Rabbi Stephanie Aaron speaks June 6, 2017 at the Jewish History Museum in Tucson. [Photo: Steven Michael Braun)
“Be Strong and of Good Courage” (Deuteronomy 31:7) is the title for the Jewish History Museum’s 10th annual fall benefit, which will be held virtually on Sunday, Nov. 1. This year’s benefit honors Rabbi Stephanie Aaron of Congregation Chaverim. “I think of Rabbi Aaron as my primary partner in… Read more »
This year, essential school supplies will include face masks and hand sanitizer to help guard against COVID-19. (Photo: Tatevik Bagdasaryan/Shutterstock.com)
Contingency plans are the order of the day as Tucson’s synagogue religious schools and Tucson Hebrew Academy look ahead to the first day of school next month. On June 29, Gov. Doug Ducey announced that the target date for Arizona schools to open with in-person instruction had been pushed back… Read more »
Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center staff Bryan Davis, left, and Josie Shapiro, center, unfurl a new banner on the fence in front of the museum Aug. 12 while Rabbi Stephanie Aaron, right, looks on. (Debe Campbell/AJP)
In the decades since the Holocaust, “‘never again’ has been the language spoken as an unattainable aspiration,” Bryan Davis told a group gathered Monday at Tucson’s Holocaust History Center. “But now, in this moment, people all over the country are demanding that never again is now and that never… Read more »
Rabbi Stephanie Aaron, far right, is flanked by other local faith leaders as she addresses a crowd in front of the U.S. District Court in downtown Tucson on June 5. (Photo: Debe Campbell/JFSA)
Dozens of faith leaders from across Southwestern borderlands, including two local rabbis, rallied June 5 in front of the U.S. District Courthouse in downtown Tucson in solidarity with Arizona State University geography instructor and activist Scott Warren, Ph.D. A volunteer with the Tucson-based aid group No More Deaths, Warren… Read more »
Rabbi Stephanie Aaron leads Congregation Chaverim's Rosh Hashanah service on Mount Lemmon on Sept. 21. (Nanci Freedberg)
Congregation Chaverim has a new traveling ark, thanks to a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona in collaboration with the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. The $5,000 grant, made possible by the Ann and Sam Goldfein Endowment Fund and the Zuckerman Family Fund held at the… Read more »
Rabbi Stephanie Aaron speaks June 6 at the Jewish History Museum. [Steven Michael Braun)
Tucson joined 20 communities across the country on June 6 for a vigil honoring the struggles of refugees past and present. The date commemorates the anniversary of the day in 1939 the M.S. St. Louis began its voyage back to Europe with more than 900 mostly Jewish refugees aboard,… Read more »
Alma Hernandez at her bat mitzvah party in the Holocaust History Center garden, April 8 (Courtesy Hernandez)
Alma Hernandez is passionate and strives every day to make a difference. People say her values and actions represent the core of Judaism, which is noteworthy because Hernandez didn’t grow up Jewish. At age 24, she has been active in the Jewish community for several years, even before she… Read more »
Rabbi Stephanie Aaron In conjunction with Jewish Family & Children’s Services, Beth Shalom Temple Center in Green Valley will present a free ethical will workshop for the Jewish community, led by Rabbi Stephanie Aaron, on Tuesday, May 9, 10 a.m.-noon. Unlike a medical directive or living will, or a will detailing bequests… Read more »
Zoe Holtzman
The advisory council of the Women’s Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will present the 11th annual Bryna Zehngut Mitzvot Award, recognizing an outstanding Jewish teenage girl, to Zoe Holtzman on March 5 at the Women’s Philanthropy “Connections” brunch. The council, which includes past Women’s Philanthropy chairs… Read more »
Rabbi Helen T. Cohn Congregation M’kor Hayim will start the new year with a new High Holidays machzor, or prayer book, recently published by the Reform Movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis. The two-volume machzor, Mishkan HaNefesh, should “add new energy and meaning to our High Holidays services,” says Rabbi Helen Cohn. Among… Read more »
Rabbi Stephanie Aaron blows a shofar at Jewish Family & Children’s Services’ ethical wills workshop at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging Aug. 11. (Korene Charnofsky Cohen)
