Arizona Jewish Post 02.17.17

February 17, 2017 21 Shevat 5777 Volume 73, Issue 4

S o u t h e r n A r i z o n a ’ s A wa r d - W i n n i n g J e w i s h N e w s pa p e r

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Resettlement experts to give ‘Refugee 101’ talk at Or Chadash Senior Lifestyle .........10-15

PHYLLIS BRAUN

Arts & Culture..........................5

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Commentary...........................6 Community Calendar...........24 Israel........................................7 Letters to the Editor................7 Local...............3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 13 National............................. 7, 16 Obituaries..............................26 Our Town...............................27 Rabbi’s Corner.......................23 Restaurant Resource...... 20-21 Religion & Jewish Life.......... 19 Synagogue Directory............22 World..................................... 18

effrey Cornish wants to dispel the myth that refugees in the United States are a threat and a burden to society.

“We need ... to change the conversation about refugees,” says Cornish, the director of the International Rescue Committee in Tucson.

“These people have fled oppression and the terror of extremist regimes. They know firsthand the horrors of living under those conditions and yet many in the United States, both citizens and our elected officials, are defining them as the very monsters, the very threat that they ran from,” he says, alluding to the executive order President Donald Trump

Photo courtesy Jeffrey Cornish

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AJP Executive Editor

Jeffrey Cornish with children from a remote village in The Gambia, where he was Peace Corps director before coming to Tucson in 2012. Cornish is director of the International Rescue Committee in Tucson.

signed on Jan. 27, which sought to suspend all refugee admissions for 120 days, to bar Syrian refugees indefinitely and to block immigration from seven countries

for 90 days.

Cornish will take part in a forum on refugee resettlement, “Welcome the Stranger: Give me your tired, your poor, your hud-

dled masses yearning to be free” at Congregation Or Chadash on Monday, March 6 at 7 p.m. He will be joined by Lorel Donaghey, program director at the Tucson office of Refugee Refocus, which is a division of Lutheran Social Services, and Marisol Habon, with community outreach at Catholic Community Services. Several refugees will tell their personal stories. Pastries baked by Syrian refugees will be served.

Cornish says he and his colleagues will present “a Refugee 101” seminar for the audience, beginning with a global perspective: “What happens, how, to a refugee when they cross a border, fleeing from conflict, how do they register as a refugee and from there, how are they selected See Refugee, page 2

Supreme Court ‘sisters’ among topics for Brandeis book soirees DAVID J. DEL GRANDE Staff Writer

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s a young attorney, Linda Hirshman, realized that fighting for the disenfranchised was her calling.

“I wanted to do something that was hard, so if you accomplished it, it would be an honor,” says Hirshman, now a political pundit and author. “And there was no honor in making powerful people more powerful — that is so easy.”

Hirshman earned her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School, and spent 15 years as a trial lawyer specializing in labor law cases. She’s a former professor of law at Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago-Kent College of Law, and taught philosophy and women’s

Linda Hirshman

studies at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.

Her latest book, “Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World,” chronicles the rise of the first two women appointed to the nation’s highest court, and the

CANDLELIGHTING TIMES:

February 17 ... 5:54 p.m.

alliance they formed there. It was published in September 2015.

This is the first time Hirshman’s work has made The New York Times bestsellers list, she says, recalling the excitement of hearing the news from her publisher. Since the political climate in the United States has changed so dramatically, as she continues her book tour, the discussion expands and deepens.

“Whenever I present the book now, we always have an interesting conversation,” she says.

Hirshman is one of the four esteemed authors who will be featured at the Tucson chapter of the Brandeis National Committee 21st annual Book & Author fundraising events on March 8 and 9. A dinner with the authors will be held at Hacienda del Sol,

February 24 ... 6:00 p.m.

5501 N. Hacienda Del Sol Road, on Wednesday, March 8 at 6 p.m., featuring music by “Cheaper Than Therapy,” a local women’s barbershop quartet. A luncheon and book signing event will be held on Thursday, March 9 from 9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. at Skyline Country Club, 5200 E St. Andrews Drive.

The event will also feature: Steve Berry, a former trial lawyer and founder of the International Thriller Writers, whose latest Cotton Malone novel, “The Lost Order,” will be published on April 4; Anne Hillerman, daughter of the late Tony Hillerman, who will also publish her latest novel, “Song of the Lion,” in April; and Sherri Duskey Rinker, the critically acclaimed children’s author, whose “Goodnight, Goodnight, See Brandeis, page 4

March 3 ... 6:05 p.m.

Photo courtesy Fran Braverman

Tucsonan Fran Braverman, center, with friends Nada (left) and Ashti at the Noor Women’s Association 2013 fundraising picnic.

REFUGEE continued from page 1

to resettle in the United States.”

“Then we narrow the focus” to the U.S. refugee resettlement program, he says, including how refugees are vetted, and then focus on Tucson, with an outline of services local resettlement agencies provide to refugees “to help them get on their feet, get acculturated, and start their new life in the U.S.” The local experts will discuss how classifying refugees as a burden is “completely mistaken,” he says. “We have a wonderful record of getting refugees employed as soon as possible after their arrival in the United States,” with a 96 percent success rate of finding them jobs within the first 180 days after they arrive.

“Refugees work,” Cornish emphasizes.

“They pay taxes, they rent apartments, they buy groceries, they buy cars and they even buy houses. So refugees, as has been shown in study after study, are net contributors to society. In fact you could call them an economic engine for a community.”

While a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order halting the administration’s travel ban on Feb. 4, and the ninth circuit court of appeals on Feb. 9 upheld that ruling, the injunction doesn’t cover all elements of the executive order.

Cornish explains that the ruling doesn’t affect the section of the order that reduces the number of refugees to be resettled in the United States this year from 110,000 to 50,000.

“I’m going through a restructuring exercise right now. We’re going to have to lay off staff. We’re going to have to reduce services,” such as interpreter services, he says.

Fran Braverman, a member of the Or Chadash social action committee, organized the March 6 event.

For nine years, Braverman has volun-

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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, February 17, 2017

teered with Noor Women’s Association, an interfaith nonprofit that assists refugees, with an emphasis on widows and other single mothers. The name comes from the Arabic word for light.

“We help after the agencies aren’t able to help [further] with rent, just supporting and taking people to doctors, teaching English and whatever they need,” she says.

“It has been the most humbling experience of my life,” Braverman says, explaining that refugees arrive here with no family support, few possessions and no English, yet face the challenge of starting over with warmth, grace and appreciation.

Refugees she knows, even those who have become U.S. citizens, have been frightened by recent developments.

“They came here to be safe and where will they go if we push them out?” she says.

“The needs of refugees worldwide have never been greater … certainly since World War II,” says Cornish.

The refugee population in the United States is very diverse, he adds. Until last year, when the Obama administration committed to taking more refugees from war-torn Syria, only 30 percent of refugees coming to the United States were from the Middle East.

The criteria for selection in the United States is based on need, he says. “How desperate is your situation, how imminent is the threat to your survival?”

Cornish notes that the American approach to resettlement differs from the European model, where refugees end up in segregated neighborhoods and often are not permitted to work right away.

“Our security,” says Cornish, “lies not in stopping the refugee program but in setting refugees up for success, so they are fully invested in our society and are welcomed by their neighbors, and they have no reason to feel isolated and radicalize, if you will, and every reason to support the America that supports them.”

LOCAL Book fest panel to highlight Jewish characters The Tucson Festival of Books returns to the University of Arizona campus March 11 and 12. Now in its ninth year, the festival is the third largest in the country, with more than 300 authors and millions of visitors attending each year.

While Jewish authors have always been among the presenters, this year, the festival puts a spotlight on Jewish characters with “Jewish Lives and Histories,” a panel discussion that will take place on Sunday, March 12 from 1-2 p.m. with authors Jillian Cantor, Alice Hoffman and Affinity Konar. Along with moderator Pam TreadwellRubin, they will explore how being Jewish often impacts the events in their characters’ lives, the choices they are allowed to make and the actions of those around them.

Cantor, who lives in Tucson, is an award-winning author of novels for teens and adults. Her books for adults include the widely acclaimed “Margot,” which imagines that Anne Frank’s sister survived the Holocaust and is living

incognito in the United States; and “The Hours Count,” in which a young Jewish mother befriends accused spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Coming in June, Cantor’s “The Lost Letter” traces the path of a love letter that was never sent, spanning generations of families from World War II Austria to Los Angeles in the 1980s.

Hoffman is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 30 books including the novel “The Dovekeepers,” set amid the siege of Masada, as well as collections of short fiction, screenplays, and fiction for children and young adults.

Her newest novel is “Faithful.”

Konar’s debut novel “Mischling,” about twin sisters fighting to survive the evils of World War II, has been acclaimed as “one of the most harrowing, powerful, and imaginative books of the year” by Pulitzer Prize-winner Anthony Doerr.

“Jewish Lives and Histories” is a free, ticketed event; visit tucsonfestivalofbooks.org for more information.

UA talk to probe religion’s role in 2016 election The Arizona Center for temporary dynamics beJudaic Studies will preshind the unlikely alliance ent a free President’s Day between Christian groups lecture, “Religion and the and Donald Trump.

2016 Election: Historical Balmer is the John PhilContext and Unusual Allilips Professor of Religion, ances,” with professor and chair of the religion deauthor Randall Balmer partment, and director of on Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. at the the Society of Fellows at Tucson Jewish Community Dartmouth College in HaCenter. nover, N.H. His commenRandall Balmer Religion played an untaries appear regularly in usual and unexpected role in the 2016 the Los Angeles Times, the Washington election, especially among Christian vot- Post, the Des Moines Register, and other ers who threw their support behind a newspapers across the country. He is the thrice-married billionaire casino owner author of more than a dozen books, inwho demonstrated only a passing fa- cluding “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: miliarity with the rudiments of Chris- A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture tian theology, says Balmer. This lecture in America,” now in its fifth edition, and explores the historical reasons and con- “Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter.”

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LOCAL Gootter Foundation to honor Glicksman at gala dinner The Steven M. Gootter Foundation The foundation also provides automated will present its annual Philanthropic external defibrillators to nonprofit orgaAward to Elliot Glicksman at the 12th nizations throughout Southern Arizona. annual Gootter Gala on Friday, March 3 Glicksman has served as emcee/aucat the Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa. tioneer for many nonprofit organizaGlicksman, a lawyer in Tucson, “has tions including Mothers Against Drunk supported the Gootter Foundation Driving, Arts for All, the Tucson Girls since its inception 12 years ago. As our Chorus, the Educational Enrichment official emcee/auctioneer, he has been Foundation, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation directly instrumental in helping us raise and Ben’s Bells, earning him the Cystic significant money that has helped us in Fibrosis Breath of Life Award in 2009 Elliot Glicksman our mission of saving lives,” says Andrew and the Arizona Chapter of the AmeriMessing, president of the Steven M. Gootter Foundation. can Jewish Committee’s Learned Hand Award for ComThe foundation raises awareness and supports educa- munity Service and a National Philanthropy Day Award, tion and research into sudden cardiac arrest, in memo- both in 2014. ry of Steven M. Gootter, a member of the local Jewish Tickets are available at stevenmgootterfoundation. community who died suddenly in 2005 at the age of 42. org/event/tickets/.

Hadassah plans 20th Adopt-a-Roadway cleanup Hadassah Southern Arizona women and men will once again perform the mitzvah of tikkun olam, repairing the world, by cleaning the roadways around the Tucson Jewish Community Center, on Sunday, March 5, from 8-10 am.

This event will mark the 20th year that chapter members have participated in the Adopt-a-Roadway project, twice a year. For the past few years, they have partnered

The Only name fOr real esTaTe

with Congregation Bet Shalom’s social action committee and the Coalition for the Environment and Jewish Life.

All are welcome to join the teams of workers, who meet at 8 a.m. in the parking lot of the Tucson J. Wear closed-toe shoes and a hat, and bring gloves and water.

For more information, call Mike Jacobson, Hadassah Adopt-a-Roadway chair, at 748-7333

BRANDEIS continued from page 1

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EQUAL HOUSING

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Construction Site,” spent 228 weeks on The New York Times bestsellers list. This year’s luncheon will be moderated by Vanessa Barchfield, a reporter and producer at Arizona Public Media.

The annual occasion will benefit the “Sustaining the Mind” program, a fund that supports neuroscience research for combating degenerative brain conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. During her law career, Hirshman litigated on three Supreme Court cases, one being Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority — a ruling that extended the Fair Labor Standards Act under the Constitution, guaranteeing minimum wage and overtime rights for transit workers employed by a private company.

Hirshman says she has a knack for predicting the future regarding the viability of political and social movements in America. Her book, “Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution,” which described how the LGBTQ community forged a successful political campaign that would ratify marriage equality, was written years before the Supreme Court ruled in favor of equal marriage rights.

She was one of the few liberal Democrats who were concerned about the rise of Donald Trump in the early days of the presidential campaign, she adds. As his new administration nears in on controlling every aspect of

Steve Berry

Anne Hillerman

Sherri Duskey Rinker

stateside governance, and continues to grow ever popular, she says it is disconcerting to watch.

“A combination of a movement and total control over all three branches of government is scary,” she says. “And because a movement comes from the culture, as well as the political system, you’re seeing an eruption — you’re seeing evidence of what’s going on in the culture, which is not lovely.”

Being invited to this year’s event is quite the honor, says Hirshman. Not only is Brandeis very dear to her — as is her overall love for science — but while writing “Victory” she learned how invaluable scientific research helped curb the AIDS epidemic.

“So it happens that this event is very special to me for that reason,” she says. “I’m very, very happy to lend my talents to helping Brandeis raise money for scientific research. And I just know that if a bunch of Brandeis people work on something, they’ll figure it out.”

The cost of each event is $75 for Brandeis members and $85 for non-members. For more information contact Sheila Rothenberg at 232-9559 or sheila.tucson@comcast.net.

