Tucsonan Marty Getraer has entered these examples of folded book art in a local Judaica contest.
Tucsonan Marty Getraer taught himself bookbinding years ago when he lived in Baldwin, New York, repairing more than 600 prayer books for his synagogue in gratitude to the daily minyan where he said Kaddish for his father. He revived the hobby a decade ago after moving to Tucson, where… Read more »
(L-R) Garden of Hope founder Randy Emerson, London Emerson, Bonnie-Sedlmayr Emerson, Jordan Emerson, Sasha Emerson, Miriam Emerson, and Jane Sedlmayr with artwork by Lynn Rae Lowe at the dedication of the Garden of Hope at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, Nov. 3. (Damion Alexander)
Gan Tikvah, the Garden of Hope, was officially dedicated Nov. 3 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Cancer survivor Bonnie Sedlmayr-Emerson was the inspiration for the garden. Her husband, Randy Emerson, oversaw the project. “The garden celebrates the arts, which is important to the JCC spiritually, emotionally, and cognitively,”… Read more »
Tucsonan Bertí Brodsky began collecting nutcrackers 34 years ago in Germany. (Debe Campbell/AJP)
With a collector’s heart, Arizona Jewish Post advertising manager Bertí Brodsky surrounds herself with things that have meaning. A collection of crystal balls that began when her mother gave her an antique glass paperweight; charming David Winter cottages; teddy bears from the early ’80s; shoes in every color, to… Read more »
Bob Kovitz during his U.S. Army basic training at Fort Ord in Monterey, California, in 1969. Courtesy Bob Kovitz
Fifty years ago, I reported to the U.S. Army induction center in Los Angeles. My father, who was a World War II veteran, later described the experience of driving me to the center as the worst day of his life. Why was a Jewish graduate student from the University… Read more »
(L-R) Deb Krivoy, Springfield JCC (Massachusetts); Sarah Siegel, Harry & Rose Samson Family JCC (Milwaukee); Kendall Sisisky Valliere, Jewish Community Alliance of Jacksonville; Allison Wexler, Tucson Jewish Community Center; Leslie Sholl Jaffee, Leslie Jaffe Consulting; and Jessica Schneider, Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact at 92nd Street Y, at a Women InPower training session at the JCC Association in New York, Oct. 30. (Amy Wexler)
In August, a coalition of women leaders in the Jewish community, including Sheila Katz, CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women; Idit Klein, CEO of Keshet; and Shifra Broznick, founder of Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community, authored a piece for eJewishphilanthropy about their experiences as highly… Read more »
The Berlin Wall opens in November 1989. (Patrick PIEL/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
VIENNA (JTA) — “Neither ox nor donkey can block the path to socialism,” the East German leader Erich Honecker boldly declared on Aug. 14, 1989. Less than three months later, on Nov. 9, the Berlin Wall would fall. Newsweek’s then-Berlin bureau chief Michael Meyer called 1989 the year that… Read more »
Carol Kitman first started photographing Yevgeny, left, and Alexander Vindman in 1980. (Carol Kitman)
(JTA) — Carol Kitman remembers meeting Alexander and Yevgeny Vindman nearly 40 years ago in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. The brothers were about 4 1/2 years old and dressed in matching blue sailor outfits with navy caps. Kitman was instantly taken with the twins and asked to take their photo.… Read more »
Liad Goldberg, left, with her sister Naama Issachar in happier times. (Courtesy of Goldberg)
(JTA) — In August, Liad Goldberg visited her sister in a Russian jail. It had been four months since Naama Issachar had been arrested at a Moscow airport while on a layover and accused of drug smuggling, and Goldberg was seeing her sister for the first time since the… Read more »
Temple Emanuel in Pueblo, Colo., was the target of a possible bombing plot, according to court documents. (Screenshot from Google Maps Street View)
(JTA) — A white supremacist has been arrested for plotting to blow up a synagogue in Colorado. Richard Holzer, 27, was charged for planning to attack Temple Emanuel, a congregation in Pueblo of 35 families whose building dates to 1900. According to an affidavit describing the charges, Holzer is… Read more »
Afghanistan's last Jew, Zebulon Simentov, blows the shofar at the sole synagogue in Kabul. (Massoud Hossaini/AFP via Getty Images)
