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New and improved Jewish camps for our Gilded Age

It's a bird... it's a plane... it's the new "trapeze center" at Camp Modin, the oldest Jewish summer camp in New England and the inspiration for the movie "Wet Hot American Summer." (Courtesy of Camp Modin)
March 18, 2016 / Victor Wishna, JTA

(JTA) — At the oldest Jewish summer camp in New England, you can hike, swim, sail — and now fly through the air with the greatest of ease. The Camp Modin “trapeze center” is the first of its kind in North America, a “revolutionary” design with a “state-of-the-art inflatable… Read more »

Vaccines and Jewish camps: What parents need to know

Campers at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires in Wingdale, N.Y. (Uriel Heilman)
March 18, 2016 / Gabe Friedman, JTA

(JTA) — “All of a sudden, bottles of hand sanitizer appeared all over,” said Rabbi Jason Miller, looking back at 2009, when the swine flu craze reached Camp Maas, a Jewish summer camp in Ortonville, Michigan. “Staff members would stand outside the dining hall with bottles,” he told JTA. Aside from constant reminders… Read more »

Local synagogues set for Purim frolics
March 17, 2016 /

Purim is one of the most joyous holidays on the Jewish calendar, commemorating Queen Esther’s triumph, with the help of the wise Mordechai, in saving the Jews of ancient Persia from the wicked plot of Haman, evil adviser to the king. The holiday begins on March 23 this year… Read more »

Ramah camps a bright spot for Conservative movement, but 9 of 10 kids don’t go

The waterfront at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires includes a wide variety of inflatable toys and surf kayaks. (Uriel Heilman)
March 16, 2016 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

WINGDALE, N.Y. (JTA) – The sky is clearing after a damp morning at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires, and kids are emerging from their cluttered bunks. An impromptu Frisbee game breaks out on the lawn, while down by the lake a counselor prepares the water trampoline and surf kayaks. On… Read more »

In Europe, a summer camp creates the next generation of Jewish leaders — and babies

Shabbat services and Jewish life are integral parts of the Szarvas experience. (Courtesy of American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee)
March 16, 2016 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

SZARVAS, Hungary (JTA) — Escaping a sudden downpour in the summer of 2012, Andras Paszternak and Barbi Szendy ran to find cover inside an empty cabin at their Jewish summer camp, Szarvas, 100 miles east of Budapest. The two senior counselors, then 31 and 36, respectively, chatted as rain drenched the sprawling compound, where… Read more »

Should we get hammered on Purim — and Election Day?

Groggers and beer, two important elements of a Purim celebration (Edmon J. Rodman)
March 13, 2016 / Edmon J. Rodman, JTA

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Purim parties are just around the corner — as is the presidential election. This got me thinking: What does the holiday’s operative phrase, “ad lo yada,” “until one no longer knows,” really mean? Traditionally, this rabbinic license to party, derived from the Talmud, has been taken… Read more »

Through bravery and hardship: losing a leg, gaining a new home in Tucson

Talya Simha Fanger-Vexler is learning to walk with her new prosthesis. (Courtesy Talya Simha Fanger-Vexler)
March 3, 2016 / Talya Simha Fanger-Vexler, Special to the AJP

My whole body trembled as I tried to fight back the tears that were streaming down my face. “Wait!” I screamed. “One more, just one more photo … please?” I said meekly as I tried my best to swallow through a dry and swollen throat. The pre-op nurses nodded… Read more »

‘Thirteeners’ celebrate, commemorate b’nai mitzvah

(L-R): Congregation Chaverim cantorial soloist Diana Povolotskaya, Cynthia Busby, Ellie Maas, Bill Kugelman, Barbara Holtzman, Michael Lex and Rabbi Stephanie Aaron. The first and second time b’nai mitzvah celebrants, dubbed ‘Thirteeners,’ range in age from Maas, 26, to Kugelman, 91. (Michael Miklofsky)
March 3, 2016 / Karen Schaffner, AJP Intern

When Mike Lex turned 13 he did not celebrate becoming a bar mitzvah. He grew up in a remote part of Wyoming, a place where he says as a Jew he was in a tiny minority and because his parents did not practice, his 13th birthday came and went.… Read more »

Employee from the ’60s recalls almost seven decades of Post, community

Marcie Sutland drew this illustration in 1966, highlighting the Tucson Jewish community’s annual fundraising campaign and its volunteer leaders.
February 18, 2016 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor

It was a combination of dry desert air and the Arizona Jewish Post that brought Marcie Sutland’s family to Tucson more than 60 years ago. “When we were deciding to come out West” in the late 1940s, “I wrote to the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and somehow I got… Read more »

Falkow, Strauss families carry cantor’s legacy of tradition into 21st century

The Falkow family in 1955, clockwise from left: Lynne, Bess, Cantor Maurice, Richard and Deena (Courtesy Congregation Anshei Israel)
February 18, 2016 / Nancy Ben-Asher Ozeri, Special to the AJP

During holiday musaf services at Congregation Anshei Israel, Jack, Alan and Ian Strauss ascend the bimah to recite the priestly blessing. As the son-in-law, grandson and great-grandson of the late Cantor Maurice Falkow carry on their patriarch’s legacy, they cover their heads with their prayer shawls, raise their arms… Read more »

Valentine’s Day: An ideal date for Jewish weddings?

This kippah will be distributed at the wedding of Lena Silver and Aaron Wolfson. (Courtesy of Silver and Wolfson)
February 9, 2016 / Edmon J. Rodman, JTA

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — In December, around the time my wife and I were celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary, we received an invitation to an outdoor Jewish wedding to be held on Valentine’s Day 2016. Printed on a red postcard affixed with a heart postage stamp, the couple, Lena Silver… Read more »

Candy-making Holocaust survivor believed to be world’s oldest man
February 4, 2016 /
Yisrael Kristal

(JTA) — A Holocaust survivor in Haifa many now be the oldest man in the world. Yisrael Kristal, 112, achieved that status after Yasutaro Koide of Japan, also 112, died on Jan. 12, Haaretz reported. Kristal’s grandson, Oren, received an email from the Gerontology Research Group, an international organization… Read more »

More herbs, less salt:  Healthful ‘Holy Land’ herbs grow well in Tucson

Rosemary thrives amoung the citrus trees in Jacqueline Soule's Northwest Tucson garden.
January 7, 2016 / JACQUELINE A. SOULE, PH.D., Special to the AJP

The American Medical Association cautions that many Americans consume too much salt. The AMA encourages us to reduce our salt intake because excess sodium boosts blood pressure, leading to heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure. The problem is that we like flavor in our food, and most of us… Read more »

Tips to help make ‘organize my closet’ resolution a reality
January 7, 2016 /

(Family Features) — It’s the time of year when many of us think about getting organized for a fresh new start. “Most of us put cleaning out and organizing our closets at the top of our New Year’s resolutions list every single year,” says Barbara Reich, professional organizer. “But… Read more »

Ramah is beloved tradition for Tucson family
January 7, 2016 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor

Tucsonan Lisa Goldberg’s connections to Camp Ramah in Ojai, Calif., run deep. She’s been a Ramahnik since she first attended camp when she was 8 years old, having “inherited” Ramah from her mother, Mimi Dinin Sisk, who was one of the first campers at the California location, and her… Read more »

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