ARTS & CULTURE / LOCAL Mishler will sign ‘Zalman Ber’s Story’ at Tucson J The Tucson Jewish Community Center will present a book signing by local artist and author Lisa Kotz Mishler of her new book, “Zalman Ber’s Story: The True Story of the Man the Nazis Could Not Kill,” as told to her by her father, Sol Kotz, on Sunday, Feb. 26 from 2-4 p.m. The event will include a question and answer session.

Together, Ber and his wife, Luba, survived the Holocaust. They escaped the horrors the Nazis inflicted on their Polish villages, fought with partisans, and later, Ber enlisted with the Russian military.

Their story has been added to the collection of the United States Holocaust History Museum. It is a testament to their resiliency and capacity not just to survive, but to flourish and rise above tremendous adversity.

Mishler’s first book, “L’Chayim — To Life,” is a collection of paintings and narration inspired by her parents’ harrowing journey in Poland during World War II.

Michael Feinstein to bring American songbook to Fox The Fox Tucson Theatre will present a concert by Michael Feinstein, the two-time Emmy and five-time Grammy Awardnominated entertainer dubbed “The Ambassador of the Great American Songbook,” on Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m.

Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, where he started playing piano by ear as a 5-yearold, Feinstein moved to Los Angeles when he was 20. Introduced to Ira Gershwin in 1977 by the widow of concert pianist and actor Oscar Levant, Feinstein became Gershwin’s assistant for six years. This role earned him access to numerous unpublished Gershwin songs, many of which he has since performed and recorded.

Feinstein has performed concerts all over the world, including at such iconic venues as The White House, Buckingham Palace, Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall and Sydney Opera House. He earned his fifth Grammy nomination in 2009 for “The Sinatra Project” and his second Emmy nomination for “Michael Feinstein — The Sinatra Legacy,” which aired in 2011.

In 2007, Feinstein founded the Great American Songbook Foundation, which presents educational pro-

Michael Feinstein

grams, master classes and the annual High School Songbook Academy. He serves on the Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Board.

The PBS series “Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook,” which won the ASCAP Deems-Taylor Television Broadcast Award, was broadcast for three seasons. On his nationally syndicated public radio program, “Song Travels,” Feinstein interviewed and performed with music luminaries such as Bette Midler, Herb Alpert, Joshua Bell, Liza Minnelli and Rickie Lee Jones.

For ticket information, visit foxtucson.com

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COMMENTARY Israeli development aid is a win for Africa, Israel and American Jews SHIMON MERCER-WOOD

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ate last month, on the eve of Black History Month, a delegation of African-American journalists landed in Ghana to cover international development projects and the impact those projects are making in that West African country.

This in itself is nothing out of the ordinary. Africa in general and Ghana in particular have long held special importance for the African-American community. Leaders such as W. E. B. Du Bois, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali have all made pilgrimages to Accra, Ghana’s capital, and returned describing the experience as a formative one.

Yet there was something truly unprecedented about this delegation: It was organized and led by the government of Israel, and its focus was on Israeli-Ghanaian development work in the fields of

Photo courtesy Shimon Mercer-Wood

JTA

A look inside the Project Ten Volunteer center of The Jewish Agency for Israel

education, health and agriculture. I will long cherish and be grateful for the honor and privilege of accompanying that delegation.

At the insistence of the Israeli ambassador to Accra, Ami Mehl, the program began with a visit to the slave dungeons of Cape Coast Castle. The walk through the dark, narrow, suffocating chambers where hundreds of thousands of people were held, stripped naked, gasping for

air and wading up to their knees in human waste, brought to mind the Holocaust, with which we as a people are tragically familiar.

While bearing in mind the singular nature of the Holocaust, comparisons to the deliberate dehumanization of victims to render them incapable of resistance were unavoidable. I will never forget the experience of standing with the black journalists in front of the “Gate of

No Return” through which their forefathers may well have passed, leaving behind their names, their culture, their tradition and their human dignity.

Emerging from that gate to see the brightly colored fishing boats of Cape Coast, and the children of presentday Ghana joyfully playing in the surf, evoked in me the experience of ascending from the painful exhibit at Yad Vashem to see the beautiful hillsides of liberated Jerusalem and the lively bustle of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway.

From Cape Coast, we traveled to the town of Winneba, where The Jewish Agency for Israel runs a Project Ten volunteer center. The center is operated by young Jews from Israel and the United States. (The director, Ori Schnitzer, hinted that volunteers from America were not as forthcoming as could be hoped.)

It works with local partners on a range of development issues. We met a team of Israeli girls, fresh out of the army, who See Africa, page 8

Why I’m teaching my kids that anti-Semitism is not the ‘new normal’ ILYSE MUSER SHAINBROWN Kveller via JTA

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ast week, I found myself taking 45 middle schoolers on a four-hour bus ride to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. While they were certainly struck as they walked through the train car on display that shuttled millions to their deaths and

moved to tears as they gazed upon the pictures of a lost Jewish community in Eastern Europe, I didn’t realize that the real lesson would come the next day back in New Jersey.

Let me back up. In September, I began a new venture at the Jewish Federation of Greater Metrowest as the Gottesman Fellow — bringing Jewish educational and cultural programing to the city of

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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, February 17, 2017

Newark. I had a list of programs I wanted to achieve within the two-year period of the grant. High on my list was taking Newark students to the Holocaust museum on a Rubell Remembrance Journey, when students from northern New Jersey are bused to Washington for a visit to the museum and reflect afterward on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

On the bus ride, the students hear the testimonies of two survivors and watch the video testimony of Morris Rubell, a Holocaust survivor whose son, Michael, started these trips in his memory.

The day was a true inspiration, from the moment these young, smiling fifthand sixth-graders boarded the bus to the moment their bleary eyes thanked us 16 hours later. Many of these children had never left Newark or New Jersey, nor had the opportunity to take what they are learning in the classroom and see real artifacts and exhibits that relate to their studies.

They sang “Happy Birthday” to one of the survivors on the eve of his 90th birthday. They gazed at the reflecting pool in their nation’s capital and reflected on an event that took place an ocean away and nearly a lifetime ago.

And I was fortunate enough to have the chance to speak with many of them, explaining things to them, and even more important, hearing how they were

changed by the experience. I could go on and on about the things the children noted while at the museum and later when we spoke beside Lincoln underneath the words of his famed Gettysburg Address.

I knew the impact was great and young lives were changed, yet it wasn’t until the next day that I could put my finger on why it was so important that they needed to be changed. As I sat in a meeting at one of the Jewish day schools in my area, I received word that our JCC was one of the ones targeted, and evacuated, because of a bomb threat. The kind woman I was meeting with simply shrugged her shoulders sadly and said, “This is our new normal.”

By the time I was back in my office, the building had been given the all clear and reopened. Stories were flying of children as young as 18 months being rushed into the cold, jackets not zippered and hats not secured. Someone else spoke of the senior citizens with memory loss, there for a day program, being ushered out of their normal routines, some confused even more, and herded across a busy four-lane street with sirens blaring and police cars racing around them. Women in the locker room were told to leave in just their robes and flip flops, toes freezing as they were graciously driven home See Normal, page 8

NATIONAL / ISRAEL Netanyahu seeks regional approach to peace, Trump says single state OK JTA WASHINGTON

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eeting with President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for a “regional approach” to making peace with the Palestinians and other Arab countries in the Middle East.

Trump, meanwhile, asked whether he favors a two-state solution or one state, responded, “I like the one the two parties like … I can live with either one.”

The two leaders appeared at a joint White House news conference Wednesday, prior to a scheduled lunch and private meeting as well as a meeting with their staffs.

“I believe the great opportunity for peace comes from a regional approach, from involving our newfound Arab partners in the pursuit of a broader peace,” Netanyahu said.

Trump said at the beginning of his remarks that he will “do more to prevent Iran from ever developing, I mean ever, a nuclear weapon,” and lauded the United States and Israel’s shared “value of all human life.”

Netanyahu praised Trump for challenging Iran on its violations of the nuclear deal, saying the president has “shown great clarity and courage in meeting this challenge head on.” Later, he said in indirect criticism of Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, “I think it is long overdue.”

Trump appeared taken aback by Netanyahu’s mention of the regional approach, adding that “we” had been discussing the possibility for awhile and that it would “take in many, many countries.”

“I didn’t know you were going to be mentioning it, but now that you did, it’s a terrific thing,” Trump said.

A “regional” approach posits that in place of or in addition to direct talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis, the sides would seek help from neighboring Arab states to create an opening for peace. In recent weeks the Trump administration has been suggesting it might emphasize this approach, even as it said a two-state solution was not a necessary outcome of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

Trump said the Israelis and Palestinians would both have to make compromises to achieve peace, adding as an aside

to the prime minister, “You know that, don’t you?”

Netanyahu responded: “Both sides, we’ll talk.”

Trump said both sides would have to “show some flexibility” and “show that they are willing to make a deal.” He also said he would like to see Israel “hold back on settlements a little bit,” but added “we’re gonna make a deal.”

Earlier this month, the White House surprised many observers by saying settlement expansion “may not be helpful” in achieving peace, tacking closer to the policies of Trump’s immediate predecessors than he indicated he would during the campaign.

Netanyahu said his views have not changed since his 2009 speech at Bar-Ilan University in which he announced his support for a Palestinian state, but that “labels” have overshadowed the “substance” of a peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

He said a peace deal must include Palestinian recognition of a Jewish state and measures to assure Israel’s security, including security control over the area west of the Jordan River.

At the beginning of his remarks,

Trump called Israel “the symbol to the world of resilience in the face or oppression” and “survival in the face of genocide,” in an apparent reference to the White House statement last month for International Holocaust Remembrance Day that did not mention Jews specifically.

Asked by an Israeli reporter about the rise in anti-Semitic incidents during and after his campaign and whether his campaign bears some responsibility for a rise in “xenophobia,” Trump pivoted to boast about the size of his Electoral College victory in the election, and that “we are going to do everything in our power to stop long-simmering racism and every other thing that is going on.”

Trump promised that “you guys are going to see a lot of love,” and acknowledged his Jewish daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner sat in the front row of the news conference with Trump’s wife, Melania, and Sara Netanyahu, the wife of the prime minister.

The news conference ended with Netanyahu saying of Trump “there is no greater supporter of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.”

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Lecture adds to understanding of Lincoln ‘Lebensraum’ evocative and educational I want to express appreciation to the Secular Humanist Jewish Circle and member Joel Unowsky, for his thought-provoking lecture on Feb.11, “Jews and the Civil War.” It was “altogether fitting and proper” (to quote a phrase from the Gettysburg Address) that this lecture should take place one day before Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.

Audience members were reminded that some southern Jews, like many of their countrymen, had plantations worked by slaves in pre-Civil War days.

One attendee remarked on the irony of slave-owning Jews reciting the Haggadah at Passover, which talks of the Jews’ backbreaking work as slaves in Egypt.

Yet President Lincoln refused go along with anti-Semitic attitudes prevalent in the north especially after a recent influx of Jews from Western Europe. As Unowsky stated, some of Lincoln’s closest friends and advisors were Jewish. In addition, the president appointed his foot doctor, Issachar Zacharie, official chiropodist to the Union army.

Perhaps most important, Lincoln ordered General Grant to revoke his decree expelling Jews from his military district. Lincoln was such a good friend to the Jews that they frequently referred to him as “Rabbi Abraham.”

— Barbara Russek

Until I saw “Lebensraum” on Feb. 9 at the Invisible Theatre, I thought I knew a great deal about the Holocaust; how wrong I was. I had never heard about lebensraum (“living space”), Hitler’s belief that Germany needed more living space to survive, a premise based on the denial of science. He said that the pursuit of peace and plenty through science was a Jewish plot to distract Germans.

The fanciful theme of the play is that the current chancellor of Germany invites 6 million Jews from anywhere in the world to come to Germany, work and become citizens to atone for the murder of the 6 million. It is a stunning production and the three actors who play multiple characters move smoothly from one character to another. I gasped, I cried and even occasionally chuckled. The play was written in 1997, but sadly, there is much with which we can identify today.

Many thanks to Susan Claassen, managing artistic director of the Invisible Theatre, for having the courage to bring “Lebensraum” to Tucson.

— Billie Kozolchyk

February 17, 2017, ARIZONA JEWISH POST

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operate an afterschool clubhouse called “Books and Things,” where the children of Winneba receive not only a much-needed boost in literacy and life skills, but also attention, encouragement and patience that daywage laboring parents are hard-pressed to provide.

“We are not only teaching them to read, we want to teach the kids to be imaginative and creative,” said Maya, 21, a volunteer from Karmiel.

Another group of young Israelis and Ghanaians were working together on a demonstration farm — a horticultural plot that will be used to study and introduce cheap but modern agricultural techniques and technologies for use by small-hold farmers in the region.

In Kumasi, we saw an award-winning early childhood education center practicing the methodology of Learning by Playing, introduced by Mashav, Israel’s Agency for International Cooperation. The teachers greeted us with a lively rendition of “Hevenu Shalom Aleichem.”

From there we proceeded to a mother-and-baby neonatal unit where the “Kangaroo System,” introduced by Israeli medical trainers, has dramatically reduced the mortality rate of pre-term babies without reliance on expensive high-maintenance incubators.

Back in Accra, we were amazed by the cutting-edge 675-bed Ghana University Medical Center, modeled on the Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer and built by an Israeli company that provided a $217 million Israeli government loan, and more important, advanced training in Israel for 71 of the hospital’s medical staff.

All the projects exemplified Israel’s development strategy of “training the trainers.” Rather than bestowing financial gifts or donating expensive but short-lived equipment, Mashav identifies and empowers cadres of local leadership who will be quick to assimilate the Israeli know-how and technology and are willing to then train fellow professionals to do the same. The multiplier effect continues to make palpable impact on Ghanaian

NORMAL continued from page 6

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by others so they did not have to stay at the evacuation site without clothes.

