Arizona Jewish Post 2.7.20

February 7, 2020 12 Shevat 5780 Volume 76, Issue 3

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Local workshops will guide unity against harassment, bias DEBE CAMPBELL AJP Assistant Editor

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he national Safety Respect Equity coalition examines issues of sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the Jewish community. The movement addresses privilege and power inequity, and devises solutions to ensure that existing structures no longer negatively influence how community business is done. The focus is on the values and priorities of Jewish professionals, volunteers, and donors in North America.

Southern Arizona’s Jewish community began working in May to set standards for community-wide — rather than single agency — implementation of safety, equity, inclusiveness, dignity, and respect for all. The next phase continues Feb. 16-17 with two education sessions.

Guila Benchimol, Ph.D., will lead Safety Respect Equity workshops in Tucson Feb. 16-17 for the Jewish community.

“As an outgrowth of the Me Too Movement, all of us have had the opportunity to reflect on and take account of a variety of ways in which women and other professionals within the Jewish communal workspace have been subjected to inappropriate and compromising behavior,” says Graham Hoffman, president and CEO of the Jewish Community

Foundation of Southern Arizona. “There are a number of ways we need to train, fortify, prepare, and equip our community to be better, safer, more respectful, and more equitable for everyone.

“We recognize the opportunity to move together in a holistic way to advance the cause for all our constituents, professionals, volunteers, and donors in our community. While we are the first Jewish community in the country to attempt to do this in a community-wide way, we can not only champion it for Tucson and Southern Arizona but be pioneers for communities across North America. People in the Southwest should know about pioneering. It is not without risk, back-steps, and mistakes, but you push forward anyway,” Hoffman says.

“Creating a safe, respectful, and equitable environment for

each community member — volunteers, professionals, and donors — is essential to our ability to fulfill our mission of bringing the Jewish community together to help those in need,” says Deborah Oseran, Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona board chair.

Michelle Blumenberg, executive director of the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation, is cochair of the Tucson SRE Taskforce with Todd Rockoff, president and CEO of the Tucson Jewish Community Center. “Overall, we look to create a Jewish community where everyone feels welcome, safe and respected, be they professionals, board members, customers, students, clients or members.

We want to advance the values of safety, respect, and equity in a holistic, community way,” says Blumenberg. Taskforce members include Hoffman, Maya Horowitz, See Workshop, page 4

UA international conference to broach global anti-Semitism DEBE CAMPBELL AJP Assistant Editor

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he Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona will host a two-day international conference, “Contradictions and Tropes of Anti-Semitism,” Feb. 23-24.

“The conference will address the disturbing rise of anti-Semitism in this country,” says Gil Ribak, Ph.D., organizing committee cochair with Ed Wright, Ph.D., and Günther Jikeli, Ph.D., of Indiana University.

In conjunction with the Shaol and Louis Pozez Memorial Lectureship Series, the conference will feature as keynote speaker

former British Member of Parliament Luciana Berger, who resigned from the Labour Party in February 2019 in protest over anti-Semitism under party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Anti-Semitism has been on the rise since the turn of the 21st century in Europe and, more recently, also in the United States, not only in terms of the number of daily attacks against Jews and Jewish communities but also in political discourse, both on the far right and the far left, say organizers.

“We have all watched in horror as anti-Semitism has exploded worldwide in recent years, often with deadly results,” Wright says.

“Together we have assembled an

Former British Parliament member Luciana Berger will headline the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies international conference on anti-Semitism Feb. 23 in Tucson.

outstanding, international group of speakers who will address a wide variety of forms of anti-Semitism today. The overall goal is to

understand the features, driving ideologies, tropes, and dangers of modern anti-Semitism and how to combat them.”

“There are many examples of contradictions in different versions of anti-Semitism,” says Ribak,” Berger will speak at the plenary and dinner Feb. 23 at the Tucson Marriott University Park Hotel, addressing anti-Semitism in Great Britain generally and her experience with it in the context of British politics specifically.

She began her political career in 2010 as a Labour Party MP representing Liverpool Wavertree.

She eventually became a vocal opponent of Labour leader Jeremy See Conference, page 5

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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, February 7, 2020

LOCAL At Jewish History Museum, author to share ideas for combating ‘anti-social’ media

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xtremism has hijacked the global social media conversation. Most of our lives — not just social life but news and entertainment that form our worldview — is online. The once-beautiful dream of a free internet — now a huge, irredeemable dumpster fire — is increasingly corrupted by conspiracy and propaganda, says Andrew Marantz, New Yorker staff writer and author of “AntiSocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation.”

Marantz will discuss these crises on Thursday, Feb. 13 at the fourth annual Elizabeth Leibson Holocaust Remembrance Lecture, sponsored by the Jewish History Museum and Holocaust History Center. He will explore the roots of extremism and manufactured rage, how the unthinkable becomes thinkable, and then becomes reality.

“The original premise of social media was that it was going to bring us all together, make the world more open and tolerant and fair ... and it did some of that,” Marantz said in an April TED Talk (https://bit.ly/2vs9ptv). “But the social media algorithms have never been built to distinguish between what’s true or false, what’s good or bad for society, what’s prosocial and what’s antisocial. That’s just not what those algorithms do.” He says what drives conversation online is emotion.

With unprecedented access to the founders of social media platforms, and the trolls and conspiracists who use them to advance toxic agendas, Marantz spent three years writing about how we came to this point. “Anti-Social” (Viking Press) — named one of the New York Times 100

Notable Books of 2019 — tells how boundaries vanished between technology, politics, and media, resulting in a broken information environment, and what we can do about it.

“In my writing, I’m much more comfortable being descriptive, not prescriptive,” he says. But he does share with audiences suggestions for what internet citizens can do to make things less toxic, including skepticism, “making decency cool again,” putting pressure on social networks to fix their platforms, and sharing creative and thoughtful posts that, in the aggregate, alter the algorithms.

“We are taught that the arc of the moral universe is long but that it bends toward justice,” he says. “Maybe it will. But that has always been an aspiration. It is not a guarantee. The arc doesn’t bend itself.”

At the New Yorker since 2011, Marantz first was an editor and then a writer.

His main interest is how people form beliefs, and under what circumstances those beliefs can change for the better. He is a contributor to “Radiolab” and “The New Yorker Radio Hour”; has written for Harper’s, Mother Jones, and the New York Times; and has been interviewed on CNN, MSNBC, and NPR. He holds an undergraduate degree in religion from Brown University and a master’s degree in literary nonfiction from New York University.

Marantz will speak at the University of Arizona Student Union’s second floor Gallagher Theatre, 1303 E. University Blvd., at 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 13. Tickets, including on-campus parking, are available at www.jewishhistorymuseum. org/events or by calling 670-9073. Reserved seating and a 6 p.m. reception with Marantz is $54. General admission is $18.

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WORKSHOP

SRE workshop schedule

continued from page 1

Allison Wexler, Jane Espinoza, Ori Green, Susan Kasle, Melissa Zimmerman, Emily Lunne, and Gila Silverman.

The SRE movement was introduced locally on May 21 with the “From #MeToo to #WeToo: Uplifting Safety, Respect, and Equity in Our Tucson Jewish Community” event hosted by the local Jewish professionals’ network.

“SRE is part of the work to understand power and balance in an employment structure, for lay leaders and board members of all genders. It is foolish to assume it affects one gender or orientation. A preponderance of women is affected in the safety space. With light being shined on it at least we can correct it and go forward,” says Rockoff. “The May workshop focused mostly on safety. The February workshops will move into respect and equity.”

At the May workshop, participants were charged with determining how Jewish values can be applied to tackling and curtailing these issues in our community. The February educational workshops will continue with a session for board members of agencies and synagogues and a second session for staff, Blumenberg says.

Guila Benchimol, Ph.D., a senior advisor to the national SRE coalition and a research associate at the Canadian Centre for the Study of Social and Legal Responses to Violence will lead the workshops. She will demonstrate the links between safety, respect, and equity. “These are Jewish issues that organizations should prioritize the responsibilities of lay leaders and Jewish professionals in creating safe, respectful, and equitable Jewish spaces,” she told the AJP. “The goal is an overview of SRE and what it all means,” she adds. “Attendees will leave knowing what they can do where they exist in the community, to make people aware of issues and to discover their place. Are they being complicit in bad behavior? What can you do as an individual to change our culture?”

Action stems from a 13-point commitment pledge signed by coalition member agencies to adhere to high ethical and legal standards for prevention and response to sexual harassment and gender discrimination. It includes a commitment to adopt institution-wide policies and procedures, reporting and response, education and training, and to provide leadership, resources, and knowledge to assure the measures are implemented and effective.

An initial diagnostic tool guides committed agencies to assess their current policies, leadership, training, reporting, and accountability to bring them into compliance with SRE. “Now, Hillel, JCC, Jewish Family & Children’s Services, and the Foundation all have adopted the commitment,” Blumenberg says. “Each

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A Safety Respect Equity educational workshop will be held for Jewish agency board of director members on Sunday, Feb. 16, 9:30-11:30 a.m. at the Deanna and Harvey Evenchik Center for Jewish Philanthropy, 3718 E. River Road. The agency and staff workshop is Monday, Feb. 17, 9-11:30 a.m. at the Tucson J, 3800 E. River Road. A half-hour for registration and nosh precedes both workshops.

For more information and to RSVP, contact Kelsey Birch at 299-300 ext. 212 or kbirch@tucsonjcc.org

by Feb. 10. agency is at a different space in this. We look to create a common diagnostic tool so everyone can look at policies, processes, and how they will conduct an investigation if it arises.” JFSA will sign the commitment at its February board meeting.

“Policies and procedures always are a work in progress. While we already were in very good shape at the J, now we have raised the level of consciousness to create a secure, respectful, and equitable environment,” Rockoff says. “The key is creating a culture of awareness that exists every day. The review of standards and awareness really has to live inside the ethos of the organization. We are living and working with human beings.

As new employees are hired, this topic is covered on the first day of orientation, and with board members.

“This is a powerful movement and can cause disequilibrium. Employee response at the J has been positive. I’m proud of the way our staff has embraced it.

Many staff came to me and said thank you for the J taking this on,” Rockoff says.

“We need to be aware of transgressions among professionals, lay leaders, customers, and clients,” Blumenberg says. “Although agencies or synagogues have been dealing with these issues one by one, it is good to look at the forest view ­— what is our landscape and are we all being respectful of others. There have been instances of inappropriate behavior. We are stepping up and stepping into making change and we have a community open to do that.”

“The J has had several situations over the past year where we have used the principles and concepts of the commitment to handle the issues,” Rockoff notes.

“On the personal level, I reflect back on an experience as a 25-year-old when I witnessed deeply inappropriate remarks from a major donor during a solicitation meeting,” Hoffman recalls. “While I didn’t feel equipped or empowered at the time to stand up and address the behavior, particularly as several more senior professionals in the meeting also bit their tongues, I know now that we can, as a community, provide the leadership to do better and prevent such situations.

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“While it may prove difficult at times to bring together five generations of constituents engaged in Jewish life in Southern Arizona — particularly around issues of evolving consciousness like SRE, where expectations and social conventions that have long been overlooked are now being brought to light — we must do what is difficult to pave the way to a better future for the entire community,” says Hoffman.

Silverman, a cultural anthropologist and Visiting Scholar at University of Arizona’s Center for Judaic Studies, who conducts research on gender and Judaism, represents Congregation M’Kor Hayim on the taskforce.

She says that this taskforce is part of a larger national effort to change our community culture a little at a time.

“Judaism in general is inherently patriarchal. Jewish women are sent lots of subtle messages that their opinions and voices don’t count as much, or are not taken as seriously. Much of this happens in ways that are not obvious to the men involved, but of which women are acutely aware. Anything we can do to move that needle, culturally, is good.”

Tucson, a mid-sized community with small-town flavor and a substantial Jewish population (about 30,000), is positioned to pioneer an approach that offers insights for other communities to replicate the coalition-based system “Although we are not among the largest Jewish communities, our local Jewish professionals are nationally recognized for their vision and leadership, and so it is that our Southern Arizona Jewish community is the first to establish a community-wide approach to the adoption of the SRE principles that surely will become a national model,” says Oseran. “From feedback from national agencies, we believe this is groundbreaking and setting the bar. A coalition of organizations working together, it is uniquely Tucson,” Rockoff adds.

“This is a conversation also taking place in the broader Southern Arizona community in parallel and in concert with us as ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,’” says Hoffman. “We’ve already begun conversations with a number of partners, collaborators, and peers across the nonprofit community to champion these efforts together.

These include the Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, the Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona, and the Association of Fundraising Professionals.”

“Equity is all about collaboration,” says Clint Mabie, CEO, and president of the Community Foundation.

“Where other organizations are promoting greater equity, we’re going to be part of it. All of us need to collaborate on issues like this because of greater and greater importance to have a strong, unified voice about equity in our community.”

“Culture change takes time, strategy, and effort,” Blumenberg says. The third step will be a series of workshops, understanding there always will be new people joining, so ongoing education is needed.”

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LOCAL Matching funds sought for historic borderlands Jewish cemetery restoration

years ago at a Shabbat service in Scottsdale, and says Ilitzky’s forebear ran the drugstore in Douglas “in the time of Pancho Villa.”

In 2005, Rosen and Ilitzky purchased the cemetery from Congregation Anshei Israel; no one is sure who donated it to CAI, Emeritus Rabbi Arthur R. Oleisky told the AJP in 2016. Rosen and Ilitzky transferred the deed to the half-acre parcel to the Jewish History Museum in 2014. “I wanted to make a Jewish historical site, and try to fix up everything as it was,” Ilitzky told the AJP. The museum helped develop a plan for the restoration, bringing in architects Thomas Sayler-Brown and Ben Lepley, both of whom were involved in the design

of the museum’s Holocaust History Center. The deed was recently transferred to The Landon Rosen Writer’s Foundation.

The restoration will provide for resetting of gravestones, landscaping, a wrought iron security fence, solar lighting, and annual maintenance.

Federation stepped in to help accomplish the bulk of the fundraising, says Stuart Mellan, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona.

The Federation feels an obligation to restore this abandoned cemetery, he says, explaining that when there is no one else to accomplish the task, “the Federation can be that source of strength when it’s needed.”

Rosen has spent time in Poland and seen dilapidated cemeteries there, contributing to the restoration of one near Bialystok.

“My feeling about all this is very passionate because I feel like past is prologue,” he says, quoting Shakespeare.

