Hava Leipzig Holzhauer, President and CEO of Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona Yesterday, one day after a terrorist attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia that killed 15 people, Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona and the Tucson Jewish Community Center responded to a local antisemitic incident that occurred near the Tucson J on the Jewish Community Campus. Early Monday morning, Tucson J staff discovered hateful flyers… Read more »
From left, Tucson Jewish Community Center President and CEO Todd Rockoff, Tucson J Senior Director of Marketing, Communications and Public Relations Rachael Mitchell, and Tucson J Board Member Tamar Kugler at the 2024 Z3 Conference in Palo Alto, California. The Z3 Conference, an initiative of the Oshman Family JCC, brings Jews from across the political and religious spectrum together to explore Israel, Zionism, identity, and the future of Jewish life. The conference will celebrate 10 years this fall. For several years, Todd Rockoff, Tucson J President and CEO,… Read more »
Todd Rockoff will lead a Z3 lunch and learn on Dec. 13. This year’s Z3 event won’t be what people might expect. Now in its sixth year, Z3, which originally was dubbed Zionism 3.0, is an opportunity to talk about a wide range of issues in Israel and the Diaspora. But this is definitely not going to be your typical conference, and not… Read more »
The number of people in any space at the Tucson Jewish Community Center is limited to allow for social distancing. (Courtesy Tucson Jewish Community Center)
The Tucson Jewish Community Center reopened its fitness center on Aug. 28, following a decision from the Arizona Department of Health Services that allowed gyms in Pima County to resume operations with safety measures in place. The J’s fitness center had been closed since late June, when it briefly… Read more »
Tennis courts at the Tucson Jewish Community Center will reopen June. 1. (Tucson Jewish Community Center)
After a nine-week closure, the Tucson Jewish Community Center announced plans this week to reopen its facility in early June. The J is following guidelines set forth by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state of Arizona, as well as advice from a recently formed medical… Read more »
A view from the lobby of the Harvey and Deanna Evenchik Center for Jewish Philanthropy, home of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona (Martha Lochert)
UPDATE: The Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona have created a web page at www.jewishtucson.org/pandemic containing community resources, volunteer opportunities, and a link to donate to the newly created Jewish Community Pandemic Relief Fund, which provides emergency financial assistance and meets critical needs for individuals, families, and… Read more »
Guila Benchimol, Ph.D., will lead Safety Respect Equity workshops in Tucson Feb. 16-17 for the Jewish community.
The national Safety Respect Equity coalition examines issues of sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the Jewish community. The movement addresses privilege and power inequity, and devises solutions to ensure that existing structures no longer negatively influence how community business is done. The focus is on the values and… Read more »
Sandy Cardin, CEO of Our Common Destiny, talks with Michelle Blumenberg, executive director of the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation, and Abbii Cook, assistant director at UA Hillel, Dec. 3 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. [Phyllis Braun/AJP)
Sandy Cardin, who recently stepped down after 25 years as president of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, where he remains a senior advisor, visited Tucson Dec. 3 to speak at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s lead gifts dinner. Earlier that day, at a lunch meeting at… Read more »
Taglit participants, friends, and Tucson Jewish Community Center staff gather for a semi-formal dance at the J on April 19, 2019. (Photo JCC)
The Tucson Jewish Community Center will expand its capacity to serve people with disabilities by integrating Arts for All, a Tucson-based organization founded in 1985, into its programming early next year. Arts for All provides opportunities for adults and children with and without disabilities to participate in performing and… Read more »
During an exercise at the Jewish community’s “From #MeToo to #WeToo” event May 21, audience members wrote reflections on banners marked “I Learned,” “I Feel,” and “I Commit to.” Colored stickers indicate “likes” from other attendees. (Maya S. Horowitz/JCF)
It is our collective responsibility as members of this community to examine the part that we play in these frameworks,” Graham Hoffman, president and CEO of the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, told the audience at a recent community event addressing sexual harassment in the Jewish communal world.… Read more »
Chuck Reisig, Tucson Jewish Community Center director of tennis, poses in a forklift prior to the removal of the tennis courts’ current surface. (Photo: Andrew Rosenfeld/Tucson Jewish Community Center)
The late Jack Sarver was an excellent tennis player. In fact, he started at the University of Michigan on a tennis scholarship, but his need to support his mother, three sisters and a brother made it impossible to continue his studies, says his daughter, Betty Anne Sarver. When Jack,… 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 »
The Israel Center has surpassed all our expectations, in terms of creating a connection between Tucsonans and Israel,” says Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona President and CEO Stuart Mellan. The Israel Center began as a way to bring the cultural richness of Israel to Arizona and engage the local… Read more »
The International Rescue Committee in Tucson, in partnership with the Tucson Jewish Community Center, will present a “Walk a Mile in a Refugee’s Shoes” simulation event on Sunday, March 18, in the Tucson J’s Sculpture Garden. Registration starts at 9:30 a.m. and the event will run from 10 a.m.… Read more »
New citizens take the oath of allegiance at the Tucson Jewish Community Center July 26.
Family and friends packed the Tucson Jewish Community Center ballroom on Wednesday, July 26 as 99 new U.S. citizens from 17 different countries took the oath of allegiance. “Having the honor to host this ceremony at the J is very meaningful,” Todd Rockoff, president and CEO of the Tucson… Read more »
The Tucson Jewish Community Center (the Tucson J) will be the host of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization ceremony on Wednesday, July 26 at 10 a.m. in the Tucson J’s Ballroom. One hundred new U.S. citizens will participate in the naturalization ceremony and originate from the… Read more »
Jeff Artzi and Joyce Stuehringer are the JFSA Man and Woman of the Year
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will wrap up its 70th anniversary year at its annual meeting and awards celebration. The salute to “The Next 70” will be held Thursday, May 11 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Jeff Artzi and Joyce Stuehringer will be honored… Read more »
Messages of support for the Tucson Jewish Community Center include chalk art and postcards. (Eitan Penner/Tucson Jewish Community Center
On the evening of Monday, Feb. 27, the Tucson Jewish Community Center received a bomb threat phone call, making Tucson part of the disturbing trend of more than 100 bomb threats targeting JCCs and other Jewish institutions across the country since mid-January. Last Friday, March 10, as the AJP… Read more »
Todd Rockoff, president and CEO of the Tucson Jewish Community Center, says he "could not be more proud" of his staff's response to the bomb threat.
The Tucson Jewish Community Center was on lockdown for about 90 minutes Monday evening after a caller claimed there were explosives set to go off in the parking lot. The call was part of the latest wave of bomb threats targeting JCCs and other Jewish institutions across the country… Read more »
At least 17 Jewish community centers across the United States were targeted with bomb threats in the third wave of such mass disruption this month. Paul Goldenberg, the director of Secure Community Network — an affiliate of the Jewish federations of North America, which advises Jewish groups and institutions… Read more »
