Amy Hirshberg Lederman It began as a typical Jewish Christmas Eve. To borrow a quote from Elana Kagan: “Like most Jews, I was at a Chinese restaurant.” As I walked through the restaurant, I passed table after table of Jewish friends and acquaintances happily sharing fried rice and eggrolls with family and… Read more »
Graham Hoffman holds a challah for Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona interfaith mission participants celebrating their arrival in Jerusalem on Oct. 30. Photo courtesy Graham Hoffman
On a Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona interfaith mission Oct. 27-Nov. 5, dubbed “Connecting Cultures, Communities, and Hearts,” 28 participants got a taste of Israel’s diversity and complexity, coming away with a new appreciation for the nation’s challenges, but no easy answers. Members of the group “were touched so… Read more »
Amy Hirshberg Lederman In October 1965, Columbia Records released a hit song by the Byrds called “Turn, Turn, Turn.” While my friends and I loved its beautiful harmony, I never suspected that its words would accompany me through life, spanning decades of historical and personal events from the Vietnam War to the… Read more »
Amy Lederman, left, and Ariel Vegosen More than 60 people gathered at the Jewish History Museum on Sunday, March 17 for “Gender Speak: Understanding the Trans and Gender-Evolving World.” Amy Hirshberg Lederman, a Tucson educator, writer and attorney, and Ariel Vegosen, a California-based gender inclusivity trainer, led the workshop, which looked at gender from a… Read more »
Mourners at the Mount of Olives in February 2019 (Amy Hirshberg Lederman)
On a cold and windy day in February, I drove an hour and a half from Haifa to Jerusalem in search of my great-great-grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Yehudah Franco. I had learned about him from stories my mother told me and a family tree carefully constructed by relatives who were… Read more »
In 1966, when I was just 13 years old, my parents surprised me by taking me to New York City to see Zero Mostel star as Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof.” I was enchanted by Shalom Aleichem’s inspiration, “Tevye the Dairyman,” which was written in Yiddish in 1894.… Read more »
Family members in Paris in April 2017 (L-R): Lauren Lederman, Amy Lederman, Ema Nachmani, Bella Bernard and Mariyam Nachmani (Courtesy Amy Lederman)
It all began in 2001 with my mother’s insatiable desire to discover more about her background and family. I had heard stories since I was a young girl about her parents who had tragically died within a month of each other, leaving my mother an orphan before her third… Read more »
Amy Hirshberg Lederman I recently spent five days hiking and biking through the Burgundy region of France, where my appreciation for the vineyards and vintners of that region was nothing short of inspirational. The two main grapes of Burgundy, pinot noir and Chardonnay, generate hundreds of varieties of wine for all of… Read more »
Amy Hirshberg Lederman (Courtesy Lederman) A group of leaders from the local Jewish community recently received a unique opportunity to study 21st-century leadership issues from a Jewish perspective. The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona sponsored the flagship LEAD 2017 leadership program, held Jan. 4-March 22 at Tucson Hebrew Academy and the Jewish Federation. A… Read more »
Amy Hirshberg Lederman I have always loved books. As a child, I treasured my hardcover editions of “Heidi,” “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” and “Black Beauty” and loved the nights when my mom and I would snuggle on the couch as she read me chapter after chapter of “Little Women.” And in 1965, at… Read more »
Amy Hirshberg Lederman
Amy Hirshberg Lederman will speak on “Living with No Regrets” at the 12th Annual CHAI Circle Retreat on Sunday, Oct. 30, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Canyon Ranch Health Resort, 8600 E. Rockcliff Road. CHAI Circle (Cancer, Healing and Inspiration), a program of Jewish Family & Children’s Services,… Read more »
Amy Hirshberg Lederman I travel by air quite a bit and to be honest, it isn’t fun. Besides the stress of getting to the airport in sufficient time to remove half the clothing I put on just hours before, I generally arrive at my destination half-starved and sleep deprived. But the real angst… Read more »
Amy Hirshberg Lederman When her husband, Ray, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in late 2011, award-winning local author and columnist Amy Hirshberg Lederman says that they decided as a family to live with “no regrets.” It was three years, seven months, and six days later that Ray passed away as a result… Read more »
I was moved by reading Amy Hirshberg Lederman’s articles about the loss of her beloved husband, Ray, in the context of her Judaism. In expressing herself through the medium of the written word, I know that Amy was better able to deal with her pain and suffering. I am… Read more »
Amy Hirshberg Lederman When my beloved husband of 32 years died after battling cancer for three and a half years, family and friends did their best to comfort me. It didn’t take more than a few minutes to realize that, with the exception of a first kiss, there may not be a… Read more »
Amy Hirshberg Lederman When my husband, Ray, was diagnosed with cancer almost four years ago, we became a team, determined to face the challenge of living with cancer head on. From the onset, we talked openly about risks and probabilities as we aggressively researched and pursued treatments and clinical trials. We sought… Read more »
AMY HIRSHBERG LEDERMAN’s award-winning book, “To Life! Jewish Reflections on Everyday Living,” is now in its second printing. Lederman has written more than 300 columns and essays that have been published nationwide, debuting in the Arizona Jewish Post. Her second book, “One Life, Many Paths: Finding Meaning and Inspiration… Read more »
A new adult educational collaboration, “The Buzz,” will begin next month with a community discussion, “That’s Funny … You don’t LOOK Jewish: Being Jewish in America Today” with Amy Hirshberg Lederman. The series is a collaborative effort of the Coalition for Jewish Education of the Jewish Federation of Southern… Read more »
