Jewish News, Jan. 7, 2022

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Arizona’s women rabbis reflect on 50th anniversary of women in the rabbinate

SHANNON LEVITT | MANAGING EDITOR

When Temple Chai Rabbi Bonnie Koppell arrived in Arizona in 1987, people were shocked that she was a rabbi. She was the first woman rabbi in the state. Many times, she heard the words, “I didn’t know that women could be rabbis,” she told Jewish News.

“I grew up in an era when there were no women rabbis,” Koppell said. “I was ordained in 1981. Women rabbis were a novelty at that time. I wondered when the time would come that women would simply be rabbis, and not ‘women rabbis.’ I wonder if we are there yet?”

This year, Rabbi Sally Priesand will celebrate her 50th anniversary as the first publicly ordained woman rabbi in the United States. The year Priesand entered rabbinical school, Koppell was 11 years old and knew she wanted to be a rabbi, too.

Now, Koppell is one of several women rabbis in and around Greater Phoenix. “When the women rabbis in Phoenix meet, there might be a dozen of us at the table,” she said. And in honor of the 50th anniversary, a dozen of them offered a few reflections, personal anecdotes and thoughts on the challenges that remain.

Rabbi Nina Perlmutter told Jewish News that “it seems important to note the history and significance” of Priesand’s anniversary because “today, so many communities take it as a ‘given’ that women can be rabbis.”

Capturing survivors’ memories, one photograph at a time

John Pregulman was in Phoenix the weekend of Dec. 11 to see some old friends from BBYO. While in town, he sought out Holocaust survivors living in the area.

That wasn’t unusual for him. Wherever Pregulman trav els, he sets aside time to meet with and take photographs of Holocaust survivors.

“It’s really important to them to be remembered, and this is a way to honor them and to give them the dignity and respect that they deserve,” he said. “There’s not that much time left.”

Pregulman, who lives in Denver, is passionate about help ing Holocaust survivors and ensuring they and their stories aren’t forgotten. He began taking photographs of survivors in 2012, and in 2015, he and his wife, Amy Israel Pregulman, founded KAVOD, a nonprofit providing survivors emergency financial assistance.

Pregulman is Jewish but never had much exposure or interac tion with Holocaust survivors until a friend asked him to take photos as a favor. His friend had become the executive director of the Holocaust Museum in Skokie, Illinois, and there wasn’t a budget in place for pictures.

“I expected to take five or 10 pictures maybe, and I ended up going to the Skokie Museum and taking 65 pictures of survivors,” he said. He spent three days in the museum and fell in love with his subjects.

“I went up there expecting to see unhappy, sad people who didn’t have a very good outlook on life. And I found them to be positive,

Casa Grande’s first menorah

Casa Grande had its first public menorah in December 2021. To see more community photos, go to p. 22.

SEE ANNIVERSARY, PAGE 2

Perlmutter, the emerita rabbi of Congregation Lev Shalom in Flagstaff, suggested that highlighting the anniversary, “helps inspire older folks — especially women — about how things have

Stewart says the ‘Harry Potter’ goblins

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF DANA XEDOS

SEE KAVOD, PAGE 3 Marge Rich’s portrait PHOTO BY JOHN PREGULMAN

changed positively since they were young.” Conversely, it also “helps expand expectations and possibilities young people have.”

Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley Rabbi Alicia Magal recalled that when she was in school “there was not yet one female rabbi; though I enjoyed going to synagogue, it never occurred to me that I could be the one on the pulpit.”

New Shul Rabbi Elana Kanter offered that she “feels extremely fortunate to be living in an historical moment when women are rabbis,” a feeling that’s particularly acute when she thinks about a Talmudic figure like Beruriah, “an extremely learned woman who had no place or context in which to offer her Torah,” thousands of years ago.

Rabbi Mindie Snyder, chaplain and rabbi of Sun Health Communities, reflected that “given the thousands of years of Jewish history where women held positions of leadership and authority, it is especially interesting that women’s admission into rabbinic seminaries was so fraught with debate and took as long as it did.

“Because we live in a place and time of accelerated transitions, women in the rabbinate are simultaneously tasked to be agents of positive innovations, forces of stability, multicultural and multilingual.”

Congregation Beth Israel Rabbi Sara MasonBarkin reminded Jewish News that in 1972, the year Priesand was ordained, email and Egg McMuffins were also introduced.

“While the world has changed dramatically in ways that we never could have anticipated since the 1970s, no one seems to doubt the legitimacy of email or an egg McMuffin. And yet, as a woman who is a rabbi I am often greeted with surprise, confusion or even delight by those who didn’t know that women rabbis existed.” At times, her gender is pointed to as a positive, especially when it comes to being a good role model for children.

But it’s still a liability to some, she wrote. “It can be challenging to command authenticity when there is still a large percentage of Jews who don’t believe that women can be rabbis, even though we are.”

Temple Solel Rabbi Debbie Stiel thought a lot about the upcoming anniversary as she prepared for her installation ceremony in November. Her sermon detailed women’s big historical moments in Judaism, in the rabbinate and highlighted some of her own experiences, as well.

She recounted a time when she and another female rabbinic student attended a minyan in “a synagogue that was somewhere between Conservative and Orthodox in its practice.” The male members said they were two short of a minyan. “There were actually 10 of us in the room,” Stiel continued, “but two of us were women.” Both she and her friend felt invisible.

“I don’t think of myself as a pioneer, but when I was ordained in 1994, I became the first woman rabbi in the city of Omaha. I was then the first woman rabbi in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the first in Topeka, Kansas,” she wrote. Every synagogue she worked in had “at least one person who did not want me hired simply because I was a woman.” Still, she has felt “overwhelming” support from each of her synagogue’s members.

Congregation Beth El Rabbi Nitzan Stein Kokin celebrates Priesand’s anniversary, too, while drawing attention to German Rabbi Regina Jonas, another woman pioneer — one who has been overlooked due to historic political circumstances. Jonas was privately ordained by the leader of the German Reform movement in 1935 and was able to work because so many rabbis had emigrated or been arrested and deported by the Nazis. Jonas died in Auschwitz in 1942. Her rabbinic thesis about ordaining women is archived in Berlin and was rediscovered after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Stein Kokin said.

“While I am happy to acknowledge 50 years of women in the rabbinate in America, I feel that we should honor those predecessors of the

‘20s and ‘30s. We are looking more at a history of about 100 years of women serving as ‘rabbis’ or in clergy roles,” she told Jewish News.

Rabbi Julie Kozlow, a community rabbi in Prescott, said she entered the rabbinate “because of a powerful calling that has held me in its grip — to serve the highest good, to guide people through Jewish wisdom and ethics.” But she also told Jewish News that 2021 represents a “pushback” and “a digging in of the dominant structures of the past.

“The patriarchy is alive and well and fighting to get back its lost territory. We rabbis who are women are on those frontlines and it’s a difficult place to manage, but manage we do, for we are the change agents for our times. It is both a privilege and a struggle. I was not prepared to be judged for my gender, I assumed I would be judged for my love of God, my love of Judaism, my love of ethics and my passion for humanity. The most glaring challenge for me as a woman rabbi is to realize how much misogyny still exists in our world, Jewish and secular.”

Rabbi Aviva Funke, community rabbi and principal of Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Phoenix’s Hebrew High, wrote that men have left shiva minyanim that she led, and she struggles to embrace classical Jewish literature “due to the sexism and disregard for women’s rights and ability to learn.” While the Talmud and Mishnah are ancient, she wrote that she still has difficulty teaching texts “that would never even consider embracing me, my role in the community or others.”

Stein Kokin, too, wrote that Judaism’s sacred texts “have an androcentric patriarchal perspective. In Hebrew, it is very hard to formulate descriptions of or prayers to God, for example, in a non-binary or gender neutral way.” She added that “in liturgy women’s voices and authorship are still in the making.”

Rabbi Suzy Stone, campus rabbi for Hillel at Arizona State University, was part of the

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happy, accomplished people despite what had happened to them,” he said. “It was a life-changing experience.”

In 2015, Pregulman was taking a photograph of a 94-year-old survivor in her Orlando home when she offered him a snack. When she opened the fridge, he was surprised to see so many empty shelves. He asked what was going on, and she told him she had to choose between spending money on groceries or fixing her air conditioner.

He told his wife about what he witnessed. “We just found that unconscionable, and we had to do something.”

In 2018, one-third of 80,000 Holocaust survivors in the United States were living in poverty, according to The Blue Card Foundation, a Holocaust survivor charity.

In 2015, Amy remembers it was closer to one-third of 100,000 survivors.

“We were both very immersed in our Jewish communities and felt kind of blindsided that we didn’t know that this was a problem,” she said. “We found that even though there were resources, there was a gap in what was needed and what was available.”

The national nonprofit began working with agencies in communities across the country to help fill the gap. KAVOD, in partnership with Seed the Dream Foundation launched KAVOD SHEF (Survivors of the Holocaust Emergency Fund) in 2019. That same year, KAVOD SHEF partnered with two Phoenix organizations: the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix and Jewish Family & Children’s Service.

KAVOD SHEF raises awareness about the unmet emergency needs of survivors and raises money in 33 communities across the country that is matched dollar for dollar by a coalition of national funders led by Seed The Dream Foundation.

JFCS helps find survivors who can benefit from the fund. Last year, the nonprofit filled 65 requests from Holocaust survivors between Tucson and Phoenix.

John has been to Phoenix before, but he only took pictures of Phoenix survivors for the first time on his recent trip.

Sheryl Bronkesh, president of the

Phoenix Holocaust Association, and others helped John find and coordinate photo sessions with local survivors.

Marge Rich, who lives in Sun City and is a survivor of the Terezin concentration camp, was photographed with her daughter, Michelle Rich.

“I’d like to leave a memory of some kind behind,” said Rich, 84.

Marge was 4 years old when she went into the labor camp 30 miles north of Prague in the Czech Republic with her mom and 10 other family members. For three years, she hid in the barracks. Each morning she would see her mom and grandmother leave for the day unsure whether they would return.

She vividly remembers the horrifying things she felt and saw, and the noises she heard: people digging their own mass graves, the “pop pop pop” of gunshots, bloody snow, people falling in their tracks.

“Things a 4-year-old kid shouldn’t be seeing,” she said. “When my mother came home I was so happy to see her.”

In 1945, the camp was liberated by the Russians. Only she and her mother survived.

She wants the world to know of her, know her story and to never forget what happened.

“This is just going to happen again and again because people don’t remember; they don’t want to remember,” she said.

“I want it taught, researched — I want everyone to know about it.”

Michelle set the photo session up for Marge and drove her to the photo session. It was important for her to have her mom’s photo taken.

“There are so few survivors left,” Michelle said. When her mom is no longer able to share her story, Michelle plans to continue that work for her.

“Everybody’s lucky to be alive — I am particularly lucky to be alive.”

Pregulman used to take portraits using professional lighting and a big Nikon camera, but over the years, he found a more casual setting works best.

“Sometimes they smile, sometimes they don’t,” he said. “In a lot of these people, you can see their experience in their eyes. We don’t ask them to tell their stories to us, but a lot of times they do. And many times it was for the first time.” JN

Michelle Rich, left, Marge Rich and Phoenix Holocaust Association board member Eva Flaster enjoy snacks between photo sessions on Monday, Dec. 13, 2021.

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s ordination class in Los Angeles in 2012, which marked the 40th anniversary of women in the rabbinate.

Because she had female-identified role models in the rabbinate growing up, she wrote, “becoming a rabbi wasn’t really about challenging the status quo or fighting for gender equality. What I’ve realized during my time at ASU Hillel is that not all women, even today, have (female role models). One of the best parts of being on campus is that I am humbled to be a role model to all the young Jewish men, women and non-binary students who are encountering a form of Judaism that encourages them to embrace their modern identities alongside our ancient traditions and rituals.”

In terms of ritual and liturgy, Kanter pointed out that “whole areas of Jewish scholarship have only been opened up because of women scholars and rabbis.” She said there are aspects of the arts, music, literature and creative forms of expression, which “have only been made possible because of the presence of women rabbis, artists and teachers. Women’s leadership has added immeasurably to the richness of Jewish life and experience around the world.”