“I feel like the preservation of these sites is important.”

Rosen hopes to get the street next to the BisbeeDouglas Jewish Cemetery named for his son. He also hopes to see historical tours visit the site once the restoration is complete.

To donate to the project, visit www.jfsa.org, mail a check to Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, 3718 E. River Road, Suite 100, Tucson, AZ 85718, or call 577-9393.

Memorial Center, 2nd Floor, Kiva Room, 1303 E. University Blvd., will include three sessions: White Nationalism and Christian Nationalism; Transformations — Latin America; and Tropes Among “Progressives” and Alliances. Monday’s sessions are Anti-Semitic Tropes

by Jews; Anti-Jewish Discourses in Different Muslim Countries; and The Memory of the Holocaust in a Changing World.

Along with Jikeli, speakers are R. Amy Elman, Ph.D., Kalamazoo College, Michigan; Miriam F. Elman, Ph.D., Syracuse University, New York; Aleksandra Gliszczynska-Grabias, Ph.D., The Polish Academy of Sciences; Dr. Matthias Küntzel, Ph.D., University of Hamburg; Lidia Isabel Lerner, M.A., Tel Aviv University; Stephen H. Norwood, Ph.D., University of Oklahoma; Eunice G. Pollack, Ph.D., University of North Texas; Alvin H.

Rosenfeld, PhD., Indiana University; Philip Spencer, Ph.D., University of London; Eric Ward, Western States Center, Portland, Oregon; and Steven M. Wasserstrom, Ph.D., Reed College, Portland.

The conference will produce a book based on the presentations, edited by Ribak and Jikeli and published by Indiana University Press, which has one of the world’s leading Jewish studies series.

Conference registration is open until Friday, Feb. 21.

The conference is $50/day or $75 for both days. Registration includes garage parking. The dinner is $50, with registration closing Friday, Feb. 14. Register at https://judaic.arizona.edu/events/contradictionstropes-antisemitism-international-conference. For more information, contact Jackie Schmidt at jan1@email. arizona.edu.

PHYLLIS BRAUN

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here is an inspirational feeling when you walk onto the site of the Bisbee-Douglas Jewish Cemetery, says Richard Rosen, who likens it to the emotional uplift of stepping off a plane in Israel.

“There’s a feeling of positive spirituality,” he says.

Established in 1904, the cemetery, just 100 yards from the Mexican border, is one of the oldest in Arizona and has long been in need of care. In recent years, volunteers have helped sporadically to clean debris and weeds, but there is minimal security and many of the gravesites have been vandalized, their headstones toppled.

Now, thanks to the generosity of Rosen and the Ilitzky family, with help from the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, a restoration project is in sight.

Rosen and the Ilitzky family have provided a challenge grant that will match donations up to $30,000.

Rosen is helping fund the project in memory of his late son, Landon Rosen, who drowned in 2012 at the age of 20. The two had visited the Douglas cemetery together. Rosen created The Landon Rosen Writer’s Foundation in his honor.

Jorge Ilitzky, a rancher in Chihuahua, Mexico, has three relatives buried at the cemetery. Rosen met him

CONFERENCE continued from page 1

Corbyn over a variety of issues (Brexit, public health, climate change), but most importantly over his failure to address anti-Semitism within the party. Last year she co-founded the Independent Group, then joined the Liberal Democrats, and ran for a seat in the House of Commons representing London’s Finchley and Golders Green constituency, losing to Conservative Mike Freer.

Berger currently serves as vice president of the Jewish Leadership Council, an organization dedicated to promoting the interests of the Jewish community throughout Britain.

Sunday’s conference at the UArizona Student Union

Photo courtesy Brooke Nagle

AJP Executive Editor

The Bisbee-Douglas Jewish Cemetery after a 2016 cleanup effort.

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COMMENTARY Trump’s peace plan won’t work but could bolster Arab-Israeli relations EINAT WILF JTA TEL AVIV resident Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan will probably not achieve its stated goal of bringing peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but it might just bring about peace between Israel and more of its Arab neighbors. Here’s why.

Over the past several years, Israel has become an appealing partner to Arab states for two main reasons.

Ever since the revolutions known as the Arab Spring toppled several regimes and undermined and threatened the stability of others, Israel’s stability in the region has become ever more apparent.

Moreover, as Arab countries in the Gulf increasingly came to perceive Iran as a threat, Israel’s stability, military power, and political will to limit Iran’s power became ever more attractive to those states.

So behind the scenes, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf states grew closer, sharing intelligence and cooperating on

Photo: Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images

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The Arab League held an emergency meeting to discuss the U.S.-brokered proposal for a settlement of the Middle East conflict at the league headquarters in Cairo, Feb. 1.

security to confront Iran. Precarious ties with Jordan and Egypt were further cemented by the joint battle against ISIS and, more long-term, by the discovery and mining of substantial gas reserves on Israel’s Mediterranean coast.

As all of this cooperation became more visible, these Arab countries had to find a way to do so without appearing to

abandon the Palestinian cause altogether.

It is easy to dismiss the concerns of non-democratic regimes and argue that they can pursue their economic and security interests with utter disregard for how the public views them. But this opinion betrays a misunderstanding of the extent to which even non-democratic regimes have to navigate public opinion to en-

sure their continued survival. In fact, for many decades, the positive sentiment in the Arab world towards the Palestinians and the negative one towards Israel was actually used by many regimes to deflect anger away from their own shortcomings.

The dramatic events of the Arab Spring made it even more necessary for Arab regimes to remain attuned to public sentiment for their survival, but it also began to change that sentiment, as publics increasingly focused on domestic demands. This means that while empathy for the Palestinian cause remains strong across the Arab world, it is no longer uniform, and in some places it is fraying.

There is growing evidence of decreased willingness to place the Palestinian cause above domestic Arab interests.

Voices that in the past would have never been heard in the Arab world now appear on local Arab television and social media, questioning why their countries continue to hitch their wagons to the Palestinians, who are prone to rejecting compromise.

See Plan, page 7

Epidemiologist offers advice to interrupt the spread of anti-Semitism JERRY SLUTKIN JTA CHICAGO ome commentators have used the word “epidemic” to describe the recent spikes in anti-Semitism.

They may not realize how correct they are.

Twenty years ago, upon my return to

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the United States after serving as a senior infectious disease epidemiologist at the World Health Organization in Africa, I noticed that community violence mimics contagious epidemics and began to suspect that it could be treated and managed in much the same way — using wellknown and proven methods for stopping other epidemics.

We know that violence is contagious.

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Hundreds of studies have demonstrated a contagious character across types of violence. When an individual is exposed to violence as a victim or witness — in war, community or at home — they are at a much higher risk of developing violent behaviors themselves.

By seeing violent behavior as transmissible from person to person, I worked with other experts to develop a practical approach to interrupting its spread. In our model, on-the-ground violence interrupters identify potential acts of violence and stop them, and highly trained outreach workers identify those most likely to be violent. Together they work to change the thinking and behavior of those at highest risk and shift community norms away from using violence.

In over 25 cities across the U.S. and in 15 countries on five continents, we’ve been able to help violence drop on average 40% to 70%, and in some neighborhoods, go to zero.

This approach represented a total paradigm shift in how to think about and treat the age-old and otherwise “stuck” problem of violence to one of epidemic disease — and is now increasingly mainstream, with a solid scientific foundation and evidence of effectiveness.

Solving for violent anti-Semitism will require the same shift in paradigm and

approach.

As a member of the Jewish community myself, I have seen group-on-group violence, in particular, anti-Semitism, as ripe for the public health epidemic control approach. And given the momentum and spread of this epidemic, we must act urgently, using all the tools at our disposal.

In its transmissibility, anti-Semitic violence is no different than election violence, tribal violence, neighborhood violence or cartel violence. Anti-Semitism and violent attacks, including mass and rage shootings, arise like any contagious process. Group norms influence susceptible individuals to action. Their actions, in turn, influence others. In each event, there are almost always other individuals who were aware in advance of the attacker’s intentions. A truly lone wolf attack by someone unconnected to any kind of community will always be a challenge.

But much of the violence we have seen in recent years came from people who were “infected” within a group or community.

However, the intervention methods currently employed, including those of law enforcement, are severely limited in their ability to prevent these events.

The traditional Jewish communal approach to violent anti-Semitism has focused on two pillars: One is security See Advice, page 7

Egypt, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar as at least a legitimate basis for negotiations.

It also makes vital regional cooperation more likely to continue and strengthen over time.

Israel, for its part, must endorse and adopt the plan in its entirety if it is to serve as a framework that enables the Gulf countries to pursue ever closer cooperation with Israel. It is crucial that even if Israel ultimately annexes the territory designated for Israel in the plan, it does so while making it clear that the remaining territory, assigned in the plan to a Palestinian state, would not be annexed and will be kept for a future Palestinian state.

The American president’s plan does offer the prospect of greater peace and prosperity for those countries in the Arab world who accept that Israel and the sovereign Jews have come back to their ancient homeland to stay.

PLAN continued from page 6

In some cases, these voices even express open support for Israel.

In the past, Palestinians could generally count on the Arab countries — not just to openly fight wars for their cause, as they did in 1948 and 1967, but to stand firmly behind them, accepting what the Palestinians accept and rejecting what the Palestinians reject. This is no longer the case.

So although the Palestinians were still able to rally the Arab League — a group of Arab countries, which is already a shadow of its former powerful self — to join in their rejection of Trump’s plan, their isolation in the Arab world is growing more apparent.

This is the most important aspect, and the greatest news, to come out of the plan’s introduction. Not only does the plan reflect the political preferences of the vast majority of Israel’s Jews — with the Likud, Blue and White, and Israel Beiteinu parties endorsing the plan — but it has been cautiously welcomed by Saudi Arabia,

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Einat Wilf is a former Labor member of the Israeli Knesset, and together with Adi Schwartz, is the author of the upcoming book “The War of Return” (St. Martin’s Press).

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the AJP or its publisher, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona.

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at Jewish sites, which is necessary but not sufficient. As the recent Monsey attack and others sadly show, we can never build enough walls or install enough metal detectors to protect Jews in their homes or on the streets.

People motivated to commit violent acts find a way, unless there are community members in place, trained as “health workers,” to interrupt imminent violence and identify those most likely to do violence and change their behavior well beforehand.

It’s not possible to have a doctor or nurse standing by to treat every person in a community in case they get Ebola. But by interrupting the spread of an outbreak, the treatment needs are lowered. Likewise, if we prevent the spread of violence as a tool, we can reduce the need to keep focusing on security at particular sites.

The other traditional Jewish communal strategy has been education, teaching tolerance and outreach. These are valuable tools, but deploying them during an epidemic is too little, too late. Billboards or bus ads about safe sex are fine when infection rates are under control, but when an epidemic of AIDS is spiking, there needs to be a more proactive health worker intervention.

While those committing violent attacks in Brooklyn are unlikely to be reached or moved by outreach or positive messages from the Jewish community, results have shown that credible individuals from within groups can change the behavior of their peers, even with the most refractory or hardest to reach, if the appropriate epidemic control methods and training are applied.

We have applied such techniques in work with MS13 and similar groups in Central America, prison gangs in the United Kingdom, militias in Iraq and Syria, and street rivalries in major cities. In November, the PBS series “Nova” did a special on violence. This 12-minute clip captured two actual successful interruptions in Baltimore, showing an example of how this work is performed. With time and layers of epidemic control, the norms of core groups themselves often change.

While the specific methods are adapted to each context and group in partnership with those close to the problem, the core elements of the approach remain the

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same. The key method among all these is the use of credible messengers — individuals who have access to and credibility with those at the highest risk. These credible messengers are trained as “health workers” to identify those most at risk and help them change course despite grievance, views or social pressure.

An intervention takes place when an interrupter becomes aware that one or more individuals are planning a violent act. The interrupter gets to the person and seeks to reorient their thinking away from violence, following up with them as often and as long as is required. When someone is particularly “hot” or still susceptible to acting, they are assigned a caseworker who stays in touch and continues to monitor them. That one interrupted act also may have prevented one or more retaliations and a chain reaction of many more.

The first step has begun. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced a new initiative that will apply the Cure Violence Global epidemic control method to address the problem in New York City. To effectively address the anti-Semitism epidemic, we must implement such efforts internationally.

Gary Slutkin is a physician and epidemiologist formerly of the World Health Organization, the founder and CEO of Cure Violence, and an innovator in health, behavior change, and data-based approaches to local and global problems.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the AJP or its publisher, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona.

Explore our website www.azjewishpost.com News and views from the Jewish world from Tucson to Israel — Iceland to Tunisia.

For advertising opportunities, call 647-8461.

February 7, 2020, ARIZONA JEWISH POST

7

LOCAL Biographies, mysteries on tap for Brandeis LAUREN BOOKWALTER AJP Intern

T

he Brandeis National Committee Tucson Chapter 24th Annual Book and Author Events will take place March 4 and 5, with four nationally recognized authors: journalists Todd S. Purdum and Hank Phillippi Ryan, each with a departure from their usual beats; biographer James McGrath Morris; and park ranger turned mystery writer Nevada Barr.

Todd S. Purdum, a staff writer at the Atlantic, will talk about his latest book, “Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution,” an inTodd Purdum depth look at the dynamic songwriting duo.

Purdum, a former White House correspondent for the New York Times, recently covered the impeachment trial.

With “Something Wonderful,” he took a break from politics to write something more lighthearted.

“My wife suggested I write the book.

It was something that allowed me to step outside of my day job and it was very rewarding.

“It was a relief from politics since the political atmosphere has been so contentious,” he says.

The hardest part of writing “Something Wonderful” was explaining how music works. It was difficult, says Purdum, to describe “why the songs sound the way they do, why they work the way they do, and why they are so lasting.”

The book contains never before seen notes and manuscripts that were borrowed from the families of both Rodgers and Hammerstein.

“I’ve been pleased to see how warmly people have accepted it. The book has opened so many interesting doors to me.

It seems to have touched a nerve,” says Purdum.

Hank Phillippi Ryan has won numerous awards both as an investigative reporter for Boston’s WHDHTV and as a mystery writer with two popular series.

Hank Philippi Ryan Her latest book, “The Murder List,” was nominated for an Agatha Award and a Mary Higgins Clark Award. A stand-alone thriller, “The

8

ARIZONA JEWISH POST, February 7, 2020

Murder List” follows law student Rachel North, who just got a coveted internship, only it’s with her husband’s nemesis at the Boston district attorney’s office, a woman he describes as “Satan in pearls.”