I was glad to hear that the community came together, everything went off as it should have and no one was in danger.

Yet I felt truly angry. I thought back to what that woman said in her office a few hours earlier when I had first heard the news. I’m sorry, but I cannot accept that this is our “new normal.” I just can’t. It is not normal for fear to emblazon a community and disrupt it so immensely from toddlers to seniors. It is just NOT NORMAL. In fact, it’s hatred, it’s anti-Semitism and it’s terrorism.

For years I have been talking, teaching and writing about the growth of anti-Semitism in our society, and most people just shrug, maybe nod in sympathy or even laugh off what I am talking about. They tell me it’s too scary for young kids to learn about the Holo-

lives long after the Israeli teams have returned home.

To be clear: Israel’s Africa policy is not an exercise in public relations. It stems from Theodor Herzl’s vision, as set out in “Altneuland,” of the Jewish state as a partner of African emancipation, which in turn draws from the Abrahamic vow to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. It is also a sound diplomatic strategy to build long-lasting alliances with a continent on the rise, which for years has held six of the fastest growing economies in the world.

Yet Israel is justified in its desire to be recognized for what it is and what it does rather than being mistaken for that which its enemies portray it to be. The most insidious of these enemies work systematically to depict Israel as somehow inimical to Africans and African-Americans. Under the false flag of “intersectionality,” they have cynically sought to exploit racial justice campaigns in the U.S. to demonize and delegitimize the one Jewish state.

Our visit to Ghana and our encounter with the overwhelming pro-Israel sentiment of the Ghanaian people demonstrated that no lie could be more egregious.

Even within the Jewish community, one occasionally hears some misguided souls making the perverse contention that American Jews must distance themselves from Israel so as to improve their relations with the African-American community. This visit, along with projects like American Jewish support for the Agohozo Shalom youth village in Rwanda, proves to me beyond doubt that the reverse is true. Reinforcing ties with Israel and partnering with Israel’s good works in Africa can serve as a bridge between African-Americans and Jewish-Americans.

I left Ghana for New York with a wish that more American Jews could feel the pride and satisfaction that comes with witnessing and participating in Israel’s efforts to help Africa realize its immense potential. In recent years, Israel has been coming back to Africa and Africa has been coming back to Israel. The greater the participation of American Jewry in the effort, the richer and more robust this rapprochement will be.

Shimon Mercer-Wood is the spokesperson and consul for media affairs at the Consulate General of Israel in New York.

caust. They say they don’t want their kids to be scared or to have nightmares. They say it doesn’t affect them because they “aren’t so Jewish.”

Well today, I hope those people take a second look and realize that this is happening. Not just in Israel, not just in Europe, but here in the United States.

Last night, as I sat in my almost 11-year-old’s bedroom, I thought about this “new normal” and I made a promise to myself. I might not be able to stop antiSemitism in this world, but I certainly can change a few students’ lives in Newark and make sure they understand the impact of hatred. And I can certainly ensure that my children will understand the importance of combating hatred. That they will know the history behind anti-Semitism. That when they go forth into the world and are faced with hatred, they, too, will not accept that this is “normal.”

Ilyse Muser Shainbrown lives in Livingston, N.J., with her husband and three school-age sons, Sam, Max and Jake. After teaching middle and high school history for many years, she is now pursing a master’s degree in Holocaust and genocide studies.

Kveller is a thriving community of women and parents who convene online to share, celebrate and commiserate their experiences of raising kids through a Jewish lens. Visit Kveller.com.

LOCAL / REGIONAL Chabad to celebrate 40 years of ever-expanding service in Arizona includes Shabbat lunches, classes on Talmud and holiday celebrations. This December, the Zimmermans spent several days hand-delivering Hanukkah menoreak out the schnapps! This year, rahs and candles to those who were unChabad of Arizona celebrates 40 able to purchase them. years of serving the state’s diverse Zimmerman says it was a given that Jewish population with a gala dinner at he would join Chabad’s outreach efforts.

Embassy Suites by Hilton Scottsdale Re“Born into a Chabad family, I have been sort on Feb. 26.

Rabbi Zalman Levertov, regional diinvolved in Jewish outreach since elemenRabbi Yossie Shemtov Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman rector of Chabad of Arizona, says the celtary school days,” he says. “I can still reRabbi Zalman Levertov ebration marks four decades of fulfilling member visiting nursing homes at age 7 visions was to reach out to unaffiliated and assimilated the mission “to serve G-d by helping others and also to Jews everywhere, including Arizona.” with my father.” bring the beauty of Judaism to our people.” Rabbi Sch“We are the only full-time synagogue in Northwest Originally operating out of their home, the Levertovs neur Zalman of Liadi, in what is now Belarus, set forth organized a Talmud Torah Sunday School, Torah class- Tucson,” he added. “It has been very gratifying to witthis mission when he founded the Chabad-Lubavitch es for adults, hospital visitation and student program- ness the diverse Jewish residents of this area blossom movement in 1775. ming. By 1990, they had moved to a three-acre campus into a beautiful Chabad community. We want to conBorn in New York, Levertov grew up hearing about and expanded to build a mikvah and services for the nect with as many Jewish people as possible, be it for a his grandfather, a Chabad rabbi who perished in prison Russian-speaking community. listening ear, to put up a mezuzah in someone’s home or in the former Soviet Union while working for Chabad’s Levertov is particularly proud that all of his seven to be with them during their last few minutes on earth.” underground Jewish network. Strongly motivated to children are carrying on the Chabad legacy, working in Today there are 21 Chabad centers in Arizona, incontinue his grandfather’s work, he and his wife, Tzipi, in Arizona and other states. “Their work includes The cluding the Greater Phoenix area, Tucson, Prescott and originally from Argentina, set out to become shluchim, Friendship Circle for children with special needs, Smile Flagstaff. Chabad stresses that all Jews are welcome to or emissaries. on Seniors and Camp Gan Israel in the Phoenix area,” he any activity, regardless of ability to pay.

In a system developed by the Chabad spiritual leader, says. The goal was reaching out to Jews “making them The opening of the newest Chabad center in Arizona, the late Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, affectionately more aware of their Jewishness [and bringing] them serving Sierra Vista and Cochise County, was an espeknown as the Rebbe, couples are sent on a lifelong mis- closer to their Jewish roots.” cially emotional moment for Rabbi Yossie and Chanie sion to build or strengthen Jewish communities. It’s The expansion of Chabad to other cities in Arizona Shemtov. Returning to the Grand Canyon State to estabwhat turned the small Chassidic group into to the larg- began in 1983, when Rabbi Yossie and Chanie Shemlish the new center was their son, Rabbi Benzion Shemest, fastest growing Jewish movement in the world. tov were sent by the Rebbe to establish Chabad Tucson tov, his wife, Chaya, and daughters, Goldie and Rochel.

The approach is reflected in the movement’s name: and Chabad activities at the University of Arizona. The “What moved me most is the fact that Benzion has Chabad is an acronym for the Hebrew words for wis- Tucson network has since expanded, with Rabbi Yehuda chosen this path at all,” the senior Shemtov says. “He dom, understanding and knowledge, the foundation of and Feigie Ceitlin offering adult education, youth and grew up witnessing and experiencing the erratic life of a the movement’s Kabbalah-based philosophy. Lubavitch, holiday programming, Rabbi Yossi and Naomi Winner Chabad rabbi and yet has chosen the same for himself. I the Russian town where the movement was once locat- running operations on campus and Rabbi Rami and know Benzion and Chaya have the determination, pased, translates to “city of brotherly love.”

Chani Bigelman at Chabad on River. sion and sincerity to carry on the Rebbe’s vision to not “We were very pleased,” Levertov says about being In 2012, Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman and his wife, leave one Jew behind.” selected by the Rebbe in 1977 to establish a Chabad Mushkie, were brought to Arizona to found Chabad of For information on the Feb. 26 gala, call (602) 944-2753. presence in Phoenix. “We knew nothing about the com- Oro Valley, serving Northwest Tucson. Their program Barbara Russek is a freelance writer living in Tucson. She welcomes comments at Babette2@comcast.net. munity but were anxious to find out. One of the Rebbe’s

BARBARA RUSSEK Special to the AJP

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SENIOR LIFESTYLE Writing thrillers keeps former Tucson attorney’s creative juices flowing DAVID J. DEL GRANDE AJP Staff Writer

10

ARIZONA JEWISH POST, February 17, 2017

Photo: David J. Del Grande/AJP

A

t 85 years old, Jerry Sonenblick, a former attorney and local author, still wants to max out on life.

“I believe to retire completely is to stagnate,” says Sonenblick. “They say in order to keep your mind going you must engage in something new. For me it’s writing, that’s a whole new endeavor, because it’s constantly a new set of facts.”

Sonenblick spent 22 years as a private attorney in Tucson, specializing in real estate, commercial transactions and corporate litigation. He officially retired six years ago, he explains, but has no intention of slowing down.

He’s the author of three self-published novels. His latest book, “Vengeful Unhinged,” a thriller that follows a young lawyer’s turbulent battles in a world of corrupt politics and money laundering, was released in September. The book is set in Tucson and Las Vegas in the 1960s and ’70s.

“I’ve always had a passion for writing, even when I was practicing law, and

Jerry Sonenblick

eventually retired and went into the development business,” says Sonenblick.

“It’s been a passion of mine all of my life.”

He grew up in Hyde Park, Chicago, and moved to the Old Pueblo with his family after graduating high school in 1949. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from the University of

Arizona in 1953, earning a Doctor of Jurisprudence at his alma mater four years later.

He’s the former moderator and creator behind “A Matter of Judgment,” a live television show that featured practicing local attorneys fielding call-in questions, which ran for two years, broadcasting

from the UA campus in the early 1970s.

In 1974, he was a founding partner at Empire West Companies, a real estate developer for restaurants, business space and apartment buildings, which operated in six cities throughout the Southwest and was responsible for the construction of about 10,000 apartments. He left his private law practice in 1980 to take on the massive volume of work at Empire West, he says, eventually selling out his shares of the company about five years later.

Sonenblick served as board president of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona for two years starting in 1986, and was former chairman of the Arizona Jewish Post advisory board. He was named JFSA “Man of the Year” in 1987, which left him with “a strong sense of satisfaction. It’s nice to be recognized even though I know that fame is here today and gone tomorrow.”

But you really have to be satisfied with your own performance as a professional, because that’s what matters most, he adds, with a smile.

In 2000, Sonenblick founded the See Creative, page 12

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Mismanagement of common prescriptions and over the counter medications can lead to dangerous complications, including dizziness, falls and loss of appetite. Accidental poisoning deaths from medications are on the rise and older adults are more vulnerable to addiction and death from pain medications.

The Tucson Jewish Community Center, the Pima Council on Aging and BeMedSmart will host a two-part free lecture series aimed at reducing the mismanagement of medications, Monday, Feb. 27 and Tuesday, March 7, 10 a.m.11:30 a.m. at the Tucson J. Sally Krommes, M.S., will lead the

talks. Krommes, a prevention planner at PCOA, has a level 4 Arizonans for Prevention credential.

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Desert Angels, a nonprofit private investment firm that specializes in funding start-up and new businesses in the Southwest, which has invested more than $40 million in 95 regional companies.

In retrospect, Sonenblick is delighted with what he was able to create throughout his professional life. “Almost everything I did, started from nothing; And I’ve always worn two hats.”

Sonenblick developed a penchant for writing as a sports reporter for his high school newspaper, he says, and practicing law only solidified his zeal. He’s capitalized on his professional life, basing many of his characters on real people,

and finds the creative storytelling process ultimately inspiring.

“I love seeing these figures come to life, they almost take on a life of their own,” he says. “They do take on a persona, they are fascinating and the whole idea is to go along with their characterizations.”

Sonenblick is about halfway through the first phase of a new book, he says, balancing creating a new work with continuing to market his most recent novel.

And the positive reviews of his latest fiction keep him motivated and ready to forge ahead.

“I will not stop until I’m forced to stop — I want to keep going,” he says.

COMING UP IN THE AJP Mind, Body & Spirit — March 17 Senior Lifestyle — May 12 Mind, Body & Spirit — June 9 Senior Lifestyle — July 7 Mind, Body & Spirit — September 22 Senior Lifestyle — October 20 For advertising opportunities, c ontact Berti' Brodsky at 520-647-8461 or berti@azjewishpost.com.

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Bilgray scholar takes holistic approach to healthy aging the relationship between a bride, a groom and God. No matter how we plan, life may play cards we are not prepared for — “Mann traoch, Gott lauch,” says ow should we be thinking about and preparing Address, which translates from Yiddish as “Man plans, for the likelihood that we will live longer lives God laughs.” How we deal with the randomness of life than our ancestors? Rabbi Richard F. Address, determines who we really are, he says.

On Saturday, March 4 at noon at the Temple EmaD.Min., founder of the Jewish Sacred Aging project, nu-El Rabbi’s Tish, Address will lead a text study on will discuss new ways to approach life’s “third age” as “New Rituals for New Life Stages,” exploring the newthis year’s Albert T. Bilgray scholar-in-residence.

Address will give three free talks in Tucson, starting est prayers and rituals that give meaning to the celebraon Thursday, March 2 at 7 p.m. at the University of Ari- tion of aging.

With baby boomers living well zona Hillel Foundation with “In a into their 80s and 90s, “we’ve colSacred Image: A Jewish Approach lected new rituals for times and to Health and Wellness,” exploring moments we didn’t expect,” Adhow Judaism looks at the issues of dress told the AJP. both physical and mental health.

Tish participants are asked to The traditional Jewish apbring a dairy/vegetarian dish to proach to health combines mind, share at the potluck lunch. body and spirit as a “holistic Temple Emanu-El will host a medical system,” says Address, the Shabbat dinner with Address on author of several books on aging, March 3 at 5:30 p.m. The cost is including “Seekers of Meaning: $36; prepaid reservations must be Baby Boomers, Judaism, and the made by Wednesday, Feb. 22 at Pursuit of Healthy Aging.”

