Tagged Sharon Glassberg

Social welfare calls bolster community bonds

To ease loneliness caused by COVID-19 social distancing during Passover this year, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Jewish Community Foundation organized a Passover ‘Potluck’ held via Zoom on April 13, one of the intermediate days of the holiday.

As part of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and Jewish Community Foundation response to the coronavirus pandemic, staff and volunteers have made more than 1,300 social welfare phone calls to members of the community. The project is ongoing. “It started with my desire to reach out to donors of… Read more »

Holocaust survivors flock to JFCS group Zoom meetings

Top row (L-R): Sharon Glassberg; Daniel, Alma, and Consuelo Hernandez; Theresa Dulgov. Middle: Raisa Moroz, JFCS Holocaust survivors services program manager; Barbara Agee; John Kessler. Bottom:  Sidney Finkel, Pawel and Sara Lichter (not pictured). Also on the call, by phone, were Walter Feiger, Yulia Genina, and Wanda Wolosky. (Photo courtesy Jewish Family & Children’s Services)

Jewish Family & Children’s Services weekly Holocaust survivors group meetings have been taking place over Zoom, sometimes with special guests, such as a recent meeting with State Reps. Alma Hernandez and Daniel Hernandez Jr. and their sister, Consuelo Hernandez, a member of the governing board for Sunnyside Unified School… Read more »

PJ Library kids learn value of helping others

Goldie Goldstein and her daughter share a loving moment while preparing a thank you letter to PJ Library founder Harold Grinspoon. (Photo: Mary Ellen Loebl/JFSA)

PJ Library hosted a “Kids Helping Kids” afternoon May 19 at Jewish Family & Children’s Services. Children and families gathered to learn about the mitzvah of helping others. Sharon Glassberg shared an educational presentation, reading from the book “Mitzvah Pizza.” Participants expressed their gratitude in drawings and letters to… Read more »

Tucson teens, local survivor join defiant ‘March of the Living’

The Tucson March of the Living delegation marches from Auschwitz to Birkenau on April 24. [Courtesy Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona)

It takes a special kind of courage to revisit your worst memories. When Holocaust survivor Pawel Lichter of Tucson accompanied a group of Jewish teens on the 29th annual March of the Living, April 19-May 3, he stepped back to 1939. In a basement on Warszawska Street, in his… Read more »

Tracing Roots celebrates two years linking teens, seniors

Handmaker resident Les Waldman, third from left, with the Gibly family: Haya, Yochanan, Zakai, Raquel, Nati and Ayelet, at the April 30 Tracing Roots and Building Trees reception at Handmaker. (Nanci Levy)

Tracing Roots and Building Trees, an intergenerational program that brings together residents of Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging with students from Tucson Hebrew High, wrapped up its second year with a reception at Handmaker on Sunday, April 30.  Fifteen Handmaker residents and 13 teens participated in the program,… Read more »

Art, video at Handmaker to mark success of ‘Tracing Roots’

Sharon Glassberg, left, director of the Coalition for Jewish Education at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, views internet research with Natalie Feldman, a Tucson Hebrew High student, and Gloria Lindsman, a resident at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, as part of the “Tracing Roots and Building Trees” program, April 17 at Handmaker. (Karen Schaffner/AJP)

On a recent Sunday afternoon, 15-year-old Erika Spivack sat next to 93-year-old Betty Light, searching online for any information she could find about Light. First stop: ancestry.com, where she unearthed an item as valuable as any buried treasure. “Did you go to East High School in Denver?” Spivack asked… Read more »

New German edition of ‘Mein Kampf’ sparks mixed reaction among Tucsonans

Historic copies of Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf,’ which was released in a new, annotated edition in Germany this month. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)

Say the name Adolf Hitler and an immediate reaction is evoked in the hearts and minds of many, based on the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazi dictator specifically against those of Jewish descent. Now that name has reemerged as an annotated edition of his autobiography, “Mein Kampf,” or “My… Read more »

Character Day spurs students to ask, what makes a mensch?

Rabbi Billy Lewkowicz, a faculty member at Tucson Hebrew High, leads 10th grade students through an exercise on character development in the digital age on Aug. 11, during the opening program of the 2015-16 school year. (Courtesy Tucson Hebrew High)

What makes someone a mensch (a person of integ­rity)? Students at Tucson Hebrew High and the Tucson Jewish Community Center will join others worldwide in exploring that question as part of the second annual Character Day, a concept created by filmmaker Tiffany Shlain. Known for her 2005 short film… Read more »

After 20+ years, enhancing identity still core of Hebrew High

Hebrew High students (L-R) Shane Weinstein, Ariel Nadler and Ben Bressler celebrate Purim 2011 with a hamantashen break. (Courtesy Hebrew High)

Sharon Glassberg was a member of Tucson’s second Hebrew High graduating class in 1980. Thirty years later, as director of the Coalition for Jewish Education at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, she’s the principal of Hebrew High. The evening program’s main goal is still the same, to enhance… Read more »