“I like twisty, gaslighting mind games with just a little bit of murder. I also love psychological thrillers that have a little bit of the legal world in them. I’m very interested in justice and how people decide what good means and how juries think and how each of us makes a life or death, high-stakes decision,” Ryan says.

“Writing a book and creating the characters is one of the joys of my life. It’s not only that the characters resonate with me but they surprise me on every page,” says Ryan. “One of the incredibly special things about being a writer is the realization that we as human beings are the only creatures that can create new worlds out of nothing but our own imaginations.

I don’t think my books are fully formed until the reader reads them. I’m the luckiest person in the world to be able to do this.”

Ryan uses her experiences as a journalist to bring her books to life, although she’s never based a plot on one of her stories. “My experiences in the real world have spanned more than what most people have ever done so of course I’m going to take that vast realm of experience and make it into fiction. My books are not my investigations cleverly disguised as fiction but I couldn’t write my books without being a reporter,” she explains.

James McGrath Morris is a seasoned biographer and non-fiction writer, best known for “Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power,” which he will discuss at James McGrath Morris the Brandeis Book & Author event.

“Writing is a very solitary task so one of the pleasures of meeting somebody who has actually read your work [is that it] completes the circle,” he says.

“Research has always been a joy for me. The writing is very exciting but it’s very hard. It’s a matter of time. You have to try to make sure you are engaging so someone will read the book. For me it’s not finishing the book, it’s the journey.

The process of creating a book is far more important to me than when the book is finished. It sustains me, it’s what gets me up in the morning.”

As part of his research on Joseph Pulitzer, Morris traveled to Hungary to See Authors, page 9

LOCAL Bet Shalom farm festival will celebrate desert garden, New Year for trees, family fun

T

he Midbar Project located at Congregation Bet Shalom will host a Tu B’Shevat Farm Festival on Sunday, Feb. 9. This festival will include the garden’s first plantings, painting the fence and chicken coop, clearing and pruning space for the mindfulness area, along with face-painting, music, PJ Library books, and a short mystical fruit seder.

The Midbar Project, the first urban Jewish farm in Arizona, is part of a Jewish farming movement that has enjoyed a revival over the past decade, says Lisa Schachter-Brooks, Bet Shalom’s congregational director. The movement is embracing a grassroots way of engaging the community in social and ecological sus-

tainability. The local project intentionally blends the wisdom of ancient Tohono O’odham Sonoran Desert farming techniques with Jewish agricultural practices.

Micah Chetrit, Molly Block, and Jack Speelman are stewarding the project, which is funded by the Synagogue Funding group at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, GARDEN Inc., and community donations.

The festival is from 2-6 p.m. at Bet Shalom, 3881 E. River Road. Bring a hat, sunscreen, water bottle, and energy.

Work gloves and garden tools are helpful but not required. For information, contact Schachter-Brooks at 577-1171 or lisa@cbsaz.org.

AUTHORS

settings for her novels. Barr’s first book, “Bittersweet,” a historical novel, was published in 1984. She then turned to mysteries, with “Track of the Cat,” the first volume in her Anna Pigeon series, winning an Agatha Award and an Anthony Award in 1994 for best first mystery of 1993. To date, she’s written 19 Anna Pigeon mysteries. Barr says the character “is based on me — except she is taller, and stronger, and smarter, and braver.”

Barr now lives in New Orleans with her husband, Donald Paxton, and their animals. Her latest book is a stand-alone mystery, “What Rose Forgot,” published in 2019.

The Brandeis Book and Author dinner will take place on Wednesday, March 4, at 6 p.m. in Hacienda Del Sol’s historic Casa Feliz, 5501 N. Hacienda Del Sol Road.

The lunch event, which includes books sales and signing, an artisan boutique, and silent auction along with the author talks, is Thursday, March 5, from 9:15 a.m.-2:30 p.m. at Skyline Country Club, 5200 E. St. Andrews Drive.

Both events benefit the “Sustaining the Mind” fund supporting research and scholarships for neurodegenerative disease at Brandeis University. The cost of the dinner is $90 or $125 for seating with an author. The cost of the lunch is $80 or $125 for seating with an author.

RSVP by March 1 to Sheila Rothenberg at sheila.tucson@comcast.net or 917579-8030.

continued from page 8

gather information about the Jewish immigrant who amassed such great wealth and power.

Morris looks forward to coming to Tucson for the event.

“We get to talk to people about books and raise some money for a good cause. It is hard to say no to that,” he says.

Award-winning novelist Nevada Barr was born in Yerington, Nevada, and grew up in Susanville, California, where her parents, both pilots, managed a Nevada Barr small airport. She received her BA in speech and drama from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo and an MFA in acting from University of California at Irvine. After graduate school, Barr began an 18-year acting career. She appeared in numerous off-Broadway plays as well as TV commercials, industrial films, and radio voice-overs. After several years in New York, she moved to Minneapolis.

During the summers, she worked in law enforcement as a National Park Ranger, which got her interested in the environmental movement and provided

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Photo: Debe Campbell/JFSA

Jewish, Muslim sisters explore border issues

Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom cofounders Sheryl Olitzky and Atiya Aftab speak to members at a dinner hosted by The Tucson Islamic center Jan. 26.

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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, February 7, 2020

DEBE CAMPBELL AJP Assistant Editor

T

he Tucson chapter of the national non-profit Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom recently hosted 52 international and local members for a factfinding mission in Southern Arizona.

The group of 26 Jewish and 26 Muslim members focused on southern border issues Jan. 26-30. The apolitical Sisterhood strives to build bridges between American, Canadian, and German Muslim and Jewish women and teen girls, learning about and from one another. There are 170 chapters. The visit to Southern Arizona was the group’s fifth annual bridgebuilding trip.

Mission activities during the week included a Southern Arizona border orientation at the Jewish History Museum with Josh Dunlap from Tucson’s Borderlinks, followed by a visit to the U.S. Federal Court in Tucson to witness Operation Streamline, the fast-track prosecution and migrant deportation program.

HIAS national staff Rebecca Kirzner, director of grassroots campaigns and community engagement, and Meggie Weiler, policy officer, conducted local, state, and federal advocacy training. Karen McDonald, the spiritual director of Tucson’s Southside Presbyterian Church, birthplace of the sanctuary movement in the 1980s, briefed the women. Barbara Eiswerth, founder and executive director of Iskashitaa Refugee Network, spoke about the Tucson-based non-profit’s work that twins food security with refugee work.

Two days of excursions included a trip to the border wall in Nogales, Arizona,

delivering water to the migration paths in the desert, and volunteer service at Catholic Community Services Casa Alitas welcome center, which houses migrants and asylees released by federal authorities after crossing the southern border.

The group gathered for dinner Jan. 27, hosted at the Tucson Islamic Center. Following maghrib Muslim sunset prayers, Lynn Hourani, Tucson chapter co-chair with Roberta Elliott, a member of the Arizona Jewish Post advisory board, gave an overview of the area’s growing Muslim population. “We’ve experienced exponential growth through wave after wave of refugees from all corners of the world,” she said, noting that it has made the local Muslim community very rich and diverse.

Speaking at the dinner, Sisterhood cofounders Sheryl Olitzky and Atiya Aftab noted that the grassroots organization is the only movement of Muslim and Jewish women with a passion to rid the world of hate. Olitzky encouraged mission participants to “go back home and share what you saw and heard.”

“We can’t change history or rewrite it,” said Aftab, “but we can change the future.”

Barry Kirchner, a retired immigration attorney and board president of the Jewish History Museum, spoke briefly at the dinner about the Holocaust, in honor of International Holocaust Commemoration Day. He emphasized that humans have the capacity to be bystanders to thugs. “It is possible that we in the future will be the upstanders against the thugs.

We need to stand by each other and stand for humanity,” he said. “As vulnerable communities, we have to stand in solidarity,” Hourani added.

LOCAL

Photo: JFSA file photo

Hava Tequila party will raise the roof

Isaac and Simone Figueroa at the 1920s-themed Hava Tequila party on Feb. 2, 2019.

PHYLLIS BRAUN AJP Executive Editor

H

ava Tequila, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s annual Young Leadership benefit party, will be held Saturday, Feb. 29, 8-11 p.m. at a new location, the Sonoran Rooftop at the Westward Look, 245 E. Ina Road.

The theme will be “A Night on the Red Carpet.”

“We checked out the venue and it’s just a great space,” says Elyse Adams, cochair of the event with Oren Riback. “It’ll be fun to have a night out to dress up.”

The cost of the event, for ages 21+, is $36.

Proceeds will benefit Jewish Family & Children’s Services Jewish Emergency Financial Assistance program and Young Jewish Tucson, which is a collaboration between JFSA and the Tucson Jewish Community Center. “We’re really excited to be able to contribute back to our community,” says Adams, who also served on the planning committee for the first Hava Tequila event, held in December 2010.

To RSVP, visit www.jfsa.ticketspice. com/hava-tequila. For more information, contact Andrew Pawlicki-Sinclair at 6478467 or apawlicki-sinclair@jfsa.org.

Or Chadash to honor retiring Federation CEO

C

ongregation Or Chaer,” says Whitehill, adding that dash will host “Celboth organizations have a deep ebrating 25 Years of commitment to tikkun olam Gratitude,” a dinner honoring (repair of the world), which Stuart Mellan, president and their senior leaders share.

CEO of the Jewish Federation The evening will begin with of Southern Arizona, on Fria happy hour at 4:30 p.m. at day, Feb. 21. the Harvey and Deanna EvenMellan will retire in May, chik Center for Jewish PhilanStuart Mellan after more than 25 years at the thropy, 3718 E. River Road, folFederation. Or Chadash also got its start lowed by dinner at 5 p.m. After dinner, the 25 years ago. event moves across River Road to Or ChaOver the years, Mellan and Or Chadash dash, 3939 N. Alvernon Way, for a Shabbat Rabbi Thomas Louchheim have joked service featuring birthday and anniversary about stealing each another’s thunder, blessings, from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Mellan will says Jim Whitehill, a member of the event deliver a sermon on gratitude. A dessert planning committee. Or Chadash, which oneg will follow the service. held its first Shabbat service on Aug. 18, The cost of the dinner is $75 per person 1995, had a front page article in the Ari- or $125 per patron, with name recognizona Jewish Post on Sept. 1, 1995, while tion in the event program. A portion of Mellan’s appointment was front page news the proceeds will be donated to the Fedon Sept. 29. eration in Mellan’s honor. RSVP by Feb. While they enjoy teasing, “both would 14 at www.orchadash-tucson.org/mellan or say each made the other’s star shine bright- call 512-8500.

February 7, 2020, ARIZONA JEWISH POST

11

For lifelong artist, Tucson storytelling groups provide new creative outlet they’re going to get it back.”

Pollack loved visiting her aunt and uncle in Minnesota on Fridays, when they’d buy a fresh challah, her aunt would light the Shabbat candles, and they’d say the blessings over the bread and wine.

As for her own Jewish culinary connection, she boasts that she makes a mean shakshuka, the Israeli dish of eggs cooked in tomato sauce that’s been showing up on U.S. brunch menus.

She’s lucky enough to have several friends in town who are food writers, with whom she tries new restaurants.

“Tucson’s a fun, easy town to get around — every week I see 10 things I’d like to do,” she says.

Pollack fell in love with the oral storytelling tradition after moving to Tucson and meeting Odyssey Storytelling founder Penelope Starr through a mutual friend. She has taken the stage at Odyssey, Tellers of Tales and FST! (Female Story Tellers) numerous times.

Next month, on March 21, she’ll be telling a story on the theme “The Power of Family” for a new group in Mesa, Arizona, Mesa Storytellers at Mesa Library, talking about three female relatives who influenced her, including her father’s older sister, Eva Pollack Glaser, “who somehow managed in the 1920s to get a scholarship to law school, and was president of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois in the ’40s.”

“She was very influential in my life and that of some of my cousins,” says Pollack.

“She would give really good advice.”

PHYLLIS BRAUN AJP Executive Editor

Photo: Martha McClements

M

ary Jo Pollack lives life out loud, not only as a storyteller for Odyssey Storytelling, FST!, and Tellers of Tales Tucson, but as a general life philosophy.

Pollack, 71, is an artist on the board of directors of Beading Divas to the Rescue, a group of Tucson women who create and sell colorful, one-of-kind beaded bracelets, donating the proceeds to a different animal rescue each month. In 10 years, the nonprofit Divas have raised and donated more than $225,000.

Pollack has been making jewelry since high school, and in her 40s, earned a degree in wood furniture design from California College of Arts and Crafts. Since moving to Tucson from Los Angeles five years ago as a retiree, she hasn’t had a woodshop. Besides bracelets, she makes other jewelry — you’ll often see her sporting a pair of funky earrings — and does drawing and fiber art. Storytelling is another aspect of her creative process, and she’s also working on a memoir about the 10 years she spent driving up and down the I-5 from Los Angeles to the Bay Area to spend time with her mother, who had Alzheimer’s disease.

Although she’s a lifelong artist, Pollack has supported herself with “a million” jobs, including insurance underwriter, real estate agent, marketing for a friend’s start-up, and administrative specialist for Kaiser Permanente, the healthcare com-

Mary Jo Pollack tells a story at Tellers of Tales Tucson on Oct. 5, 2019.

pany. “I made some good friends there,” she says.

She grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota.

“St. Paul-Minneapolis, the Twin Cities, has a really strong Jewish community,” says Pollack, who was active in BBG, serving as president of the youth group’s St. Paul council in her senior year of high school. “I did have a lot of that influence growing up, which shaped the way I view things.”

Today, she describes herself as a secular, cultural, culinary Jew — albeit one who kindles Chanukah candles each year

and lights a special lamp for the yahrzeit (anniversary of death) of her mother, father, and brother.

But “if there’s something anti-Semitic in the news, I become Super Jew,” she says.

“I think I feel more in touch with Judaism in the past couple of years, with everything that’s been going on,” she says, commenting on the rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the United States and Europe. “I feel that I have to state my identity and let people know that they can’t mess around with me. If they want to,

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Music is local Hebrew choir leader’s lifeblood LAUREN BOOKWALTER AJP Intern

R

ina Paz leads Tucson’s Shirat HaShirim Hebrew choir and does other volunteer work within the Jewish community. She grew up in Haifa, Israel, in a large family that was always singing and dancing. Ever since she was a little girl, she says, she has been living life as the strongest person she could be and adding music and tradition wherever she goes. “It’s in my blood,” she says. “It really makes me smile. I’m really happy when I hear singing.”

