Tagged Congregation Chaverim

Local religious schools, Tucson Hebrew Academy make multiple plans for fall

This year, essential school supplies will include face masks and hand sanitizer to help guard against COVID-19. (Photo: Tatevik Bagdasaryan/Shutterstock.com)

Contingency plans are the order of the day as Tucson’s synagogue religious schools and Tucson Hebrew Academy look ahead to the first day of school next month. On June 29, Gov. Doug Ducey announced that the target date for Arizona schools to open with in-person instruction had been pushed back… Read more »

New school year brings exciting programs to Tucson Jewish community

Local Jewish educators are gearing up for the new school year, which starts next month. Here are some of the new programs awaiting students. Congregation Anshei Israel is introducing a new, integrated youth education program, B’Yahad (Together). B’Yahad will provide experiential learning opportunities for students of CAI’s religious school… Read more »

Tucson J, partners to mark Kristallnacht anniversary

"Kristallnacht: Shattered, Yet Unbroken" mandala by Robert Wertz

Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, refers to the windows broken at  synagogues, homes, and Jewish-owned businesses that were plundered and destroyed during a wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms on Nov. 9 and 10, 1938 throughout Germany, Austria, and the Czech Sudetenland. The event is commonly thought to be… Read more »

With new programs and staff, local Jewish schools ready to kick off a new year

School days are right around the corner, and community students have much to look forward to in the new school year. Tucson Hebrew Academy students will notice physical changes from the outside to the inside for the school’s 45th anniversary. Refreshing the building exterior, water fountains and restrooms is… Read more »

Arizona Repertory Singers to perform Hanukkah premiere, ‘King David’ oratorio

The Arizona Repertory Singers will perform the world premiere of ‘Festival of Lights’ next month. (David Sanders)

The Arizona Repertory Singers will feature several pieces of Jewish music during its 2017-2018 season. In its winter concert series, the 47-member ensemble directed by Elliot Jones, Ph.D., will perform the world premiere of “Festival of Lights” by New York composer Karen Siegel, as well as the Ladino Hanukkah… Read more »

Business briefs 9.8.17

CONGREGATION CHAVERIM has named ITAL IRONSTONE as education director. Ironstone has a bachelor’s degree in Judaic Studies from the University of Arizona. She attended Hebrew school at Chaverim, was president of Tucson’s Kadimah BBYO chapter and studied at Tucson Hebrew Academy. JULIA H. LEVINE has been named operations manager… Read more »

In focus 6.9.17

  Congregation Anshei Israel confirmation Congregation Anshei Israel held its 2017 confirmation ceremony during Shabbat services on Saturday, May 6.                   Temple Emanu-El confirmation Temple Emanu-El held its 2017 confirmation ceremony during Shabbat services on Friday, May 19.     Congregation… Read more »

Progressive Jewish Latina embraces community with gusto

Alma Hernandez at her bat mitzvah party in the Holocaust History Center garden, April 8 (Courtesy Hernandez)

Alma Hernandez is passionate and strives every day to make a difference. People say her values and actions represent the core of Judaism, which is noteworthy because Hernandez didn’t grow up Jewish. At age 24, she has been active in the Jewish community for several years, even before she… Read more »

Alma Hernandez

ALMA HERNANDEZ, daughter of Consuelo and Daniel Hernandez, will celebrate becoming a bat mitzvah on Saturday, April 8 at Congregation Chaverim. Alma is a second-year graduate student at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona. She is also the Jewish Community Relations… Read more »

Jennifer Faythe Weisman

JENNIFER FAYTHE WEISMAN celebrated becoming a bat mitzvah on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017 at Congregation Chaverim. Weisman studied with Rabbi Stephanie Aaron for a year to prepare for the ceremony. Weisman shared the day with family, including her husband, Scott; daughters, Hannah (16) and Amelia (10), and parents, Jerry… Read more »

JFSA women name Zehngut award recipient

Zoe Holtzman

The advisory council of the Women’s Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will present the 11th annual Bryna Zehngut Mitzvot Award, recognizing an outstanding Jewish teenage girl, to Zoe Holtzman on March 5 at the Women’s Philanthropy “Connections” brunch. The council, which includes past Women’s Philanthropy chairs… Read more »

Tucson congregations help others share the joys of Purim

Adina Lytle and Elliya Griver at Congregation Anshei Israel's Hamentaschen for Hunger event on Feb.26. (Yvonne Ethier)

The joy of Purim commemorates the survival of the Jewish people from a plot to annihilate them in ancient Persia, as recorded in the Megillah, the Book of Esther. But the joy goes beyond the events of ancient times. Jews have survived over and over again, in a world… Read more »

Interfaith vigil to end gun violence planned

An interfaith worship service and candlelight vigil marking the fourth anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., will be held Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. at St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church, 3809 E. Third St. Rabbi Stephanie Aaron of Congregation Chaverim will be among the… Read more »

New, inclusive prayer book wins local fans

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 »

JFCS ethical will workshop to be rescheduled

Update July 8: This event has been postponed due to a bereavement.  JFCS hopes to reschedule on a date in August.  Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona will hold a free ethical wills workshop for the Jewish community on Thursday, July 14, from 1-3 p.m. at Handmaker… 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)

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 »

At Chaverim, Gift of Life swabs on Yom Kippur

Congregation Chaverim will partner with the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation and the Union for Reform Judaism to hold a bone marrow registration drive at Yom Kippur services. “This new year, 5775, our congregation will be performing pekuach nefesh, saving a life,” says Rabbi Stephanie Aaron. “With the… Read more »

Chaverim to host rabbi/author Wayne Dosick

Rabbi Wayne Dosick, Ph.D., author of eight books including “The Real Name of God: Embracing the Full Essence of the Divine,” will present a workshop at Congregation Chaverim on Sunday, Nov. 3 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dosick is the founder and spiritual leader of the Elijah Minyan,… Read more »

Chaverim class promotes healing from fear

C. Diane Ealy, Ph.D.

“From Fear to Excitement: Your Personal Journey of Empowerment” will be the focus of a fundraising workshop for Congregation Chaverim on Sunday, Nov. 11 from 9 a.m. till noon. “Chaverim has been through extremely difficult times these past two years with the death of Karla Ember and Gabby’s shooting,… Read more »

Giffords resigns from Congress, is honored in emotional farewell

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords hugs Daniel Hernandez, the former congressional intern who helped save her life, at a private gathering Jan. 23. (Facebook.com)

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was wounded in an assassination attempt on Jan. 8, 2011, announced Sunday that she would resign from Congress. In a dramatic two-minute video posted on her congressional website, Giffords said she will step down as she continues her recovery. “I have more work… Read more »