Ellen Sa This is part two of a series on the Jewish agency volunteers who received 2019 Special Recognition Awards at the Jewish Community Awards celebration held May 9 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The evening also included the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s annual meeting. Ellen Saltonstall, Jewish History… Read more »
Nancy Rudner, left, with fellow volunteer Dr. Linn Larson, in the sanctuary of Tucson’s former Benedictine monastery, where medical intake takes place when migrants arrive from detention. (Courtesy Nancy Rudner)
Nancy Rudner volunteered at Tucson’s old Benedictine monastery in March, rendering medical aid to asylum-seeking migrants from Central America. It was her first stint at Casa Alitas, the shelter operated by Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona, and as a volunteer with RNRN, the Registered Nurse Response Network, a… Read more »
Shay Friedwald and Danielle Levy
Danielle Levy and Shay Friedwald will arrive in Tucson in early August as Tucson’s shinshinim (Israeli teen ambassadors) for the coming year. These 18 year-olds are emissaries through the Jewish Agency for Israel, sponsored by the Weintraub Israel Center. They will work with day schools, congregations, and Jewish organizations… Read more »
Jim and Jill Rich display one of 1,000 backpacks purchased with donated funds. (Photo: Debe Campbell/AJP)
Thanks to community generosity between May 3-June 6, $47,000 has been donated to the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Migrant Relief Services Emergency Fund for Central American asylum seekers transiting Tucson. Combined with an initial anonymous $25,000 matching grant donation, that’s $72,000 to assist with emergency expenses. Expenditures are… Read more »
A linen pleat-front jacket from Laura Tanzer (Courtesy Laura Tanzer)
When you shop local, you support your community. Your money goes into the businesses of friends and neighbors, of local artisans and designers, and is circulated here, throughout our economy. Of every $100 spent at a locally owned business, $43 remains in the local economy, vs. only $13 of… Read more »
Michelle Shapiro, left, with Wil Thomas, loves to cool off with gelato. She’s tried every flavor at Blue Ice Gelato. It’s the only gelateria in Arizona that pasteurizes its milk in-house. (Photo courtesy Michelle Shapiro)
The AJP asked its staff and colleagues at Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona to share their secrets for beating the heat in Tucson’s triple-digit summers. Gail Barnhill: “Start gardening at 9 p.m. under yard lights and jump in the pool every 15 minutes. I swim with my five grandsons.… Read more »
Local First Arizona will celebrate its annual “Independents Week” June 29-July 7. During Independents Week, LFA encourages Arizonans to “go local” by supporting as many locally owned businesses as possible. For the entire week, consumers can use LFA’s Golden Coupon for 20 percent discounts at hundreds of participating businesses… Read more »
Participants on Tucson Hebrew Academy’s 18th annual eighth grade Israel trip and their Partnership2Gether school twinning counterparts on Zikim Beach in southern Israel, May 2019. Standing, from left: Adi Shacham, Hodaya Shoshani, Yuval Cohen, Carly Wright, Ziv Yona, Lily Goldberg, Robin Garcia, Yoni Green, Yuval Nir, Gaya Benaim, Lila Season, Adamari ‘Mari’ Pasillas, Ben O., and Ziv Gibli; seated: Noam Amitay, Avia Gez, Talya Fleisher, Isabella ‘Izzy’ Garcia, Rylee Herman, Dahlia Tolby, Hadlie Polonski, Orli Levy, Eitan Otmasgin, Shahar Kahana, Davis Yalen, Bodhi Teufel, and Eli Kahana (Courtesy Tucson Hebrew Academy)
Last month, Tucson Hebrew Academy graduate Davis Yalen had the kind of Israel experience every Jewish parent and educator dreams of. He enjoyed floating in the Dead Sea: “It was such a cool experience, because I’ve heard about it, and learned about it in school.” Riding on the world’s… Read more »
At the Jerusalem-based Lightricks, a producer of image and video editing apps, the company has integrated design elements at all levels of product development, with a tech lead and a design lead working on every product the company makes. (Courtesy of Lightricks)
Last year, a group of students at Jerusalem’s renowned Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design set to work imagining the future. Their specific goal was to envision the next generation of wearable devices for the blind. Working in collaboration with the technology company Orcam, a Jerusalem-based producer of devices… Read more »
U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman speaks at the AIPAC policy conference in Washington, D.C., March 26, 2019. (Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said Israel “has the right to retain” some of the West Bank. Palestinians fumed, Jewish settlers rejoiced, and the punditocracy predicted gloom and doom. What was it exactly that Friedman said in a New York Times interview. And what… Read more »