Paz describes her childhood as a wonderful time in her life. “Everybody was singing and dancing in our neighborhood. You could hear the mothers and fathers singing while cooking and cleaning and the kids were singing and dancing. It was a lot of fun.”

Paz and her family would gather during the holidays and celebrate Israeli traditions together. Her mother would make latkes and sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) during Hanukkah.

On Shabbat, her father would go to the synagogue and then her family would have a traditional dinner. They would say prayers and blessings for what they had.

Paz says she continued this nostalgic tra-

dition when she had kids.

When Paz was 18 years old she left home to join the Israeli army. It was a big transition in Israel for young adults to join the military. “Our parents were crying and we were crying,” Paz says. “I missed home very badly.”

Paz worked in communications while she was in the Israeli military. After the army, Paz became a teacher at a boarding school in Beer Yaakov. Every three weeks she would get a break to go home and enjoy Shabbat.

Paz carried her love of music into her work, teaching her students dances, songs, and activities. “I really enjoyed it.

It was a nice part of my life,” she says.

After working at several boarding schools, Paz decided she wanted to experience big city life. She moved to Tel Aviv and worked first at a bank, then at a travel agency. During this time of her life, Paz traveled to Europe during her vacation time and saw the world.

While working for the travel agency, Paz met her husband, Avi, who eventually asked her to marry him and move to the United States.

“It was a very difficult decision for me to leave Israel and my family and my job.

To go to the unknown and a different country. It was very scary but I couldn’t

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Rina Paz, right, leads members of Tucson’s Shirat HaShirim Hebrew choir in a rehearsal. From left, Norma Torres, Norma Edgerton, Lorena Caspar, Armando Garcia, Ruby Rodarte and Crystal Rodarte

help it,” Paz says.

They lived with friends in New Jersey for three months, and then moved to Brooklyn and subsequently to Staten Island. Paz and her husband both worked for an Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, doing local distribution, public relations, and advertising. Eventually, they made their way to Tucson. At the time, Paz’s children were young so she decided to stay home to raise them. When her children were older, she went back to work as a caregiver for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, visiting patients in their homes, her current occupation.

Paz now loves the United States but misses her family in Israel. This doesn’t stop her from enjoying her life though. As for her family life, though her marriage didn’t last, Paz says that her biggest accomplishment is her children.

“I have three children and I’m very proud of them. My kids are very smart and independent and that is why I’m proud of them,” she says.

“Nobody knows everything,” Paz believes. “You should listen and learn from kids and grown-ups and all people. I’m still

learning. Every day I learn something new.

“I’m very very strong. I learned it from my father and my mother. They never give up and they are very strong like a rock.”

Paz says the hardest part of her life was coming to the United States. It was difficult learning the language and the culture but Paz stood her ground and persevered.

Her hard work paid off and Paz recalls that three weeks after she immigrated, a woman in a grocery store commented that Paz’s English was very good for having just moved. It motivated Paz and she decided to be a more social person. Since then, Paz has maintained that social lifestyle. She sings in the choir to keep up her musical skills, volunteers at the Tucson Jewish Community Center’s early childhood education center, and visits a 97-year-old woman, Hazel Rappeport; they were originally paired by Handmaker, and Paz helps Rappeport practice her Hebrew conversation skills.

Paz says she loves being the choir instructor. Music and singing have helped her through the dark times in her life. “It’s my therapy.”

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Photo: Jonny Finkel

Retiring to Israel requires advance considerations

In 2019, some 500 of 3,500 immigrants to Israel from North America were retirees.

RENEE GHERT-ZAND JERUSALEM

F

or a growing number of Jews in the Diaspora, turning retirement dreams into reality also means realizing a lifelong dream of living in Israel.

Over the past decade, more than 6,000 Jews from North America and Britain have retired to Israel. In 2019, some 500 of 3,500 immigrants to Israel from North America were retirees. For some of these new olim it was the culmination of a lifelong Zionist dream.

For others it was a practical move to be closer to children and grandchildren, or to enjoy their golden years in a warmer climate.

Regardless of motivation, the key to a successful retirement in Israel is careful advance planning, as well as an open attitude toward the challenges of entering a new

stage of life in a new country.

“We have an amazing life here and are very happy, generally speaking,” said Sydney Faber, who retired to Jerusalem from London with his wife, Rose, 11 years ago. The couple have two children in Israel and two others living in New Jersey.

The Fabers credit their contentment in large part to their having made good decisions about important elements like housing, learning Hebrew, and becoming involved in their community. Those choices, they said, made all the difference in building a happy retirement 2,000 miles away from where they had lived most of their lives.

While retiring to Israel may seem like a bigger step than retiring to Florida, many of the same considerations come into play. Here are some of the main issues to consider.

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Financial planning “Retiree olim need to think about how their lifestyle will or will not translate to Israel,” said Marc Rosenberg, vice president of Diaspora Partnerships at Nefesh B’Nefesh, the organization that assists with immigration to Israel from North America and the United Kingdom.

Rosenberg advises retirees to be realistic about the kind of life they’ll be able to afford in Israel on passive income like pensions, Social Security, and investments. (A sample budget on Nefesh B’Nefesh’s website can help retirees figure out their likely monthly costs.) For those with children or parents living outside Israel, retirees should remember to plan for the costs of flying back and forth.

These days, many retiree immigrants split their time between Israel and their countries of origin in “snowbird” fashion, allowing for all kinds of creative financial arrangements. Prospective immigrants should seek the advice of an Israeli accountant who specializes in U.S. taxes about the implications of dual citizenship and dual residency. A financial adviser can help with financial planning and offer guidance for living within a budget.

Health care Israel has universal health care. Retirees must pay into its National Insurance system, but the sum is minor compared to what most Americans are used to paying for insurance premiums and copays.

All Israelis must join one of Israel’s four HMOs, known as “kupot holim,” in order to receive medical services. While membership is covered by one’s National Insurance payments, the kupot offer optional higher levels of coverage for relatively modest additional fees. Many retirees also choose to buy supplemental private health insurance, which covers drugs not included in the medications made available by the Health Ministry as well as private surgeries, transplants performed abroad, and other benefits.

In addition to hospitals, Israel also has a network of urgent care clinics in most cities, many of which are open 24/7.

Housing Experts advise new immigrants to rent for at least a year or two before buying, mainly to make sure they choose the right location.

Many retirees automatically assume they will want to be near their children, but some find that living in suburban communities geared toward young families is not the right fit.

“They realize that living in Israel is different than visiting,” Rosenberg said.

“When you are here for 10 days over a

holiday, the grandchildren will be off from school and have lots of time for the grandparents. It’s a different story when they are in their usual routines.”

Older olim tend to gravitate toward cities with large “Anglo” communities and a plethora of social and cultural opportunities for English-speaking retirees, such as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, and Netanya. Many haredi Orthodox immigrants favor Beit Shemesh.

Housing will comprise the largest chunk of a retiree’s monthly budget. As with real estate anywhere, location determines price. It’s generally cheaper to rent in Israel than in the United States but more expensive to buy.

Those seeking to move into a senior residence or assisted-living facility will find many options throughout the country offering accommodations, amenities, and services comparable to North American standards.

Transportation The upside of transportation in Israel is that the public transit system is very inexpensive and well developed. Buses inside and between cities run frequently, reliably and inexpensively, and seniors pay half fare. The train network is growing, including new high-speed rail service between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv that reduces travel time to 32 minutes. Taxis also are relatively inexpensive and can be summoned like an Uber using the Gett mobile phone app.

The downside is that private transportation is expensive: Owning and maintaining a car costs roughly double what it is in the States.

“If you can do without a car, you should try it,” said Hezy BenTzur, founder and owner of the iAnglo Auto Association, which assists English speakers in Israel with the leasing, importing, and purchasing new and used cars. “Retirees don’t have the burden of having to commute for work, so I would recommend not taking the expense on if you don’t have to. It’s more cost effective to occasionally rent a car.”

Cars are generally smaller in Israel, and the Israeli car market includes makes and models unfamiliar to Americans.

Best to do your research and choose appropriately.

Recreation, volunteering, learning Hebrew There’s no end to the opportunities for retirees to get involved in their communities. Local community centers offer cultural events, educational classes, and fitness activities for free or at a low cost See Retire, page 18

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17

LOCAL

STRONGER TOGETHER

‘Prostate Hoax’ topic at health seminar

A Monthly Look At The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s Work In Our Community

NORTHWEST YOUNGSTERS GET IN TUNE WITH SHABBAT Ruth & Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life recently held its first Northwest Jewish Kids SingAlong. Song leader Eva Turner, from Temple Emanu-El, taught kids, parents, and grandparents several Shabbat and interactive camp songs. Another Sing-Along will take place on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 2 p.m. at the Olson Center. For more details, go to www.jfsa.org/ Song leader Eva Turner with Northwest songbirds at Sing-Along nwsingalong.

TEENS, SENIORS CONNECT WITH SOCIAL MEDIA Ten teens are partnering with residents at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging to empower them to use social media. Residents will document parts of their lives, connect with family, and post their stories throughout the semester. Teens will learn how people communicated before social media, develop a personal connection with the resident, and maintain that connection together L-R: Sam Goldfinger and Mort Edberg through social media. make new connections This activity is part of the annual Tracing Roots Program. For more details, contact nlevy@handmaker.org.

FEDERATION, FOUNDATION COMMEMORATE HOLOCAUST Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, and the Jewish History Museum commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day Jan. 27 with a social media post for the We Remember movement, promoted by the World Jewish Congress for the fourth year.

The movement aims to counter a new wave of hatred and rise in anti-Semitism and bigotry, and to ignite the conversation about JFSA, Community Foundation, and Jewish History Museum staff stand together to Holocaust education. commemorate International Holocaust The Jewish community will Remembrance Day, Jan. 27. observe Yom Hashoah, Israel’s day to remember the Holocaust, on April 20. For more details, contact israelcenter@jfsa.org.

Jewish Federation OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA

STRONGER TOGETHER

www.jfsa.org

T

emple Emanu-El prostatectomies. Ablin says Men’s Club will hold a most of these men would free health awareness never have died from this seminar, “The Great Prostate common cancer that typically Hoax,” with Richard J. Ablin, grows so slowly it never leaves Ph.D., D.Sc. (Hon.), on Sunthe prostate. When a diagnoday, Feb. 16 at 9:30 a.m. sis of prostate cancer is made, Ablin is a research scientist “the whole family’s welfare and educator who serves as and survival are threatened,” Richard Ablin president of the Robert Bensays Ablin. jamin Ablin Foundation for Cancer ReHis book, “The Great Prostate Hoax” search. He earned his doctorate in biol- (St. Martin’s Press, 2014) explains how ogy from the University of Buffalo, where the PSA was never meant for use for he continued his training in immunol- prostate cancer screening, yet the test ogy as a United States Public Health Ser- was patented and approved by the FDA vice postdoctoral fellow in the School of in 1994. Now he and other doctors are Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. speaking out about the test’s harm and In 1970, Ablin discovered the prostate- searching for a true prostate cancer-spespecific antigen (PSA), a protein pro- cific marker. duced by the cells of the prostate gland Ablin is dedicated to improving the that often is elevated in the presence of quality of life for prostate cancer patients prostate cancer. Ablin also is a pioneer in and their families by providing informacryosurgery, which is the use of extreme tion on treatment options. He encourcold to destroy malignant and benign tu- ages women to attend the seminar with mors, as well as “cryoimmunotherapy” their husbands. Breakfast will be served for the treatment of cancer. prior to the seminar.

Each year, more than a million men For more information, contact Temple undergo needle biopsies for prostate can- Emanu-El, 225 N. Country Club Road, at cer and more than 100,000 have radical 327-4501.

RETIRE continued from page 17

for seniors. There also are private sports and country clubs, and golfing is available near Caesarea.

Volunteer opportunities abound; the key is matching your interests to one of Israel’s countless nonprofit organizations. Popular choices include working with people with disabilities at Yad Sarah, mentoring children and teens affected by terror with One Family, or preparing care packages and holiday meals at the Lone Soldier Center.

Ricki Lieberman, who retired to Jaffa from New York in 2009, raises money for an Arab-Jewish women’s choir in Jaffa, volunteers with children of African refugees in South Tel Aviv, and does political organizing.

“I grew up believing in democracy and Jewish values, so I am compelled to do what I can,” Lieberman said. “For me, my retirement is not a time to turn away.”

This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with Nefesh B’Nefesh, which in cooperation with Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah, The Jewish Agency, KKL and JNF-USA is minimizing the professional, logistical, and social obstacles of aliyah, and has brought over 50,000 olim from North America and the United Kingdom over the last 15 years. This article was produced by JTA’s native content team.

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Contact Berti’ S. Brodsky, advertising sales manager, at (520) 647-8461 or berti@azjewishpost.com.

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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, February 7, 2020

Camps & Summer Plans Mountain camp experience in April set to bond PJ Library families LAUREN BOOKWALTER AJP Intern

Photo courtesy Camp Daisy and Harry Stein

P

J Library will partner with Camp Daisy and Harry Stein in Prescott, Arizona, for a family weekend getaway April 17-19. The first five families from Southern Arizona to register will get $100 off the event.

“We are having family camp to give families the opportunity to spend the weekend together in the beautiful pines,” says Marcy Lewis, the program director for PJ Library. “They will experience Shabbat outdoors under the trees, participate in camp activities and bond with other families.”

Lewis says there are 18 families signed up but they are looking for more to register.

“Shabbat outdoors is like nothing else,” Lewis says. “Friday night under the stars is amazing. There is a chill in the air and it is the perfect time for families to snuggle together and pray. Saturday morning we take a short hike up to the chapel for

Rabbi Nate Crane (center) says the blessing over children during Saturday morning Shabbat services at a family camp at Camp Daisy and Harry Stein in 2018.

services. The sound of the wind blowing through the pines is so calm and peaceful. It’s the perfect way to celebrate Shabbat.”

Lewis herself attended camp as a child and wishes family camp had been around when her children were younger.

Celia and Ryan Preble-Gaitz and their

3-year-old daughter, Sage, already have signed up for the event.