327-4501 or tetucson.org.

Often, as people reach their The Bilgray Lectureship is a 60s, they experience a “spiritual collaborative program between revolution,” beginning to wonder Temple Emanu-El and the UA’s what legacy they will leave to their Rabbi Richard Address Arizona Center for Judaic Studchildren and grandchildren — as well as what their children’s legacy might be, says Ad- ies, honoring the memory of Rabbi Albert T. Bilgray, dress, who in 1997 founded the Union for Reform Ju- senior rabbi at Temple Emanu-El from 1947-1972 and the guiding force behind the formation of the Judaic daism’s Department of Jewish Family Concerns.

At Shabbat services on Friday, March 3 at Temple Studies program at the UA. This year’s program is also Emanu-El, which begin at 7:30 p.m., Address will de- cosponsored by Handmaker Jewish Services for the liver “Going Boldly to Our Next Frontier: An Approach Aging, Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southto Life’s ‘Third Age’ from Jewish Tradition and Texts.” ern Arizona, B’nai Brith Covenant House, the UA DeHe will explore four basic texts from the Torah that partment of Religious Studies and the UA Hillel Founapproach the topic of aging in a healthy way and how dation. they model a “chuppah” of relationships, just as the Chloe Raissen is a student at the University of Arizona School of wedding canopy can serve as a symbol tying together Journalism.

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SENIOR LIFESTYLE ‘Joe’s Violin’ documents Holocaust survivor's gift to South Bronx schoolgirl

Joe Feingold and Brianna Perez in the Oscar-nominated short documentary ‘Joe’s Violin.’

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F

ilmmaker Kahane Cooperman hasn’t written an Oscars acceptance speech yet, but she likely will before the Academy Awards ceremony on Feb. 28.

Not to jinx things or appear overconfident, Cooperman told JTA in a telephone interview, but “on the chance it happens, for fear of leaving someone out.”

Her film, “Joe’s Violin,” is up for an award for short documentary — a category typically ignored by viewers more interested in what Emma Stone is wearing. It’s a 24-minute, five-handkerchief weeper; a joyous paean to the human spirit and a testimony of how simple acts of kindness can have important and farreaching implications.

The (appropriately) short version of the film’s story: The eponymous Joe is Joe Feingold, a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor from Poland. About three years ago, the lifelong violinist realized he no longer had the dexterity to play up to his standards.

“I had some good ideas of how a violin should be played,” he said in a separate telephone interview from his home in New York. “And I couldn’t [do it anymore]. The violin was here, in its case in my apartment, and I thought I should make some use out of it.”

He considered selling the instrument, but then heard an announcement on WQXR, the New York classical music station. Working in conjunction with the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation — an outgrowth of the film that won Richard Dreyfus an Oscar — the station was looking for used instruments to be donated to needy New York City schoolchildren.

So Joe hopped on a bus and went to the collection point at Lincoln Center, where he left his treasured violin. Matters may have stood there were it not for the

fact that Feingold and his instrument had a fascinating past and the recipient, Brianna Perez, 12 at the time, had this potentially amazing future: Two strangers connected by a fiddle.

Feingold was born in Warsaw in 1923.

After the Nazis invaded in 1939, word reached the family that his father was about to be arrested. So Feingold and his dad fled to eastern Poland, then under Russian rule. But the Hitler-Stalin pact changed everything. Father and son were sent to separate Siberian labor camps and, while they both survived, Feingold’s mother and one of his two brothers who stayed behind did not.

After the war, Feingold made his way to a displaced persons camp in Germany. One day he was at a flea market and saw a violin — like Proust’s madeleine, it brought back memories of happier times.

Lacking money, he bartered a carton of cigarettes for the instrument.

Why a violin?

“Because I had a violin since childhood,” he said. “I loved the violin. I studied it. I played it. I wasn’t a great violinist, but the music I made, it meant something to me. I missed it.”

Music was central to his prewar life, Feingold said. His mother sang — especially the songs of Edvard Grieg — and the family performed weekly for guests.

In the film, Feingold downplays the significance of his donation.

“I thought it was just a violin,” he said.

“It was a simple thing. I don’t use it. Let someone else have it.”

But during our conversation — perhaps because he’s had time to reflect, or perhaps because he wants to promote the documentary — he offers a different perspective.

“I always thought it should mean something to the person who gets it, just as it did for me,” he said. “It played such a great role in my life. When I found out that the violin was given to a girl in the South Bronx, that’s exactly what I

dreamed would happen.”

That girl, Brianna, is an old — or, at least, middle-aged — soul in a youthful body. She was a student at the Bronx Global Learning Institute for Girls, a K through 8 school where every pupil is taught violin from day one.

Relatively quickly, she grasped the significance of the gift.

“That violin has so many secrets that nobody knows,” Brianna says in the film.

Cooperman calls Brianna “the most amazing 12-year-old.”

“She had an innate respect and profound understanding of why this violin was meaningful beyond just a musical instrument,” added the filmmaker, a firstgeneration American whose father left Germany in 1934.

Cooperman heard about Feingold’s donation during a promotional segment on WQXR in 2013, which sparked the idea for the documentary.

As such, the earlier parts of the violin’s odyssey are told in a voice-over at the beginning of the film. But the viewers see everything else: We are at the assembly where a teacher chokes up as she tells students about the violin, its donor and announces Brianna will receive it. We are there when Feingold reads the letter Brianna wrote inviting him to the school.

We watch him at a different assembly addressing the students and, later, as he

listens to Brianna play the special Grieg number she painstakingly practiced.

Did any of the events take place because there was a camera there to film it?

Cooperman says no, this violin and its tale would have been treated specially even if she wasn’t on hand.

“I think everyone knew that while all the 3,000 instruments donated in this drive had a story, there was something compelling about this one,” she said. “It stood out from the pack.”

Cooperman launched the film while still working as a co-executive producer on “The Daily Show,” a gig she got 18 years earlier because of her background as a documentarian. She quit the job, she said, toreturn to her roots.

“Making money was never part of this for me,” Cooperman said. “It was a labor of love.”

In fact, Cooperman and her producer, Raphaela Neihausen, needed Kickstarter to crowdsource the funding.

“I do not see ‘Joe’s Violin’ specifically as a Holocaust film — for me it’s more about human connection and hope,” Cooperman said. “But I am very proud that through Joe, we hear a first-person account [of what happened], especially when there are fewer and fewer voices left.”

The film is available online at JoesViolin.com.

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15

NATIONAL

Photo courtesy Union for Reform Judaism

Reform movement’s challenge: Protesting Trump, remaining inclusive

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, Union for Reform Judaism president, speaks at the movement’s biennial conference in Orlando, Fla., Nov. 7, 2015.

BEN SALES JTA

NEW YORK

R

eform Jewish leaders largely oppose President Donald Trump’s policies — and they haven’t been shy about saying so since his election.

They’ve marched in the streets by the thousands. They’ve protested at airports.

And last week, some were arrested in front of a Trump hotel here.

“If there are areas where this new administration actually advocates and enacts policies that are reflective of our enduring Jewish values and our policy positions, then we’ll work with them,” Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center, the Reform movement’s legislative advocacy arm, told JTA. “But if they don’t, if they’re consistent with the kind of rhetoric we heard during the campaign, we’ll oppose it with every strength of our being.”

Advocating for liberal policy is nothing new for the Reform movement, which founded the RAC in 1959 and pushed for civil rights in that era and since. With the surge in liberal activism that has accompanied the election of Trump, the movement senses a chance to become the leading Jewish voice resisting what it sees as his administration’s discriminatory or unjust policies.

“The urgency of what we care deeply about has become front and center for tens of millions of people,” said Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism.

“It’s not that social justice might be good for us as an opportunity,” he added.

“This is what we care about.”

16

ARIZONA JEWISH POST, February 17, 2017

In the days following Trump’s refugee ban, Jacobs was flying to a Reform movement conference in Dallas. He was among several rabbis who arrived at the airport and walked directly to a protest there. One week earlier, the movement drew more than 1,000 people to a Shabbat prayer service ahead of the Women’s March on Washington. Am Shalom, a Chicago-area Reform synagogue, made headlines when it took in a Syrian family of four in the hours before Trump’s travel order went into effect. And last week, two Reform rabbis were among the 19 arrested in a protest of the refugee ban in front of the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan.

All major American Jewish movements put out occasional statements on public policy, especially regarding Israel. The Orthodox Union also has a Washington, D.C., advocacy center like the RAC that generally takes conservative positions. There was a rare moment of unity last month when all four major American Jewish denominations issued statements criticizing Trump’s executive order on travel in some form.

But the Reform movement has made opposing the president’s policies part of its agenda, even when they don’t directly relate to Jewish parochial concerns. The RAC is prioritizing refugee rights and increasing Muslim-Jewish cooperation through dialogue and legislative policy, but it’s also focused on protecting voting rights, opposing the confirmation of attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions and protecting undocumented immigrants.

“The idea of Jewish spiritual community being about feeding the hungry, clothing the homeless, caring for the stranger — these are fundamental core pieces,” Jacobs said. “If we don’t talk

about those things in our religious communities, we’re irrelevant.”

But that agenda could create tension for the movement, which in addition to advocating for liberal policy is also the largest Jewish denomination in the United States. According to the Pew Research Center, 40 percent of American Jews self-identified as Reform in 2013. And at least one of them does not agree with the movement’s political agenda: Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, is a Reform Jew. “The politics that the Reform movement engages in is disenfranchising a significant part of their own congregation,” Brooks said. “It is creating a false choice no one should have to make between their political views and their spiritual views.”

Reform rabbis acknowledge that being simultaneously ecumenical and activist can be challenging, especially now.

But those JTA spoke to denied that the movement is partisan, and said that rabbis ground their statements in values, not politics.

“For American Jews and their fellow clergy, I know it’s not a political issue. It’s a moral issue,” Andy Bachman, the former rabbi of Reform Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, said regarding the refugee ban. “There’s a long history of Jewish leaders speaking truth to power, using a moral voice in government. Rabbis who step into the breach to decry Trump’s laws [as] immoral are standing on very solid ground.”

Jacobs also noted that the movement has opposed policies of Democratic presidents, too. In December, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the rabbinic arm of the movement, chided President Barack Obama for abstaining on a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements. “[T]he United Nations is not the arena in which to address these complex issues,” the CCAR declared.

Pesner said that disagreement is natural at synagogue, and that the key for rabbis is to create space for their congregants to voice alternate views.

“We have some number of Reform Jews who voted for this president,” he said. “I will never know why they did, but we will never assume any evil motive.”

The Reform movement inculcates in its teens the idea that political activism is part and parcel of Jewish practice. At an upcoming convention of its youth group, NFTY, attendees can participate in a social justice track that includes programming on racial justice, economic injustice, LGBT and gender equality, the environment and pluralism in Israel.

“Judaism is primarily a central set of values about the way we treat people in our world,” said NFTY member Lauren Stock, 17, of Dallas. “To me, that seems directly linked to social justice and tikkun olam, making the world a better place. Ignoring social justice in Judaism is simply just ignoring a huge piece of our religion.”

To Brooks, justifying liberal activism by invoking tikkun olam is a “bastardization” of the concept. Brooks said synagogues should stick to the non-political aspects of religion, such as prayer, community and self-improvement.

Perhaps ironically, Trump himself wants houses of worship to be more political. He has repeatedly proposed undoing a law that prohibits houses of worship from endorsing or opposing political candidates. (Brooks told JTA he was speaking as an individual, not for RJC.) “A synagogue should be a place of worship,” Brooks said. “I think it should be about having a stronger relationship with God, and being better people and about those kinds of things, without getting into all the other policy stuff.”

Pesner and Jacobs agree that the bulk of the Reform movement’s work is apolitical in nature. But they said it’s impossible to divorce what happens in the synagogue from the decisions being made outside of it.

“If you add up the total activism of the Reform Jewish movement, the overwhelming majority of what we do is the study of Torah and the worship of God,” Pesner said. “The political stuff is a tiny part of what we do, but that’s what everyone notices.”

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T

hree years ago, Rabbi Ari Edelkopf and his wife, Chana, worked around the clock for weeks to show off their community and city to the many foreigners in town for the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

The Chabad emissaries from the United States came to the city on Russia’s Black Sea coast in 2002.

By the time the Olympics opened, they could offer three synagogues, five information centers and 24/7 kosher catering to thousands of people in the city, which has only Rabbi Ari Edelkopf and wife Chana in 2009 in Sochi, Russia 3,000 Jews.

The Edelkopfs were celebrated in the local media opening ceremony.

Gorin also called the order “an attempt to establish for these considerable efforts, which the Kremlin marketed as proof that Russia welcomes minorities — in- control” on religious communities in Russia, including cluding by inviting a Russian chief rabbi to speak at the the Jewish one, which he said is serviced by some 70 Chabad rabbis, half of whom are foreign. opening.

Many Sochi Jews consider Edelkopf a popular and This month, the couple is in the news again but for a different reason: They and their seven children have beloved spiritual leader with an impeccable record and been ordered to leave Russia after authorities flagged a close relationship with Lazar. They reacted with disAri Edelkopf as a threat to national security — a prec- may and outrage to the deportation order. edent in post-communist Russia that community lead“This is absurd,” Rosa Khalilov wrote in one of the ers call false and worrisome, but are unable to prevent. hundreds of Facebook messages posted to Edelkopf ’s Occurring amid a broader crackdown on foreign profile, in which he offered updates from his failed leand human rights groups under President Vladimir gal fight to stay in Russia. “Deportation without proof Putin, the de facto deportation order against the Edel- and thus without proper defense for the accused. I am kopfs is to many Russian Jews a sign that despite the utterly disappointed.”

