Yisrael Kristal (JTA) — A Holocaust survivor in Haifa many now be the oldest man in the world. Yisrael Kristal, 112, achieved that status after Yasutaro Koide of Japan, also 112, died on Jan. 12, Haaretz reported. Kristal’s grandson, Oren, received an email from the Gerontology Research Group, an international organization… Read more »
Certified health coach and author Freddi Pakier will present “It’s the Little Things that Create a Heart Healthy Lifestyle” at a Hadassah Southern Arizona luncheon on Sunday, Feb. 14. Pakier, a former Tucsonan, is the author of “52 Weeks of Food for the Soul,” a cookbook that features gluten… Read more »
Kathleen Erickson as Anne and Jack Neubeck as Bernie in Warren Bodow’s “Deelmayker” (Tim Fuller)
Invisible Theatre will stage the world premier of Tucson playwright Warren Bodow’s “Deelmayker” Feb. 9-21. “Deelmayker” (the spelling refers to an Internet account) tells the story of Bernie Harris, a charismatic 65-year-old wheeler-dealer living in Palm Springs with a wife he adores. Harris realizes that as he’s been getting… Read more »
Rabbi Adam Chalom The Secular Humanist Jewish Circle has planned two lectures this month by Rabbi Adam Chalom of the Kol Hadash Humanistic Congregation in Lincolnshire, Ill. The first, “Holidays Without the Holy: Secular Approaches to Religious Tradition,”will be held Thursday, Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. at the University of Arizona Hillel… Read more »
(L-R): Breezy Bochenek, Haven Shepherd, Kelly Ray and Lucy Coombs
The Tucson Jewish Community Center will hold a Consider Yourself Challenged fundraising event on Sunday, Feb. 21, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Admission is free for the family-friendly event, which is designed to inspire able-bodied and physically challenged athletes alike to get active. Adaptive athletes from the University of Arizona will… Read more »
Shockwaves were sent throughout the Tucson community on Jan. 18 following the death of local businessman and philanthropist Donald Baker, 59, co-owner of commercial real estate firm Larsen Baker L.L.C., and his wife, Dawn Hunter-Baker, 55, in a plane crash. Baker was piloting his Cessna Citation 525, returning to… Read more »
Cuban-Style Arroz Con Pollo (Jennifer Stempel
)
(The Nosher via JTA) — Much as every culture showcases its individual form of the dumpling (um, matzah balls), arroz con pollo, or chicken and rice, is a dish for which every Latin country has its own unique spin. Some use beer vs. wine, or crushed annatto rather than saffron,… Read more »
One of the many figurines of Jesus at the Holy Land Experience theme park in Orlando, Fla. (Uriel Heilman)
ORLANDO, Fla. (JTA) – Mickey Mouse or Jesus Christ? That was the choice I faced on a recent trip to Orlando to write a pair of stories for JTA – one about kosher vacationing at Disney World, the other about the biblical theme park Holy Land Experience. With a… Read more »
Isaac Newton (Wikimedia Commons)
(Jewniverse via JTA) — After Sir Isaac Newton died in 1727, his papers were given to the University of Cambridge. Valuing his scientific manuscripts most, the university eventually decided to auction off what was left — Newton’s manuscripts on alchemy and theology. In 1936, on what was probably a rainy… Read more »
Shye Ben-Tzur, right, playing with Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood at the Sacred Jerusalem Festival, Sept. 1, 2015. (Noam Chojnowski)
(JTA) — For most musicians working in the underappreciated genre of world music, recording an album with Jonny Greenwood, the guitarist of the famed English rock band Radiohead, would be something of a pipe dream. And what about having that experience filmed by acclaimed director Paul Thomas Anderson (“There… Read more »
Rafi holds his daughter, Ettie, at her simchat bat Jewish welcoming ceremony in October. (Amy Ashford)
(JTA) — When Rafi Daugherty went to the hospital for the birth of his first child, he posted a sign on the delivery room door. “I am a single transgender man having my first baby,” it read. “I use he/him/his pronouns and will be called ‘Abba’ (Hebrew for father)… Read more »
The University of Arizona Hillel Foundation has joined the solar revolution. Its 42.5 kilowatt photovoltaic system, designed and installed by the Tucson-based Technicians for Sustainability, consists of 135 solar modules mounted on the roof of the Hillel building. The panels will produce over 6,000 kW per month, covering approximately… Read more »
The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies will present two free lectures next month by Michael Kagan, associate professor of law at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. The first, “Finding Refuge: Can Non-Jews Seek Asylum in the Jewish State?” will be… Read more »
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Women’s Philanthropy will hold two events early next month. First up is a new event, “Taste with a Twist,” on Wednesday, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. in the new multi-purpose room at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Participants will sample mini martinis and… Read more »
The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona is now accepting applications for the 2016 Goldman Family Israel Scholarship. The deadline for submissions is 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 9. The Elliot S. Goldman Family Israel Scholarship Fund and the Goldman Family Israel Scholarship Fund (endowment funds held at JCF)… Read more »
Cantor Janece Cohen, left, and Rabbi Thomas Louchheim carry Torah scrolls to Congregation Or Chadash’s new property on Dec. 12, 2004. Founded in 1995, Or Chadash had been known as the “wandering congregation” before it purchased the property on Alvernon Way. (Max Ellentuck)
Congregation Or Chadash held its first Hebrew school classes 20 years ago around Rabbi Thomas Louchheim’s family dining room table. Little more than four wooden legs and a table top were needed to gather together Tucson area students and start planting the seeds of Jewish education. Membership has swelled… Read more »
Marc Schneier NEW YORK (JTA) — Over the past two years, the phrase “Black Lives Matter” has embedded itself into the consciousness — and conscience — of America. The hashtag #BlackLives Matter emerged in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin and quickly became… Read more »
Students at the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Conservative movement's flagship institution. (Courtesy of JTS)
NEW YORK (JTA) — When I was a law student, I took a course by a renowned professor who warned that if a prosecutor ever told us that our client only had two choices, we should walk away from the bargaining table. His point: There are always more options.… Read more »
From left, Woody Allen, Tony Roberts and Diane Keaton in a 1977 publicity shot from "Annie Hall." (Courtesy of Tony Roberts)
NEW YORK (JTA) — There’s a memorable scene in “Annie Hall” when Woody Allen’s character, Alvy Singer, rants about finding anti-Semites everywhere he goes. “You know, I was having lunch with some guys from NBC and I said, ‘Did you eat yet?’ and said, ‘No, Jew?’ Not, ‘Did… Read more »
CHICAGO (JTA) — The Conservative movement was once the very embodiment of what it meant to be an “American Jew.” As the 130th anniversary of the founding of its flagship Jewish Theological Seminary approaches in 2016, the centrist movement that historically straddled the polarities of Reform and Orthodox is struggling… Read more »