Celia attended a Jewish camp when she was a little girl and loved the excitement. “[I loved] experiencing Shabbat traditions and the feeling of sleeping away with friends and making new friends. Other Jewish culture things like

the food, games, and dancing were exciting as well.”

Celia looks forward to experiencing Shabbat in the outdoors with new people.

“We are always trying to find ways to bring Judaism into our lives. We are always trying to go to different events that are kid-friendly.”

The best thing about the getaway will be meeting other people who are at the same point in life as her, she says.

She hopes other families will have kids around the same age as her daughter. She also looks forward to seeing her daughter have a good time.

“It would just be special to spend time together and celebrate Shabbat,” says Celia.

On Friday and Saturday nights there will be babysitting services available for families. Register for the camp at www. vosjcc.org/pjshared for a shared cabin with another family, www.vosjcc.org/pjcabin for a private room with no bathroom, and www.vosjcc.org/pjcabinbath for a private room with shared bathroom.

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February 7, 2020, ARIZONA JEWISH POST

19

Camps & Summer Plans

UPCOMING SPECIAL SECTIONS Home & Garden, Feb. 21 Mind, Body & Spirit, March 6 Passover Plans, March 20

J’s varied camp experience builds character

Photo courtesy Tucson Jewish Community Center

To advertise with us, contact Bertí 520-647-8461 • berti@azjewishpost.com

Swimming is one of the many offerings for children at Camp J each summer.

LAUREN BOOKWALTER AJP Intern

T

he Tucson Jewish Community Center will offer its Camp J this summer from May 26-Aug. 27, with a variety of programs for kids of all ages. Camp activities include arts and crafts, archery, STEM, swimming, field trips, and a variety of electives.

Christy Ball has been sending her sons, ages 6 and 9, to Camp J for years.

Ball and her family have no relatives within the Tucson community, and the Tucson J has become their family since moving here. She feels the counselors at Camp J really understand her children’s wants and needs.

“Their counselors are trained to really get to know these kids,” Ball said. She has even asked the counselors for advice on her kids and child development questions.

Ball is excited for her kids to experience all Camp J has to offer. Her boys both enjoy sports at the camp, and her youngest is involved with the camp’s cooking and gardening programs.

Ball says her kids learn valuable lessons from participating in the camp. She

says that each day, the camp weaves in a lesson aimed at building character.

“It really hit the message home through action,” she says.

“The J is a second home for us. [We love] Camp J, we don’t even have to question it,” Ball says.

Josh Shenker, director of children, youth, and camping services at the J, emphasizes camp as “an intentional experience” more than just a childcare program.

“When done correctly, summer camp has a lasting impact on children and their development. Camp has the unique ability to provide unparalleled opportunities for children to explore, try new things, challenge their abilities, take risks, and gain new skills while under the care of nurturing and enthusiastic counselors,” he says.

“We put a lot of careful planning into every aspect of that experience at Camp J. The character traits that parents wish for their kids — independence, confidence, friendship-building, resilience, grit, etc. ­— are very real outcomes for kids who have quality camp experiences. A mantra that I have ingrained with my staff at every meeting and staff training is that ‘We teach kids skills for life.’”

JFSA seeks camp scholarship applications

T

he Coalition for Jewish Education of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is accepting applications for scholarships to Jewish overnight summer camps for the summer of 2020.

Funded by the Mo and Frances Beren Family Scholarship Fund and the Loebl Scholarship Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, the need-based scholarship assistance is available to all students currently attending religious school programs in Southern Arizona and to students of the Tucson Hebrew Academy.

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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, February 7, 2020

The scholarship is for any overnight Jewish camp and is meant to be combined with funding from another source: the synagogue, camp, or other organization. Eligible campers also may qualify for additional funding through PJ Goes to Camp (separate application process, https://pjlibrary.org/beyond-books/pjgoes-to-camp).

Applications can be downloaded at www.jfsa.org/campscholarships. The deadline for submission of the CJE camp scholarship application is Feb. 20. Contact Suzanne at 577-9393 or samador@jfsa.org.

Camps & Summer Plans Non-Jewish counselors enrich Jewish summer camps JOSEFIN DOLSTEN JTA

A

few years ago, Joe Gurski had never met a Jewish person and knew little about Judaism apart from things he had seen on television. Today the 25-year-old, who lives in Manchester, England, has many Jewish friends and can recite Shabbat prayers in Hebrew.

Gurski, who grew up Catholic but now identifies as agnostic, learned all this while working as a counselor at Camp Wise, a Jewish summer camp in Chardon, Ohio.

“I was able to recite the prayers really well, and I was probably saying them louder than the kids were,” he recalled of his first summer as a counselor in 2015.

Gurski is among a number of non-Jewish counselors — many of them international — who learn about Judaism through working at Jewish camps in the United States.

Jodi Sperling, a senior consultant on overnight camping at the JCC Association of North America — it runs a network of 120 day camps and 24 overnight camps, including Camp Wise — estimates that 5-8% percent of staff at its overnight camps are not Jewish.

Some of the international counselors, such as Gurski, learn about the camps through organizations that match

young people with camps looking to hire staff, such as Camp America.

Sperling says that having international non-Jewish staff provides a learning experience both for campers, who are exposed to new cultures, and the counselors. “[A]n outcome of having non-Jewish staff working at our camps is that our camps then become educators of people who are going out into their communities and becoming advocates of Jews and of Israel,” she said.

Alejandro Padron, a 21-year-old from Venezuela, is an example of such an advocate. The university student, who is Catholic, had some familiarity with Judaism prior to working at his first Jewish summer camp in 2016.

He had learned about the Holocaust and even gave a speech at his school in a ceremony for International Holocaust Remembrance Day. But working at two Jewish camps — Camp Inc Business Academy in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and Camp Mountain Chai in Angelus Oaks, California — made him want to get even more involved.

Since working at the camps, Padron has started volunteering at the Anne Frank Space, a Caracas-based organization, where he teaches about the Holocaust and tolerance. He said he was motivated by meeting people at camp who were descended from Holocaust survivors.

See Counselors, page 22

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ISRAEL / WORLD New emoji is Israelis’ way of saying ‘wait a minute,’ but others also claim it MARCY OSTER

COUNSELORS continued from page 21

“To me it’s very natural and a very organic thing to do because I know people [whose relatives] have been through that,” he said.

Prior to working at camp, Padron had only met one Jewish person, so being immersed in the culture was a bit of a culture shock. He remembers arriving for his first summer at Camp Inc and being confused by Jewish rituals.

Now Padron knows the grace after meals, blessings for food and prayers from the siddur — all in Hebrew.

“I really see myself [being] into this ritual and this content and promoting that with the kids,” he said. “It’s so enriching.”

Among 117 new emojis introduced for 2020 is the ‘finger purse,’ the Israeli way of gesturing patience.

Meanwhile, the Arab world also claims the gesture, with the Twittersphere celebrating the new emoji by calling it the “Arab mom’s favorite emoji.”

At least Israelis and Arabs can agree that they are happy with the new character.

The Unicode Consortium’s main Gurski, who worked at Camp Wise for five years — first as a video specialist, then as a counselor and finally as a supervisor — said celebrating Shabbat was the highlight of his weeks at camp.

“We get to take time to reflect on the week and appreciate what we have and the fact that we’re at camp,” he said. “To me, Friday night services is the time I felt most spiritual.”

Jenni Zeftel, director of Jewish day camp and strategic programs at the Foundation for Jewish Camp, said that while some families seek all-Jewish camps, others may look for an environment that reflects the diverse communities they live in.

“For camps that are looking to serve that kind of Jewish family or that part of the Jewish population, I think it’s really important that their staffing reflect that

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function is to develop a universal character encoding scheme, allowing people around the world to use digital devices in any language. But it is more commonly known for selecting the emoji icons used by the world’s smartphones based on submissions from individuals and organizations who present their

case with evidence for why each one is essential.

The organization last week announced the approval of 117 new emojis for 2020. Among the new symbols are people hugging, a gender neutral Santa and a father feeding baby. Oh, and an anatomical heart.

Sefaria, the online free Jewish library, last year designed a Torah emoji that it planned to submit to the consortium for consideration. In May, the Conference of European Rabbis called on the consortium to add new emojis to represent Jews — namely, a man wearing a kippah and a woman wearing a head covering.

There are now about 3,000 approved emojis.

Photo: Javier Hernandez/Camp Mountain Chai

A

symbol of pinched fingers — ubiquitous among Israelis saying “wait a minute” or “have patience” — has been included in the 2020 list of approved emojis.

But the nonprofit Unicode Consortium, the organization that approves new emojis, is calling the emoji showing all fingers and thumb held together in a vertical orientation the “Italian hand gesture,” or “finger purse.” Italians use the symbol to show disagreement.

Try telling that to Israelis. They will only be able to think of it as the symbol for rak rega, or just a minute.

Photo courtesy emojipedia/Twitter

JTA

Alejandro Padron at Camp Mountain Chai

approach as well by including counselors and other staff members who don’t identify Jewishly,” she said.

This article was made possible with funding by the Foundation for Jewish Camp. The story was produced independently and at the sole discretion of JTA’s editorial team.

NATIONAL / ISRAEL ‘Christian Birthright’ brings thousands of college students to Israel MARCY OSTER JTA JERUSALEM s evening descended on Jerusalem one Friday last month, 1,000 students gathered at the Western Wall for the traditional prayers to welcome the Jewish Sabbath.

They joined the throngs who dance and sing at the holiest site in Judaism as Shabbat begins. When it was over, they repaired to the homes of local families for a traditional Shabbat meal with all the customary trappings.

For many, it was a highlight of a trip to Israel that had cost them almost nothing. Except these were not Jewish students on Birthright, but Christian collegians participating in Passages, a nine-day trip that teaches them about the roots of their faith and exposes them to modern Israel.

The brainchild of Rivka Kidron, a former adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Robert Nicholson, who runs a nonprofit promoting Christian engagement in the Middle East, Passages aims to strengthen Christians in their own faith while exposing a younger generation of Christians to the diversity of Israeli life.

As many as 3,000 students a year have visited Israel through the program since its launch in 2016. Passages is on track to bring its 10,000th participant by the end of this year.

“We are at a unique moment in history where instead of focusing on what separates us, we can focus on our common shared values,” Kidron told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The trip is frequently referred to as the Christian Birthright, but Kidron says the programs are different.

While any Jewish young person can qualify to participate in Birthright, Passages participants must be recommended and go through a rigorous screening process that aims to identify leadership potential.

Still, they do have some things in common, notably that Passages functions as a matchmaker of sorts, already racking up a number of engagements and marriages.

Kidron started thinking about bringing young Christians to Israel while working for Netanyahu as his adviser on Diaspora and Christian affairs from 2009 to 2013.

Meeting Christian leaders from around the world for the first time, Kidron learned that Christian visitors to Israel were generally older and limited their visits to Christian holy sites, largely missing out on modern Israel. Young Christians, she said, weren’t coming at all.

Then she met Nicholson, a former U.S. Marine who founded The Philos Project, which aims to help Christians gain a better understanding of their religious roots in the Middle East. Nicholson was concerned by surveys show-

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Participants in the Passages program visit Jerusalem to explore the history of their Christian religion.

ing that young Christians were moving away from their faith. Together they dreamed up Passages.

Funded by a “diverse group” of Jewish and Christian donors (Kidron declined to name them at their request), Passages is unabashedly pro-Israel, calling the country “a force for good in the region and in the world” on its website. But the program also seeks to acknowledge the complexity of contemporary Israel, exposing participants to “a diverse array of speakers who approach modern geopolitical issues in Israel and the Middle East from a variety of perspectives.”

Participants travel the length of the country and see its most important historic sites, including Bethlehem and the West Bank settlement of Alfei Menashe, as well as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. They meet Christian Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, Jewish scholars, and Israeli politicians, among others.

“We believe Passages participants are smart, good, and have the ability to identify truth, and we therefore consider this an educational journey to both connect participants with the roots of their Christian faith as well as introduce them to modern Israel,” the group’s website says.

The program is selective about who it accepts. Passages relies on campus Christian organizations to help identify student leaders who are serious about their religion. Once accepted to the program, participants are required to pay several hundred dollars as a registration free and cover their own travel costs to the cities from which they will depart for Israel. Beyond that the trip is free.

Identifying participants, bringing them to Israel, and following up with them afterward is an expensive proposition. Passages spent $15 million in 2019, and its budget for 2020 is $16.7 million, according to Executive Director Scott Phillips.

Phillips stresses that Passages is a “not just a trip.”

Participants are expected to participate in post-trip programming that includes speaking to churches and writing articles for local newspapers, and Passages has recently begun offering a $200 financial incentive to encourage them to do so. Some 90 percent of alumni participate in post-trip programming, and some also return as Passages fellows to help lead future trips to Israel.

Prior to joining Passages, Phillips, 36, was on staff at a Texas church that took groups to Israel. He became so interested in the country that he and his wife went to live in Israel for a time. Upon their return to Texas, Phillips became involved with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and eventually went to work for the Israel lobby doing Christian outreach in the Midwest.

Since leaving AIPAC for Passages, he and his wife have remained in Aurora, Illinois.

The group would like to hold regular reunions for its participants. For now, they have mini meetups such as leadership conferences on some campuses for between 100 and 300 students.

Phillips says the success of the Passages program is a “long game.” Growing the number of students it brings to Israel is one goal, but the final measure of success will be keeping them engaged in the Christian community and in Israel advocacy.

“This trip has placed Israel and the Jewish people at the center of my mind when I consider my Christian faith,” wrote Esther Jiang of Cornell University in one of a number of testimonies on the Passages website. “I am so incredibly thankful to have gone to Israel, and I can safely say that I’ll never be the same. I find myself talking about Israel to anyone who is willing to listen, and I also find that I have a stronger grasp of how the Jewish people are central to my faith.”

INJURED? Bonnie Shore Dombrowski (520) 622-2350 1-800-97-LEGAL www.injurytucson.com in partnership with Shore Dombrowski Law Firm

February 7, 2020, ARIZONA JEWISH POST

23

Style & Fashion

Photo courtesy Phoenix Art Museum

Photo courtesy Anamika Khanna

hoenix Art Museum will present “India: Fashion’s Muse” Feb. 29June 21, 2020. The exhibition examines the ways in which Indian dress, aesthetic, and artwork have inspired Western fashion designs from streetwear to couture. Spanning the 19th to the 21st centuries, the exhibition showcases nearly 40 garments and more than 20 accessories drawn from the Phoenix Art Museum collection and on loan from private collectors and museums. Featured designs include the paisley shawl, the sari, and the Nehru jacket, with traditional Indian garments exhibited alongside modern works by Indian fashion designer Anamika Khanna and Western designers such as McQueen, Givenchy, and Versace. Curated by Helen Jean, the museum’s interim curator of fashion design, the exhibition also will present complementary artworks from the museum’s Asian art collection.