An ordinary will is about leaving money and property. But there is also a way to leave the legacy of who you are and your values, philosophy, religious beliefs, what you hold most dear — even your favorite recipe. This is called an ethical will. About 20 people gathered… Read more »
Joy Ladin Hadassah Southern Arizona will present a panel discussion, “Shhh … Our Matriarchs Are Speaking,” with three women, Joy Ladin, Ph.D., of Yeshiva University, and local Rabbis Batsheva Appel and Stephanie Aaron, on Thursday, Sept. 8 at 3 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Ladin is the author… Read more »
Update July 8: This event has been postponed due to a bereavement. JFCS hopes to reschedule on a date in August. Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona will hold a free ethical wills workshop for the Jewish community on Thursday, July 14, from 1-3 p.m. at Handmaker… Read more »
Barbara Mannlein and her husband, Martin, use color-coded kitchen tools: red for meat, blue for dairy and green for pareve. (Martin Mannlein)
The Jewish dietary laws, termed kashrut, are many and complex. According to the Torah and the Talmud, Jews may not mix meat and dairy, and may eat only fish with scales and fins, and meat from ruminants with cloven hooves. Pareve — foods containing neither meat nor dairy, including… Read more »
(L-R): Congregation Chaverim cantorial soloist Diana Povolotskaya, Cynthia Busby, Ellie Maas, Bill Kugelman, Barbara Holtzman, Michael Lex and Rabbi Stephanie Aaron. The first and second time b’nai mitzvah celebrants, dubbed ‘Thirteeners,’ range in age from Maas, 26, to Kugelman, 91. (Michael Miklofsky)
When Mike Lex turned 13 he did not celebrate becoming a bar mitzvah. He grew up in a remote part of Wyoming, a place where he says as a Jew he was in a tiny minority and because his parents did not practice, his 13th birthday came and went.… Read more »
Jewish Family & Children’s Services will hold a three-hour, community-wide ethical will writing workshop from 9 a.m.-noon on Tuesday, March 22, at the TMC Senior Services/El Dorado Medical Center, 1400 N. Wilmot Road. Ethical wills began as a Jewish oral tradition centuries ago, a way to pass on values… Read more »
Rise of the Forgotten by Lisa E. Mishler
The messages and memories of the Holocaust remain a prevalent and enduring part of the global culture. “This is a story that repeats itself over and over and over again,” says Lisa E. Mishler, author of “L’Chayim — To Life,” a new book that interprets the survival stories of… Read more »
The March of the Living Western region delegation approaches the memorial at the Majdanek concentration camp. In front, (L-R): Hallie Goldstein, Kelsey Luria and Gabby Levy (Tucson Hebrew High Facebook page) The beauty of the Polish countryside was eerie, says Cameron Busby, one of 12 Tucson teens to participate in this year’s March of the Living, an annual education program that unites Jewish teens worldwide in Poland on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, to march between the Auschwitz and Birkenau… Read more »
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords hugs Daniel Hernandez, the former congressional intern who helped save her life, at a private gathering Jan. 23. (Facebook.com) U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was wounded in an assassination attempt on Jan. 8, 2011, announced Sunday that she would resign from Congress. In a dramatic two-minute video posted on her congressional website, Giffords said she will step down as she continues her recovery. “I have more work… Read more »
(Above) Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, still recovering from the Jan. 8 gunshot wounds that nearly took her life, serves a Thanksgiving meal to airmen and retirees at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base on Nov. 24 with her husband, Mark Kelly. (Photo from Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' Facebook page) Rabbi Stephanie Aaron of Tucson’s Congregation Chaverim has plenty of “Gabby moments” on her mind these days. Aaron, who has been Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ rabbi for a decade, will never forget the sight of Giffords lying gravely wounded at the University Medical Center when Aaron visited her on Jan.… Read more »
