High school seniors Bella Wexler of Tucson and Amber Juang of Taiwan have been friends since they were fifth-grade students together at Ventana Vista Elementary School in Tucson’s Catalina Foothills School District. They’ve maintained that friendship across 7,000 miles since Amber’s family returned to Taiwan during the girls’ first… Read more »
I find it increasingly difficult to understand how any religion or spiritual tradition can put itself at the center of the world and claim it has the only truth about creation and the Divine. The internet offers windows into all corners of the world. Interfaith dialogue among open-hearted people… Read more »
Members of the Tucson Maccabees semi-pro soccer team pause during a recent practice for a team meeting. (Courtesy Tucson Maccabees)
A new local semi-professional soccer team has its roots not only in the Old Pueblo, but also in “the old country.” “My first experience with soccer was as a young child in Romania when my father took me to a game,” recalls Meir Segal, the team’s founder and coach.… Read more »
A visit to the Bisbee-Douglas Jewish Cemetery on March 11, 2020 revealed toppled tombstones and graves in need of repair. Volunteers made efforts to clean up the site in 2016, but the cemetery was not secure from vandals. (Photo: Virgil Hancock)
The recent restoration of the Bisbee-Douglas Jewish Cemetery, established in 1904, allows the Jewish pioneers buried there to “rest in dignity,” as Stuart Mellan, former president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, told the audience at the Federation’s “Celebrating Our Past, Creating Our Future” event on… Read more »
Honorees Nancy and Stu Mellan (Damion Alexander)
On Nov. 17, the Jewish Federation of Arizona/Jewish Community Foundation held its most ambitious event of the program year, bringing the community together for a drive-in event at Park Place Mall and online to celebrate Stuart Mellan, former JFSA president and CEO, and his wife, Nancy, for 25 years… Read more »
The Baskin Blue Marbled Glass Arch Menorah is one of the items featured on the Temple Emanu-El WRJ Gift Shop's new website.
With their usual Hanukkah bazaar curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic, the Women of Reform Judaism at Temple Emanu-El have created an online gift shop and will be holding a 20% sale on Hanukkah items Nov. 23-Dec. 1. Items can be browsed here, including newly arrived menorahs, menorah drip trays,… Read more »
Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging reisdent Sophia Bowman hugs daughter Gretchen through the "hugging booth" plastic divider, with son Kevin looking on. (Photo courtesy Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging)
For the last month or so, residents of Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging have been enjoying visits with friends and family outside in one of the courtyards, 6 feet apart, and masked, per COVID-19 safety precautions. “We even have a hugging booth, so residents can hug their visitors… Read more »
Members of CHAI Circle, a support group facilitated by Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona for women in the Jewish community with a history of cancer, received a surprise self-care package as part of the group's 16th annual retreat, held via Zoom on Nov. 8. (Photo courtesy Jewish Family & Children's Services of Southern Arizona)
CHAI Circle held its 16th annual retreat, “A Day of Connecting and Self-Care,” on Sunday, Nov. 8 through Zoom, with 33 participants. With CHAI standing for “Cancer, Healing, and Inspiration,” the circle is a support group for women with cancer in the Jewish community, whether they are newly diagnosed… Read more »
The Northwest Needlers created twiddle muffs for residents with dementia at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging and other senior living facilities. (Photo courtesy Ruth and Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life)
Armed with knitting needles and crochet hooks, the Northwest Needlers are women of valor, says founder Judith Feldman. For the past five years, the Northwest Needlers, who currently meet Tuesday afternoons via Zoom under the auspices of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Ruth and Irving Olson Center for… Read more »
Hagar Ben-Bassat, the new Israel Fellow at the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation, visits a zoo in her hometown of Petah Tikva on Aug. 18, 2020.
