Marcella White Campbell, on the right, at her son's bar mitzvah. (courtesy of Marcella White Campbell)
On Saturday, I received a text: “why do they hate us so much?” It was from my daughter, a first-year student at college who is thousands of miles away from home but, at that moment, was reaching out for comfort, wishing she was curled up on the couch beside… Read more »
Mourners walking at the funeral of Bernice and Sylvan Simon, Nov. 1, 2018. (Arielle Kaplan)
PITTSBURGH (JTA) — Bernice and Sylvan Simon were married in the sanctuary of Tree of Life Congregation 62 years ago. Week after week they attended services there, chatting with the Holocaust survivor who sat a row in front of them. And on Saturday, hours before they were to gather with their… Read more »
A mourner wearing a Star of David around his neck at the Squirrel Hill memorial service for the victims of the shooting at the neighborhood's Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Penn., Oct. 29, 2018. (Matthew Hatcher/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(JTA) — My father, whose own father changed his unpronounceable last name to Carroll when he came to America, would often tell a story about job hunting in the late 1940s and 50s. It was only after the interview that the men across the desk would ask, “And all… Read more »
Rose Mallinger was a member of the Tree of Life Congregation for more than 60 years. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Rose Mallinger, the oldest victim in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, was remembered Friday at her funeral as a loving and sharp-witted woman who was a fixture in the Jewish community. Hundreds of mourners attended the service at the Rodef Shalom synagogue. Mallinger was the final of the 11… Read more »
Rabbi Jonathan Perlman speaks to thousands at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Pittsburgh during a service to honor and mourn the victims of the mass shooting at the Tree Of Life synagogue, Oct. 28, 2018. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Six days ago, on Shabbat, Rabbi Jonathan Perlman was hiding in a pitch-black storage closet as one of his congregants was shot dead in front of him. The time since has been filled with funerals, counseling congregants and figuring out how to move forward as a community,… Read more »
A crowd of more than 1,200 turned out for the vigil at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on Monday, Oct. 29. Eleven candles on the stage were lit to honor the people killed in the shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday, Oct. 27. Standing on the stage, from left, are Rabbis Robert Eisen, Samuel M. Cohon, Avraham Alpert, Ruven Barkan, Helen Cohn and Batsheva Appel, and cantorial soloists Marjorie Hochberg, Diana Povolotskaya and Nichole Chorny. (Steven Braun)
Prayers for peace, kindness and love, for a better world for ourselves and our children, rang out at the Tucson Jewish Community Center Monday night, as more than 1,200 people of all faiths came together for a candlelight vigil in memory of the 11 Jews killed in an attack… Read more »
Activist Michele Freed, center, and other young professionals protest with HIAS in front of the White House, March 1, 2017. (Katie Jett Walls)
(JTA) — Before he shot dead 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue, Robert Bowers blamed one Jewish organization: HIAS, an immigrant aid group that has been helping refugees since the 1880s. “HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people,” he wrote on his website. “I can’t sit by and watch… Read more »
Caskets are carried out of Rodef Shalom Temple following the funeral of brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal in Pittsburgh, Oct. 30, 2018. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
PITTSBURGH (JTA) — Cecil Rosenthal would always ask after your sick mother or inquire about your marriage — or divorce. His brother, David, a jokester, loved the police and every year would buy the same sunglasses with mirrored lenses. At a moving ceremony Tuesday, relatives stood before a… Read more »
Michael Oren speaks at a conference in the Israeli parliament in 2016. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The deadly shooting at a Conservative synagogue in Pittsburgh has underlined tensions in Israel over the haredi Orthodox rabbinic establishment’s disenfranchisement of the Diaspora’s non-Orthodox Jewish streams. Following Saturday’s rampage by a gunman that left 11 worshippers dead, an Israeli government minister and the country’s opposition… Read more »
A havdalah vigil organized by high school students after the shooting drew thousands of people, Oct. 27, 2018. (Ron Kampeas)
PITTSBURGH (JTA) — It is after all, as any local will tell you, Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. People here look out for one another. So when a group of students from Alderdice, a high school in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, emerged from their synagogues, their homes, their cafes after three… Read more »
Jon Simon Jazz composer and performer Jon Simon will headline an evening of music and dining on Tuesday, Nov. 27 to launch the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Northwest Division’s annual campaign. Simon tours North America performing selections from his ninth and latest album, “SOAR,” as well as five highly successful… Read more »
"Kristallnacht: Shattered, Yet Unbroken" mandala by Robert Wertz Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, refers to the windows broken at synagogues, homes, and Jewish-owned businesses that were plundered and destroyed during a wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms on Nov. 9 and 10, 1938 throughout Germany, Austria, and the Czech Sudetenland. The event is commonly thought to be… Read more »
Nancy Johnson, left, and Tim Hartin Two Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona affinity groups will hold a joint event next month to discuss America’s growing opioid crisis and its effects on the local community. The Tucson Maimonides Society and Tucson Cardozo Society will host two local experts on the subject. Nancy Johnson, R.N., Ph.D., the… Read more »
Anne Lowe (Micheal Romero)
Between heading local organizations or sitting on boards, volunteering with humanitarian efforts or creating art, Anne Lowe, 70, finds time for everything and shows no sign of stopping. For nine years, she served as Northwest Jewish Connections coordinator (later Northwest Division director) and outreach director for the Jewish Federation… Read more »
Honey Manson
Honey Manson loves the people of Tucson. Along with the warm weather, they are her favorite thing about the city. Unfortunately, the hard water of Arizona has been less kind to her. A plumbing leak caused by corrosion recently left her and her husband without water for five hours.… Read more »
Ellen Saltonstall
A middle school, elementary and special education teacher for 42 years in rural Vermont, Ellen Saltonstall pioneered Holocaust studies in her school district. “There aren’t many Jewish people in Vermont,” she notes. She won a scholarship for an educators’ tour to Israel in 2009 where she had a chance… Read more »
Jennifer Rowley
I don’t know if I want to do it anymore,” I said to my friend Darren. And by “it” I meant live. Three weeks later, I was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer and given a 40 percent chance of surviving more than five years. At 34 years old, I felt… Read more »
A night view of the Beth Shalom Temple Center of Green Valley and its new labyrinth (Courtesy Lenny Friedman) Beth Shalom Temple Center of Green Valley will host a weekend of events with Rabbi Norman T. Roman, Nov. 2-4. Roman has been the rabbi emeritus at Temple Kol Ami in West Bloomfield, Michigan, since 2016, after serving as senior rabbi for 30 years. The weekend marks a significant… Read more »
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
WASHINGTON (JTA) — An unknown assailant sent bombs to at least four prominent targets this week, each with a notable return address: Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Jewish congresswoman from South Florida. The question arises: Why would the assailant want to implicate her in attacks on George Soros, the Jewish… Read more »
Jerry Silverman, CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, speaks at its General Assembly in Tel Aviv, Oct. 23, 2018. (Eyal Warshavsky/JFNA)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — On Sunday, a day before thousands of American Jews descended on this Israeli city to air their differences with the nation’s government, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin had a listening session. Rivlin invited a select group of about 100 American Jews to his official residence in… Read more »
