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HIGH HOLIDAYS FEATURE Here’s how to turn ‘epic fails’ into fresh starts

Looking ahead (StockSnap/ Pixabay, CC0 Public Domain)

RICHARDSON, Texas (JTA) — Urbandictionary.com is an open-source site where the average citizen contributes definitions to new and old words and slang. As the High Holidays approach, I’ve been contemplating the phrase “epic fail.” According to one entry on Urbandictionary.com, epic fail means “complete and total failure when success should… Read more »

Colitis complicates local teen’s life but has not dampened her spirit

Rachel Levy, left, and her mother, Nanci Levy (Korene Charnofsky Cohen)

Rachel Levy spent her childhood struggling with ulcerative colitis, but she didn’t give in to self-pity. While learning how to manage the symptoms of the disease, she reached out to help others, earning the title of “Hero” from the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America. “My dream is to… Read more »

UA student’s research is breakthrough in pain, addiction

Alexander Sandweiss

Understanding how to provide narcotics for pain management, while avoiding potential addiction to opiates, can be difficult for physicians and patients alike. Chronic pain affects more than 100 million Americans and opioids such as morphine have been the mainstay therapy for many years. Yet growing evidence suggests that prescription… Read more »

Rabbi and wife join Jewish Arizonans on Campus team at UA location

Rabbi Moshe Schonbrun, who recently came to Tucson as rabbi for Jewish Arizonans on Campus at the University of Arizona, says after he and his wife, Esti, were married, they decided to put all of their efforts into maximizing their positive impact on the Jewish community. After meeting the… Read more »

Tucson J-Rays swim school will teach toddlers to teens

The Tucson Jewish Community Center has launched a year-round J-Rays Swim School created by Brandon Rannebarger, the J’s aquatics director and head swim coach. The school will work primarily with children ages 3-14 years in private or group lessons for any skill level, with a constructive play curriculum. It… Read more »

Taste of Judaism heads into 17th season

Temple Emanu-El will offer its 17th year of free Taste of Judaism classes beginning next month. The program explores Judaism in three two-hour sessions on Jewish spirituality, values and community, taught by Temple Emanu-El’s rabbis. In Tucson, the national outreach program, open to all, has had over 5,800 participants… Read more »

Israelis create wave-propelled robot that swims, crawls and climbs

New Ben-Gurion University of the Negev robot has applications in medicine, homeland security and search and rescue  BEER-SHEVA, Israel  — The first single actuator wave-like robot (SAW) has been developed by engineers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU). The 3D-printed robot can move forward or backward in a… Read more »

This Jewish drummer, 24, is busking up the California coast to stomp out Crohn’s disease

Gideon Grossman wants to use his drumming skills to raise money for research into a cure for Crohn's disease, a condition he has had for years. (Screenshot from YouTube)

(JTA) — Gideon Grossman taps out rapid hip-hop beats on his compact setup of bucket drums. He beams at the camera. His drumming is so effortless, it’s hard to believe he suffers from a sometimes-crippling gastrointestinal disease. In addition to flawless rhythm, Grossman has Crohn’s disease, an inflammation of the digestive tract that… Read more »

Elder Rehab for memory impairment starting new session

Elder rehab program director Sharon Arkin (left) joins participant Shirley Katz on a stationary bike ride. The two are singing “Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two).” (Courtesy Sharon Arkin)

Sharon Arkin, Ph.D., was honored as the Tucson Jewish Community Center Volunteer of the Year for her Elder Rehab program for those with mild to moderate memory impairment. The Fall 2016 semester of Elder Rehab begins the week of Sept. 19. Participants, who should be over age 50, are… Read more »

Horwitz mixes magic and mystery at local dinner theater

Ross Horwitz, who bills himself simply as “Ross the Magician,” has been practicing magic since he was 7 years old. He spent his early life in Chicago and attended a Jewish summer camp in Michigan, where he got his first taste of making the impossible possible from a camp… Read more »

Bestselling author followed sun to Tucson

Arthur Naiman

Author and publisher Arthur Naiman has no time for those without humor or creativity. The Chicago-born Tucson transplant by way of New York, Paris and the Bay Area has published more than 30 nonfiction books and started two publishing companies. A philosophy major at Brandeis University, he had no… Read more »

Helping others using unusual tool: handwriting analysis

Love of the written word and a desire to understand and help others are the forces that have driven Joan Belzer throughout her life, and, over time, she has found a way to combine them. After discovering the power of graphology, also known as handwriting analysis, Belzer was empowered… Read more »