Hagar Ben-Bassat, the new Israel Fellow at the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation, was delighted when the Jewish Agency for Israel, which coordinates Israeli emissaries for a number of programs worldwide, gave her permission to come to Tucson despite the global coronavirus pandemic. Although it was a long process… Read more »
A scene from 'Doing Jewish: A story from Ghana' (Photo courtesy Tucson Jewish Community Center)
The Tucson International Jewish Film Festival is presenting three pre-festival screenings in advance of its January lineup for the 30th annual festival. The festival is using the Eventive platform to screen films that viewers can watch on a computer, mobile device, or smart TV, and Zoom for post-film programs.… Read more »
During the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation’s Shabbat meal pick-up on Oct. 9, student MitzVote ambassadors, from left, Rachel Kaplan, Lauren Bander, and Sarah Schneider, hand out MitzVote swag to encourage voter registration and early voting in the U.S. elections. (Photo: Abbii Cook/University of Arizona Hillel Foundation)
Three University of Arizona students are volunteering with Hillel International’s nonpartisan MitzVote program, which encourages and enables college and university students to vote in the national elections. Rachel Kaplan, Lauren Bander, and Sarah Schneider are working with UA Hillel Assistant Director Abbii Cook on the project. All three of… Read more »
Warmth from afar: a volunteer from California crocheted hats and ear warmers to keep kindergarteners at Homer Davis Elementary School in Tucson cozy this winter. (Photo: Shari Shapiro-Runnells)
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, schools in the Flowing Wells School District are currently using remote learning instead of in-person classes. But the situation hasn’t stopped the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s support for Homer Davis Elementary School. Michelle Shapiro, graphic artist at the Arizona Jewish Post, recently connected… Read more »
U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo (Shawn Miller)
The University of Arizona Poetry Center, part of the College of Humanities, is launching a new, virtual Institute for Inquiry and Poetics. The inaugural convening, offered in partnership with the Hurand Connection Fund, will feature U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo and poets Jennifer Foerster and LeAnne Howe, editors of… Read more »
Mitch Tarica is the streaming platform’s director of North American sales. (Courtesy of Tarica)
(JTA) — When Rosh Hashanah begins on Friday night, some 300 synagogues across North America streaming their High Holidays services via Zoom will be able to set it and forget it thanks largely to one man: Mitch Tarica. Tarica is the streaming platform’s director of North American sales. He’s… Read more »
A socially distanced outdoor service at the Green Road Synagogue in suburban Cleveland, June 2020. (Courtesy of Rabbi Binyamin Blau)
(JTA) – At the Jewish Center on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, this year’s High Holidays will be anything but normal. With eight services happening in various spaces throughout the building, on the roof and in the street (closed off to facilitate services), approximately 400 people will gather for socially distanced… Read more »
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg participates in a discussion at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., Feb. 10, 2020. (Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first Jewish woman to serve on the Supreme Court and a tireless advocate for gender equality, has died at 87. A fierce jurist known for her outsized presence and outspokenness, Ginsburg died from “complications of metastatic pancreas cancer,” the Supreme Court announced… Read more »
From left to right: UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump at the signing ceremony for the agreements on "normalization of relations" reached between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain at the White House, Sept. 15, 2020. (The White House/Tia Dufour/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
(JTA) — Israel has signed diplomatic agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, two of its Arab neighbors, and the word “historic” has been used a lot. For Israel and the region, the so-called Abraham Accords signings truly were historic: There was a big ceremony on the White… Read more »
Finalists from Social Venture Partner Tucson’s Fast Pitch 2017 celebrate on stage at the main event. (L-R) Danielle Figeuroa of Youth on Their Own, Liz Hernandez of Project Safe Place at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, Lisa Shipek of Watershed Management Group, Amalia Luxardo of The Florence Project, Sean Cronin of Stories That Soar! at Literacy Connects, L’Don Sawyer of St. Luke’s Home, and Jennifer Moore of Abbie School (Social Venture Partners Tucson)
The Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona are collaborating with Social Venture Partners Tucson to grow and advance its Fast Pitch program, which helps local nonprofits raise funds, boost awareness, and build their capacity. In Fast Pitch, which debuted locally in 2015, SVP staff and volunteers… Read more »
Project Isaiah, the Jewish community’s annual High Holidays food drive benefiting the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, begins Sept. 14 and continues through Oct. 2. Coordinated by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, this annual effort evokes the memory of the prophet who, when asked why we fast… Read more »