Jean selected garments that illustrate how fashion designers have referenced imagery, color palettes, and silhouettes from India for their Western clientele.

Accessory cases will display a collection of gold jewelry from local collectors and Judith Leiber purses, on loan from the private collection of Kelly Ellman, who in 2006 endowed the Kelly Ellman Fashion Design Gallery in which the exhibition will be presented.

Visitors also will be able to view the U.S. premiere of “I Thought I Was Dreaming,” a four-minute film by award-winning

Photo courtesy Phoenix Art Museum

P

Exhibit at Phoenix Art Museum explores India’s influence on fashion

Inspired by Indian sari fabric, an Olivier Lapidus silk, velvet, and gold lame dress with applique from 1994.

On the runway, Anamika Khanna’s design pops with a stylized-paisley jacket over a sari blouse.

A 2008 Alexander McQueen dress from the Los Angeles Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.

artist Sarah Singh featuring Kirat Young, widely known as India’s first supermodel, and based on the 1982 collection by Yves Saint Laurent that was inspired by India.

Singh showcases her work in museums, galleries, think tanks, and universities around the world and, in 2018, launched a new international arts salon in India for concept-driven experiences. The film, which presents a kaleidoscopic world of reflected images as an interpretation of

culture, will be shown as a continuous screening within the exhibition.

“India has inspired Western fashion designers for hundreds of years, and this exhibition tells a small but integral part of that very complex story,” says Jean.

“With today’s growing awareness about the impact of cultural appropriation by the West, there is greater opportunity to examine how we can better respect those cultural elements in an increasingly glo-

balized world. My hope is that after viewers experience the exhibition, they will be encouraged to look in their own closets, wonder about the origins of their clothes, and research the history of designs and silhouettes they are drawn to in an effort to become more informed about their choices.”

Entrance to the exhibition is included in general admission. For museum admission prices and hours, see bit.ly/VisitPhxArt.

Happy Valentine’s Day Gift Certificates Available

7475 N LA CHOLLA BLVD • 520-544-6195 (OUTSIDE THE FOOTHILLS MALL)

24

ARIZONA JEWISH POST, February 7, 2020

CURRENT STYLES FROM THE LAST FEW YEARS ONLY

Style & Fashion

Please thank our advertisers for supporting our Jewish community

1st Rate 2nd Hand, Tucson’s Jewish thrift store, to close by end of month

PHYLLIS BRAUN AJP Executive Editor

Year End

T

Clearance Sale

Savings of

50% - 75%

OFF

Photo: Brian Olswing

he 1st Rate 2nd Hand Thrift Store, which was started in 2007 as a way to earn extra funds for Jewish organizations while helping budget-conscious consumers and keeping cast-off items out of the waste stream, will close its doors this month.

1st Rate 2nd Hand’s original concept included having volunteers from various organizations work in the store to supplement paid workers. The organizations earned a share in the annual proceeds based on their volunteers’ hours. In its first year of distributions, 1st Rate dispensed $72,000 among 30 institutions that together logged almost 4,500 volunteer hours.

But in recent years, fewer volunteers have been putting in time at the store.

The store was started under the auspices of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona but earned its own nonprofit status in June 2010. It moved to its present location at 5851 E. Speedway Blvd. a few months later.

Competition from online resale sites such as Poshmark and Letgo has been another factor chipping away at the viability

We offer many clothes styles and accessories to compliment women of all ages and sizes.

An acrylic Torah stand was among Judaica recently at 1st Rate 2nd Hand.

of thrift stores in general.

“It’s been a pleasure to be able to serve the entire community,” says Cathy Olswing, board member and former treasurer. “Nice to be able to do our mitzvah to help the Jewish organizations in our community do their mitzvah work.”

A 50% off closeout sale started Feb. 2.

There is still a good selection of Judaica, including beautiful menorahs and Shabbat candlesticks, says board member Bertí Brodsky (full disclosure: Brodsky is the AJP’s sales manager). The store must close by Feb. 28.

For more information, call 327-5252.

Plaza Palomino • 2980 North Swan • 325-5677

Ten Outfits Ten Rooms

Style, Wardrobe Consulting & Interior Decor

520.279.1838

WWW.TENOUTFITS.COM

February 7, 2020, ARIZONA JEWISH POST

25

SHINSHINIM SCENE Fresh from visit home, teens to bring ‘spice’

Packages: • $59 Five-minute video with digital photos, video clips, music, and titles • $99 Five-minute video booth interview edited with your digital photos, videos, music, and titles • $25 Per Additional minute of edited video • $25 Restoration/digital transfer of old photos, VHS videos and movies

Photo courtesy Danielle Levy

20% DISCOUNT THRU FEBRUARY 29TH

Shay Friedwald and Danielle Levy, Southern Arizona’s shinshinim (Israeli teen emissaries), in San Francisco, where they stopped before heading home to Israel during their winter break.

H

ello Friends, We have just returned from our vacation at home, in Israel.

Our vacation was great, but it’s good to be back! We are excited to start again and see all of our friends.

In this second half of our year in Tucson, we have so many fun things planned, such as cooking shows at the Tucson Jewish Community Center and the Tucson Mall. We are excited to participate in our first “Think Tank” at Congregation Bet Shalom on Feb. 29 at 1 p.m.

We are starting a “tour of Israel” series, which will help us teach all about our beautiful country.

During our stay in Israel, both of us had to process the first half of the year together.

It has been quite a journey, with ups

26

ARIZONA JEWISH POST, February 7, 2020

and downs, but we figured that we are here for a reason. We are not here to make you more Jewish, we are here to make you more Israeli. For the first half of our stay, working in the different institutions, we concentrated on introducing different aspects of Israel. We dealt with music, food, the army, TV shows, Israeli spirit, and the way of life there.

Now, after we have provided that knowledge base, we will present a tour from the south to the north of the country. The kids will see how those aspects of Israeli life appear in each city from a different perspective. In the upcoming second semester, we will be giving you as much Israeli “spice” as we can.

We can’t wait to start. Yalla — let’s go!

— Danielle Levy and Shay Friedwald

RABBI’S CORNER

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Tu B’Shevat should cultivate responsibility to sustain world

One year for only $36!

Tax-deductible except for the first $10 For home delivery subscribe at www.azjewishpost.com or call (520) 319-1112.

RABBI BATSHEVA APPEL Temple Emanu-El

Every other Friday, 24 times a year!

I

am not a fan of “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein, although I used it in my teaching for years around Tu B’Shevat, needing a story that features trees. Every time I taught with the book, it made me uncomfortable. Designated the birthday of the trees, Tu B’Shevat is the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat. Starting in ancient times, trees need a “birthday” for purposes of knowing when to offer first fruits, the equivalent of a tax day. Therefore, Tu B’Shevat was solely for trees in Eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel), and without the 16th century Kabbalists of Safed, Israel, the agricultural day would have become even more attenuated as a festival, given how few of us are farmers in Eretz Yisrael. The mystical connections that the Kabbalists drew, as well as later early 20th century religious Zionism and modern environmentalism, transformed the observance of the festival to include a Tu B’Shevat seder, the planting of trees, and the reading of books like “The Giving Tree.”

This book is focused on the relationship between a boy and an apple tree. As the boy grows up, the tree gives him pieces of herself: leaves, apples, branches; and eventually, her trunk, to make a boat. In the end, the tree is only a stump for the boy, now an old man, to sit on, making the tree happy.

My objections to the book are two-fold: First, I don’t think that this type of relationship, in which one person gives away every piece of themselves to make another person happy, is the type of relationship recommended for our children, our family, or friends, or for anyone.

We should model healthier relationships that are more loving and balanced, less transactional.

Second, in our time, Tu B’Shevat has become a holiday for considering how we care for the earth. We don’t want our children to approach the resources of our world as something to be completely used up before we are old. We want our children to cultivate their sense of wonder as well as their appreciation of all the mystical connections in our natural world. We also want our children to cultivate their sense of responsibility to this world and sustaining it.

In the hour when the Holy One of blessing created the first human, They took the human and let them pass before all the trees of the Garden of Eden and said to them: “See My works, how fine and praiseworthy they are! Now all that I have created, I have created for you. Think upon this and do not corrupt and desolate My world, for if you destroy it, there is no one to set it right after you.” [Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:13]

Read the book/Save the date!

ATTENTION BOOK GROUPS: Read “The Gratitude Diaries” by Janice Kaplan, and meet the author at the Jewish Federation’s “Together in Jewish Learning” event March 18.

Limited books available at JFSA lobby, $12. admin@jfsa.org or 647-8400.

AREA CONGREGATIONS REFORM

CONSERVATIVE

Congregation anShei iSrael

5550 E. Fifth St., Tucson, AZ 85711 • (520) 745-5550 Rabbi Robert Eisen, Cantorial Soloist Nichole Chorny • www.caiaz.org Daily minyan: Mon.-Thurs., 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.; Fri., 7:30 a.m.; Sun. and legal holidays, 8 a.m. & 5:30 p.m. / Mincha: Fri., 5:45 p.m. / Shabbat services: Sat., 9 a.m., followed by Kiddush; Tot Shabbat, 1st Fri., 5:45 p.m.; Family Service, 3rd Friday, 5:45 p.m.; Holiday services may differ, call or visit website. / Torah study: every Shabbat one hour before Mincha (call or visit website for times) / Talmud on Tuesday, 6 p.m. / Weekday Torah study group, Wed., 11 a.m. beverages and dessert provided.

ORTHODOX Congregation Chofetz Chayim/SouthweSt torah inStitute

5150 E. Fifth St., Tucson, AZ 85711 • (520) 747-7780 Rabbi Israel Becker • www.tucsontorah.org Shabbat services: Fri., Kabbalat Shabbat 15 minutes before sunset; Sat. 9 a.m. followed by Kiddush. / Mincha: Fri., 1 p.m.; Sat., 25 minutes before sunset, followed by Shalosh Seudas, Maariv, and Havdallah. Services: Sun., 8 a.m.; Mon. and Thurs., 6:50 a.m.; Tues., Wed., Fri., 7 a.m.; daily, 15 minutes before sunset. / Weekday Rosh Chodesh services: 6:45 a.m.

Congregation young iSrael/ChaBad of tuCSon

2443 E. Fourth St., Tucson, AZ 85719 • (520) 881-7956 Rabbi Yossie Shemtov, Rabbi Yudi Ceitlin • www.chabadoftucson.com Daily minyan: Sun. and legal holidays, 8:30 a.m.; Mon. and Thurs., 6:30 p.m.; Tues., Wed., Fri., 6:45 a.m. / Mincha and Maariv, 5:15 p.m. / Shabbat services: Fri. at candlelighting; Sat. 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush. Mincha, Maariv, and Havdallah TBA.

ChaBad on river

3916 E. Ft. Lowell Road, Tucson AZ 85716 • (520) 661-9350 Rabbi Ram Bigelman • www.chabadonriver.com Shabbat services: Fri., Mincha at candlelighting time, followed by Maariv. / Sat., Shacharit service, 9:30 a.m. / Torah study: women, Wed., 2 p.m.; men, Tues. and Thurs., 7 p.m. Call to confirm.

ChaBad oro valley

1171 E. Rancho Vistoso #131, Oro Valley, AZ 85755 • (520) 477-8672 Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman • www.jewishorovalley.com Shabbat services: 3rd Fri., 5 p.m. Oct.-Feb., 6 p.m. March-Sept., all followed by dinner / Sat., 10 a.m. study session followed by service.

ChaBad Sierra viSta

401 Suffolk Drive, Sierra Vista, AZ 85635 • (520) 820-6256 Rabbi Benzion Shemtov • www.jewishsierravista.com Shabbat services: Sat., 10:30 a.m., bimonthly, followed by class explaining prayers. Visit website or call for dates.

REFORM

Congregation Beit SimCha 2270 W. Ina Road, Suite 100, Tucson, AZ 85741 • (520) 276-5675 Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon • www.beitsimchatucson.org Shabbat services: Fri., 6:30 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m., with Torah study at 9 a.m; monthly Shabbat morning hikes.

Congregation Chaverim 5901 E. Second St., Tucson, AZ 85711 • (520) 320-1015 Rabbi Stephanie Aaron • www.chaverim.net Shabbat services: Fri., 7 p.m. (no service on 5th Fri.); Family Shabbat, 1st Fri., 6 p.m. / Torah study: 2nd Sat., 9 a.m., followed by contemplative service,10 a.m.

Congregation Kol SimChah

(Renewal)

4625 E. River Road, Tucson, AZ 85718 • (520) 296-0818 Mailing Address: 6628 E. Calle Dened, Tucson, AZ 85710, 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) 305-8208 Rabbi Helen Cohn • www.mkorhayim.org Shabbat services: 2nd and 4th Fri., 7 p.m. / Torah study, 2nd and 4th Sat. 10 - 11:30 a.m.

Congregation or ChadaSh 3939 N. Alvernon Way, 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 (Sept.-May); 2nd Friday, Tot Shabbat (Sept.-May), 6 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. / Torah study: Sat., 8:30 a.m.

temple emanu-el 225 N. Country Club Road, Tucson, AZ 85716 • (520) 327-4501 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, AZ 85635 • (520) 458-8637 www.templekol.com Mailing address: P.O. Box 908, Sierra Vista, AZ 85636, Friday night Torah study group: 6 - 7:15 p.m. / Shabbat services: Fri., 7:30 p.m.

TRADITIONAL-EGALITARIAN

Congregation Bet Shalom 3881 E. River Road, Tucson, AZ 85718 • (520) 577-1171 Rabbi Hazzan Avraham Alpert • www.cbsaz.org Shabbat services: Fri., 5:30 p.m. (followed by monthly dinners — call for info); Sat. 9:30 a.m., Camp Shabbat (ages 6-10) 10 a.m.-noon, followed

by Kiddush lunch; 12:30-2 p.m. CBS Think Tank discussion led by Rabbi Dr. Howard Schwartz and Prof. David Graizbord; monthly Tot Shabbat (call for dates) / Weekday services: Wed. 8:15 a.m. / Hagim 9:30 a.m.