(JTA) — As the old saying goes, two Jews, three opinions. Add one headache for the Taliban. Meet Zabulon Simentov, 66, who is believed to be the last remaining Jew in Afghanistan. Emran Feroz recently profiled Simentov for Foreign Policy and uncovered some incredible stories about the feisty Afghan… Read more »
LifeTown Shoppes features 15 storefronts where visitors can practice doing everyday errands. (Josefin Dolsten)
LIVINGSTON, N.J. (JTA) — A new 11,000-square-foot shopping center here is home to 15 storefronts, including a bank, pet shop and clothing store. There’s a health center with a dentist and doctor’s office and a ShopRite supermarket. A traffic guard monitors the crosswalk, which is bisected by a plant… Read more »
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn makes a campaign speech in Battersea, England, Oct. 31, 2019. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
(JTA) – After nearly a decade in power, Britain’s Conservative Party is in tatters. Years of failing to negotiate a deal with the European Union to follow through with Brexit have led to internal party discord and roiled public frustration. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s controversial push to leave the… Read more »
Sen. Elizabeth Warren campaigns in Florence, S.C., Oct. 26, 2019. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When it comes to pressuring Israel, Elizabeth Warren doesn’t have a specific plan. The senator from Massachusetts, who has caught up in polling with front-runners for the Democratic presidential nomination, now faces intensified scrutiny as a newly viable contender. And what has emerged is that Warren… Read more »
Michael Bennet speaks at the annual J Street National Conference at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., Oct. 28, 2019. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
(JTA) — Since announcing his presidential run in May, Michael Bennet has been polling between zero and 1 percent. He didn’t qualify for the latest Democratic debate and he’s a long shot to make the next one. The Colorado senator raised only $2.1 million in the third quarter of… Read more »
(L-R) Shelter coordinators Diego Piña Lopez and Francis Wheeler, Jim Rich, Jill Rich, and volunteer driver Seth Ruskin unload coats and goods donated by Milwaukee’s Congregation Shalom at the Casa Alitas migrant shelter in Tucson. (Photo: Debe Campbell/AJP)
A sermon at Congregation Shalom in Milwaukee translated into generosity from that community to Tucson. It all began when Rabbi Ronald Shapiro joined a group of rabbis visiting a migrant detention center in San Diego in the spring. Returning to Milwaukee to share what he witnessed, he relayed how… Read more »
Shops damaged in Magdeburg, Germany, on Kristallnacht. (Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1970-083-42 / CC-BY-SA 3.0)
The Ruth & Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life (Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Northwest Division) will commemorate Kristallnacht, the “night of broken glass” that took place in Nazi Germany Nov. 8-9, 1938, with a program on Sunday, Nov. 10, from 10 a.m.-noon. Many historians view Kristallnacht, in which… Read more »
‘Yitzhak Rabin: Forged Identity’ by Martha L. Dunham was donated to the Sculpture Garden at the Tucson Jewish Community Center in 2011 by Jill and Herschel Rosenzweig. (Courtesy Weintraub Israel Center)
Next week, on Nov. 4, Israel will mark 24 years since the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin, a leader, politician, and army commander, was killed by a Jewish assassin as he was walking down the stairs from the stage at what is now called Rabin Square… Read more »
Dawn Messer Dawn Messer, founder of Mindful Meanderings, will be the keynote speaker for the 15th annual CHAI Circle retreat on Sunday, Nov. 10, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Hacienda del Sol Guest Ranch Resort, 5501 N. Hacienda del Sol Road. CHAI Circle, a program of Jewish Family… Read more »
Israeli author Avi Jorisch Israeli author Avi Jorisch will discuss his best-selling book, “Thou Shalt Innovate: How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World,” on Thursday, Nov. 7 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The book was published by Gefen Publishing House in 2018. It is being translated into more than 30 languages. Jorisch, an… Read more »
Vickie and the late Truly David Nolen (Photos: Courtesy Truley Nolen Pest Control)
If you’ve spent any time in Tucson you’ve seen the swarms of quirky yellow VW bugs dressed up with floppy black ears and a tail. They’re the iconic Truly Nolen Pest Control Mousecars. But, did you know there really was a man called Truly David Nolen … and that… Read more »