Kremlin’s generally favorable attitude to their comTypical of such discussions, comments by Russian munity, they are not immune to the effects of living speakers abroad tended to be more outspoken than the in an increasingly authoritarian state. And it is dou- ones authored domestically. bly alarming in a country where many Jews have bitter “Somewhere along the way our country changed memories of how the communists repressed religious without our noticing,” wrote Petr Shersher, a 69-yearand community life. old Jewish man from Khabarovsk who lives in the The Edelkopfs’ deportation order drew an unusually United States. “We’re suddenly not among friends and harsh reaction from the Federation of Jewish Comcompatriots but in another brutal and indifferent atmunities of Russia, a Chabad-affiliated group that has mosphere.” maintained friendly and mutually beneficial ties with Since the fall of communism in 1991, the Federation Putin. of Jewish Communities of Russia — essentially Chabad’s The order, which included no explanation or concrete accusation, “raises serious concerns for the fu- Russia branch, and by far the country’s largest Jewish ture of the Jewish communities in the country,” Rab- group — only on a very rare occasion had publicly quesbi Boruch Gorin, a federation spokesman, told the tioned the viability of Jewish life in the country or the L’chaim Jewish weekly last week. Gorin is a senior aide authorities’ tolerance of religious freedoms.

Photo courtesy Federation of Jewish Communities

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RELIGION & JEWISH LIFE

Photo: courtesy Julianne Kanter

Outside synagogue, intermarried forming community

Jason and Julianne Kanter started talking about religion more seriously when they started to think about having children.

BEN SALES JTA

NEW YORK eading up to their wedding in 2012, Julianne and Jason Kanter hadn’t really discussed how they would incorporate their respective religions into their home.

Julianne was raised by Catholic and Presbyterian parents, while Jason grew up culturally Jewish. At first, it was simple to mark their different backgrounds. In December, the couple celebrated Christmas with Julianne’s relatives and lit a menorah and served latkes at Christmas dinner.

But now that they’re thinking of having kids, the Kanters have started to talk religion more seriously. And they realized they needed a space to learn about Judaism without the expectations that came with joining a synagogue.

“To talk about how are we going to incorporate Judaism into our lives — what does that mean? What will that look like?” Julianne Kanter said. “I didn’t know enough about it to feel comfortable teaching my kids about it.”

Since last year, the Kanters have found Jewish connection through a range of initiatives targeted at intermarried or unaffiliated couples. Last June, they went on a trip with Honeymoon Israel, a Birthright-esque subsidized tour of Israel for newlywed couples with at least one Jewish partner. And in the months since, they have built community at home in Brooklyn through two discussion groups where intermarried couples get together to meet, eat and talk about shared challenges and experiences.

In one group, called the Couples Salon, five to six couples share a light meal, introduce themselves and drop questions they have prepared in advance into a bowl. A moderator who can also participate picks out a question and the group talks — whether about how to deal with familial expectations, how to celebrate holidays or how to share a ritual with your kids. The salons have happened once a month, with different

L

couples, since August.

“We wanted the perspective of people who were in similar situations, which the synagogue is not,” Jason Kanter said. “It was nice to go to a group where everyone was in the same sort of boat. There’s real dialogue rather than someone telling you their opinion of what your situation is.”

A growing number of initiatives are giving intermarried couples a Jewish framework disconnected from synagogue services and outside the walls of legacy Jewish institutions. Instead of drawing them to Judaism with a preconceived goal, these programs allow intermarried couples to form community among themselves and on their own terms.

“I wanted to find a way to create a space for couples that come from mixed religious backgrounds to ask questions in a safe space,” said Danya Shults, who runs the Couples Salons as part of Arq, a Jewish culture group, and organized her fifth salon earlier this month.

“I’m not a synagogue. I’m not expecting them to join.

I’m not expecting them to convert.”

The salons began last year, as did Circles of Welcome, a similar initiative by JCC Manhattan, where five to seven intermarried or unaffiliated couples meet monthly, usually in someone’s home, to learn and talk about Judaism with a rabbi or rabbinical student who serves as a “mentor.” In Northern California’s Bay Area, two somewhat older programs, Jewish Gateways and Building Jewish Bridges, offer group discussions, classes and communal gatherings for intermarried couples.

The programs are at once a reaction to rising intermarriage rates and to the rejection that intermarried couples have long experienced from parts of the Jewish community. While most Jews married since 2000 have wedded non-Jews, the Conservative and Orthodox movements do not sanction intermarriage, while the Reform movement, the most welcoming to intermarrieds of the three largest Jewish denominations, encourages conversion for the non-Jewish spouse.

“Because of the history of interfaith families not being welcomed and not being accepted … that has meant, in some instances, for interfaith families that want to experience Jewish life, they have to figure that out using other resources,” said Jodi Bromberg, CEO of InterfaithFamily, which provides resources for intermarried couples “exploring Jewish life and inclusive Jewish communities.”

Often, said Honeymoon Israel co-CEO Avi Rubel, intermarried couples also have friends from a range of backgrounds. So they’re uncomfortable with settings that, by their nature, are not meant for non-Jews.

“When it comes to building community and meeting other people, people want to bring their whole selves into something,” Rubel said. “Which often in America means being inclusive of non-Jews and other friends.

When they’re at a Jewish event, they don’t want it to feel exclusionary.”

Mainstream Jewish organizations have become more supportive of including intermarried families.

Several Conservative rabbis have voiced support for performing intermarriages, and the movement is set to allow its congregations to accept intermarried couples See Intermarried, page 22

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RUSSIA continued from page 18

The strong reactions to the Edelkopf edict seem to be less connected to the actual expulsion — at least seven rabbis have been sent packing over the past decade over visa and residence issues — than to the assertion that Edelkopf endangers Russia, a claim the rabbi denies.

“This serious allegation is a negative precedent that we had never seen directed at a rabbi before in Russia, and it is a very, very big problem for us,” Gorin told JTA. “What are they saying? Is he a spy? We can remember very well the times when Jews were last accused of endangering state security,” he added in reference to anti-Semitic persecution under communism.

Behind the expulsion of Edelkopf and the other rabbis, Gorin added, is an attempt by the state to limit the number of foreign clerics living in Russia — an effort that has led to expulsions not only of rabbis but also of imams and Protestant priests.

“It’s not targeting the Jews,” he said.

Alexander Boroda, the president of Gorin’s federation, told Interfax that he was “dismayed” by the expulsion and suggested it was the work of an overzealous official eager “to check off the box” after being ordered to curb immigration.

Boroda also told Interfax that the deportation was not anti-Semitic. He recalled how Putin’s government has facilitated a Jewish revival in Russia — including by returning dozens of buildings; educating to tolerance; adding Jewish holidays to the national calendar; and offering subsidies to Jewish groups. Lazar, who was

born in Italy, often contrasts the scarcity of anti-Semitic violence in Russia with its prevalence in France and Great Britain.

The government has also tolerated criticism by the Chabad-led community. Under Lazar and Boroda, the Federation has largely ignored xenophobia against non-Jews but consistently condemned any expression of anti-Semitism — including from within Putin’s party and government.

The federation even spoke out against Russia’s vote in favor of a UNESCO resolution last year that ignores Judaism’s attachment to the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

Still, the Edelkopf deportation is part of a string of recent incidents in which Jews have suffered the effects of growing authoritarianism in Russia — a country where opposition figures are routinely prosecuted and convicted. Since 2012 the country has slipped in international rankings of free speech and human rights; Freedom House’s “Freedom on the Internet” index slipped recently from “partly free” to “not free.”

Under legislation from 2012, a Jewish charitable group from Ryazan near Moscow was flagged in 2015 by the justice ministry as a “foreign agent” over its funding from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and its reproduction in a newsletter of political op-eds that appeared in the L’chaim Jewish weekly.

Last year, a court in Sverdlovsk convicted a teacher, Semen Tykman, of inciting hatred among pupils at his Chabad school against Germans and propagating the idea of Jewish superiority. Authorities raided his school and another one in 2015, confiscating textbooks, which some Russian Jews suggested was to create a semblance of equivalence with Russia’s crackdown on

radical Islam.

Before that affair, a Russian court in 2013 convicted Ilya Farber, a Jewish village teacher, of corruption in a trial that some Jewish groups dismissed as flawed, in part because the prosecution displayed some antiSemitic undertones in arguing it.

While the incidents differ in their local contexts in the multiethnic behemoth that is Russia, seen together they demonstrate that the Jewish minority not only thrived under Putin but is feeling the “collateral damage as the government drastically tightens its grip on all areas of life,” according to Roman Bronfman, a former Israeli lawmaker from Ukraine and a staunch critic of Putin.

Natan Sharansky, the chairman of the Jewish Agency, recently named the anti-democratic measures of Putin’s government — along with the halving of the Russian ruble against the dollar amid sanctions and dropping oil prices — as a major catalyst for an increase in immigration to Israel by Russian Jews.

Last year, Russia was Israel’s largest provider of immigrants with some 7,000 newcomers to the Jewish state, or olim — a 10-year high that saw Russia’s Jewish population of roughly 250,000 people lose 2 1/2 percent of its members to Israel.

But to Lazar, Russia’s Chabad-affiliated chief rabbi, the numbers tell a different story, he told JTA last week at the Limmud FSU Jewish learning conference in London.

“I don’t know if Jews are leaving because of these steps,” he said, referring to limitations on freedom of speech and other liberties in Russia. “But I think it’s a testament to the revival of the community, which has instilled Jewish identity to provide many olim, whereas 15 years ago this phenomenon just didn’t exist.”

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Congregation Kol simChah

(Renewal) 4625 E. River Road, Tucson, AZ 85718 Mailing Address: 2732 S. Gwain Place, Tucson, AZ 85713 • (520) 296-0818 Shabbat services: 1st and 3rd Fri., 7:15 p.m.

Congregation m’Kor hayim 3888 E. River Road, Tucson, AZ 85718 (Tucson Hebrew Academy) Mailing Address: P.O. Box 31806, Tucson, AZ 85751 • (520) 904-1881 Rabbi Helen Cohn • www.mkorhayim.org Shabbat services: 2nd and 4th Fri., 7 p.m. / Torah study, 2nd and 4th Sat., 9:30 a.m.

Congregation or Chadash 3939 N. Alvernon, Tucson, AZ 85718 • (520) 512-8500 Rabbi Thomas Louchheim, Cantor Janece Cohen www.orchadash-tucson.org Shabbat services: Fri., 6:30 p.m.; 1st Fri., Friday Night LIVE (Oct.-May); 2nd Friday, Tot Shabbat (Oct.-June), 6 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. / Torah study: Sat.,8:30 a.m.

the institute For JudaiC serviCes and studies Mailing Address: 36789 S. Golf Course Drive, Saddlebrooke, AZ 85739 (520) 825-8175 • Rabbi Sanford Seltzer Shabbat services: Oct.-April, one Friday per month at 7 p.m. — call for details.

temple emanu-el 225 N. Country Club Road, Tucson, AZ 85716 • (520) 327-4501 Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon, Rabbi Batsheva Appel • www.tetucson.org Shabbat services: Fri., 7:30 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. / Torah study: Sat., 8:30 a.m. except when there is a Rabbi’s Tish.

temple Kol hamidBar 228 N. Canyon Drive, Sierra Vista • (520) 458-8637 http://kolhamidbar.tripod.com Mailing address: P.O. Box 908, Sierra Vista, AZ 85636 Shabbat services: Fri., 7:30 p.m.

OTHER

Beth shalom temple Center

INTERMARRIED continued from page 19

as synagogue members. Honeymoon Israel, launched in 2015, is funded by various family foundations and Jewish federations.

But organizers of the independent initiatives, and intermarried couples themselves, say even a welcoming synagogue can still be an intimidating space. The couples may not know the prayers or rituals, may feel uncomfortable with the expectation of becoming members, or may just feel like they’re in the minority.

“It’s a privilege of inmarried Jews with children in any social circumstance,” said Steven M. Cohen, a Jewish social policy professor at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, referring to synagogue membership. “The people that fit the demographic of the active group are the people who feel most welcome.”

Rabbi Avram Mlotek, a Circles of Welcome mentor and Orthodox rabbi, says his movement’s staunch opposition to intermarriage doesn’t come into play as he teaches couples about Judaism.

“Because of my own commitment to my understanding of halacha, there will be areas in which the couples and I will not see eye to eye,” he said, using a Hebrew term for Jewish law. “But that’s like the 10th or 15th conversation. That’s not the first or second or third or even fifth. There’s so much more to learn about them, and for me to be able to share also about myself, before even getting to that point.”

That doesn’t mean intermarried Jews will remain forever separate, said Rabbi Miriam Farber Wajnberg, who runs Circles of Welcome at the JCC Manhattan. She sees the program as a stepping-stone to a time when the larger community is more open to non-Jewish spouses.

“We expect and hope that this program won’t need to exist in the future, that we won’t need to create a special program to help couples get access to Jewish life,” she said. “It will just be happening automatically.

But Julianne Kanter, who facilitated her own Couples Salon on Feb. 8, isn’t sweating over which synagogue to join. She said that for now, she and her husband feel a sense of belonging in the intermarried groups that have formed.

“To me, I feel like these are the people who get us,” she said. “This is our community, and we’re just really lucky.”

1751 N. Rio Mayo (P.O. Box 884), Green Valley, AZ 85622 (520) 648-6690 • www.bstc.us Shabbat services: 1st and 3rd Fri., 7 p.m. / Torah study: Sat., 10 a.m.