Koppell, too, wrote that “women have crafted liturgy that men and women alike find meaningful, and women’s commentaries on Jewish texts have deeply enhanced our perspective on the tradition.”

She listed examples like communal baby-naming ceremonies for girls, ceremonies for menarche, menopause and miscarriages, as well as Rosh Chodesh — celebrations of the new moon.

Magal noted that her gender and life experience, having come to the rabbinate later in life, allowed her to be “freer to break with traditional ‘decorum’” than male colleagues might be.

To that end she has brought her “own sensitivity, style, and point of view” to her work.

“I have yodeled for a Swiss hospice patient and made him smile; I wore cowboy boots at a western themed wedding; I matched my tallit to the color scheme of a bride’s wedding decor; I have danced around the room to classical music to cheer up a chair-bound woman who used to have great physical flexibility and who was angry at her limitations. I bring who I am to each encounter, and don’t feel so bound by the image of ‘rabbi.’”

While some women rabbis spoke of having a lot of support for their career choice, others were discouraged and had to persevere on their path.

Perlmutter, for example, said her parents were “assertively secular” and “her decision to become a rabbi made them proud, but very surprised, and even confused.”

Kanter, on the other hand, said her family “takes rabbis as a given, while lawyers and doctors are exotic.” Her father, brother and husband are also rabbis.

When Stiel told her mother about her choice, “she told me she did not think it was a good field for a woman. ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘As a rabbi, there will be times you have to go to the hospital in the middle of the night or be out late with meetings, it will be hard if you are raising a family.’”

Mason-Barkin’s parents were very supportive. They met while her father was studying to be a rabbi and her mother was studying to become “the kind of educator who will create a Mount Sinai experience in the synagogue sanctuary complete with dry ice, flickering lights and the voice of God coming over the sound system.”

Her father “has always been, for me, what a rabbi looks and sounds like. I hear his voice coming out of my mouth when I read certain prayers — slow and steady.” With their support, she wrote, “I have become my own version of what a rabbi looks, sounds and teaches like.”

Congregation Kehillah Rabbi Bonnie Sharfman came from an Orthodox family and was “raised to be a good rebbetzin,” she said. “I didn’t marry a rabbi, didn’t even come close.” Instead, she represents “the 37th generation of my family to receive smicha (ordination), the first woman and first nonOrthodox — but still very tradition-conscious — member.”

While she didn’t have the support of her extended family, her father was very supportive, she told Jewish News. “As a child, he would sit and teach me Torah, then Mishna, Pirke Avot, Shulchan Aruch and Gemara. He told me that I could do anything in life that I set my mind to, although I am fairly certain that this was not anything that he — or I — foresaw. My father was years ahead of his time, and his influence and support, as well as his determined challenges to me, have played a priceless and unquantifiable role in my rabbinate. He was incredibly proud of me, and his family did attend the celebration at a kosher restaurant in Los Angeles, although not the ordination ceremony itself.”

With no female rabbis as role models, “it did take time and struggle to find my own

authentic voice. While I enjoyed my career in education and did not tire of it, there was a powerful and undeniable internal pull that urged me on in this direction. Cognitively, it made no sense; emotionally and spiritually, there was no other path.”

In terms of continued challenges in the rabbinate, several rabbis pointed out disparities in pay for women, discussed challenges involving family responsibilities and offered examples of continued biases as basic as having to remind people to call them “Rabbi” just as they would male counterparts.

Stein Kokin called “the question of authority” a big issue going forward. “Female rabbis have to work harder and have to be more perfect in order to receive the same kind of compensation, to gain leadership roles and to be awarded the same kind of respect (authority) as our male colleagues.”

Funke called “disharmony between the denominations” the biggest problem for women and asked, “How is it that women at the Kotel still can’t celebrate Rosh Chodesh in peace? Why is it that Conservative/Reform/ non-Orthodox rabbis still can’t officiate weddings in Israel?”

But she, like most, finds a lot to be hopeful about. She wrote that the connection among women rabbis and their networks is a blessing, and said that working together on these issues makes her hopeful. “And personally,” she wrote, “I love being in a position that breaks stigmas.”

Snyder, too, hit a hopeful note when she recalled a moment following a Shabbat service she led. A congregant told her that her 3-yearold daughter said, “‘When I grow up, I want to be a rabbi like Rabbi Mindie.’ And in the blink of an eye, a little girl had a new dream for her future and a new generation of Jewish religious leaders is blossoming because it is possible for women to serve as rabbis.”

Not long ago, Koppell was reading a book to Temple Chai’s early childhood class that had as its protagonist a woman rabbi. At first, she thought she would point out how notable that was. But she stopped herself. To those children, who had known nothing but a woman rabbi, it was no novelty at all. JN

We encourage you to read the rabbis’ responses in full by clicking the link embedded in every rabbis’ name on our website: jewishaz.com.

Pictured clockwise from top left: Rabbi Alica Magal, Rabbi Aviva Funke, Rabbi Bonnie Koppell, Rabbi Bonnie Sharfman, Rabbi Debbie Stiel, Rabbi Elana Kanter, Rabbi Suzy Stone, Rabbi Sara Mason-Barkin, Rabbi Nitzan Stein Kokin, Rabbi Nina Perlmutter, Rabbi Mindie Snyder and Rabbi Julie Kozlow

Arizona marks two years of Israel trade office

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

November marked two years since Arizona opened its trade and investment office in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey opened the office as part of the Arizona Commerce Authority in 2019 as a platform for businesses in both countries to increase international trade and foreign direct investment opportunities.

In 2019 alone, Arizona and Israel conducted over $747 million in bilateral trade, according to Sandra Watson, president and CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority.

“With over 450 multinational corporations with a presence in Israel, it is only natural that the state of Arizona would establish a dedicated presence to further our economic collaboration and trade,” she said.

Since its opening, the office has been in contact with over 55 Israeli companies to consider establishing their U.S. operations in Arizona, Watson said. Last year, the Arizona Israel office established a memorandum of understanding between

the city of Yuma and the Israeli region of Ramat Negev to cooperate in desert agriculture and other related technologies. The office also led to the establishment of the first alumni chapter in Israel for Arizona State University, helping to increase Arizona’s exposure in Israel.

“Israel and Arizona have many similarities,” Watson said. For example, the two have similar gross domestic products, population sizes and climates; and are focused on similar sectors like aerospace and defense, agriculture and water conservation technologies, digital health, biotech, and others.

“Both states are on a clear trajectory of innovation and modernization of their markets. Israel is dubbed the ‘start-up nation’ and Arizona often gets called the ‘start-up state’ for a reason,” she said.

Israel’s tech sector raised an unprecedented $25 billion in 2021, according to a report from Start-Up Nation Central, an Israeli nonprofit. In cybersecurity alone, Israel attracted

40% of total investment this year despite accounting for only 0.1% of the world’s population, according to Eviatar Matania, founding head and former director general of Israel National Cyber Directorate. He recently authored “Cybermania: How Israel Became a Global Powerhouse in an Arena That Shapes the Future of Mankind” with Amir Rapaport.

In Arizona, a 2019 report by the Arizona Tech Council found the state’s tech sector is growing 40% faster than the U.S. overall. Investments topped $979.5 million through the first three quarters of 2021, according to PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association.

Hillel Newman, consul general of Israel

to the Pacific Southwest of the United States, has been to Arizona several times since assuming his post in July 2019.

There is a lot going on between Israel and Arizona, Newman told Jewish News.

Several Israeli-owned companies have already established operations in Arizona, including digital health company IMNA Solutions, prop tech company Stoa, agritech and water company N-Drip, mobility company NoTraffic and CP Technologies.

He hinted that more Israeli companies will be on their way to Arizona.

“I can’t give names of companies — I can just say there’s a lot of interest,” he said. Arizona is “on the map” for Israeli companies looking to relocate. JN

Regardless of the times, there’s a lot to do at Maravilla Scottsdale Senior Living Community—clubs, events, fitness options, and more. So, go ahead and make your want-to-do list. But don’t include a bunch of chores. We’ll take care of most of those for you along with delicious dining choices, safeguards and supportive care needs. We invite you to see all that Maravilla has to o er at our upcoming event.

Create a Masterpiece

Wednesday, January 19th • 2:30pm

Join us and tap into your creativity during an instructor-led painting class at Maravilla Scottsdale. Larry Charles will guide us as we create a stunning masterpiece while enjoying wine & cheese. Seating is limited. To RSVP, call 480.269.1952.

With so many things to do, we suggest getting an early start on your want-to-do list.

Momentum gives Jewish moms their own trip to Israel

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

Marcy Lewis has known about Momentum for years.

“I have been following this trip for years, watching all my friends, all these people I know, post Facebook Lives and updates, and I would just watch from behind the screen, crying, I wanted to do this so bad,” she said. But the timing never worked out, until recently.

Momentum, often jokingly described as a Birthright trip for Jewish Moms, began in 2008 to empower and inspire Jewish women to transform themselves, their families, their communities and the world. It is a year-long program that starts with a trip to Israel and is followed by monthly meetings for the next year and a half, which cover a “Year of Growth” curriculum.

Lewis and 18 other women from Greater Phoenix returned from Israel Tuesday, Nov. 23, after a 10-day trip, just before Israel closed its borders Sunday, Nov. 29, due to COVID-19’s emerging omicron variant.

Lewis finally applied to be a part of Momentum in 2019 after realizing her eligibility window was closing. Momentum is open to Jewish moms of kids under 18, and Lewis’ sons were 18 and 15 when she applied.

“I never put myself first,” she said. “It’s always my kids, my husband, my job, and I never do anything for me.” But since her kids were now older she felt it was time to pursue this long-awaited program.

She immediately called Robin Meyerson, co-director of Project Inspire Arizona, who organized the Momentum trip for Arizona participants.

“My second phone call was to my

sister,” Lewis said. “I said, ‘You need to apply for this trip. We’re going.’”

The pandemic postponed that trip for two years, however, and navigating the logistics caused by COVID was a whirlwind, Meyerson said.

“We all just dove in saying it’s going to work out and if it doesn’t, it won’t. We bought tickets, we took PCR tests and vaccines and all these other things. And we just all went in with a really positive attitude and it was incredible,” Meyerson said.

The women went sightseeing, connected with each other and learned in unison. The program offered classes on parenting and marriage.

“You go on this trip, and you come back and you’re nourished so that you

can be a better mom, a better wife and a better woman,” Meyerson said.

The trip showed Meyerson that she is able to lead a group. Like Lewis, she waited until 2019 to sign up and so was also forced to wait out the pandemic’s delays.

DeDe Sandler first learned about Momentum when her daughter was 6 years old. She didn’t feel comfortable leaving her daughter at the time. But about six weeks before the recent trip, a spot opened up.

“My girlfriend called me and was like, ‘You have to apply for this right now. Stop what you’re doing,’” she recalled. She was at a Goodwill store trying to find PJ Library or other Jewish books for her daughter. It happened to be one

of those days where she felt “ready to sell my child,” she joked. Now that her daughter is 8, she applied. Within 24 hours, she was accepted and bought her airplane tickets. It wasn’t her first time in Israel, but it was her first time in Israel as a parent. She felt empowered. Two of her biggest takeaways were: “There is no one right way to be Jewish,” and “It starts within the home. And if you can change a home, then you can change enough homes to change a community. And if you change enough communities, you can change the world.”

She learned the value of tzedakah and decided to up her giving. On Nov. 30, Giving Tuesday, she incorporated “giving Jewishly” and donated to several Jewish organizations.

Sandler is looking forward to the next year and a half of learning and continuing to grow with the group of women on her trip. “They inspire me, and they are definitely people who I want to learn from and learn with.”

Lewis was thrilled to be able to go to Israel for the first time with this group of women on Momentum.

“I went with my sister, and I came home with a whole new and amazing group of sisters,” she said. “These women will now be a part of my everyday life.”

Lewis said the trip was life changing — spiritually, mentally and physically.

After applying for the trip in 2019, Lewis learned she has a rare type of cancer, carcinoid cancer. She no longer needs intensive treatment, but she sees life differently now and she doesn’t want to take any opportunities for granted.