OTHER

Beth Shalom temple Center

1751 N. Rio Mayo (P.O. Box 884), Green Valley, AZ 85622 • (520) 648-6690 Rabbi Norman Roman • www.bstc.us Shabbat services: 1st and 3rd Fri., 7 p.m. / 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 various leaders, followed by Shabbat dinner; Sat., 9:30 a.m., led by Mel Cohen and Dan Asia, followed by light Kiddush lunch.

JewiSh arizonanS on CampuS 2146 E. 4th Street Tucson, AZ, 85719 • (520) 834-3424 • www.myjac.org Shabbat hospitality and social events for UA students with Yosef and Sara Lopez. Shabbat services on request.

SeCular humaniSt JewiSh CirCle www.secularhumanistjewishcircle.org Call Cathleen at (520) 730-0401 for meeting or other information.

univerSity of arizona hillel foundation 1245 E. 2nd St. Tucson, AZ 85719 • (520) 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.

February 7, 2020, ARIZONA JEWISH POST

27

COMMUNITY CALENDAR The calendar deadline is Tuesday, 10 days before the issue date. Our next issue will be published Feb. 21, 2020. Submissions may be emailed to office@azjewishpost.com or mailed to AJP, 3718 E. River Road, Tucson, AZ 85718. For more information, call 319-1112. See Area Congregations on page 27 for synagogue addresses and additional events.

Men’s Mishnah club with Rabbi Israel Becker at Cong. Chofetz Chayim. Sundays, 7:15 a.m.; Monday-Friday, 6:15 a.m.; Saturdays, 8:15 a.m.

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 www. 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. 9, Professor Sarah Stein, author of “Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century.”

Beth Shalom Temple Center of Green Valley bagel breakfast, first Sundays, 9:30 a.m.

Members, $7; nonmembers, $10. 648-6690 or 399-3474.

Southern Arizona Jewish Genealogy Society, second Sundays, 1-3 p.m. at the Tucson J. Contact Barbara Stern Mannlein at 731-0300 or the J at 299-3000.

Tucson J Israeli dance, taught by Brandi Hawkins, 2nd and 4th Sundays, 5 p.m., no partners. Members, $6; nonmembers, $8. 299-3000.

Cong. Anshei Israel parent-tot class, led by Ally Ross. Mondays, 9-11 a.m. Children up to 24 months and their parent(s). Free. Mandatory vaccination policy. Call Nancy Auslander at 7455550 or visit www.caiaz.org.

Temple Emanu-El mah jongg, Mondays, 10

Friday / February 7

9:45 AM: Handmaker lecture. Rabbi Israel Becker of Cong. Chofetz Chayim presents “What did the sea see?” on the splitting of the Red Sea. Free. 2221 N. Rosemont Blvd. Contact Nanci Levy at nlevy@handmaker.org.

11 AM: JHM Gallery Chat, discussion of “Bella’s Ship” with Board President Barry Kirschner. Free. 564 S. Stone Ave. 670-9073 or www.jewishhistorymuseum.org.

5:30 PM: Temple Emanu-El Tu B’Shevat Seder followed at 7:30 p.m. by Sabbath of Song. RSVP for availability for seder and dinner, $22 members, $27 nonmembers, at www.tetucson.org or 327-4501.

Saturday / February 8

9 AM: Cong. Anshei Israel Sabbath of Song with adult choir directed by cantorial soloist Nichole Chorny. 745-5550.

10 AM: Cong. Or Chadash Sisterhood morning service. Followed by deli lunch. 512-8500.

10 AM: Temple Emanu-El Women of Reform Judaism morning service, followed by WRJ Kiddush lunch at noon. 327-4501.

Sunday / February 9

9 AM – 4 PM: LIMMUD AZ day of Jewish learning. 60 sessions, 58 speakers. At ASU Memorial Union Conference Center, 301 E Orange

28

ARIZONA JEWISH POST, February 7, 2020

ONGOING a.m. 327-4501.

awakening.com.

Cong. Anshei Israel mah jongg, Mondays, 10 a.m.-noon. All levels, men and women. Contact Evelyn at 885-4102 or esigafus@aol.com.

Tucson J social bridge, Tuesdays and Thursdays, noon-3 p.m., year round. Drop-ins welcome. Meets in library on second floor. 299-3000.

Tucson J current events discussion, Mondays, noon-1:30 p.m. Members, $1; nonmembers, $2. Bring or buy lunch, 11:30 a.m. 2993000, ext. 147.

Tucson J canasta group, Tuesdays 1-4 p.m., and Thursdays noon-4 p.m. Instruction available and a beginners’ table every week. Call or text Lisa at 977-4054.

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

Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center social action. First Tuesdays, 12:45 p.m. Bear witness to federal criminal immigration proceedings. Meet at rear plaza of DeConcini Federal Courthouse for brown bag lunch and learn with immigration attorneys and migrant justice organizers, then enter courthouse together at 1:30 p.m. 405 W. Congress St. www.jewish historymuseum.org or 670-9073.

Jewish 12-step sobriety support group meets Mondays, 6:30-8 p.m. at Cong. Bet Shalom. dcmack1952@gmail.com.

Chabad Tucson Torah & Tea class for women, with Rabbi Yossie Shemtov, Mondays, 7:30 p.m. at a private residence. Call 881-7956 or email feigie@chabadtucson.com.

Spouse Bereavement Group, cosponsored by Widowed to Widowed, at Tucson J, Tuesdays, 10 a.m. Contact Katie at 299-3000, ext. 147.

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

Awakening Through Jewish Meditation — Discover Freedom, with Reb Brian Yosef, Tuesdays/Sundays at 10:30 a.m., at Cong. Bet Shalom. Free. Check calendar at www.torahof St., Tempe. $54; $40, ages 18-39; $18, college students; $15, under 18. www.limmudaz.org.

9:15 AM: Temple Emanu-El Prayerbook Hebrew class, Session II. Six sessions through March 29. Members, $55; nonmembers, $70.

Register at www.tetucson.org or call 327-4501.

9:30-11:30 AM: Cong. Anshei Israel Tu B’Shevat in the Park. Seder with fruits and seeds, crafts, nature walk, parsley seedling for each attendee. Free. At McDonald Park, 4100 N. Harrison Road. 745-5550.

10 AM-NOON: JFCS CHAI Circle (Cancer, Healing and Inspiration for Jewish Women) meeting at the Tucson J. RSVP to Irene Gefter at igefter@jfcstucson.org or 795-0300, ext. 2271.

10:30 AM: Desert Caucus brunch with Ann Wagner (R-MO). Guests should be prospective members. Contact desertcaucus@gmail.com or 299-2410.

1:30-3 PM: Tucson J Fine Art Gallery opening reception, “Elements of Nature Through the Artist Eye,” works by Lily Rosenberg and Lisa Mishler. 299-3000 or www.tucsonjcc.org.

2-6 PM: Cong. Bet Shalom Tu B’Shevat Farm Festival, The Midbar Project. Planting, music, crafts, face painting. Funded by Synagogue Funding Group at JFSA, GARDEN Inc., and community donations. www.cbsaz.org.

4:30-6 PM: Tucson J Tapas on Tu B’Shevat celebration. Ages 21+; wine will be served.

Cong. Anshei Israel Talmud on Tuesday with Rabbi Robert Eisen. Meets 6 p.m. 745-5550.

Temple Emanu-El Talmud study, Wednesdays, 10 -11:30 a.m. Text required, call 327-4501.

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

Jewish mothers/grandmothers special needs support group for those with children/ grandchildren, youth or adult, with special needs, third Thursdays, 7-8:30 p.m. at Tucson J. Contact Joyce Stuehringer at 299-5920.

“Biblical Breakthroughs with Rabbi Becker” at the Southwest Torah Institute. Fridays, noon, for men and women. 747-7780 or yzbecker@me.com.

Tucson J Fine Art Gallery presents “Elements of Nature through the Artist Eye,” works by Lily Rosenberg and Lisa Mishler, through March 1. 299-3000 or www.tucsonjcc.org.

Weintraub Israel Center Shirat HaShirim Hebrew choir, Tuesdays, 7 p.m. Learn to sing in Hebrew. Contact Rina Paz at 304-7943 or ericashem@cox.net.

Beth Shalom Temple Center of Green Valley art gallery presents “Art in Dimension,” with paintings by Ann Marcus Lapidus, and jewelry and women’s kippot by Jere Moskovitz, through March 10. Open Wednesdays, 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. or call 648-6690 for a viewing appointment.

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 8854102 or esigafus@aol.com.

Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center exhibit, “Asylum/Asilo,” through May 31. Drop-in hours Fridays 1-3 p.m., Saturdays/ Sundays 1-5 p.m. 564 S. Stone Ave. 670-9073 or www.jewishhistorymuseum.org.

Tickets include purchase of a grape vine in Israel. Members, $18; nonmembers, $25. RSVP at www.tucsonjcc.org. Contact Jennifer Selco at jselco@tucsonjcc.org or 299-3000.

org/events or 670-9073.

Monday / February 10

2 PM: Brandeis Tucson Museum of Art Lecture at Handmaker presents “Meet Sorolla,” with Ellie Eigen, Tucson Museum of Art docent.

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida was a Spanish impressionist painter. Free. 2221 N. Rosemont Blvd.

Contact Nanci Levy at nlevy@handmaker.org.

Tuesday / February 11

7:30 PM: Invisible Theatre presents Susan Claassen in “Becoming Dr. Ruth.” Funded in part by JFSA. Repeats Feb. 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, and 22, with 3 p.m. shows Feb. 15, 16, 22 and 23.

Tickets at www.invisibletheatre.com.

Wednesday / February 12

6:30 PM: Temple Emanu-El Praying Together for Peace evening service. 327-4501.

Thursday / February 13

7 PM: JHM Elizabeth Leibson Holocaust Remembrance Lecture with Andrew Marantz, author of “Anti-Social.” University of Arizona Student Union second floor Gallagher Theatre, 1303 E. University Blvd. Tickets including parking, $18 general admission, $54 reserved seating and 6 p.m. reception, at www.jewishhistorymuseum.

Friday / February 14

2-4 PM Brandeis National Committee event with poet Esther Schnur Berlot. At home of Rachel and Lee Barker, 1001 E. Camino de los Padres. Proceeds benefit Honoring Our History.

Bring teen hygiene products and school supplies. $18, includes wine and chocolate. Send check by Feb. 10, payable to BNC, to Marilyn Sternstein, 5765 E. Finisterra Dr., Tucson, AZ 85750.

5:30 PM: Temple Emanu-El Shabbat Rocks! service with Torah Tots, Avanim Rock Band and youth choir, followed at 6:30 p.m. by family Shabbat dinner, traditional service at 7:30 p.m.

Dinner $12 for adults, $3 ages 4-12, 3 and under, free. RSVP for dinner at 327-4501 or www. tetucson.org.

Saturday / February 15

8 AM: Temple Emanu-El Wandering Jews hike and Shabbat morning service with Rabbi Batsheva Appel at Wasson Peak. 327-4501.

1 PM: Secular Humanist Jewish Circle Tu B’Shevat tree planting at Reid Park, enter off Country Club at Concert Place, park near playground, follow signs to SHJC. Includes fruit and nut snacks. Free. RSVP to Pat at ptdmnd@gmail. com or 481-5324. www.shjcaz.org.

7:30 PM: UA Hillel presents “The Capitol Steps.” At Fox Tucson Theatre, 17 W. Congress

St. Tickets start at $50, packages available starting at $180. www.uahillel.org or 624-6561.

SUNDAY / FEBRUARY 16

9:15 AM-3 PM: Hadassah Southern Arizona Mah Jongg Tournament. Lunch, silent auction.

Skyline Country Club, 5200 E. Saint Andrews Drive. $40. No walk-ins. Proceeds benefit Hadassah. Register by Feb. 7. Contact Cathy at 8866246 or colswing@hadassah.org.

9:30 AM: Temple Emanu-El Men’s Club presents Health Awareness Seminar, “The Great Prostate Hoax,” with Richard J. Ablin, Ph.D., D.Sc. (Hon)., of the department of pathology at UArizona College of Medicine. Free. Preceded by breakfast. www.tetucson.org or 327-4501.

7 PM: Tucson J presents “My Grandfather’s Prayers,” multimedia performance by awardwinning puppeteer Lisa Sturz of Red Herring Puppets. For adults and older teens. $10. www. tucsonjcc.org/event/my-grandfathers-prayersperformance or 299-3000.

MONDAY / FEBRUARY 17

8:30-11:30 AM: Safety, Respect, Equity workshop for Jewish agency staff, at the Tucson J. RSVP by Feb. 10 to Kelsey Birch at 299300 ext. 212 or kbirch@tucsonjcc.org.

TUESDAY / FEBRUARY 18

NOON-1:15 PM: Cong. Or Chadash book club, “The Marriage of Opposites,” by Alice Hoffman.

Contact Celia Slatzer at celiaslatzer@gmail.com.

WEDNESDAY / FEBRUARY 19

2 PM: Beth Shalom Temple Center of Green Valley speaker series presents “Truth, Lies and Private Eyes – Tales of a Private Investigator,” with Jane Noah. Free. 648-6690 or www. bstc.us.

THURSDAY / FEBRUARY 20

1:15 PM: Temple Emanu-El Jewish Novels Group discusses “The Two-Family House” by

SATURDAY / FEBRUARY 29

2-3 PM: Arizona Center for Judaic Studies Sally & Ralph Duchin Campus Lecture Series with Thomas Levy. Co-sponsored by UArizona School of Anthropology. Free. 1245 E. 2nd St. 626-5758 or www.judaic.arizona.edu.

FRIDAY / FEBRUARY 21

5 PM: Cong. Or Chadash Shabbat dinner and service “Celebrating 25 Years of Gratitude,” honoring Stuart Mellan, JFSA president and CEO. Preceded at 4:30 p.m. by happy hour.

At Deanna and Harvey Evenchik Center for Jewish Philanthropy, 3718 E. River Road. Services at 6:30 p.m. at Cong. Or Chadash. Dinner, $75; patron, $125. Proceeds benefit Or Chadash, with a portion donated to JFSA. RSVP by Feb. 14 at www.orchadash-tucson.org/mellan or 512-8500.