Congregation etz Chaim (Modern Orthodox) 686 Harshaw Road, Patagonia, AZ 85624 • (520) 394-2520 www.etzchaimcongregation.org • Rabbi Gabriel Cousens Shabbat services: Fri., 18 minutes before sunset / Torah study: Sat., 9:30 a.m. handmaKer resident synagogue

2221 N. Rosemont Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85712 • (520) 881-2323 www.handmaker.com Shabbat services: Fri., 4:30 p.m., led by Lindsey O’Shea, followed by Shabbat dinner; Sat., 9:30 a.m., led by Mel Cohen and Dan Asia, followed by light Kiddush lunch.

seCular humanist Jewish CirCle www.secularhumanistjewishcircle.org Call Cathleen at 730-0401 for meeting or other information.

university oF arizona hillel Foundation 1245 E. 2nd St. Tucson, AZ 85719 • 624-6561 • www.arizona.hillel.org Shabbat services: Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and alternative services two Fridays each month when school is in session. Dinner follows (guests, $8; RSVP by preceding Thurs.). Call for dates/times.

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RABBI’S CORNER The senator’s surprise: Lessons from the Rebbe RABBI EPHRAIM ZIMMERMAN Chabad Oro Valley

U

.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once scheduled an hourlong meeting with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Towards the end of the consultation, the Rebbe asked if he could request a favor from the senator.

“Here it comes,” the senator thought to himself. “Now the Rebbe is looking for the payoff.”

The Rebbe continued: “There is a growing community in Chinatown.

These people are quiet, reserved, hardworking and law-abiding — the type of citizens most countries would treasure.

But because Americans are so outgoing and the Chinese are, by nature, so reserved, they are often overlooked. Thus they miss out benefiting from several government programs. I suggest that as a U.S. senator from New York, you concern yourself with their needs.”

“I was overwhelmed,” the senator said afterwards. “The Rebbe has a community of thousands in New York City and institutions all over the state that could benefit from government programs. I am in a position to help secure funding for them. But the Rebbe didn’t ask about that. Instead, he was concerned with the Chinese in Chinatown.

I don’t think he has ever been there, and I’m certain that most people there don’t know who he is, but the Rebbe cares about them.”

Such a story gives us a little glimpse into the true uniqueness of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The expansive influence of the Rebbe, dubbed as the most influential rabbi in modern history, is outstanding. On a most personal level, the Rebbe is known for his exemplary care and concern for each and every individual. On a global level, the Rebbe’s advice was regularly sought after by national and international government

officials of all levels. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award possible, and his movement (Chabad) is the fastest growing movement in Judaism.

As the Rebbe’s entire life was dedicated to guiding and teaching people, there are pages and pages of teachings that the Rebbe inspires us with. As someone that holds the Rebbe in the highest regard, I treasure his lessons for us.

One of the attributes of the Rebbe that constantly guides and encourages me is his refreshingly optimistic approach on life. One example is when the Rebbe pushed for hospitals to no longer be referred to as “beit cholim,” a house of the sick, but rather as “beit refuah,” a house of healing. The Rebbe always highlighted the positive in every person and situation.

I also admire the Rebbe’s constant “do more” attitude. The Rebbe had a compelling sense of mission, and was famously known to encourage people to take on more than they thought they had in them to accomplish.

Another of the Rebbe’s missions that was close to his heart was promoting a sense of urgency and longing for the Torah’s time of future promised bliss, the advent of the Moshiach. The Rebbe wanted to refocus Jewish attention on this issue. The Rebbe usually concluded his public talks with a prayer for the immediate redemption.

The point of the Messianic arousal is to stimulate spiritual growth, and to empower and energize us to hasten this time period, to do all we can to help the world reach its ultimate state of perfection.

The Rebbe encouraged and implored us all to do one more act of goodness and kindness to hasten the coming of Moshiach. Every good and kind deed that we do brings the world one step closer to the promised era. Let’s take part!

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Silverman + Associates Wealth Management, LLC is a Registered Investment Adviser. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to be an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities product, service, or investment strategy. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser, tax professional, or attorney before implementing any strategy or recommendation discussed herein.

February 17, 2017, ARIZONA JEWISH POST

23

COMMUNITY CALENDAR The calendar deadline is Tuesday, 10 days before the issue date. Our next issue will be published March 3, 2017. Events may be emailed to localnews@azjewishpost.com, faxed to 319-1118, or mailed to the AJP at 3822 E. River Road, #300, Tucson, AZ 85718. For more information, call 319-1112. See Area Congregations on page 22 for additional synagogue events.

Men’s Mishnah club with Rabbi Israel Becker at Cong. Chofetz Chayim. Sundays, 7:15-8 a.m.; Mondays and Thursdays, 6:15-6:50 a.m.; Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 6:15-7 a.m.; Saturdays, call for time. 747-7780 or yzbecker@me.com.

Chabad of Sierra Vista men’s tefillin club with Rabbi Benzion Shemtov, first Sundays, 9 a.m., at 401 Suffolk Drive. 820-6256 or jewishsierravista.com.

“Too Jewish” radio show with Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon on KVOI 1030 AM (also KAPR and KJAA), Sundays at 9 a.m. Feb. 19, Rabbi Lior Bar-Ami, Rabbi of Or Chadash Synagogue in Vienna, Austria, and The Liberal Synagogue in Toulouse, France; Feb. 26, Rabbi Richard Address, 2017 Bilgray Scholar, Health, Wellness, and Aging in Judaism; March 5, Dr. Gabor Gyori, "Jews in Hungary Today," senior analyst, policy solutions, Budapest, Hungary.

Beth Shalom Temple Center of Green Valley bagel breakfast and Yiddish club, first Sundays, 9:30 a.m. Members, $7; nonmembers, $10. 648-6690 or 399-3474.

Cub Scout Pack 613 meets at Temple Emanu-El. Sundays, 12:30 p.m. Membership in the congregation not required. Open to all boys in Tucson ages 5-10. Pinewood Derby in March. Call cub master Ben Goldberg at bensgoldberg@aol.com or Herb Cohn at shofarman@aol.com.

Southern Arizona Jewish Genealogy Society, second Sundays, 1-3 p.m. at the Tucson J. Contact Barbara Stern Mannlein at 7310300 or the J at 299-3000.

Tucson J presents Tucson Symphony Orchestra's Just for Kids free series, Sundays, 2 p.m., Feb. 26, March 26, April 23, May 21. 299-3000.

Cong. Anshei Israel parent-tot class (9-24 months), Mondays, 9-11 a.m., facilitated by Gabby Erbst. Mandatory vaccination policy.

Contact Lynne Falkow-Strauss at 745-5550, ext. 229.

Temple Emanu-El mah jongg, Mondays at 10 a.m. 327-4501.

Friday / February 17 5:30 PM: Temple Emanu-El Family Shabbat dinner (adults, $10; children under 12, free) followed at 6:30 p.m. by Shabbat Rocks! service with the Avanim Band and the third grade. RSVP for dinner at 327-4501.

5:45 PM: Cong. Anshei Israel Family Shabbat Experience Service, followed by dinner at 7 p.m. and games in youth center. Dinner $25 per family (2 adults and up to 4 children), or $10 per person (adults 13+). Call Kim at 745-5550 ext.

224 for space availability.

6 PM: Temple Emanu-El Northwest Shabbat dinner and service with Rabbi Batsheva Appel and cantorial soloist Lindsey O’Shea, at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 7650 N. Paseo Del

24

ARIZONA JEWISH POST, February 17, 2017

ONGOING Jewish Federation-Northwest chair yoga with a Jewish flair taught by Bonnie Golden.

Mondays, 10-11 a.m. $7 per class or $25 for four. 505-4161 or northwestjewish@jfsa.org.

Cong. Anshei Israel mah jongg, Mondays, 10 a.m.-noon. All levels, men and women.

Contact Evelyn at 885-4102 or esigafus@aol. com.

Chabad Torah & Tea for women with Mushkie Zimmerman, Mondays, 11 a.m., through February, at Chabad Oro Valley, jewishorovalley.com or 477-TORA; 7:30 p.m., with Rabbi Yossie Shemtov of Chabad Tucson, 2411 E. Elm Street, chabadtucson.com.

Cong. Or Chadash Mondays with the Rabbi. Mondays, noon-1:15 p.m. Feb. 27, “Officiating at an Interfaith Marriage.” Bring a sack lunch. 512-8500.

Cong. Anshei Israel women’s study group led by Rabbi Robert Eisen. First Mondays, noon. Discussion based on “The Five Books of Miriam: A Woman’s Commentary on the Torah.” Bring dairy lunch; beverages and dessert provided. Contact Helen at 299-0340.

Tucson J current events discussion, Mondays, noon-1:30 p.m. Lunch, bring or buy, 11:30 a.m. 299-3000, ext. 147.

Cong. Bet Shalom yoga. Mondays, 4:305:30 p.m. $5. 577-1171.

Jewish sobriety support group meets Mondays, 6:30-8 p.m. at Cong. Bet Shalom. dcmack1952@gmail.com.

Jewish Federation-Northwest PJ Library story time with volunteer Daphna Lederman.

First Tuesdays, 10-11 a.m. 505-4161.

Tucson J social bridge. Tuesdays and Thursdays, noon-3 p.m., year round. Drop-ins welcome. Meets in library on second floor. 2993000.

Northwest Knitters create hand-stitched items for donation in the Jewish community.

Meets at Jewish Federation Northwest Tuesdays, 1-3 p.m. RSVP to judithgfeldman@ gmail.com or call 505-4161.

Talmud on Tuesday with Rabbi Robert Eisen, Tuesdays, 6 p.m. 745-5550.

Tucson J Israeli folk dance classes. Tuesdays. Beginners, 7:30 p.m.; intermediate, 8:15 p.m.; advanced, 9 p.m. Taught by Lisa Goldberg. Members, $5; nonmembers, $6.

299-3000.

Shalom Tucson business networking group, second Wednesday of month, 7:309 a.m., at the Tucson J. Contact Ori Parnaby at 299-3000, ext. 241, or concierge@ jewishtucson.org.

Cong. Anshei Israel gentle chair yoga with Lois Graham, Wednesdays, 9:30-10:30 a.m.

Members of Women’s League, $6 per class; nonmembers, $8 per class. Contact Evelyn at 885-4102 or esigafus@aol.com.

Temple Emanu-El Talmud study with Dr. Eliot Barron. Wednesdays, 10-11:30 a.m. Onetime $18 materials fee. 327-4501.

“Along the Talmudic Trail” for men (18-40) at Southwest Torah Institute, Mondays, 7 p.m.

747-7780 or yzbecker@me.com.

Chabad of Sierra Vista women’s class with Rabbi Benzion Shemtov, last Wednesdays, noon-2 p.m., 401 Suffolk Drive. 820-6256 or jewishsierravista.com.

Spouse Bereavement Group, cosponsored

by Widowed to Widowed, Inc. at the Tucson J, Tuesdays, 10 a.m. Contact Marvin at 8852005 or Tanya at 299-3000, ext. 147.

Lunch and learn with Cantor Avraham Alpert of Cong. Bet Shalom, Wednesdays, noon-1 p.m. at the Tucson J. 299-3000.

JFCS Holocaust Survivors group meets Tuesdays, 10 a.m.-noon. Contact Raisa Moroz at 795-0300.

Norte. Kosher chicken dinner (vegetarian upon request), followed by Shabbat service at 7 p.m.

Dinner: Temple members, $12; non-members, $14; children 13 and under, free. RSVP at 3274501.

6:30 PM: Cong. Or Chadash third and fourth grade Shabbat Service with birthday and anniversary blessings. 512-8500.

9:30 PM: Temple Emanu-El Downtown Shabbat at the Jewish History Museum, 564 S. Stone Ave, with the Armon Bizman band, Rabbi Samuel Cohon and soloist Lindsey O’Shea. 3274501

Saturday / February 18 8 AM: Temple Emanu-El Wandering Jews hike

Jewish Federation-Northwest mah jongg, Wednesdays, 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. 505-4161.

Chabad Tucson lunch and learn with Rabbi and Shabbat morning service in Madera Canyon, with Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon. 327-4501.

9 AM: Cong. Or Chadash Shabbat hike in Catalina State Park, 11512 N. Oracle Road. Meet at trailhead for a 1-mile hike with Rabbi Thomas Louchheim. Bring sack lunch, water and sunscreen. $7 per car. RSVP at 512-8500.

NOON: Cong. Anshei Israel Targum Shlishi following kiddush. Understanding the Torah in form and function; guest speaker Rabbi Michael Goldman, founder and director of Seivah: Jewish Life Beyond Memory, in White Plains, N.Y., presents "A Jewish Response to Dementia." Call Rabbi Robert Eisen at 745-5550, ext. 230.

8 PM: University of Arizona Hillel Foundation 100 Years of Celebration: Arsenio Hall at

Yehuda Ceitlin, Wednesdays, 12:15 p.m. at Eli’s Deli. info@ChabadTucson.com.

Weintraub Israel Center Shirat HaShirim Hebrew Choir, Wednesdays, 7 p.m., at the Tucson J. Learn to sing in Hebrew. Contact Rina Paz at 304-7943 or ericashem@cox.net.

Jewish mothers/grandmothers special needs support group for those with children/ grandchildren, young or adult, with special needs, third Wednesdays at 7-8:30 p.m. at Tucson J. Contact Joyce Stuehringer at 2995920.

Jewish Federation-Northwest Kibbitz & Schmear open house with bagels and coffee, Thursdays, 10-11:30 a.m. 505-4161.

Cong. Bet Shalom Lunch and Learn, “Appropriate Speech and the Wisdom of Ramban,” with Cantor Avraham Alpert, Thursdays, noon-1 p.m. at Eli’s Deli. 577-1171.

Tucson J canasta group. Players wanted.

Thursdays, 12:30-3:30 p.m. Instruction available and a beginners’ table every week. Call Rhoda at 886-4334.

Tucson J “Keep Tucson Warm” knitting group creates afghans for local shelter. All skill levels. Yarn donations welcome. Fridays, 10 a.m.-noon in the art gallery. Contact Tanya at 299-3000, ext. 147.

Jewish History Museum gallery chats.

15-minute programs led by members of the community. First and third Fridays, 11:30 a.m.

670-9073.

“Biblical Breakthroughs with Rabbi Becker” at the Southwest Torah Institute.