“This trip just came up at the perfect time to rejuvenate me as a human, as a woman,” she said. JN

Nineteen women from Greater Phoenix went to Israel on the Momentum trip.

COURTESY OF ROBIN MEYERSON

Hard work and ‘a servant’s heart’ lead local Jewish mom to business success

MICHELLE TALSMA EVERSON

During the pandemic, moms have received a lot of media attention as they balance work, childcare and family responsibilities. While these challenges for moms — especially those who work outside of the home — have been highlighted in the last 18 months, they aren’t something that happened overnight.

“These dynamics aren’t new,” according to a roundup of surveys by the Pew Research Center in March 2021. “Before the pandemic began, women were already more likely than their spouses or partners to say they carried more of the load when it comes to both parenting and household responsibilities. In addition, moms were more likely than dads to say they faced certain challenges at their jobs because they were balancing work and family responsibilities.”

Suzanne Singer, a Jewish mom who was juggling multiple roles well before the pandemic, can attest to that. A single mom of two daughters, Singer is an Arizona State University alum who

owns multiple Nothing Bundt Cakes and Nektar Juice Bar locations across Greater Phoenix.

Singer opened her first Nothing Bundt Cakes location in Scottsdale in 2007.

“Originally Nothing Bundt Cakes was founded by two friends in Las Vegas in 1997, but what many people do not know is that bakeries are now franchised and individually owned,” said Margaret Anderson, founder of Jet Set Elite DMC in Scottsdale, who met Singer in 2008 at a celebrity charity event where Nothing Bundt Cakes was a sponsor. Since then, the two have remained friends.

“Over 20 years ago, Sue [Singer] was a pharmaceutical rep who would buy these delicious treats for doctors’ offices as gifts. During that time, she became a single mom and knew that she had to pivot her career to be able to have more time with her daughters.

“It was big gamble, but she knew that she had to make it work,” Anderson said.

“Now 14 years later not only has it been an enormous success, but she opened

a second location in Arcadia/Central Phoenix and has also ventured out and opened four Nektar Juice Bar locations, two in Phoenix and two in Tucson.”

Singer credits her work ethic for the success she’s had.

“Opening the first Nothing Bundt Cakes location in Scottsdale was stressful, but I had to work through it, and I did — luckily, with hard work and help,” Singer said.

Singer has two daughters: One is a sophomore at ASU and one is a teenager, who just celebrated her bat mitzvah.

Of her youngest daughter, Singer said, “She is my ‘ride or die.’ When she was a baby and the business was new, I just brought her to work in a Pack ‘N Play before she was old enough for daycare. As she got older, she spent a lot of time at The J, and my older daughter worked for me at the bakery for years.”

Singer jokes that her eldest probably was happy to leave that job and her mom’s high expectations behind when she went to college.

Professor Eilat Shinar Director of Magen David Adom National Blood Services in Israel

Herzog Artist

‘America’s Top Rebbetzins’ podcast features two from Phoenix

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

KLEZMER FEST

JANUARY 16 | 5PM: ORIGIN STORY

Learn about the history of Klezmer music and meet the members of Naqshon’s Leap as they perform traditional Klezmer music and original songs. Includes a tribute to Martin Luther King. Jr. to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Special guest: Cantor Ricky Kampf of Baron Hirsch Congregation in Memphis.

FEBRUARY 20 | 5PM: MUSIC & MYSTICISM

Discover the mission behind The Universal Language Room and Beit Abulafia, which demonstrates the beauty of improvisational music for all people, through performances of Klezmer music and original songs.

MARCH 20 | 4PM: SPIRITUAL WORLD TRADITIONS

Meet musicians through their world spiritual traditions, who will be performing their own music and playing with Naqshon’s Leap.

Attend all three concerts for $30 ($12 for an individual concert).

Concerts will be live on Zoom.

evjcc.org/klezmer2022

Like many Jewish moms, Vera Kessler spends much of her time cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, running errands, chauffeuring, helping with homework and preparing for Shabbat.

“I was getting it done. Everything was fine. But for me, it just lacked meaning,” she said.

Years ago, a friend told her about Rabbi Aryeh Nivin’s personal development chavurahs, or study groups. Just before Rosh Hashanah, he hosted one about finding one’s purpose. Kessler decided it was finally time to make a change and signed up. She decided her purpose is to “share Torah with as many Jewish women as possible,” and came up with a podcast.

“I can interview almost any rebbetzin in the world on any topic they want, I could learn and grow so much personally and I could share my growth with others,” she said.

Kessler, based in New Rochelle, New York, launched “America’s Top Rebbetzins” in late October. She has published more than 20 episodes since, including two featuring rebbetzins in Greater Phoenix.

She’s transforming her life by implementing strategies and suggestions discussed with various rebbetzins. Topics on the podcast range from personal development, managing stress, marriage and intimacy, to raising kids.

Kessler said some of her biggest takeaways so far have been the importance of being a gracious receiver and seeing beyond her perspective.

“I am seeing positive results, especially with my husband,” she said.

Kessler said the name of the podcast turned out to be a misnomer, since she’s gone global, interviewing rebbetzins in Israel and all over the world. Everybody she interviews picks a topic they’re most comfortable with, and then Kessler comes up with questions.

She sometimes finds rebbetzins by searching online or from looking through torahanytime. com. But it was through word of mouth that she came upon Scottsdale Torah Center Rebbetzin Ayala Shoshan, who chose the topic of marriage for her podcast episode.

“I wanted people to understand that our perspectives are constantly changing,” Shoshan said. “Being that we are human, the way we view life at any given time is not a reflection of the real or complete truth.”

Shoshan said people are often more powerful than they think, and women have a lot of influence in their relationships. She is passionate about helping women tap into their power and purpose, and brings that wisdom to women through life coaching, marriage counseling and parenting — she has

“I wish I was more of a ‘top rebbetzin,’ but maybe when my kids are a little older I can raise the bar a bit on my rebbetzinhood,” she joked.

Kessler said Shoshan “got real about marriage” and her idea of “showing up” in a marriage struck a chord with her.

Kessler found Rebbetzin Chana Goldstein, who lives in Phoenix, through the internet — Goldstein had written a few posts for aish. com. Goldstein spoke with Kessler about six attitudes women should work on to live a more meaningful life: ambition, courage, confidence, self-esteem, resilience and determination. She connected each to Torah.

The idea came out of a series of classes Goldstein developed for her students while doing campus outreach at the University of Toronto.

“I wrote the set of classes in order to identify attitudes that made people successful,” she said. Her episode focused on being thoughtful about how to approach and deal with situations using the six attitudes.

She was flattered that Kessler reached out and said it was a nice opportunity to discuss personal development and Torah. Goldstein did campus outreach for many years, including at Arizona State University, and misses sharing Torah.

“It’s funny that I get pegged as one of ‘America’s top rebbetzins’ when, on a professional level, I don’t do that anymore,” said Goldstein, who now works as a corporate attorney.

Kessler has a background in public relations, and is glad to be back doing something she loves.

“I love getting to know people. Everybody has a story to share,” she said. JN

Visit anchor.fm/vera-kessler to listen to “America’s Top Rebbetzins.”

CAROLE & ALAN ZEICHICK

Congregation NefeshSoul, Temple Kol Ami, others announce big changes

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

Some mainstays of the Jewish community in Greater Phoenix have announced big changes as 2022 begins.

Congregation NefeshSoul Rabbi Susan Schanerman announced she is leaving early this year.

In a letter to congregants, she said she treasures the community they’ve built together over the past eight years.

“I so hope that we will continue as a congregation with a new spiritual leader or as an active chavurah or however you all decide to move forward,” she wrote in her emailed letter.

She said she will still be an active member of the congregation, and will be available for funerals, weddings and baby namings. She alluded to her recurring dream featuring many unfamiliar rooms in a familiar house.

“I’ve done some dream research and discovered that dreams such as these often represent upcoming discovery or adventure or new paths,” she said. “After months of contemplation and prayer and strange dreams and inner voice messages, I have realized that it is time for me to step off the bimah to explore those empty rooms and acknowledge the gentle nudging that is God in my life.” Schanerman expects to end her leadership role by March.

At Temple Kol Ami, Debbie Glassman, the longtime director of the Early Childhood Center, is retiring next summer.

In a letter to the school’s families, Glassman wrote she has been honored to be the ECC director for almost 16 years.

“This is an extraordinary preschool with a strong educational foundation, and I am fortunate to work with such dedicated and gifted teachers,” she wrote. “A former parent once described the ECC as the ‘Disneyland of Daycares,’ which I truly believe it is. I am

confident our students will continue to thrive and flourish in the years to come.”

In the email announcement, Rabbi Jeremy Schneider and Executive Director Nancy Drapin called Glassman a “gifted educator who built our TKA Preschool Center with positivity, attention to detail, and strong dedication to Judaism, staff and families.”

Her retirement will be effective June 30.

“My decision to retire was bittersweet,” Glassman told Jewish News. “I am sad to leave, but look forward to spending more time with my husband, children, grandchildren, extended family members and close friends in the years to come.”

Meanwhile, the Jewish Family & Children’s Service announced new additions to its governance board. Tamara Zach and Meghan Shapiro were elected to serve three-year terms.

Zach is a pediatric neurology director for Banner Health Medical Center and an attending for Banner Pediatric Specialists at the Banner Thunderbird Medical Center. She is also a clinical assistant professor for the University of Arizona.

Shapiro is COO of hospital operations for laboratory sciences of Arizona/Sonora Quest Laboratories.

“The foundation of our organization is to improve and strengthen the Valley community by offering integrated health services,” said JFCS president and CEO Lorrie Henderson. “Adding Meghan and Tamara to the governance board means a heightened focus on improving the physical and behavioral health of the individuals we serve.”

JFCS is a nonprofit, nonsectarian organization that provides behavioral health, health care and social services to people of all ages, faiths and backgrounds. JN

Finding Jewish community in rural, remote landscapes

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

Stan Coffield and his wife were open-minded when deciding where they would retire.

“I wanted someplace that was a lower cost of living (than New York) — warm, dry, near a body of water that I could water-ski on — and had some manner of Jewish presence,” Coffield said.

In 2010, they moved into their house in Lake Havasu City, about 200 miles Northwest of Phoenix. He hasn’t looked back since.

“When my wife and I first moved out here, you would turn a street corner and really be tempted to just pull over to the side of the road and stare; it looks like a picture postcard,” he said. “And you go three blocks, and it’s another picture postcard.”

He and his wife are two of Lake Havasu City’s nearly 60,000 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and part of the roughly 30 members of the area’s only synagogue: Temple Beth Sholom.

“Given that we’re the only congregation and synagogue within all of Mohave County, we have the full gamut (of members),” he said. “We’ve got people in Havasu, God bless them, who manage to be Orthodox and keep kosher, all the way out to the fringes of Reform.”

Coffield has been president of the congregation for about six years and does his best to provide regular services, conduct Torah study and grow the congregation. Jewish life takes a different shape in rural areas than it does in the city — and it often comes with great dedication.

A rabbi travels to Lake Havasu City from Los Angeles about once a month to provide a Shabbat service on Friday and a Saturday Torah study. The congregation tries to coordinate his travel with Jewish holidays.

The synagogue strives to have a schedule posted three months in advance to ensure members and those interested have ample time to plan.

“We get congregants from Laughlin, (Nevada); Bullhead City; Blythe, California; Needles (California) — I mean, we’re it.”

Coffield said he’d love to have the rabbi visit more often, “but that’s more a function of finances than anything else.”

In the ’90s, the congregation bought the synagogue building outright, which Coffield describes as “very utilitarian.” He estimates the sanctuary is about 2,000 square feet, with another 2,000 square feet for the rabbi’s office, two bathrooms, two classrooms and a kitchen.

Two to three dozen congregants paying dues “is enough to get by,” he said. Annual dues are $350

for individuals and $700 for families.

Coffield suggested that many more Jews live in the area whom he doesn’t know — or see at synagogue.

“The vast majority of Jews affiliate with a temple to get their children educated,” he said. “That’s a sorry fact. And once you’ve retired, that job’s done.” Lake Havasu City is “almost exclusively retirees and service personnel,” Coffield said. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median age in the city is 54.2.

