Tagged FRONT

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 »

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 »

(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 »

(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 »

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 »

(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 »

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 »

Stuart Mellan, longtime leader of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, and his wife, Nancy, will be the honorees for Tucson Hebrew Academy’s 2020 Tikkun Olam Celebration. “Then and Now: Celebrating 25 Years of Leadership” will be presented as a YouTube video on Thursday, Oct. 22 at 7 p.m.… Read more »

The year 2020 has brought us face-to-face with many significant obstacles, from the global coronavirus pandemic to issues of racial injustice. Among the challenges that we are confronting is climate change, which forces us to ask ourselves, “How will we leave the environment for future generations?” In time for… Read more »

In March, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and Jewish Community Foundation, along with local families, launched the Jewish Community Pandemic Relief Fund to help community members facing financial challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic. Since March, the fund has raised more than $404,000 and its task force has… Read more »

The Tucson Jewish Community Center reopened its fitness center on Aug. 28, following a decision from the Arizona Department of Health Services that allowed gyms in Pima County to resume operations with safety measures in place. The J’s fitness center had been closed since late June, when it briefly… Read more »

Daniel Nathan Karsch, M.D., 78, died of cancer on July 23, 2020. Dan was born in Philadelphia to Lil and Joe Karsch and grew up in the large Jewish neighborhood of Wynnefield, centered around Har Zion Temple, Jewish schools, synagogues, and Camp Ramah. A graduate of Ursinus College and Jefferson… Read more »

Joaquin Ruiz, Ph.D.

Joaquin Ruiz, Ph.D., the University of Arizona’s first vice president for Global Environmental Futures, gets excited about the work of its partners around the world, such as farmers in Israel’s Arava region. “There are a bunch of kibbutzes in the Negev that are growing stuff on rocks and with… Read more »

This article originally appeared in The Nosher. (JTA) — I know the holidays will look, and taste, different than most years. I also know many families cherish the big brisket, standing rib roast or pot roast that graces their table each year. Traditions are important, and food imparts its… Read more »

(JTA) – Rising fears about a second wave of coronavirus cases in New York City’s Orthodox communities appear to be coming to pass, with the proportion of tests turning up cases of the disease more than four times the citywide rate in one heavily Orthodox neighborhood in newly released… Read more »

(JTA) — Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms face increasing pressure to crack down against anti-Semitism and other forms of hate speech. This summer, the Anti-Defamation League and NAACP led a one-month corporate boycott against advertising on Facebook, and a group of British Jews led a 24-hour boycott… Read more »

(JTA) — Yeshiva University rejected the formation of a campus group for queer students but said it was putting in place new policies to help LGBTQ students feel safe. The flagship Modern Orthodox college in New York sent a statement to students Thursday addressing a yearlong battle over whether… Read more »

(JTA) — Hundreds of synagogues have been shuttered for months. Jewish organizations are slashing budgets and staff. Jewish community centers, saddled with empty gyms and child care centers, have laid off masses of employees. Jewish camps closed this summer, Jewish day schools will hold only virtual sessions in the… Read more »

Ancestry, the global leader in family history and consumer genomics, has completed a significant philanthropic initiative to digitize and make searchable millions of Holocaust and Nazi persecution-related records. Building on its commitment to preserve at-risk history, there are now more than 19 million Holocaust records available globally, for free… Read more »