Fridays, noon, for men and women. 747-7780 or yzbecker@me.com.

Jewish History Museum and Holocaust History Center, open Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, 1-5 p.m. and Fridays noon-3 p.m. 564 S. Stone Ave. Adults, $7; members and students, free. No admission charge on Saturdays. 670-9073.

Jewish History Museum exhibition, "Fluid Identities: New Mexican Crypto Jews in the Late 20th Century," at 564 S. Stone Ave., March 1-May 31. 670-9073. the Fox Tucson Theatre. Tickets at 547-3040 or foxtucson.com. Preceded at 6 p.m. by celebration at Scottish Rite Cathedral, 160 S. Scott Ave. Tickets at uahillel.org.

Sunday / February 19 9:30 AM: Cong. Anshei Israel Men's Club, "World Wide Wrap." Men's Club members talk to fifth and sixth grade religious school students about why they wear tefillin. Includes breakfast and a discussion, "Why I Pray and What Do I Expect from It?" All are welcome. Contact Lew Crane at 400-9930 or catsfan1997@cox.net.

NOON-2 PM: Cong. Or Chadash presents The Comedy Temple with "Ha-ha for Ga-ga." Includes lunch, improv theater and activities to help fund a ga-ga pit (Israeli version of dodge ball) for

Or Chadash religious school. $10. RSVP to Rina Liebeskind at 512-8500 or rina@octucson.org.

NOON-2 PM: JFSA Jewish Community Relations Council annual meeting with guest speaker Lecia Brooks, director of outreach at the Southern Poverty Law Center, at the Jewish History Museum, 564 Stone Ave. $18. RSVP at jfsa.org/JCRCannualmeeting or contact Jane Scott at 577-9393, ext. 114 or jscott@jfsa.org.

2 PM: Temple Emanu-El Monthly Sunday Salon.

Morgen Hartford, MSW, director of Alzheimer's Association of Southern Arizona, presents "Aging and Alzheimer's Disease." 327-4501 3:30 PM: Temple Emanu-El Babies & Bagels/PJ Library event: Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month. Story time, snacks and crafts.

Topic: kol adam meyuchad, valuing individual differences and diversity. ASL interpreter provided.

RSVP to pjlibrary@jfsa.org or 577-9393, ext. 138.

Monday / February 20 NOON: Jewish Federation-Northwest Lunch and Learn with Rabbi Helen Cohn, Congregation M'Kor Hayim, at Jewish Federation Northwest. $8.

RSVP at northwestjewish@jfsa.org or 505-4161.

Friday / February 24 Temple Emanu-El Rodeo Shabbat Cookout (adults, $12), followed at 7:30 pm by the Men’s Club Shabbat evening services. 327-4501.

Sunday / February 26

9:15 AM: Jewish War Veterans Friedman-Paul Post 201 breakfast meeting at B'nai B'rith Covenant House, 4414 E. 2nd St. $4. Contact Honey Manson at 529-1830.

2-4 PM: Tucson J book signing with Lisa Kotz Mishler, author of "Zalman Ber's Story: The True Story of the Man the Nazis Could Not Kill." 2993000 or tucsonjcc.org.

3:30-5:30 PM: Cong. Anshei Israel Hamentaschen for Hunger to take home and bake.

Set-up of dough, fillings and baking equipment included. Materials available to decorate Shalach Manot bags and Purim greeting cards. $18 per set-up. Proceeds benefit Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, Leket (Israel's national food bank) and CAI youth programs. RSVP by Feb. 20 at caiaz.org or call Michelle at 745-5550, ext. 225.

Monday / February 27

Bauman, MD, MPH, associate director of translational research, UA Cancer Center and chief, division of hematology and oncology, UA College of Medicine. 299-3000 7 PM: Temple Emanu-El Bilgray scholar-inresidence Rabbi Richard Address presents “In a Sacred Image: A Jewish Approach to Health and Wellness” at UA Hillel Foundation. 327-4501.

Friday / March 3 5 PM: Temple Emanu-El Tot Kabbalat Purim Shabbat for families with preschool age children, followed by Shabbat dinner at 5:30 p.m. and desserts on the playground. Dinner; Adults, $10; children under 12 free. RSVP at 327-4501.

5:30 PM: Temple Emanu-El Shabbat dinner with Bilgray scholar-in-residence Rabbi Richard Address . $36. RSVP by Feb. 22 at 327-4501 or tetucson.org.

5:45 PM: Cong. Anshei Israel Preschool/Kindergarten Tot Kabbalat Shabbat, with children’s musical performance. Dinner follows at 6:15 p.m. $25 per family (2 adults and up to 4 children); additional adults, $10. RSVP by Feb 27 to Kim at 745-5550, ext. 224 or edasst@caiaz.org.

7:30 PM: Temple Emanu-El Shabbat service with Bilgray scholar-in-residence Rabbi Richard Address presenting “Going Boldly to Our Next Frontier: An Approach to Life’s ‘Third Age’ from Jewish Tradition and Texts.” 327-4501.

6 PM: Cong. Anshei Israel Women's League Wine & Cheese Happy Hour. Following 5:30 p.m. minyan in the Epstein Chapel, enjoy a "girls" nosh, sip and socializing. Women's League members, free; guests, $5. No RSVP needed. Contact Evelyn at 885-4102 or esigafus@aol.com.

4 PM: Arizona Center for Judaic Studies Sally & Ralph Duchin Campus Lecture Series presents "Bedouin Life in the Early 20th Century," with Joe Seger, Ph.D., director emeritus, Cobb Institute of Archaeology, at UA Hillel, 1245 E. 2nd Street. Call 626-5758 or visit judaic.arizona.edu.

7-8:30 PM: Arizona Center for Judaic Studies presents "Religion and the 2016 Election: Historical Context and Unusual Alliances," with Randall Balmer, John Phillips Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College, at the Tucson J. Free. Contact John Winchester at 626-5759 or jwinches@email.arizona.edu or visit judaic.arizona.edu/religionandelections.

5 PM: Jewish Federation-Northwest and Hadassah Southern Arizona book club discusses "By Fire, By Water" by Mitchell James Kaplan, at Jewish Federation-Northwest. Call Marty at 9120401.

9:30 AM: Temple Emanu-El Shabbat No’ar breakfast, followed at 10 a.m. by youth and adult morning service with Project Ezra and fourth grade. RSVP at 327-4501.

6:45 PM: Jewish Federation-Northwest Card Making Class, with Anne Lowe. $20; includes supplies for two cards. RSVP by Feb. 24 at 5054161 or northwestjewish@jfsa.org.

9:30-10-30 AM: Cong. Anshei Israel Neshama Minyan: A Service of and for the Soul, with Jordan Hill, storyteller and founder/director of The Mindfulness Education Exchange. 745-5550.

7 PM: American Israel Public Affairs Committee 2017 Tucson event, featuring Mosab Hassan Yousef, author of "Son of Hamas." Program begins at 7:30, following registration, and includes dessert. Preceded at 6 p.m. by a VIP dinner open to members contributing $1,800 or more to AIPAC's 2017 Annual Campaign. $36. For RSVP and location, call 903-1004 or email tucsonevent@ aipac.org.

NOON: Cong. Anshei Israel “Read It & Meet” book club discusses “The Bridge Ladies” by Betsy Lerner. Call Rayna at 887-8358.

Tuesday / February 21 NOON: Cong. Or Chadash book club discusses "A Jew Grows in Brooklyn," by Jake Ehrenreich.

512-8500.

Wednesday / February 22 10 AM: Handmaker lecture. Rabbi Helen Cohn presents "Exploring Psalm 23." Contact Nanci Levy at 322-3632.

4:30 PM: "Life After Death in Faith Traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam" at the UA Poetry Center, 1508 E. Helen St., sponsored by UA College of Humanities, College of Social & Behavioral Sciences and the Institute for the Study of Religion & Culture. In memory of Peter Foley.

Contact Samantha Taibi at 621-0210 or staibi@ email.arizona.edu.

7 PM: StandWithUS Israeli soldiers tour event, at UA Hillel Foundation, 1245 E. 2nd Street.

Two IDF soldiers relate their personal experience serving in the IDF and living In Israel. Free. Call 208-1619.

Thursday / February 23 7 PM: A Night to Stand with Israel, with the Friends of Israel and Weintraub Israel Center, at the Tucson J. Two IDF soldiers discuss life in Israel and tell stories from the front lines. Free and open to all. Includes light dessert. RSVP by Feb. 22 to israelcenter@jfsa.org

7-9 PM: Tucson Tikkun Community presents "Facts on the Ground: Iran in Syria," with Leila Hudson, Ph.D., associate professor of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, University of Arizona; at The Tucson City Council Ward 6 office, 3202 E. First Street. Contact Michael Zaccaria at zaccarim@comcast.net.

Wednesday / March 1 6:30-8:30 PM: Cong. Anshei Israel Parenting in Peace course, with Naomi Weinberg, MSW., exploring parenting strategies for tots through teens.

Continues March 8, 15 and 22. $88. Mail payment (check or credit card) with your name, email and phone number, to Naomi Weinberg, PO Box 17891, Tucson, AZ 85731. Call or text 404-9300.

Thursday / March 2 6:30 PM: Tucson J presents University of Arizona Cancer Center lecture, “Head and Neck Cancer: the Emerging Epidemic,” with Julia

Saturday / March 4

NOON: Temple Emanu-El Rabbi’s Tish with Bilgray scholar-in-residence Rabbi Richard Address speaking on “New Rituals for New Life Stages.” Bring dairy or vegetarian dish for potluck lunch. 327-4501.

11 AM-1:30 PM: Interfaith Community Services Empty Bowls fundraiser, at the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center, 1288 W. River Road, benefiting the ICS Food Bank. Includes soups, bread, desserts and a handmade bowl to take home. Tickets, $25, at icstucson.org.

Sunday / March 5 8 AM- 10 AM: Hadassah Southern Arizona Adopt-a-Roadway cleans roadways around Tucson J. Wear closed-toe shoes, hat, bring work gloves and water. Meet in Tucson J parking lot.

Contact Mike Jacobson at 748-7333.

10 AM: JFSA Connections 2017 Let's Get PURSE-onal brunch with designer purse auction benefiting Sister Jose Women's Center, at the Tucson J. Rabbi Susan Silverman will present "Casting Lots: Creating Family In a Beautiful, Broken World." $36 per person, with $180 minimum pledge ($18 for students) to the 2017 Federation Community Campaign. RSVP to kgraham@jfsa.

org or call Karen Graham at 577-9393, ext. 118.

Monday / March 6 NOON: Jewish Federation-Northwest lunch and learn with Rabbi Batsheva Appel of Temple Emanu-El, at Jewish Federation Northwest. 5054161.

7 PM: Arizona Center for Jewish Studies presents "Stolen Legacy" with Dina Gold, as part of the free Shaol and Louis Pozez Memorial Lecture Series, at the Tucson J. Visit judaic.arizona.edu/ StolenLegacy.

UPCOMING Wednesday / March 8

8:30 AM-5 PM: Jewish Federation-Northwest and Hadassah Southern Arizona spring bus trip to Casa Grande Ruins National Monument and Queen Creek Olive Mill. Pickup at JCC at 8:30 a.m. or Trader Joe’s parking lot at Oracle and Magee at 9 a.m. Includes admission and boxed lunch. $55. RSVP by March 3 at 505-4161 or northwestjewish@jfsa.org.

6 PM: Brandeis National Committee 21st Annual Book & Author dinner with musical entertainment by “Cheaper than Therapy,” at Hacienda del Sol Guest Ranch Resort, 5501 N. Hacienda Del Sol Road. Benefits scientific research and scholarships at Brandeis University. Members, $75; nonmembers, $85; seating with an author $125.

RSVP by March 1 with check or credit card to Sorale Fortman, 6300 E. Speedway Blvd. #1321, Tucson AZ 85710. For more information, contact Sheila Rothenberg at sheila.tucson@comcast.net or 232-9559.

7-8:30 PM: Cong. Anshei Israel Adult Education Kollel: “Not Your Children’s Purim.” “The Sounds of Purim: A Deeper Look into the Chanting of Megillat Esther” with cantorial soloist Nichole Chorny, followed by “The Laws of Purim and How to Make Them Your Own” with Rabbi Robert Eisen.

Free; bring cash or non-perishable food donation for the Community Food Bank. RSVP by Mar. 6 to Michelle at 745-5550, ext. 225.

Thursday / March 9

10:30 AM-2:30 PM: Brandeis National Committee 21st Annual Book & Author lunch at Skyline Country Club, 5200 E. St. Andrews Drive. Doors open 9:30 a.m. for book sales/author signing, boutique and silent auction. Benefits scientific research and scholarships at Brandeis University. Members, $75; nonmembers, $85; seeting with an author, $125. RSVP by March 1 with check or credit card to Sorale Fortman, 6300 E. Speedway Blvd. #1321, Tucson AZ 85710. For more information, contact Sheila Rothenberg at sheila.tucson@comcast.net or 232-9559.

10:30 AM-NOON: Chabad Oro Valley “Read It in Hebrew” with Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman. Hebrew reading course for all levels, developed by the Jewish Learning Institute, Thursdays through April 6 at Golder Ranch Fire Department, 355 E. Linda Vista Blvd, Oro Valley. $49. Register at 477-8672, email rabbi@jewishorovalley.com or visit jewishorovalley. com/riih.

Sunday / March 12

5 PM: Cong. Chofetz Chayim “Purim for Dummies” Purim party with “kosher ventriloquist” Chuck Field. Wine and hors d’oeuvres on the patio and dinner, followed at 7 p.m. by stage show.

Adults, $21; students, $15; children under 12, $10. RSVP by March 2 at tucsontorah.org/purim -payment or call Rabbi Israel Becker at 747-7780.