As president of the congregation, he gets “sorrowful phone calls” from people he’s never seen at Temple but who are suddenly in need of end-of-life services or spiritual support due to an illness. Coffield does his best to accommodate those requests, “but it’s just hard from so many different perspectives.”

Yuma, about 200 miles southwest of Phoenix, also has a small but dedicated Jewish community. With a population of nearly 100,000 people, the city’s only synagogue has about 20 family units.

“Those range from people who are single, to couples, to people who have kids,” said Leone Neegan, president of Congregation Beth HaMidbar, which meets in a rented space from a church.

“I am not sure that anyone for whom their Jewish religion is the most important part of their life would move to a place with so few Jewish institutions,” she said. “We don’t know how many, but there are Jews here who don’t belong to the congregation, who just aren’t religious at all.”

Rabbi Stephen J. Einstein has driven from Orange County to Yuma to lead High Holiday services for the past seven years.

“The rest of the time, he gave us a class in doing lay-led services, so we take turns leading Shabbat services, and we pool our knowledge,” she said.

Members meet for services twice a month most of the year — in the summer, that’s halved.

Some of the congregants also meet in a weekly Torah study group.

“We just read and talk among ourselves,” she said. Neegan was born and raised in Phoenix but moved to Yuma in 1975 after graduating from the University of Arizona with a degree in library science and taking a job on a whim.

She went to Yuma to visit a friend just before graduating. Upon Neegan’s arrival, her friend said, “I hope you brought some clothes that you could wear to an interview.” A librarian position in the public library had suddenly become available.

She ended up getting a library job but didn’t think she’d stay in Yuma long. “I couldn’t imagine anyone living here. It was just, to me, a very small, dusty town.”

For a few months, she thought she was the only Jew in

town. But one day, she saw an article in the local newspaper about High Holiday services. “I went to services and found that there was a small Jewish community here, and the people were very welcoming,” she said.

At the time, the congregation wasn’t affiliated with any branch of Judaism, since the people who attended had a variety of Jewish backgrounds and observance. Eventually, though, it affiliated with the Union for Reform Judaism.

Neegan found herself getting more involved and active in the Jewish and Greater Yuma community.

“If I had remained in either Phoenix or Tucson, or some other large city with a larger population, I might not have become as involved with either the religion or the congregation, as I ended up being,” she said.

Neegan’s fellow congregants have become “a giant, extended family,” she said. “It’s like being on an island with people. If you get angry, there isn’t another synagogue to go to. You have to work it out somehow.”

In many cases, the further a Jewish person lives from Jewish life the more dedicated they are to seek it out, said Rabbi Nina Perlmutter.

Perlmutter is the rabbi emerita of Congregation Lev Shalom in Flagstaff and the designated Jewish contact for the Grand Canyon South Rim.

Many Jews who live in the Grand Canyon, or other remote and rural areas around Arizona, moved for the beauty of the landscape, she said, and Jewish life wasn’t necessarily a priority.

“But then they often find that they miss having Jewish connections,” she said. “I know people who have commuted a long time, like the Grand Canyon folks, to Flagstaff. That’s not easy. You gotta really want to do it.”

People who want to stay both Jewish and rural might have to learn more so that they can lead their services and other rituals.

Perlmutter went through all of this firsthand, having moved from New York to Tempe in 1970 for graduate school.

“I thought I’d stay two years,” she said. But she “fell in love with the land”: Arizona’s vistas, desert, mountains and ecological diversity. It took her a while to connect with her “Jewishness.” She became a rabbi in 2009.

Perlmutter found a way to combine her passion for Judaism and the environment soon after. The license plate on Perlmutter’s Prius reads “ECO RABBI.” Today, she officiates weddings on the North Rim and b’nai mitzvah on the South Rim.

“Doing a morning service, watching the sunrise at the North Rim, is my favorite thing.” JN

Rabbi Nina Perlmutter holds a Torah in the Grand Canyon. COURTESY OF NINA PERLMUTTER

Rabbi Nina Perlmutter officiates a wedding at the North Rim in 2017.

PHOTO BY TOM BRODERSEN

Rabbi Nina Perlmutter leads a bar mitzvah in 2010 at Shoshone Point in the South Rim.

PHOTO BY TOM BRODERSEN

2022 Albert and Liese Eckstein Scholar-in-Residence

Gesher fundraiser a success, announces national acquisition

SHIRA TANZER

Gesher Disability Resources, which serves children and adults affected by a disability through inclusion assistance in the classroom, resource referral, residential support and social groups, celebrated its annual gala on Nov. 6, 2021.

The event was broadcast via Zoom with the help of Video West Studios. Over 300 people joined the celebration online, including three house parties that Zoomed in to help with live raffle drawings.

Amy Hummell, Gesher’s executive director, said the event was successful and went off without a hitch. “The enthusiasm in the studio could be felt by everyone at home,” she said.

The event featured an auction with 60 items, many with a starting bid of $25. Over $7,000 was raised from items that included a two-night stay at a True Ranch Hospitality resort (four are located in Arizona) and Phoenix Suns tickets.

Larger items were part of a live auction on Zoom. Participants used the chat box to bid. A five-day trip to Coronado sold for $3,700, and the Phoenix Suns’ jersey autographed by Devin Booker sold for $3,200.

Between live raffle drawings there were more chances to win prizes with Gesher Kahoot! trivia games. Viewers logged in on their phones to answer questions about sports and Gesher.

“All the questions had something to do with sports, as well as tying in Gesher being 36 years old,” Hummell said.

All told Gesher raised more than $135,000 through the auctions, raffle ticket sales, donations and sponsorships.

“As far as the fundraising is concerned, we’re a little bit up from last year, which is great,” Hummell said.

Gesher also used its gala as an opportunity to announce a new development in its

Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution

organization: Gesher purchased Damon Brooks Associates, a speakers bureau consisting entirely of representatives who either have a disability or are directly affected by a disability.

“It was very exciting to announce that Gesher is growing, and that we have a new speakers bureau,” Hummell said. “It provides a national presence.”

Marc Goldman, the previous owner of Damon Brooks Associates, started the company to provide education about the disability community through people who have disabilities. He got the idea to start Damon Brooks Associates when he attended a comedy show.

“I was astounded by this fellow who delivered a very powerful message with a great deal of humor — all from his wheelchair,” he said. “I thought to myself, ‘maybe we’re on to something.’”

Goldman believes Gesher will grow the company and sees the acquisition as a means of passing the torch to a new generation.

“I think it’s a new chapter,” he said. “Gesher will have more opportunities to spread their wings and add more spokes to their wheel for what they offer to the disability community.”

Geri Jewell, an actress known for her role in the sitcom “The Facts of Life,” is a speaker for Damon Brooks. She was introduced to Marc Goldman when he approached her after a comedy show and asked to book her in speaking gigs across the country.

“I was already doing disability training and motivational speaking, but he took me on and kept it going for over 30 years,” she said.

Jewell said that a speakers bureau,

Pamela Nadell | American University

Jan. 24 | community lecture

7 p.m. | Zoom | free and open to all pre-registration required jewishstudies.asu.edu/eckstein

Women are no longer imprisoned by manmade myths. We are coming down from our pedestal and up from the laundry room.” When Bella Abzug wrote these words in 1972, she was just one of 14 women in the United States Congress. The other 521 were men. In the feminist movement of her day, Abzug stood among a striking cohort of Jewish leaders. This lecture looks back at some of these feminist icons and analyzes why Jewish women played outsized roles in this revolutionary movement.

Pamela Nadell is the author of America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today, winner of the 2019 National Jewish Book Award–Jewish Book of the Year. A professor and Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History at American University in Washington, DC, she is a recipient of the university’s highest faculty award, Scholar/Teacher of the Year. As past president of the Association for Jewish Studies, she has also received the American Jewish Historical Society’s Lee Max Friedman Award for distinguished service to the profession. Currently, she is working on a book about the history of American antisemitism.

free pre-registration required jewishstudies.asu.edu/eckstein

This annual program is made possible by an endowment established by the late Dr. Albert and Mrs. Liese Eckstein, with additional contributions from Paul and Flo Eckstein; John and Diane Eckstein; and Friends of Jewish Studies.

Screenshot of Gesher Disability Resources auction

PHOTO BY GOOD EYE! MEDIA

A challenge to Israel’s rabbinate

Is rael is the homeland of the Jewish people. All Jews. But not all Jews have the same beliefs, observances and customs. It is not the role of government to impose religious practice on its citizens. And religious coercion is decidedly not a Jewish value. It is for those reasons that we have consistently opposed the theocratic monopoly of the Israeli rabbinate and its government-endorsed stranglehold over religious life and lifecycle events in Israel — including the right to convert to Judaism or be considered a Jew.

Historically, the administration of Israel’s rabbinate has been entrusted to highly regarded Orthodox rabbinic leaders as part of the political price successive governments have paid for haredi Orthodox parties to join governing coalitions. For most Israelis — and particularly for secular Israelis who make up the majority of the country’s citizenry — the rabbinate and its rules are part of a Jewish life they largely ignore, and which has little impact on their daily lives.

In recent years, with the rise of the Masorti and Reform movements in Israel, and a heightened focus of Diaspora Jewry

on pluralism, pressure began to mount on the rabbinate to soften its grip and to allow for broader and more inclusive practice and observance. The rabbinate’s leaders refused. And, in many respects — fueled by their political power —

government — which has no haredi party partners — and the appointment of Matan Kahana as religious affairs minister, things are starting to change. And that makes the rabbinate very nervous.

Kahana is, in many respects, the

WITH THE RECENT CREATION OF THE IMPROBABLE BENNETT-LAPID COALITION GOVERNMENT — WHICH HAS NO HAREDI PARTY PARTNERS — AND THE APPOINTMENT OF MATAN KAHANA AS RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS MINISTER, THINGS ARE STARTING TO CHANGE. AND THAT MAKES THE RABBINATE VERY NERVOUS.

the rabbinic leaders became even more forceful in seeking to impose Orthodox doctrine and practice on all aspects of Israeli life.

With the recent creation of the improbable Bennett-Lapid coalition

Plans to settle the Golan

In a move early last week that attracted very little international attention, Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced that his government plans to invest 1 billion shekels ($310 million) in a plan to double the number of people living in the Golan Heights. Under the plan — which is designed to transform the Golan into the technological capital of renewable energy in Israel — two new neighborhoods will be built in the town of Katzrin and two new settlements will be established.

Israel conquered the Golan Heights in 1967 and annexed the territory in 1981. While most of the international community still considers the region “Syrian territory occupied by Israel,” the Trump administration recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights in 2019 and the Biden administration has expressed no interest in changing that position.

Some 50,000 people live in the Golan Heights — with roughly half of them Jewish Israelis and half in Druze Arab villages. Some of the Druze population opposes Israeli control. But the nature of the Druze opposition, its intensity

and the size of the affected population are very modest in comparison to the more familiar rancor and emotion of the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza. Nonetheless, in the only reported public condemnation of Israel’s

rabbinate’s worst nightmare. He is not a secular Jew and is far from a leftwinger. He is a lifelong religious Zionist with a storied military career. He is an Orthodox Jewish member of the rightleaning Yamina party, and lives on an

Orthodox moshav in central Israel.

In his new role, Kahana has moved to overhaul Israel’s kashrut supervision process, to revamp Israel’s local religious councils to open more opportunities for women and has turned his attention to the vexing issue of conversion. He recently proposed to allow municipal rabbis to supervise the conversion process, rather than leaving sole responsibility to the chief rabbinate. As part of that process, he seeks to end the tenure of the current head of the conversion authority, Moshe Veller. That proposal has so enraged Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau that he has threatened to stop approving all pending and future conversions to Judaism — a necessary step in final endorsement of the conversion process.

Lau’s threat to freeze conversions in Israel is outrageous. And his cavalier victimization of innocent conversion candidates is offensive. Yet, the threat smacks of the same unhealthy politicization of religion that has tainted the rabbinate for decades.

We think it is time to call Lau’s bluff. And we encourage Kahana to do so. JN

oppose settlements and Jewish population expansion in contested West Bank territories. Syria’s protest gained virtually no traction. And that’s no surprise.