Gefilte fish roll (Josefin Dolsten)
NEW YORK (JTA) — More than a dozen kosher eateries — selling pizza, bagels, falafel and schnitzel — dot Main Street in the Kew Gardens Hills neighborhood of Queens. But a newcomer on the block is sure to turn some heads, and maybe stomachs, too. Sushi Kingdom & Asian… Read more »
Dan Peled, center, with his father, Gidi, and grandmother Lea. Peled is a main subject of "Back to the Fatherland," a documentary on Israelis moving back to Germany and Austria. (First Run Features)
(JTA) — On the surface, Gil Levanon and Kat Rohrer seem unlikely friends. Levanon is an Israeli, the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. Rohrer, an Austrian, is the granddaughter of an avowed Nazi officer. If their friendship seems a little odd, their collaboration on the documentary “Back to the… Read more »
Arun Sothea runs an orphanage in Cambodia with the help of Jewish charities. Here he is shown dispensing supplies to girls in his village of Phum Thom. (Courtesy of Sothea)
PHUM THOM, Cambodia (JTA) — Arun Sothea is a slight, soft-spoken man. He speaks both casually and simply when discussing the horrors of his past — as well the triumphs of his present — both of which have taken place in his childhood home of Phum Thom. The Khmer… Read more »
Rae Gaines, Sarah Beth Alcabes, Jill Raney and a fourth participant in the DC Dyke March (right to left) are members of IfNotNow, a leftist Jewish group critical of Israel. (Courtesy of IfNotNow DC)
(JTA) — Is an LGBTQ parade banning flags with Jewish stars? Yes. Not really. Kind of. The D.C. Dyke March, a social justice-focused parade for, in its words, “queer liberation” happening Friday, announced that it is not welcoming any “nationalist symbols.” That includes Israeli flags and American flags, the… Read more »
Avigdor Liberman, center, holds a press conference following the dissolving of the Israeli parliament, in Tel Aviv, May 30, 2019. (Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — So just who is Avigdor Liberman, the man who single-handedly forced Israelis to go to the polls for an unprecedented second time in a year? And is he really the champion of secular right-wing Zionism that he would have voters believe? Last month, less than two… Read more »
HARRISON, NJ - MAY 26: The full roster for the United States Women's National Team that is heading to France for the 2019 World Cup just after the International Friendly match the U.S. Women's National Team and Mexico as part of the Send Off Series prior to the FIFA Women's World Cup at Red Bull Arena on May 26 2019 in Harrison, NJ,USA. The United States won the match with a score of 3 to 0. USA. (Photo by Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images)
(JTA) — There aren’t any Jewish players that we know of at this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup, which runs from June 7 to July 7 in France. The top-ranked U.S. team is looking to win its second Cup in a row and fourth all time. But there are… Read more »
New York Medical College's curriculum draws on Jewish ethics and its campus offers certain accommodations for religious Jews, but the college also has attracted a large number of minority students and has daily Muslim prayer services. (Courtesy of NYMC)
For her final project in a course on the history of medicine, first-year medical student Raeesa Hossain joined with four fellow students from New York Medical College to interview a Holocaust survivor deported to Auschwitz as a child. The survivor told the students how his experience during the war… Read more »
(Getty Images; collage by Alma)
This story originally appeared on Alma. Contrary to popular belief, summer is not only for the lighter things in life. It can be the best time for luxurious nostalgia and dark rumination. Like Lana Del Rey, I’ve often got that Summertime Sadness. This may be the reason why, without… Read more »
Sefaria is letting the public vote on which emoji possibility they prefer. The organization will submit the winning image for consideration as a real emoji. (Sefaria)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Designing a new emoji is not simple. Sefaria, the online free Jewish library, has found this out in recent months. The organization wanted to reach more and younger people, to get them to use the resources on its website. They thought that a Torah emoji would… Read more »
Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess signs a guest book at Auschwitz, where the company runs an educational program for apprentices, Nov. 30, 2018. (Courtesy of Volkswagen)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Herbert Diess believes he has a special obligation to combat the rise of the far right in Europe because the company he leads was once quite literally its engine. “Volkswagen has because of its history, and our history in the Second World War, we have an… Read more »