February 17, 2017, ARIZONA JEWISH POST

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OBITUARIES

PUBLICITY CHAIRPERSONS Closing dates for AJP publicity releases are listed below.

E-mail releases to localnews@azjewishpost.com, mail to Arizona Jewish Post 3822 E. River Rd., Suite 300 Tucson, 85718 or fax to 319-1118.

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“Every person has a story that deserves to be shared, it’s their legacy that will be carried on into the next generation.”

Ask us about a complimentary online obituary.

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www.maranamortuarycemetery.com 26

ARIZONA JEWISH POST, February 17, 2017

Miriam L. Brown

Florabelle (Peggy) Simon

Miriam L. Brown, 97, died Feb. 1, 2017.

Born in Newark, N.J., Mrs. Brown grew up in Maplewood, N.J. She graduated at age 15 from Columbia High School, where she would later teach French and Spanish. In 1939, she graduated from New Jersey College for Women of Rutgers University. Soon after, she married Richard W. Brown. While raising their three children, she was vice president of the Maplewood Citizens Committee for the Public Schools and a member of the layprofessional committee of the Maplewood-South Orange Board of Education. As a board member of the Maplewood Human Rights Council, she established the Mayor’s Commission on Human Rights, and as a board member of the National Council of Christians and Jews, she set up a statewide human rights workshop at Rutgers. She served on the board of the American Association of the United Nations, Maplewood chapter, and provided home hospitality for visiting foreign dignitaries. She was a founding member of Congregation Beth El and later a member of Temple Israel, both in South Orange, N.J., and was active with the National Council of Jewish Women. In 1965, she received her master’s degree in French literature from Seton Hall University. After her husband’s death at age 52, she worked briefly for Eastern Airlines and traveled widely. She moved to the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York, studying at New York University and the New School for Social Research and volunteering at local theaters. She volunteered as an advocate for the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs and a field worker for the Second Careers program as a member of the Mayor’s Voluntary Action Center. She worked as an administrator for a women’s medical program and later for the artist Jon R. Schueler. Mrs. Brown moved to Tucson in the late 1980s.

In her later years, she resided at The Forum, where she was on the board of directors.

Mrs. Brown is survived by her children, Carol Brown of Silver Spring, Md., Judith Brown of Tucson and David (Elise) Brown of Melrose, Mass.; sister, Doris Shakin of Rockville, Md., four grandchildren and one greatgrandchild.

Graveside services were held in the Congregation Chaverim section of Evergreen Cemetery, with Rabbi Stephanie Aaron officiating.

Memorial contributions may be made to National Jewish Health, 1400 Jackson St., Denver, CO 80206; Tucson Medical Center Hospice, 2715 N. Wyatt Dr., Tucson, AZ 85712; or Congregation Chaverim (Rabbi’s discretionary fund), 5901 E. 2nd St., Tucson, AZ 85711.

Florabelle (Peggy) Simon, 86, died Jan. 31, 2017.

Born to immigrant parents, Mrs. Simon grew up in Clairton, Pa. She married and raised four children in Pittsburgh, where she later worked for the local Board of Education.

Survivors include her children, Paul (Marcia) Simon of Tucson, Linda Price of Chicago, Debbie Simon of Pittsburgh, Bill (Kelly) Simon of Los Angeles and 10 grandchildren.

Services were held at Evergreen Mortuary with Rabbi Robert Eisen of Congregation Anshei Israel officiating.

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George L. Nadler George L. Nadler, 78, died Feb. 4, 2017.

Mr. Nadler graduated from Stuyvesant High School in New York City, attended Brooklyn College, received his DDS from New York University, and was a Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics.

Survivors include his wife, Essie; children, Rudolph M. (Aimee Baker) Nadler and Eric Marc Nadler, both of Tucson; , sisters Hermine (Arthur) Weston of Jackson, N.J, Margorie Kaplan of Putnam Valley, N.Y., and Linda (Richard) Chamberlain of Marana, Ariz.; and two grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be made to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (michaeljfox.org) or The Power Gym, 3849 E. Broadway Blvd., Suite 163, Tucson, AZ 85716.

Alma Kane Vactor Alma Kane Vactor, 91, died Feb. 5, 2017.

Mrs. Vactor grew up in Cleveland’s Shaker Heights neighborhood. She and her family moved in 1960 to Tucson, where she joined the family business, Rancho Del Rio Guest Ranch, managing the food service and often serving as chef. In 1965, the Kane and Vactor families opened The Tack Room Restaurant on the same property. It became a Mobil Travel Guide Five Star Restaurant and later was awarded the AAA Five Diamond Award.

In the late 1980s, Mrs. Vactor became a cruise hostess for Golden Bear Travel.

Mrs. Vactor was preceded in death by her husband of 40 years, David C. Vactor; brother, Jud Kane; two daughters, Wendy Vactor and Jill Gunzel, and Jill’s husband, Steve. Survivors include her son, Drew (Kandie) Vactor of Tucson; three grandchildren and seven greatgrandchildren.

Private graveside services were held at Evergreen Cemetary.

OUR TOWN People in the news

Business briefs

Bar mitzvah

LAURIE WETTERSCHNEIDER has been nominated for a Women of Influence Award in the Public Service Champion category. The awards ceremony, hosted by Inside Tucson Business and Tucson Local Media, will be held March 1 at Casino del Sol Resort. Wetterschneider has raised millions of dollars to support a variety of causes locally and nationally. Her careers have encompassed radio, nonprofits — including as director of communications and fund development for Jewish Family & Children’s Services — and now jewelry design as co-owner of Laurie and Lisa Designs, utilizing her B.F.A. from the University of Arizona. With her husband, Larry K. Wetterschneider, she is a member of the United Way Alexis de Tocqueville Society. She has served on the board of the Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona and is an emeritus board member of Boys and Girls clubs, past general chairman of Angel Charity for Children, Inc., and has served on the boards of the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, American Red Cross, Court Appointed Special advocates and many other organizations.

THE TUCSON JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER has hired SHIRA BRANDENBURG as director of the Tucson International Jewish Film Festival.

Brandenburg holds a B.S. in education from Eastern Michigan University and has taught in both America and Israel. She spent eight years with the Hillel Foundation on the campuses of Metro Detroit, Michigan State University, UNC-Chapel Hill and the University of Arizona. She served as the Women’s Division director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Austin and special events manager of the Austin JCC. While working for the San Diego Padres, she ran events with the California Highway Patrol’s 11-99 Foundation and with Mitzvah Event Productions, a Jewish event company.

ZACHARY DEUTSCH, son of Jill and Michael Deutsch of Chandler, will celebrate becoming a bar mitzvah on Saturday, March 4 at Temple Emanuel of Tempe.

He is the grandson of Judy and Larry Deutsch of St. Louis, Mo., and Susan and Michael Cohen of Sun Lakes, formerly of Tucson, and the greatgrandson of Lilly Ann Feldman of St. Louis.

Zach attends Bogle Jr. High School where he is a member of the school’s basketball and wrestling teams.

He enjoys social studies and all sports.

For his mitzvah project, he is collecting shoes for soles4souls.

JEREMY BORIN (aka Giovanni Beneduci) has been appointed executive chef of Le Majorelle, a new restaurant to open in the Lowell Hotel in Manhattan on March 7. He was a student at Catalina Foothills High School and worked in restaurants in Tucson before studying at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. He worked in the kitchens of Le Bernardin and Jean Georges and was a sous chef at the Lotos Club. He recently spent a year in Japan as sous chef at the Andaz Tokyo Hyatt Hotel.

HARVEST RESTAURANT mixologist DONNA FRANCIS, a member of the United States Bartenders Guild, participated in the national finals of the USBG Legacy Cocktail Challenge sponsored by Bacardi in Miami on Feb. 13.

The SOUTHERN ARIZONA HOME BUILDERS ASSOCIATION honored the late DAVID GREENBERG at its second annual Legacy Awards luncheon on Feb. 3. Greenberg was a longtime executive in the local homebuilding industry and former chair of SAHBA’s executive board.

John Wesley Miller and Southwest Gas also received Legacy Awards.

WE LOVE BOOKS! Donate your used books to

BRANDEIS The sale of these books will fund a scholarship for a Tucson student to attend Brandeis University.

For pick-up or membership information, call 747-3224

In focus

Photo courtesy Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging

ROBERTA ELLIOTT is one of 27 artists whose work is included in “X is for Xenophobia — I Am America,” on display at the Steinfeld Warehouse Community Arts Center, 101 W. 6th Street, through March 30.

Elliott, who divides her time between Tucson and New Jersey, is a member of the Arizona Jewish Post advisory board, the grants committee of the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona and the social action committee of Congregation M’kor Hayim. She recently organized a harvesting event for Tucson’s Iskashitaa Refugee Network. She was formerly vice president of media and communications at HIAS and director of public affairs at Hadassah.

THE TUCSON JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER has hired BARBARA FENIG as director of arts and culture. Born in New York City, Fenig earned her MFA in fiction at Columbia University and her B.A. at Wesleyan University. She served as the inaugural director of the bell hooks institute in Berea, Ky. Previously she coordinated special events at the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin, arts events at Columbia University and writing and arts programming at Wesleyan University.

Multigenerational mitzvah

Fifth grade students from the Congregation Or Chadash religious school joined residents of Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging on Sunday, Jan. 29 to pack 70 snack bags with handmade note cards for the Sister Jose Women’s Center.

Nanci Levy, community outreach coordinator at Handmaker, delivered the bags on Jan. 31.

Going Away?

Don’t forget to call us to stop delivery of the AJP while you’re out of town!

At least a week before you leave, please call 647-8441 and leave a message that includes your name, address with zip code, telephone number and the dates you will be away.

bncTucsonbooks@yahoo.com

February 17, 2017, ARIZONA JEWISH POST

27

Be part of a landmark event in our community’s history TH E N E X T 70:

A NEW HOME FOR THE JEWISH FEDER ATION OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA AND JEWISH COMMUNIT Y FOUNDATION OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA Thank you to these community members who have already supported THE NEXT 70. We invite you to join them and be included in future recognition listings. Donate at www.jfsa.org or call 577.9393 LEAD GIFTS Deanna Evenchik-Brav & Harvey Evenchik* Diamond Family The Children of Sue & Saul* Tobin Pozez Family in Memory of Shaol* & Evelyn* Pozez Mel & Enid Zuckerman Donald L. Baker* Endowment Fund Jane & Lee* Kivel Paul & Alice Baker BENEFACTORS Maizlish Family Ron & Kathy Margolis Herschel & Jill Rosenzweig Lex & Carol Sears Maltz Family Foundation Ron & Diane Weintraub Brina Grusin Family BUILDERS Gerald & Gail Birin Dick & Sherry Belkin Ed & Fern* Feder Ellis & Irene Friedman Danny Gasch & Janis Wolfe Gasch Larry Gellman & Kristen Bozza Gellman Eric Groskind & Liz Kanter Groskind Bobby Present & Deborah Oseran James Wezelman & Denise Grusin Sundt Corporation David & Kathryn Unger Thomas W. Warne

CHAI Bruce & Jane Ash Audrey Brooks & Donna Moser The Children of Richard* and Esther* Capin David & Ellen Goldstein David & Anne Hameroff Gary & Tandy Kippur Bertie Levkowitz Ken & Beverly Sandock Howard & Trudy Schwartz Harvey & Rica Spivack TZEDAKAH Anonymous Mel Cohen Jeff & Dianne Grobstein Leonard & Marcelle Joffe Stephen Pozez Jim Shiner

TIKKUN OLAM Marlyne Freedman Barry & Madeline Friedman Fred Fruchthendler Adam & Dana Goldstein Joe & Paulette Gootter Jon & Susan Kasle Jeff & Fran Katz Fred & Sharon Klein Steve & Brenda Landau Family Irwin Manou & Barbara Brumer Stuart & Nancy Mellan Michael & Helene Miron Terry & Martha Perl Tracy Salkowitz & Rick Edwards Ed & Robyn Schwager Earl & Lee Surwit

CHESED Peter Evans Rob & Laurie Glaser Tedd & Melissa Goldfinger Amy Hirshberg Lederman Phil & Vicki Pepper Stuart & Andy Shatken Gerry & Linda Tumarkin James Whitehill & Jane Rodda Robert Wolk & Mary Cochran Wolk

Gifts of any size are important and appreciated. Named recognition opportunities are available starting at $1,000.

Pledges may be payable for up to five years. For more information, contact Stuart Mellan, stumellan@jfsa.org; Fran Katz, fkatz@jfsa.org; or Marlyne Freedman, marlynej@aol.com.

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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, February 17, 2017

CHAVERIM Jim & Ruth Barwick Jon Ben-Asher & Nancy Ozeri JR & Tamar Bergantino Amy Beyer Neil & Ilana Boss-Markowitz Julee Dawson Keith Dveirin & Julie Feldman Esta Goldstein Greater Tucson Fire Foundation Jonathan & Rachel Green Jerry & Lynn Greenberg Carol Hollander Josh & Ashley Hurand John & Deborah Judin Barry & Michelle Kusman Richard & Peggy Langert Carole Levi Marilyn Lobell David & Anne Lowe Ann Markewitz & Trish Lindgren Caron Mitchell Fred & Helene Mittleman Todd & Jenni Rockoff Mark & Bari Ross Simon Rosenblatt & Louise Greenfield Carol Sack Eric & Andrea Schindler Leonard & Sarah Schultz Kenny & Sandra Wortzel John & Kitty Wu CONTRIBUTORS Morton Aronoff Eliot & Vida Barron Caballeros Del Sol, Inc. Stephen & Ruth Dickstein Richard & Wendy Feldman Harriette Levitt William & Bonnie Jacobson Ted Seger & Koreen Johannessen Lori Riegel Monique Steinberg Kate Sassoon Joel & Alice Steinfeld Alan & Sylvia Winner Includes commitments received as of 2/14/17.

Please contact the Federation to correct any omissions or errors. *Of blessed memory