Prior to the 1967 war, the Golan Heights was viewed as a significant

THE GOLAN HEIGHTS HAS BEEN A VALUED PART OF ISRAEL FOR 55 YEARS. WE ARE PLEASED TO SEE THE DEVELOPMENT OF PLANS TO ENHANCE HOUSING, BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGICAL ACTIVITY IN THE AREA AND TO MAKE THE GOLAN HEIGHTS MORE THAN JUST ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S MOST ATTRACTIVE PLACES TO VISIT.

Golan Heights announcement — from the Syrian government, which harbors hope of recapturing the territory it lost five-and-a-half decades ago — the Syrians criticized the plan with many of the same words used by Palestinians and others to

strategic vantage point from which Syria threatened the security of the state of Israel. Upon its capture, Israel was able to secure its northern boundary and protect its citizenry. More recently, however, the area is seen as a strategic

A NOTE ON OPINION

buffer between Israel and the civil wartorn world of Dictator Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, which has been engaged in painfulto-watch self-destruction for most of the past decade.

Assad has become an international pariah. There is little hope or expectation that Israel will engage or negotiate with the Syrians. But until now, Israel has not invested in the Golan Heights region to the same extent it has elsewhere in the country. That is going to change. The announced development plan is consistent with a promise made by Bennett last October to develop the region, and the approach fits nicely in the range of noncontroversial undertakings that the fragile, yet surprisingly durable governing coalition led by Bennett and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid is comfortable doing.

The Golan Heights has been a valued part of Israel for 55 years. We are pleased to see the development of plans to enhance housing, business and technological activity in the area and to make the Golan Heights more than just one of the country’s most attractive places to visit. JN

We are a diverse community. The views expressed in the signed opinion columns and letters to the editor published in the Jewish News are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the officers and boards of the Jewish Community Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Media or the staff of the Jewish News. Letters must respond to content published by the Jewish News and should be a maximum of 200 words. They may be edited for space and clarity. Unsigned letters will not be published. Letters and op-ed submissions should be sent to editor@jewishaz.com.

On Jews turning to science

RABBI DR. SHMULY YANKLOWITZ

s the COVID19 pandemic rages on to do untold damage and send society back into petrifying uncertainty, the role of science in our lives is about to be, perhaps, even more important than ever.

And while some seek comfort right now in ignoring what science has to say about how we ought to move forward in defending the dignity and safety of all people, we know that the Jewish tradition gives us not only the obligation to do what the science tells us is right, but also a long history of science as a key element in our understanding of the world.

Our great sage Moses Maimonides, in addition to writing the "Mishneh Torah" and "The Guide for the Perplexed," was a highly accomplished scientist and physician. And the medieval rabbis Abraham Ibn Ezra and Levi ben Gershon were so well remembered for their contributions to mathematics and astronomy that they both now have craters on the moon named after them.

For far too long, the spoken relationship between science and religion has been one of clash; either one must be right or the other. But Judaism is pro-science, and thus we need

Ato shift that discourse to one of synergy and constructive relationship.

“If science is about the world that is, and religion is about the world that ought to be, then religion needs science,” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, wrote in his 2011 book The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning, “because we cannot apply God’s will to the world if we do not understand the world.”

In April, I had the opportunity to interview the public intellectual and Harvard professor Steven Pinker as part of the “Scientists in Synagogues” project of the nationwide Sinai and Synapses program. In that discussion Pinker noted that, in a world in which we all took science more seriously, we’d be much better equipped to identify where our justice work is most needed, and to know specifically the best ways for us to protect the lives of all people.

“We’d be perhaps less whipsawed by the headline of the morning, by the anecdote, by the outrage, by the vivid narrative, and more cognizant of trends that affect millions … billions of people,” he said. “We would track things like extreme poverty worldwide … deaths in warfare, different categories of violence, like homicide and police shootings and terrorism and war and

genocide — and allocate our effort, our resources, our moral energy to where the most people get hurt and where the most people can get helped.”

Pinker pointed out that our engagement in science and technology plays a pivotal role in our work to repair the world, perhaps even more important than our political and social action.

“Progress doesn’t happen by itself,” he said. “It is only the result of human agency … That doesn’t always mean protest activism. Sometimes it does, but sometimes it means science and technology, developing artificial fertilizers, developing antibiotics and vaccines and public health measures.”

In recent years, our Scottsdale-based organization, Valley Beit Midrash, has adopted a robust learning approach on science and Judaism that has invited scientists to present their findings and for us to consider those ideas in a Jewish context. Selected as a partner of the Sinai and Synapses initiative, in the past year or so we’ve hosted scientist-led learning events on topics such as cosmology, psychology and extraterrestrial life.

More generally, our integration of science into our Jewish learning has several purposes. One goal is to lift up the voices of Jewish scientists in the Jewish community. The Jewish community is often willing to listen

to rabbis and theologians, and we want to bring scientists into the communal discourse as well. Scientists provide immense value to us, and we want to value them in return.

A second objective is to bring in unengaged Jews who have a particular interest in science. It’s no secret that a significant percentage of Jews are not involved in Jewish religious life. However, many of them find intellectual, if not spiritual, fulfillment in science, which of course is a part of the Jewish project. Science can be their way into Judaism.

Also, we need to enhance the whole communal learning experience by adding science to the offerings provided, thus expanding the Torah’s reach. Now, thanks to a micro-grant from the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Phoenix, we are continuing that work. We hope that you’ll join us in our upcoming science and Judaism learning programs.

It’s only by recognizing religion and science, not as opposing forces, but as related facets in an all-encompassing pursuit of truth, that we can bring both endeavors to their full potential. JN

A look back at Family Promise’s impact on homelessness in 2021

MICHAEL SEIDEN

For many people, the image of a homeless person is the scruffy-looking man or woman standing on a street corner holding a sign and asking for a handout, or someone pushing a shopping cart filled with their belongings.

Many homeless people have mental issues or drug problems. Others have just been abandoned by society.

Yet, there is another group of homeless people, one which consists of families.

Family homelessness can occur because of a divorce, where one spouse departs and leaves the other without a source of income. It can happen because of a job loss, when a business closes or someone experiences a work-related injury. It can occur because a landlord decides to sell the building and evict the residents. Roughly 84% of homeless families are headed by single women.

Whatever the reason, parents and their children are then left without the means to put a roof over their

heads and food on their tables.

Family Promise of Greater Phoenix’s core mission is to serve these families and get them on a pathway to self-sufficiency.

Currently, there are about 270 families on the waiting list for shelters.

While shelters and other government programs provide temporary relief, there needs to be a system that provides for the long-term financial independence for families — a system that’s focused on triage, where families can reenter the job market, understand and control their expenses, keep their children in a stable school environment and become full-fledged members of the community.

Family Promise offers a unique model that accomplishes that in several stages.

Intake and screening

Families that cannot get into standard shelters are referred to Family Promise, which then screens the family to insure the following requirements are met:

• Children are involved.

• At least one of the adults must be willing to work.

• All members of the family must

be drug- and alcohol-free.

• Family members must not have any felony convictions within the past 10 years.

• Individuals in the family must not be running from domestic violence situations.

Triage

The first priority is to provide a place to sleep, shower, have good meals and get the children to school. The Family Promise process involves the following:

• Job coaching where the adult, or adults, in the family are mentored in resume preparation, interviewing and basic entry level employment requirements, is provided.

• Training in monetary issues, including budgeting and cash management is provided.

Community support

Support for the family by members of the community provides them with a sense that people care about their wellbeing and support their efforts to get back on their feet. This is done in a unique way.

• There are over 50 Christian and Jewish congregations throughout Greater Phoenix that offer their facilities to families for a week at a time, often several times per year. Volunteers provide food and basic necessities and host the families in their facilities overnight.

• The family is picked up in a van in the morning and taken to the Family Promise facility where the children get ready for school. After school the children are taken to the Boys & Girls Club, returning to Family Promise in the evening to shuttle parents and children back to the congregation for dinner and shelter.

• The family’s needs are assessed over a three-day period and the children are back in school within 10 days.

• This system keeps the cost of services lower than other alternatives. The cost of sheltering a family under this model is about $5,000, with no government funding required, instead of the $16,000 in a government-funded shelter.

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the president and dean of Valley Beit Midrash and the author of over 20 books on Jewish ethics.

What to do when you’re feeling down

of Israel? Surely, they needed some sort of emotional support and psychological treatment?

It has always amazed me.

After 210 years of slavery in Egypt, G-d “hears the cry” of His people, and sends Moses to bring 10 plagues on the Egyptians and free them from their bondage. In this week’s portion, the redemption of the people of Israel finally begins.

But what about the emotional state of all of these slaves? What was G-d’s plan? Did he ask Moses and his co-leaders to provide them with intense therapy after so many years of slavery and trauma? Did he offer them any psychological treatments?

Of this, we don’t hear a word. But why this insensitivity to the people

The reason, I believe, shares a powerful truth: G-d and Moses were not being indifferent to the emotional state of their people. Instead, at the brink of their exodus, they focused on that which was vitally needed: actions, not feelings. Moving forward and focusing on the future, instead of standing still and analyzing the present.

Because, sometimes, the best way to deal with negative feelings, is not to deal with them. The best way to fight emotions that bolster despair is to engage in actions that bolster hope. The best remedy for a heart that feels threatened by darkness, is a mitzvah, a positive deed, that reassures it with a Divine light.

So Moses tells his nation to put their feelings aside, offer a pascal lamb, eat it with their “cloak tucked into their belts,

and their sandals on their feet, and their staff in their hands,” ready to march forth toward redemption. Sure enough, their anxiety vanishes, their trauma dissipates and their confidence is regained.

The lesson is poignantly clear: At the end of the day, our actions, not our feelings, define who we are. We may experience all sorts of moods, but at the end of the day, it is a person’s deeds that mold his life. A smile, a helping hand, a generous act can mold us and our lives infinitely more than the emotions of our hearts. In the words of Victor Hugo, the 19th-century French poet: “Our acts make or mar us — we are the children of our own deeds.”

This applies to our Jewish lives too. For how many of us deprive ourselves of the gift of a mitzvah, just because we are scared? How many of us are reluctant to get involved, just because we are intimidated? How many of us are hesitant

Celebrating Tu B’Shevat, Jewish Arbor Day

RABBI JEFFREY SCHESNOL

In Israel, by late January, it is about halfway through the rainy season. The sap in the trees begin to flow and the branches show the initial signs of budding. It’s at this time that Jews celebrate Tu B’Shevat — known as the New Year of trees, like the Rosh Hashanah Haetzim. It is a time to celebrate trees, nature and the Land of Israel.

The Jewish people have always respected nature and placed great value on trees. In its most ancient Canaanite form, the holiday celebrated the goddess Asherah, whose symbol was a tree. While the word Torah means “learning,” Torah is called “the Tree of Life,” or “Etz Chayim” in Hebrew. The olive tree is a symbol of peace because in the story of Noah, a dove brought back an olive branch to signal the end of the flood and destruction.

The Garden of Eden had both the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil and the Tree of Life. (Genesis 2–3; Ezekiel 47:12) The Torah teaches that even in time of war, fruit trees are not to be destroyed.

When a child was born on the 15th of Shevat, there used to be a custom to plant a cedar tree for a baby boy and a cypress tree for a girl. The children would care for the trees as they grew up, and on their

wedding day they would use the wood as poles for their chuppah (marriage canopy). This carried the tradition of loving trees from one generation to the next.

Tu B’Shevat focuses on trees rather than people in order to celebrate and uphold these traditions of the past and help our environment today and for the future. Trees give us carbon dioxide (essential to life on earth), food, shelter, shade and wood. In Israel, Tu B’Shevat is a special day when trees are planted throughout the country.

The environment is changing, and the idea of tikkun olam — spiritually repairing the world — is changing with it. As it says in Deuteronomy 20:19, “A human is like a tree of the field.” One human, like one tree, cannot make up a community. It takes all of us working together to repair the spiritual and physical damage humans have impressed upon our planet.

As we celebrate this Tu B’Shevat and eat the traditional foods, we must also think about our responsibility to Earth and repairing it, whether it’s planting trees or being ecologically responsible.

How are we human beings like a tree?

