many families, the Yom Kippur break-fast is a bagels and schmear-filled inevitability — just add some lox, maybe some slices of tomato and orange juice, and everyone is happy. For other families, the break-fast is one of the most important meals of the year — almost… Read more »

Paul Golin

  NEW YORK (JTA) — I just bought Rosh Hashanah tickets for the first time ever. The last time I attended services for the High Holidays was on my parents’ dime. That was back before the World Wide Web, when Ross Perot heard a giant sucking sound and the… Read more »

(The Nosher via JTA) — Ah, Rosh Hashanah. The holiday in which we’re not only allowed to eat leavened bread, but are encouraged to slather honey over fat slices of the stuff. As my sister and I used to shout from the backseat of our car on our way… Read more »

  (Kveller via JTA) — My mother died on the morning right before Yom Kippur two years ago, and my sister and I were not at all surprised. Irreverent, quirky and eccentric, my mother always kvetched about Yom Kippur and would have done anything to miss it. Dying right… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — For Rosh Hashanah, many of us eat an apple dipped in honey as an auspicious sign for a sweet new year. The symbolism is clear, and the ritual as easy to pull off as squeezing a bear-shaped plastic bottle of honey. But what kind of a… Read more »