5:45 PM: Cong. Anshei Israel Family Shabbat Experience service and dinner. Service with percussion instruments followed by dinner at 7 p.m. Dinner $25 per family for members (2 adults and up to 4 children); guest family $30; adults (13+) $10. RSVP for dinner by Feb. 17 at www.caiaz.org or 745-5550.

7:30 PM: Temple Emanu-El Men’s Club Rodeo Shabbat service, preceded at 6 p.m. by Rodeo Shabbat dinner. Dinner, $15 for adults, $5 ages 4-12, age 3 and under, free. RSVP for dinner at 327-4501 or www.tetucson.org.

SUNDAY / FEBRUARY 23

8:30 AM-5 PM: Arizona Center for Judaic Studies presents “Contradictions & Tropes of Antisemitism” International Conference, at UArizona Student Union Memorial Center. Dinner and keynote at 6:30 p.m. at the Tucson Marriot University Park Hotel, 880 E. Second St. Conference continues Feb. 24, 8:30 a.m.–4 p.m. at the Student Union. Conference, $50 per day or $75 both days, dinner $50. RSVP for dinner by Feb. 14. RSVP for conference by Feb. 21 at www.judaic.arizona.edu or contact Jackie Schmidt at jan1@email.arizona.edu.

UPCOMING

8-11 PM: JFSA Young Leadership Hava Tequila on the Red Carpet. At Westward Look, 245 E. Ina Road. Dessert and drinks, live music, raffle prizes, silent auction. 21+, cocktail attire. Benefits JFCS Jewish Emergency Financial Assistance and Young Jewish Tucson. $36. RSVP at www.jfsa.ticketspice.com/ hava-tequila.

WEDNESDAY / MARCH 4

6 PM: Brandeis National Committee 24th Annual Book & Author Dinner at Hacienda Del Sol, 5501 N. Hacienda Del Sol Road. “Ask the Authors” round table with limited seating. $90 or $125 for seating with an author. RSVP by March 1 to Sheila Rothenberg at sheila.tucson@ comcast.net or 917-579-8030

THURSDAY / MARCH 5

Lynda Cohen Loigman. 327-4501.

9:15 AM-2:30 PM: Brandeis National Committee 24th Annual Book & Author Day at Skyline Country Club, 5200 E. St. Andrews Drive, with books sales/signing, artisan bou-

tique, silent auction, four author program, buffet luncheon. $80 or $125 for seating with an author. RSVP by March 1 to Sheila Rothenberg at sheila.tucson@comcast.net or 917-579-8030

SUNDAY / MARCH 8

10 AM: JFSA Women’s Philanthropy Connections brunch with guest speaker Dr. Ruth Westheimer, at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, 7000 N. Resort Drive. $45 plus minimum of $180 pledge ($18 for students) to the 2020 Federation Community Campaign. Reserve at www.jfsa.ticketspice.com/connections-2020 or call Anel Pro at 647-8455.

NORTHWEST TUCSON

All Ruth and Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life (JFSA Northwest Division) events are held at 180 W. Magee Road, #140, unless otherwise indicated.

ONGOING

Chair yoga with a Jewish flair taught

by Bonnie Golden. At Ruth and Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life, Mondays, 10-11 a.m. $7 per class or $25 for four. 505-4161 or northwestjewish@jfsa.org.

NW Needlers create hand-stitched items for donation in the Jewish community. At Ruth and Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life. Tuesdays, 1-3 p.m. RSVP to judithgfeldman@gmail.com or 505-4161.

Mah jongg meets at Ruth and Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life, Wednesdays, 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., 505-4161.

Chabad of Oro Valley adult education class, Jewish learning with Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman. Wednesdays at 7 p.m. 477-8672 or www.jewishorovalley.com.

Chabad of Oro Valley Torah and Tea for women, with Mushkie Zimmerman. Thursdays, 2 p.m., through Feb. 20. 477-8672 or www.jewishorovalley.com.

Chabad of Oro Valley Shabbat service and dinner, third Fridays. RSVP at 477-8672 or www.jewishorovalley.com.

SUNDAY / FEBRUARY 9

1-2:30 PM: Cong. Beit Simcha Shabbat Adult Education Academy Classes. Introductory Judaism, with Rabbi Sam Cohon, nine-month class (with summer break) began Feb. 2. Members, $125; guests, $150.

Talmud Study, with Rabbi Baruch J. Cohon, eight-week class began Feb. 2. Members, $40; guests, $55. Contemporary Judaism, 3:305 p.m. with Rabbi Sam Cohon, nine-month class (with summer break) begins Feb. 9. Members, $125; guests, $150. www.beitsimcha tucson.org or 276-5675.

2 PM: Chabad of Oro Valley and Oro Valley Police Department community wide safety and security class, “Active Shooter Response,” at Chabad, 1171 E. Rancho Vistoso Blvd., #131. Security committee will be forming at the event. Free. rabbiboruch@ jewishorovalley.com.

MONDAY / FEBRUARY 10

3:30-5 PM: PJ Library and Ruth and Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life present Northwest Family Tu B’Shevat Barbecue in the Park. Free. At Tangerine Sky Community Park, 4411 W. Tangerine Road. RSVP at www. jfsa.org/bbqinthepark or 505-4161.

6:30 PM: Chabad of Oro Valley Women’s

Circle Tu B’shevat Succulent Planting. Suggested donation $10. 1171 E. Rancho Vistoso Blvd., #131. RSVP to adeli@jewishorovalley.com.

TUESDAY / FEBRUARY 11

1-2:30 PM: Ruth and Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life and JFCS present “An Ethical Will Writing Workshop” with Rabbi Stephanie Aaron of Cong. Chaverim. Free. www.jfcs tucson.org/services/ethical-will. RSVP at north westjewish@jfsa.org or 505-4161.

FRIDAY / FEBRUARY 14

6:30 PM: Cong. Beit Simcha Shabbat birthday and anniversary service. 2270 W. Ina Road. www.beitsimchatucson.org or 2765675.

SUNDAY / FEBRUARY 16

2-3 PM: Ruth and Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life Northwest Jewish Kids singalong, with song leader Eva Turner. Free. RSVP to www.jfsa.org/nwsingalong or 505-4161.

THURSDAY / FEBRUARY 18

7-8:30 PM: Rosh Chodesh women's group presents “What’s a Nice Jewish Girl Doing Working in a Men’s Prison?” with Marsha Foresman,assistantdeputywarden.Free. RSVPat northwestjewish@jfsa.org or 505-4161.

FRIDAY / FEBRUARY 21

6:30 PM: Cong. Beit Simcha Rodeo Shabbat. www.beitsimchatucson.org or 276-5675.

SATURDAY / FEBRUARY 22

1:30-4 PM: Cong. Beit Simcha Rodeo Shabbat afternoon service on horseback. At Westward Look Stables, 245 E. Ina Road. www. beitsimchatucson.org or 276-5675.

MONDAY / FEBRUARY 24

5-6:30 PM: Ruth and Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life and Hadassah Southern Arizona book club discusses “A Beautiful Mystery” by Louise Penny. RSVP at 505-4161 or northwestjewish@jfsa.org.

WEDNESDAY / FEBRUARY 26

Noon-1:30 PM: Ruth and Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life Lunch & Learn with Rabbi Sam Cohon of Congregation Beit Simcha, who will speak on “Kabbalah, Jewish Mysticism for Today.” Kosher dairy lunch, $10. RSVP required at www.jfsa.org/nwkabbalah or 505-4161.

THURSDAY / MARCH 26

5-8 PM: A conversation with Noam Chomsky, UArizona professor, focusing on conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, PEPs (Progressive Except on Palestine), and campus activism. Reserve free tickets at https:// afgj.salsalabs.org/aconversationwithnoam chomsky.

ost.com and p h is w je z .a w w Visit w Facebook! n o P J A e h t follow February 7, 2020, ARIZONA JEWISH POST

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Obituaries printed free of charge may be edited for space and format.

There is a nominal fee for photographs. Please inquire at 319-1112 for obituaries.

OBITUARIES Thelma Goldberg

Kenneth Greenfield

Thelma Bernice (Sporn) Goldberg died Jan. 10, 2020.

Originally from New York, Mrs. Goldberg taught at John Jay High School in Cross River, New York, and Lamson Business College in Tucson. She also was active in B’nai B’rith and Hadassah.

Mrs. Goldberg was preceded in death by her husband, Milton.

Survivors include her daughters, Gail (James) Tinsley, Laurie (Paul) Snyder, and Karen Goldberg; four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Graveside services were held at Evergreen Cemetery with Rabbi Stephanie Aaron of Congregation Chaverim officiating.

Kenneth Martin Greenfield, 87, died Jan. 23, 2020.

Born on Feb. 25, 1932, Mr. Greenfield was raised and lived in New York City and New Jersey. He moved to Tucson in 2000.

A corporate attorney for most of his professional life, he graduated from Columbia University Business School and NYU Law School where he made Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif. A veteran, he did advanced ROTC and went on active duty in the Air Force. He served as a supply officer in Korea where he rose to the rank of second lieutenant. In his later years, he traveled the world with his wife Ruthie, and taught at OLLI, the Tucson adult learning program, for 12 years.

Survivors include his second wife, Ruthie Zales; sister, Ann Louise Greenfield, and children, Jennifer and Daniel Greenfield.

A memorial service was held at Congregation Beit Simcha with Rabbi Sam Cohon officiating.

Arrangements were made by Evergreen Mortuary.

Memorial contributions may be made to Congregation Beit Simcha, www.beitsimchatucson.org, or the University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film, and Television, theatre@cfa.arizona.edu.

Doris Fleischman

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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, February 7, 2020

Doris Fleischman, 92, died Jan. 11, 2020.

Mrs. Fleischman was born in New York City and raised primarily in Los Angeles, where she met her husband, Alvin, on a blind date. They married in 1950, and had two sons, Larry and Marc. Due to Al’s career in the whiskey business, they traveled extensively and moved often. They settled in Tucson upon Al’s retirement to be near their grandchildren.

Mrs. Fleischman was preceded in death by Alvin in 2010.

Survivors include her children, Larry (Raquel) and Marc (Debbie); three grandchildren, Stephanie (Andrei), Michael (Rachael), and Elizabeth; four greatgrandchildren; Shelley Heyman (mother of Stephanie and Michael); her sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew.

Graveside services were held at Evergreen Cemetery with Rabbi Robert Eisen of Congregation Anshei Israel officiating.

With support from the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and caring donors, Jewish Family & Children’s Services helps indigent individuals and their families with financial assistance for burial arrangements.

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OUR TOWN

B’nai mitzvah

Connor Belakovsky, son of Anjelina Belakovskaia and Lawrence Bernstein, celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah on Saturday, Jan. 18, at Congregation Beit Simcha.

He is the grandson of Liliya Belakovskaya of Tucson.

Connor attends Esperero Canyon Middle School, where he plays clarinet in the band and is a member of the school’s First Lego League team. He enjoys chess and is in the top 10% on the U.S. Juniors chess lists. He also enjoys basketball, music, computers and futures/cryptocurrencies trading.

For his mitzvah project, Connor collected toys and games for Tucson Medical Center for Children.

State legislative committee approves Holocaust education bill for Arizona schools

Photo: Facebook

Samuel Ellis Jacobson, son of Jeffrey and Rachel Jacobson, will celebrate becoming a bar mitzvah on Saturday, Feb. 15, with Congregation Or Chadash at the Jewish Community Center.

Sam attends Tucson Hebrew Academy, and plays on basketball, football, and soccer teams. He en-

State Rep. Alma Hernandez with Holocaust survivors and Jewish Family & Children’s Services staff from Southern Arizona at the capitol in Phoenix Jan. 27.

(L-R) Erika Dattner, Susan Kasle (JFCS vice president of community services), Raisa Moroz (JFCS Holocaust survivors program manager), Michael Bokor, Wanda Wolosky, Sharon Glassberg (JFCS clinical therapist/wellness and support specialist), Hernandez, Theresa Dulgov, Sara Lichter, Pawel Lichter, Sidney Finkel, Barbara Agee

joys travel.

For his mitzvah project, he is collecting gently used toys, games, and books to donate to a local charity offering assistance to homeless and sheltered families with children.

On Monday, Jan. 27, which was International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, bill #HB2682, submitted by Arizona Rep. Alma Hernandez with bipartisan support, passed unanimously in the House education committee. The bill requires Arizona schools to teach about the Holocaust and other genocides. Holocaust survivors from Tucson and Phoenix attended the session and testified in support of the bill.

People in the news

Carlos Galindo-Elvira recently joined Chicanos Por la Causa, Inc. as the director of community engagement and partnerships. A Jew by choice, he most recently was regional director of the ADL, based in Phoenix, from 2016. During his tenure, ADL became the first contact for the Jewish community when anti-Semitic incidents occur. ADL’s No Place for Hate Initiative in 2019 reached 50,000 K-12 Arizona students and trained 1,000 law enforcement officers on managing implicit bias training.

Galindo-Elvira, an Arizona State University graduate, began his career in community service as a councilman in Hayden, Arizona, in the late 1980s.

Social action by M’kor Hayim warms hearts at local migrant shelter

The Only Name for Real Estate

Photo courtesy Congregation M’kor Hayim

Tamara “T” Statman, a University of Arizona student/softball alumnus, was crowned Miss Tucson Del Sol 2020 at the Miss Tucson Scholarship Program on Jan. 18. She will educate people across the state about her platform, “Skin Cancer Prevention: Educate, Facilitate, and Legislate.”

Statman will move on to the Miss Arizona competition in June. She was a three-sport athlete growing up and at UArizona was Arizona’s first Academic All-American and a two-time first-team Pac-12 all-academic honoree. Statman currently works at Cumulus Radio as a board operator and at Tucson Unified School District as a substitute teacher. She also is publicity director of the Tucson Swing Dance Club, an airport ambassador for the Tucson Airport Authority, and an advisory commissioner on the Tucson Human Relations Commission.

In focus

Bryan Kaplan displays donations for the Casa Alitas migrant shelter from Congregation M’kor Hayim.

Congregation M’kor Hayim has supported the Casa Alitas shelter for asylum seekers, run by Catholic Community Services. This month, the congregation answered a call for small size coats, jackets, and sweaters for the women and children who pass through the shelter, often on their way to colder locations. With help from neighbors and friends, congregants delivered 288 coats and sweaters, plus a dozen scarves, gloves, and hats.

Send news of your simchas to localnews@azjewishpost.com or call 319-1112

Mazel Tov

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February 7, 2020, ARIZONA JEWISH POST

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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, February 7, 2020