Ask yourself the following questions: Do I shelter the seedlings that live in

my shade so they will grow up to be a healthy, happy generation? Do I grow towards the sun, as a tree should, reaching up higher and higher towards that which I can never grasp, but which nurtures me all the same the more I strive towards it? Do I make sure my roots remain firmly planted in the soil that nurtures them, and do I drop my leaves there in the fall to give back life to that which sustains me? Do I ensure that the fruits of my effort are sweet and nourish all who come to enjoy them? Do I bend gently in the wind, accepting life for what it is, but never breaking or giving up hope? Do I grow in strength and wisdom with each year of life? Does everyone walk away from me with a smile?

Trees are a symbol of hope in the future. When we plant a tree, we are saying: We believe the world can be a better place. We believe in the future. We can make the world a more beautiful place, not just for us, but for all people to come. We see the actions that we can take, both physically and spiritually, to move toward a greater understanding and harmony between humanity and the earth. JN

JAN. 14 - 5:25 P.M.

JAN. 8 - 6:17 P.M.

JAN. 15 - 6:23 P.M.

to move forward in our spiritual journey, with study, prayer or a good deed, just because we are not “feeling it”?

So, if our feelings are holding us back with all sorts of excuses, we should just march forth, and do good.

We will be doing ourselves a favor that we, and the world, will surely benefit from, to eternity. JN

SEIDEN

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

Employment

Employment training is provided with the intent of having the parents find a job. Some 60-65% of homeless families are single parents with more than one child. There are several companies that work with the organization to provide training and job opportunities and most are employed within one month.

Budgeting and cash flow

Families are trained in budgeting and cash flow to support their financial independence. Budgets are developed, savings are encouraged and a picture of the family’s ongoing income and expenses is calculated. If the family requires additional funds over and above what they earn on the job, some limited financial support can be provided.

Graduation

A family can remain with Family Promise for up to 60 days. By that time 70% of families are able to move into sustainable housing. As their income grows, they can put the cycle of homelessness behind them permanently.

In 2021, Family Promise has helped 149 families, comprised of 195 adults, 315 children and 30 pets. This alternative solution is an effective way to solving one of our community’s most urgent needs. JN

Michael Seiden is a retired executive, past board member of Jewish Free Loan and past board chair of Jewish Family & Children’s Service, where he continues to serve on the finance and philanthropy committees. A version of this article was first published in the Scottsdale Independent.

Rabbi Pinchas Allouche is the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Tefillah.

Find area congregations at jewishaz.com, where you can also find our 2022 Community Directory.

SHABBAT CANDLE LIGHTING

SHABBAT ENDS

PARSHAH BO

EXODUS 10:1-13:16

RABBI PINCHAS ALLOUCHE

Rabbi Jeffrey Schesnol, MAJS, PMP is the spiritual and ceremonial leader of Or Adam Congregation for Humanistic Judaism and associate director of Arizona Jewish Historical Society.

Playwright explores aging, end-of-life conversations

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

Devorah Medwin has always been intrigued by topics deemed taboo.

“How do we talk about what people don’t want to talk about? That piece is fascinating to me because it creates so much tsuris,” she said.

So, she wrote a play dedicated to helping families navigate end-of-life decisions, hoping to diminish their sense of woe.

“Wooden Nickels” was her graduate school thesis in 2000. It has morphed over time, and debuted as a mixed-reality theater experience at Temple Chai’s Deutsch Family Shalom Center in 2009. Actors portray real-life scenarios and resolutions.

Medwin and the play have strong Phoenix ties, and the Center for Senior Enrichment, sponsored by Jewish Family and Children’s Service, put the three-part play on Zoom in early December.

“I thought it would be very beneficial to offer this to my participants, because everyone could get something out of it,” said Jennifer Brauner, CSE’s director. When the COVID19 pandemic forced all in-person events to be canceled in the spring of 2020, Brauner developed virtual programming. “With my program being on Zoom for over a year, you

would think I’d be losing people, but I’m actually gaining people.” An interactive play ensures that the audience is engaged, she said.

During the play’s first segment, Dec. 1, the audience is privy to a Zoom call between a mother and her three daughters. The mother’s health is declining and the characters explore what it means to be a caregiver, what responsibilities children have toward their parents and how to plan for death while preserving a person’s dignity and quality of life.

“There’s not really any role modeling that we get to see because we’re not in each other’s houses,” Medwin said. “This kind of gives us the Zoom peek into another family’s conversation.”

New York-based psychologist Dale Atkins led a breathing exercise and talked about managing stress afterward.

The play continued on Dec. 8, and Dr. Howard Silverman, a Phoenix-area family practitioner, joined the characters to help them hear each other and come to terms with the decisions they made.

conversations.

It was important to Medwin to create a theater experience that included clinicians. She wanted conversations about aging and the end of life to come from an emotional place, rather than an intellectual one.

Silverman, who is now a professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix, told Jewish News that people often don’t know how to have these conversations.

“Usually, when you talk with people individually in a family, they all want to talk about it. But when you get them in the same room, nobody wants to talk about it,” he said.

Ruth Poles can relate. She is one of about 45 people who registered to watch the threepart play.

“I haven’t had ‘the conversation’ with my children,” she told Jewish News. She’s been anxious about the idea of it. Watching “Wooden Nickels,” though, has helped her figure things out.

When Brauner was first approached about doing this program, “it really hit home.”

Her father passed away last year. Even though her family was more prepared, she could still relate to the play’s theme. “That was part of the reason why I was so passionate about bringing it to my community at the Center for Senior Enrichment,” she said.

In a strange twist, everything that happened in the play ended up happening to Medwin’s family a few years after she wrote it. “My mother started to lose her memory after I had written this play about Alzheimer’s,” she said. She was surprised to still go through all the emotional turmoil despite what she had learned from researching her play.

The final act took place on Dec. 15. Audience members took part in facilitated breakout sessions to discuss what they experienced during the first two segments and learn tools to ease the burden of difficult

Following the Dec. 8 performance, Poles reached out to her oldest daughter about having the conversation, and her daughter was receptive.

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“What matters is actually having the practice — being able to rehearse having those hard conversations,” she said. “At the end of the day, it turns out not to be about knowledge; it turns out to actually be about the heart connection, about going into the hard places.” JN

“I have been so immersed and so affected, in a positive way,” she said.

To receive a guide of local resources for aging and end-of-life issues, contact Jennifer Brauner at Jennifer.Brauner@jfcsaz.org.

Niki Patton (top left), Jacque Arend, Alison Hammond, Debra Rich Gettleman (bottom left) and Howard Silverman COURTESY OF DEVORAH MEDWIN

Shades of being

thinking asserts that either you are part of a recognized couple or you are single. Either you are half of a partnership, part of a family or you are a single person, alone.

According to the Jewish tradition, the first earthly being, Adam, was designed to have a partner, Chava/ Eve, and not remain alone. Indeed, Judaism is very much rooted in the concepts of partnership and family. But according to Biblical texts, “God alone is God” and God is One, the coalescence of many parts forming a unified whole. One (echad) and alone (badad) are present in Deuteronomy, Jeremiah and Psalms, among other sources.

If human beings are created in the image of God and God is alone, or One, then questions abound about the states of aloneness, oneness, singularity among our brethren.

It has already been established that one third to over one half of people over the age of 65 live alone in the United States. Between 63 and 70%, depending upon the study, are women. Not surprisingly, the number of people living alone increases with age. Partnerships frequently end because of the health issues that accompany advancing years.

Last month in these pages, I initiated a discussion about the proliferation of singles over the age of 65. We began to address the importance of supporting a person’s sense of agency and how people are identified. “Old”, like “single” can have negative connotations.

Widows and widowers don’t particularly like those terms either. Those who have been divorced may feel stigmatized in ways that one who suffers a loss through death does not experience. For example, comforting public rituals that accompany the end of a life are not normative for the divorced one, even though a type of relational death has occurred. Regardless of the road traveled, those unpartnered share commonalities: they remain magnets for the question, “Why are you not married?” as if something is wrong with them or their life. Also, they find themselves by themselves.

Given all these considerations, I was wondering about the shades of being that coincide with the experience of aloneness, separation and isolation vs. inclusion and partnership among almost 50% of our resident population.

We convened a second gathering of

“singles” at Sun Health. We began with the call to explore terminology and created a new name for the group. Ann, inspired by her journey since the death of her husband, had an idea. She suggested that our “singles” group be named, “The Pathfinders” because singles are actively discovering new paths beyond

stations of loss and change. The group enthusiastically welcomed this new designation, which was viewed as a more positive, action-oriented term.

Additional reflections followed that highlighted inner awareness and desire.

Another participant spoke about his wife’s sudden death and how he could

not imagine life without her. He went on to share a revelation. After the funeral, he looked in the mirror. He saw that the face in the mirror did not match how he felt inside. When he thought of his wife, he felt like he was 20 or 30 years old.

“Look in the mirror and ask yourselves, ‘What does 70, 80, 90 feel like on the inside?’” Many in the group nodded with understanding, saying “I feel no different…I am still me.” His wise message lifted spirits as participants imagined loneliness transformed by connection. It is so important to learn how people are inside, especially those who are aging and whose timeless youth

Continuing the topic of making connections, the next participant expressed sincere concern about being wanted. “Who would want a 90-yearold?” The room became charged with energy as participants reflected upon the desire for friendship. Many did not want to marry but were interested in different types of companionship. “How many of us want friends? How many of us would be happy with a best friend, someone with whom we could share things, someone we could trust?” Very quickly, the woman of 90 years had offers of friendship that were not age-dependent or superficial.

What constitutes being alone? What promotes loneliness and isolation among those over 65? Does it go against God’s will or is being alone part of it? On the surface, it may seem that loss or separation sets the wheels of aloneness in motion. Apathy among social supports generates additional losses. This is lo tov, not good.

However, being alone does not always indicate a person is lonely. Today, many over 65 value their independence, however not in the absence of meaningful connections. We have learned that aging alone is not a black and white situation. We can see possibilities for interventions, as shades of being abound. We can make space for different types of relationships that don’t necessary follow convention, or prey on a person’s vulnerabilities. We can understand how the creation of respectful and empowering language supports the unpartnered. Moreover, we can build a society where people who gain years also gain joy, as their wants and needs are met. When aging singles are embraced as part of the bigger human picture, no one is alone. Plagues of loneliness and isolation disappear in a unified whole when we all find some way to care. JN

Rabbi Mindie Snyder serves as the rabbi and chaplain for Sun Health Communities.

“LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND ASK YOURSELVES, ‘WHAT DOES 70, 80, 90 FEEL LIKE ON THE INSIDE?’” MANY IN THE GROUP NODDED WITH UNDERSTANDING, SAYING “I FEEL NO DIFFERENT… I AM STILL ME.”

Reading her father’s letters, Phoenix writer saw Veterans Day with new eyes

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

Jan Krulick-Belin’s father was a Jewish World War II veteran. But she only recently began seeing that side of him.

“It wasn’t a part of my growing up. And I almost wonder if Dad would’ve even talked a lot about his experiences in the war at all,” she said.

Krulick-Belin’s dad, Isidore William Krulick, died of multiple myeloma in 1960 when Jan was 6 years old. For most of her life, all she knew about her father was from her childhood memories and bits of knowledge she pieced together.

“Early on, I just really learned that my mom didn’t want to talk about it,” she said. In 2001, Jan’s mom gave her a box of nearly 100 love letters Bill had written to her during the war, before they were married.

“When she gave them to me in 2001, she made me promise not to read them until after she had passed,” Jan said. Her mom, Dorothy Schwartz Krulick, passed away a year later, but it wasn’t until 2007 that Jan read them.

didn’t want to destroy that image I had of my father just in case,” she said.

The letters led her on a journey that took her from Phoenix home to Morocco, Paris, Germany and Albany, New York. She retraced her father’s wartime steps through North Africa, where she learned about the fate of Moroccan Jews and met people who had known her dad. Her newly rereleased book, “Love, Bill: Finding My Father Through Letters from World War II,” chronicles her pilgrimage to find the father she thought she’d lost forever. Her adventures led to a deeper understanding of her father and of herself.

“We all inherit a lot of things from our parents, and part of what I needed to find out was who I am vis-à-vis my father,” she said. “What was my legacy from him?”

