July 17, 2020 25 Tammuz 5780 Volume 76, Issue 14
INSIDE Back To School.......... 17-19 Restaurant Resource.....10-11 Senior Lifestyle.......... 20-24 Commentary...........................6 Local...........3, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19 ....................... 20, 21, 22, 24 News Briefs.............................9 Obituaries..............................26 Our Town...............................27 Reflections.............................25 Synagogue Directory............ 16
Important announcement about the AJP from the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona board of directors
A
ll of us look forward to learning what’s happening in our Jewish community. For generations, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has proudly produced the Arizona Jewish Post. Over that time, some of us have preferred to read our news in print, while others of us read online. Nonetheless, our newspaper has suffered budgetary pressures experienced by print media in general, and in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, our advertising revenues have further diminished, resulting in a crisis for our revenue model. Indeed, the closure of many of our businesses and offices, and the cessation of in-person services and engagement activities during the past few months have exacerbat-
ed this trend. Therefore, after much consideration, the board of directors of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has determined unanimously that it is essential for the Arizona Jewish Post to consider innovative design and delivery concepts in order to continue providing our community the highest quality news stories, features, and advertisements in a sustainable manner. Consequently, the Arizona Jewish Post will be placed on a summer hiatus following this July 17, 2020 issue to allow us to explore all means and methods for communicating with the community we serve. We recognize that the hiatus of the Arizona Jewish Post during this period when many of us feel
isolated may be unwelcome news, but we will continue to provide emails and online information over the summer to stay in touch. Moreover, we believe this unprecedented downtime provides us an opportunity for exploration and reflection, and that this decision will prove to be beneficial for the future of our community, the Federation, and the synagogues and agencies we proudly promote. Communicating with the Jewish community of Southern Arizona and other key stakeholders remains a critical priority. This hiatus represents a point of inflection. We will be using this time to reevaluate and assess how we can most effectively and cost-efficiently proceed, taking into consideration the changing nature of
news production and consumption, advertising preferences, print formats, and combinations of delivery mechanisms. Our team will further investigate new avenues including web, email, social media, and alternative approaches to print as well as other print and periodical styles. This will be a learning process — for you and us — so we invite you to be our valued partners as we endeavor over the summer to strengthen and streamline our community’s communications. Our goal and intention is to continue to work with our agencies and synagogues to feature simchas, bring you stories about remarkable community members, highlight important happenings, and promote local events. See Announcement, page 2
Federation plans online annual meeting and community awards celebration
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he second annual combined Jewish Community Awards Celebration and Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Annual Meeting will be held via Zoom on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 5-6:30 p.m. A Zoom invitation will be issued closer to the date. The event will include special recognition awards honoring lay or professional leaders from each of the Federation’s beneficiary and affiliated agencies. The Federation will install its 2020-21 officers and directors. The Federation’s Man and Woman of the Year, James Wezelman and Liz Kanter Groskind, will be among the evening’s honorees. Wezelman served as treasurer
of the JFSA board and chair of its budget and finance committee for five years. He also served James Wezelman on the board of the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation, where he helped structure the financing for its first building and served as treasurer during the construction of the current building. He chaired the steering committee of the Federation’s Real Estate and Allied Professionals affinity group and served on the steering
committee of its Cardozo affinity group. He is a member of the Next Generation Men’s Liz Kanter Groskind Group. He currently serves on the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona’s investment committee and on the finance transition committee for Congregation Or Chadash and Temple Emanu-El as they explore creating a combined synagogue. “Jim is a ‘behind-the-scenes’ kind of a guy — shunning the
limelight, he instead takes on positions of tremendous responsibility, which he performs with the upmost thoughtfulness, integrity and good humor,” says JFSA Board Chair Deborah Oseran. Kanter Groskind has served on the Federation’s board and its strategic planning and planning and allocations committees, as well as the Tucson Jewish Community Center special needs task force. For many years she was president of the board of the B’nai B’rith Gerd and Inge Strauss Manor on Pantano. Kanter Groskind is currently national board chair for MAZON, a Jewish Response to Hunger.
CANDLELIGHTING TIMES: July 17 ... 7:13 p.m. • July 24 ... 7:09 p.m. • July 31 ... 7:04 p.m.
See Federation, page 8