Nancy and Stuart Mellan
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 »
A view of the Arizona Desert Laboratory from atop Tumamoc Hill, with the sprawl of Tucson beyond it. (Photo Paul Mirocha)
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 number of people in any space at the Tucson Jewish Community Center is limited to allow for social distancing. (Courtesy Tucson Jewish Community Center)
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 »
At left, Daniel Karsch (left) and Tom Newman, former partners in Old Pueblo Urology, during a visit Karsch and his wife, Carol, made to Tucson from Israel in February 2020. At right, Karsch and Newman co-host 'The Plumber's Ball' in 1974. (Courtesy Carol Karsch)
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 »
A Hasidic man wears a protective face mask while visiting The Vessel at the Hudson Yards on September 3, 2020 in New York City. (Noam Galai/Getty Images)
(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 »
Left: Nadine Strossen (Anthony Alvarez) Right: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies at a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees on Capitol Hill on April 10, 2018. (Xinhua / Ting Shen via Getty Images)
(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 »
Israelis take part in the annual Israel's Gay Pride parade hosted by Jerusalem on June 25, 2009.
Photo Nati Shohat /FLASH90
(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 »
Boston's Jewish community has unveiled a memorial to COVID-19 victims even as the pandemic continues. (Courtesy Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts)
(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 »
Millions of Holocaust and Nazi persecution-related records, like this one, are now available and searchable for free on www.ancestry.com/alwaysremember. This one cites the Tucson Jewish Community Council, a forerunner of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, as a sponsoring agency, likley for survivors who immigrated to the United States.. (Ancestry)
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 »
Hazon volunteers celebrate a recent food rescue delivery in the Detroit suburb of Redford, Mich. (Hazon Detroit)
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, causing millions to lose their jobs and hunger levels to skyrocket, the Jewish environmental organization Hazon knew it had to dramatically reconfigure its priorities. Normally focused on running immersive Jewish environmental educational programs and promoting sustainable food and farming, the group suddenly shifted from… Read more »
Meg Keene and David Mishook said their son, left, was rejected from Oakland Hebrew Day School for being gender-fluid. (Kenzie Kate)
(JTA) — A Jewish day school in Oakland, California, is committing to making changes this week after a local family said the school had declined to accept their gender-fluid child. Meg Keene, an Oakland mother who runs a prominent wedding planning website, encouraged her thousands of Instagram followers to… Read more »
(iriselmo/ Getty Images)
This story originally appeared on Kveller. On March 8, in a bustling and noisy bagel shop in Lawrence, New York, I stood alongside nearly 30 women to recite a prayer called the Hadran. This is a prayer said upon completion of a Talmud tractate, a feat most women never achieve.… Read more »
(Design by Emily Burack/book via CSA Images/Getty Images)
This story originally appeared on Alma. I received what I believe to be an average Jewish American Conservative synagogue education. I attended Jewish preschool, the full run of weekly, then biweekly Hebrew school, and completed “Hebrew high school” all the way through the rabbi’s confirmation class. This was all… Read more »
Sen. Kamala Harris in Washington, D.C., June 24, 2020. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
(JTA) — It’s official: Kamala Harris is Joe Biden’s choice for vice president. The California senator, who made history Tuesday as the first Black woman to join a major party presidential ticket, is still in her first term. But during several years in public office, the 55-year-old lawmaker’s outspoken… Read more »
A screenshot from ChaiFlicks, a Jewish-themed streaming platform. (ChaiFlicks)
(JTA) — It was only a matter of time: A Jewish Netflix has arrived. That moniker is probably the best description of ChaiFlicks, a film and TV streaming platform focused on Jewish-themed movies that launches Wednesday. It helps that its creators were once in business with the real Netflix.… Read more »
A socially distanced outdoor service at the Green Road Synagogue in suburban Cleveland, June 2020. (Courtesy of Rabbi Binyamin Blau)
(JTA) – Less than two miles away from the Center for Disease Control’s campus in Atlanta, where doctors and researchers prepare guidance for the nation’s coronavirus response, an Orthodox rabbi is preparing a different set of plans. Rabbi Adam Starr’s task: how to accommodate hundreds of people for in-person… Read more »
Sarah Lefton, creator of the "Yo Semite" T-shirt, with her son, Levi. (Courtesy of Lefton)
(J. the Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — When Berkeley resident Sarah Lefton awoke on Tuesday morning, her phone was lit up with notifications. While she was sleeping, President Trump had signed the Great American Outdoors Act, a piece of legislation that will protect the nation’s parks… Read more »