She learned that her father was a deep thinker, a straight shooter and a great writer who dreamed of one day opening a bookstore.

when he was 32 because of the moral conviction he felt.

“When there is no war, killing is murder, but now it’s salvation,” he wrote in one letter to Jan’s mom in 1942. “There are others who must be protected. That is our only means to halt mass murder. For us who are Jewish, it is our only hope.”

He wrote about his Judaism. “In the middle of war, he felt more in touch with God,” Krulick-Belin said. “He didn’t need a synagogue to pray in. There was a lot of that kind of philosophizing about who he was as a Jew.”

the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

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“I guess there was a little part of me that

In his letters, he wrote about the isolation he felt being older than the people who surrounded him. He worked in administration during the war; he enlisted

Krulick-Belin was raised as a Conservative Jew in New York, but she thinks living a Jewish life was more important for her father than her mother. “I think we would have been a lot more observant had my father been alive longer,” she said.

Learning about her dad’s connection to Judaism and the history of Moroccan Jews made Krulick-Belin more aware and

“It’s only recently that I feel this attachment as a daughter of a Word War II veteran,” she said. “I’ve sort of discovered that part of who I am — again, something the book helped me discover about me and my dad.” JN

Dorothy Schwartz Krulick and Isidore William Krulick in Albany, Georgia, in 1942. PHOTO COURTESY OF JAN KRULICK-BELIN

The road less traveled: You’re never too old for love and adventure

PHILLIP FINKELSTEIN

Life leads us all on journeys we don’t expect to take, but I never expected to find myself traveling out West in the spring of 2021 with the 92-year-old newlyweds, who had inspired my second novel.

But then Freada Golden and Marv Eisenstein from Minneapolis are not your ordinary characters. Marv and Freada met and fell in love during COVID. They got married in her front yard across the street from Beth El Synagogue. “What were we waiting for?” said Marv. “We weren’t getting any younger.”

I had known Freada for years because of her friendship with my wife, Barb, but I didn’t know Marv. For years before moving to Minneapolis, Marv owned a shoe store in Newark, New York, upstate near Rochester.

But when we attended the Zoom wedding, I knew I had the perfect subjects for a book that I promised to write for Barb in time for her birthday.

While Marv and Freada (which means joy in Yiddish) were relentlessly positive and looked forward to every day, they still knew that no one knows how much time they have left. So they celebrate their anniversary every month and try to take one adventure trip every 30 days. They believe that too many seniors concentrate on what they can’t do instead of what they can. I thought if their remarkable positivity couldn’t be bottled, I could at least distill their optimism into a book. Besides, during the pandemic, I had the time and it might cheer people up. Freada and Marv loved the idea.

Because I was dealing with real people’s lives, I needed to treat them with the respect and privacy they deserved. So Marv became the character Sam, and Freada became the character Ruth. In the book, I took a number of artistic licenses regarding where and how the couple met and how their adult children felt about the whole thing. If anything, the real children were incredibly supportive and continue to be.

Luckily, I finished the book in time for Barb’s birthday and got it published before we left for Sedona, where we spend the winter. Marv and Freada were happy how the book turned out and their relatives were pleased with the result. (That was important, Freada has a lot of cousins in Minneapolis and I didn’t want to hurt sales.) Freada and Marv were even the hit at one of the book club discussions we had. Early on, it was clear that Marv and Freada had personality to spare — me, not so much.

That’s where things were left in the early spring of 2021 until one night we were surprised by a phone call from Marv and

Freada. Marv started off by asking how their “play” was coming along. Knowing my background as a playwright, they wanted me to write a play based on the book and they wanted to star in it at their assisted living place. No kidding.

But it was their next suggestion that threw me for a loop: “We want to tour the places you wrote about in the book, next month. Wanna come with?”

“Why, of course we do,” Barb said before I could respond. She was beaming. I mumbled something about having to check my calendar. But Freada was having none of it: “Well, why wouldn’t you want to come?” I said I would think it over.

Barb and I did talk it over, carefully. Were we up for taking care of two frail yet highly spirited adults? With the aggressive long tour we were talking about — 2,200 miles from Phoenix to Sedona to the Petrified Forest to Monument Valley to Canyon lands to Arches to Bryce to Zion National Parks, then on to Las Vegas and Back to Phoenix in only 13 days — how would we handle COVID or other medical emergencies when we were in the middle of nowhere?

Even though Barb is a retired doctor, I felt there were two more calls I had to make before we could commit to the trip. I called both Freada and Marv’s daughters to make sure that they were OK with this adventure before the four of us decided to look for America. After all, this wasn’t a car they were lending us but their parents! The two daughters were cool with it and so we went.

It was a remarkable ride and the long talks we had about life, aging with grace, loneliness, death, diet, exercise and the purpose of life were special. They had much to teach us. It was grand but it was also exhausting. I also promised the daughters I would post pictures and keep them apprised as to how much mischief we had gotten into.

At the end of journey, Marv and Freada made me promise to use their real names in the new book, put their picture on the cover and expand the book to also include our recent trip together. So I did. The book is now called: “Love Always” (Freada and Marv Go West), and is now available on Amazon and Kindle. The novel is a gentle romantic comedy that reminds us all that you’re never too old for love and adventure. JN

Phillip Finkelstein is an author living between Chicago and Sedona and is working on his next book “Almost Magic.”

The real life 92-year-old characters Marv (Sam) and Freada (Ruth) on their trip out West. COURTESY OF PHILLIP FINKELSTEIN

Paul Staman survived COVID at 101. He just celebrated 102 with family and Chinese food.

SHANNON LEVITT | MANAGING EDITOR

Paul Staman celebrated his 102nd birthday on Dec. 29, with Chinese food — a personal favorite — and a beer. His wife, Pauline, and their children joined him, but otherwise it was a quiet affair.

The small gathering was a far cry from his 100th birthday party in 2019, which was a big celebration attended by close to 150 people. He helped to plan that shindig, which took place at Sagewood, a senior living community in Phoenix. He was honored to have family travel from around the country just to help him celebrate the big day, along with many local friends.

Last year’s birthday was also different — and much less festive. It was around that time that, despite every precaution, he came down with COVID-19. His case was severe and his family didn’t know if he would make it.

“We rushed to his bedside twice to say goodbye,” said Cindy Kleiman, Paul’s daughter. “It is amazing that he survived. He made it through, but it took a long, long time and now he needs to be on oxygen 24/7.” He has since been vaccinated, but the entire family is cautious lest he be exposed again.

Paul moved to Phoenix in 1946, from, Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, a small town outside of Pittsburgh. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, his family made the decision to move west for his father’s health. Doctors advised a move to a warmer clime. But the same day the moving van arrived, his father passed away. With plans already laid, Paul and his mother decided to go to Arizona on their own.

Upon first catching a glimpse of Phoenix, where he would live the rest of his life, Paul remembers thinking, “It is a nice little town.”

Soon after his arrival, Paul met and married Pauline, a Holocaust survivor. She had lived in the Pittsburgh area, too, but they never met until a mutual connection in Los Angeles introduced the pair. Pauline had only come west for a visit but after meeting Paul, she

never returned to Pittsburgh. The two were married in 1950 by Rabbi Abraham Lincoln Krohn.

Paul studied business in college and spent his life building homes throughout Greater Phoenix. Patio homes were his specialty. He built dozens of residential and commercial developments, along with a number of custom homes. He was well respected for his attention to detail and for acting with integrity. In tribute to her father’s long and successful career, Cindy and her husband drove to every development he built, took photos and created a slideshow for his 100th birthday party.

Paul and his wife raised three children, Cindy, Marc Staman and Barbara Wolff. The family belonged to both Beth El Congregation and Temple Beth Israel (now Congregation Beth Israel), where Paul and Pauline were married. Eventually, the couple migrated to Temple Chai, where they are still members.

Growing up, Cindy remembers playing catch with her dad. She also remembers that he was the serious parent while her mom was the life of the party and “the hugger in chief.”

But the qualities that most stand out about her dad are integrity and honesty, she said. Paul’s kids thought of him as the real-life Atticus Finch, the upstanding and soft-spoken lawyer in the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Marc said his father was always “a man who does the right thing, even if it’s not popular.”

Barbara remembers her father’s romantic streak. “He enjoyed dressing up and dancing with our mother.” She said that when her mother went to Israel to visit family by herself, she remembers her father greeting his returning wife “in a sport coat and tie with a dozen yellow roses.”

And he loved to travel, Barbara said. When he was in his mid-90s, he and Pauline took a cruise, which he thought might be their

last. He surprised his wife with an upgrade to a big suite and told stories of dancing every night.

Paul took up golf at one point but never mastered it. He did, however, accomplish a hole in one and was quite proud of the achievement. He also loved bridge and in his late 90s he was still venturing to the nursing side of Sagewood to teach people there how to play.

Now, he still likes getting on the computer and keeping up with world events. His grandson, Michael, likes that his grandfather is still so engaged and that “he believes things should be done the right way,”

Josh, another grandson, described Paul as “down to earth and sensible, understanding and soft-spoken, a self-made man and a mensch.”

As Paul approached his 102nd birthday, Josh said he is still clearly “the patriarch of the family.” JN

Featured Event

SUNDAY, JAN. 30

American Friends of Magen David Adom celebration: 5:30 p.m. The Phoenix chapter of AFMDA is honoring Jay Bycer and his wife, Karen, and Barbara Zemel and her husband, Barry, who together have helped raise $1 million over the last 20 years from the Phoenix community for Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s paramedic and Red Cross service organization. A musical celebration will take place on Jan. 30 at Beth-El Congregation, Tuscany Condominium, 1118 W Glendale Ave., Phoenix. Acoustic artist Todd Herzog will perform an array of soulful, spiritual songs in both Hebrew and English. Prof. Eilat Shinar, M.D., director of the Blood Services Division for Magen David Adom, will be the guest speaker. Cost: Starting at $100. For ticket and sponsorship information, visit afmda.org/az.

Events

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 19

Film Screening: 6 p.m. Join the Arizona Jewish Historical Scoeity and the Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church for a screening of “Shared Legacies: The African-American Jewish Civil RIghts Alliance.” The event will be held at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, 1401 E. Jefferson. Cost: Free. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. No RSVP is required. For more information, visit azjhs.org and pilgrimrestphx.org.

SUNDAY, JAN. 23

Special needs cooking class: Roberta’s Creations is offering two cooking classes for kids with special needs; one class is for kids 5-11 and another is for kids 12-18. Location: Beth El Congregation, 1118 W Glendale Ave., Phoenix. Cost: $45. For more information and to register, visit robertascreations. godaddysites.com/special-needs-cooking.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 26

Wine Tasting: 5:30-7 p.m. Join the Martin Pear Jewish Community Center for a tasting of wines of South America. Cost: Starting at $35. To register, visit apm.activecommunities.com/ valleyofthesunjcc/Activity_Search/1975. Email Nicole Garber at nicoleg@mpjcc.org with questions.

FRIDAY, JAN. 28

Jewish Family and Children’s Service Brighter

Tomorrow: Noon. The Jewish Family and Children’s Service Brighter Tomorrow Event is the nonprofit organization’s annual signature event showcasing JFCS’ impact on the well-being of 40,000 + people in Greater Phoenix. The event will be held online. Individuals interested in participating must register to receive the required login information. Cost: $36 Visit jfcsaz.org/ bt2022 to register. For more information, contact Andrea Arkow at Andrea.Arkow@jfcsaz.org.

THURSDAY, FEB. 3

Breakfast for Israel: 7:30-9 a.m. Join the JNF-USA Desert States Breakfast for Israel at JW Marriott Phoenix at Desert Ridge Resort. The annual event brings together the community to hear how your support continues to ensure a bright, prosperous future for the land and people of Israel. For more information and to register, visit jnf.org/eventslanding-pages/jewish-national-fund-breakfastfor-israel-desert-states-2021.

MONDAY, FEB. 7

Annual Card Party. 10 a.m. The Sun Lakes Jewish Congregation Sisterhood will meet at the Cottonwood Ballroom in Sun Lakes, located at 25630 S. Brentwood Dr., Sun Lakes, for a fundraiser benefiting local charities and organizations. Gather your friends who play Mah Jongg, Bridge, Canasta, Scrabble, RummiCube, pinochle or any other game and come to the event to enjoy a delicious catered lunch, raffles, huge gift baskets, and treats from a bake sale. For reservations or questions call Geri at 480-305-0123.

THURSDAY, FEB. 10-FEB. 27

Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival: The 26th Annual Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival will

screen films showcasing the best of Jewish life, history and heritage. Due to ongoing health and safety concerns, the film festival will once again be held virtually. Viewers will have 3 days to watch each film, with the ability to pause, rewind and even switch devices within the home. Cost: Starting at $13. For more information and to register, visit gpjff.org on Jan. 17.

MONDAY, FEB. 28

Holocaust Educator Conference: 4:30-9 p.m. Sponsored by the Bureau of Jewish Education in cooperation with Phoenix Holocaust Association and Arizona State University, teachers are invited to participate in this free conference. Keynote speakers will be author and award-winning podcast host, Rachael Cerrotti and Grant Gochin, author, diplomat and chair of the Maceva Project in Lithuania. The conference will be at the Hayden Library at ASU in Tempe. For more information, visit phxha.com/events/the-2022-holocausteducator-conference/ or email jewished@bjephoenix.org.

WEDNESDAYS

Generations After Descendants Forum: 11 a.m.12:30 p.m. Join The East Valley Jewish Community Center’s Center for Holocaust Education, in partnership with the Phoenix Holocaust Association, for this in-person weekly discussion for children, grandchildren and descendants of Holocaust survivors, as well as those interested in learning more about the impact of the Holocaust. The first meeting of the season is Wednesday, Oct. 13. The meeting will be held outside. The program is designed for those who have received their COVID-19 vaccination and masks will be required. Coffee and tea provided. Reservations are mandatory. Cost: Free. Call 480-897-0588 to make your reservation or visit evjcc.org/ generations-after. Contact Barbara Bloom at 928-380-2360 with further questions. The EVJCC is located at 908 N Alma School Rd, Chandler.

THURSDAYS

Storytime at Modern Milk: 9:30 a.m. Bring your babies, toddlers and preschoolers to our weekly all ages in-person storytime at Modern Milk, 3802 N Scottsdale Rd STE 163. We will integrate favorite children’s books and songs while giving parents new ideas for play. Cost: $5. For more information and to register, visit modernmilk.com/after-baby.

SUNDAYS

Bagels: 9-11 a.m. Join the Martin Pear JCC, 12701 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, for Bagels And Gabbing every last Sunday of the month in-person. Grab a bagel and a cup of coffee and enjoy some time with your friends and make new ones. You must register to attend. Bagels and coffee will be provided. Cost: Free for members, $5 for guests. For more information and to register, visit apm.activecommunities.com/ valleyofthesunjcc/Activity_Search/1787.

MONDAYS

Mahjong: 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Join the East Valley Jewish Community Center in-person on Mondays for mahjong. This program is intended for players with prior experience and for those who have

received the COVID-19 vaccination. Masks will be required. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit evjcc.org/mahjong. For further questions, call the EVJCC at 480-897-0588. The EVJCC is located at 908 N Alma School Road, Chandler.

Hybrid Meetings, Lectures & Classes

SUNDAY, JAN. 16

Fighting Anti-Semitism; A Journalist’s Lessons: 7 p.m. In this Bureau of Jewish Education class, join Los Angeles-based journalist Annabelle Azade about the recent anti-Jewish acts of murder of Ilan Halimi, Mirelle Knoll, Sarah Halimi in France and the disturbing Anti-Semitic acts of violence in the United States. This talk will be live in person at Temple Solel, 6805 E McDonald Drive, Paradise Valley, as well as streamed online. Cost: $20. For more information and to register, visit bjephoenix. org/programs/passages.

SUNDAY, FEB. 27

CBI Centennial Concert Celebration: 4:30 p.m.

A historic concert of the Psalms by the musical leadership and choral programs of Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, Mountain View Presbyterian Church, and Congregation Beth Israel. The event will be at The Madison Center for the Arts, 5601 North 16th Street, Phoenix. Cost: Starting at $36. To register, visit ticketmaster.com/ event/19005B89D2A61EC4.

Virtual Meetings, Lectures & Classes

TUESDAY, JAN. 11

‘Going the Dogs’ art talk: 10-11 a.m. East Valley JCC hosts virtual session with Phoenix Art Museum docent Carole Kauffman. Explore how artists have shown their admiration and respect for canines in paintings, drawings, sculptures and photography over the last 2,000 years. Free. Register for link at evjcc.org/tuesdays.

SUNDAY, JAN. 16

Klezmer Fest: 5 p.m. East Valley JCC presents a virtual concert featuring Naqshon’s Leap. It will include a commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It is presented in partnership with the City of Chandler. Cost: $12 ($30 for series of three concerts. For tickets, go to evjcc.org/ klezmer2022.

Families in Crisis; the childcare challenge: 3-4:30 p.m. Join the Women’s Leadership Institute for a virtual panel about child care costs. The panel will consist of an administrator, provider, parent and advocate and will address some of the major issues women in our community are facing. For more information and to register, visit womenlearning.org/events.

TUESDAY, JAN. 18

Tu B’Shevat artist presentation: 10-11 a.m., East Valley JCC Tuesdays at the J virtual session presented by Scottsdale artist Linda Enger, who will discuss how she blends several of her creative passions: abstract painting, organic

gardening and digital photography to create her finished imagery. Free. Register for link: evjcc.org/ tuesdays.

THURSDAY, JAN. 20

Gender fluidity and the Torah: 1-2 p.m. How does Jewish law, a system based on such binaries as muttar (permitted) and assur (prohibited) and hayav (obligated) and patur (exempt), inform our contemporary understanding of gender which is increasingly shaped by fluidity and in some cases hybridity? Would a trans woman who has not had gender confirmation surgery be required to undergo a ritual circumcision as part of her conversion process? Does the mitzvah of brit milah apply only to those whose gender is male or to all those whose anatomy is male? What are the consequences – halakhic, theological and cultural – of the different perspectives on this question? Discuss these questions in a virtual Valley Beit Midrash class with Rabbi Adina Lewittes. Cost: $18. For more information and to register, visit valleybeitmidrash.org/event.

SUNDAY, JAN. 30

Ultra Orthodox & Arab Integration in Israeli Society: 2 p.m. In this virtual Bureau of Jewish Education class, join Gill Hoffman to learn about the Ultra-Orthodox and Israeli-Arab integration in Israeli society. Hoffman has been the chief political correspondent and analyst for The Jerusalem Post for 20 years. He also teaches international communications at Israel’s College of Management and hosts a weekly radio show on the Land of Israel Network. The presentation will be over Zoom. Cost: $20. For more information and to register, visit bjephoenix.org/programs/ passages.

MONDAYS

Partners in Torah: 7:30 p.m. Join a growing group of inspired learners with Project Inspire. Cost: Free. Tune in at: us04web.zoom. us/j/3940479736#success, password is 613. For more information, email Robin Meyerson at robin@projectinspireaz.com.

Ethics of Our Fathers: 7 p.m. Learn with Rabbi Zalman Levertov online. Tune in at: bit. ly/2Y0wdgv. Cost: Free. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Quotable Quotes by our Sages: 7 p.m. Learn with Rabbi Shlomy Levertov online. Tune in at: JewishParadiseValley.com/class. Cost: Free. For more information, visit chabadaz.com. Learning to Trust in God: 7:30 p.m. Learn with Rabbi Yossi Friedman online. Tune in at: ChabadAZ.com/ LiveClass. Cost: Free. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Torah & Tea: 7:30 p.m. Learn with Rabbi Yossie Shemtov online. Cost: Free. For more information, visit Facebook.com/ChabadTucson.

MONDAYS, AUG 2.-AUG. 30

Intermediate Hebrew: 4:30-6 p.m. In this virtual Bureau of Jewish Education adult education course, Sophie Platt will teach intermediate Hebrew. Cost: $50. For more

COURTESY OF AFMDA

CALENDAR information and to register, visit bjephoenix.org/ course-events/2021/08/02/intermediate-hebrew.

TUESDAYS

Keep Calm and Play Mahjong: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Play mahjong from home with myjongg.net. Cost: Free. To join a table, email Nicole at nicoleg@vosjcc.org.

Maintaining an Upbeat Attitude: 7 p.m. A class exclusively for people in their 20s and 30s, learn how Jewish Mysticism can help with your attitude with Rabbi Shlomy Levertov online. Cost: Free. Tune in at: JewishParadiseValley.com/YJPclass. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Let’s Knit: 1:30-3:30 p.m. Share the pleasure of knitting, crocheting, etc. and help others with a project or pattern. Can’t knit? We can teach you! Every level welcome. We will be sitting outside at the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus and social distancing. Our last meeting before August will be Tuesday, May 11. Cost: Free . For more information, email Nicole Garber at nicoleg@mpjcc.org.

WEDNESDAYS

Happiness Hour: 11:30 a.m. An online class taught by Rabbi Pinchas Allouche that delves into texts and references culled from our traditions to address a relevant topic and draw uplifting life lessons from it. For more information or to join, visit cbtvirtualworld.com.

The Thirteen Petalled Rose: 1 p.m. An online Kabbalah class that studies “The Thirteen Petalled Rose” by Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, focusing on the many foundational and transformational concepts of Kaballah and Jewish Mysticism and applying them to everyday life. For more information or to join, visit cbtvirtualworld.com.

JACS: 7:30-8:30 p.m. Virtual support group for Jewish alcoholics, addicts and their friends and family on the first and third Wednesdays of the month. Cost: Free. For more information, email jacsarizona@gmail.com or call 602-692-1004.

Torah Study with Chabad: Noon. Take a weekly journey to the soul of Torah online with Rabbi Yossi Levertov. Cost: Free. For more information, visit chabadaz.com

Torah Study with Temple Beth Shalom of the West Valley: 11 a.m. - noon. TBS of the West Valley’s weekly virtual study group explores that week’s portion and studies different perspectives and debates the merits of various arguments.

Intended for adults, Torah study is open to students of all levels. The goal is to achieve an understanding of what the text is and what it can teach us in the contemporary world. For more information, contact the TBS office at (623) 977-3240.

Lunch & Learn: 12:15 p.m. Grab some food and learn online with Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin. Cost: Free. Tune in on Zoom by emailing info@ChabadTucson.com. For more information, visit ChabadTucson.com.

History of the Jews: 11 a.m. Learn the Jewish journey from Genesis to Moshiach online with Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman. Cost: Free. Tune in here: zoom.us/j/736434666. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Words & Whiskey: 8:30 p.m. Join a free weekly, virtual learning session for men. To RSVP, email rmollenaz@gmail.com or call/text 310-709-3901.

Knit a Mitzvah: 1-3 p.m. On the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month, check in with fellow knitters who are making items to donate as part of this Brandeis National Committee Phoenix chapter study group. For more information, contact Ronee Siegel at ronees@aol.com.

THURSDAYS

Ladies Torah & Tea: 10:30 a.m. Learn about the women of the Torah with Mrs. Leah Levertov online. Cost: Free. Tune in at: ourjewishcenter. com/virtual. For more information, visit chabadaz. com.

Talmud - Maakos: 11 a.m. Learn with Rabbi Shlomy Levertov. Cost: Free. Tune in at: JewishParadiseValley.com/YJPclass.

For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

The Science of Everything: 4 p.m. Explore the most fundamental work of Chassidut: the Tanya, with Rabbi Boruch. Cost: Free. Tune in at: zoom. us/j/736434666. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Teen Discussions: 7-8:30 p.m. Learn with Rabbi Tzvi Rimler online, Cost: Free. Tune in at cteen.clickmeeting.com/east-valley. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Mindfulness Gatherings: Noon. Hosted by Hospice of the Valley via Zoom. Cost: Free.

To join by phone dial 1-253-215-8782, meeting ID 486 920 2119#, to get the Zoom link or for further questions contact Gill Hamilton at ghamilton@hov.org or 602-748-3692.

Jewish Life and Tradition: 1 p.m. Rabbi Laibel Bloter will be returning for a new series called Jewish Life and Tradition. The first class is on Tuesday, May 25 at 1 pm and will continue on each fourth Tuesday of the month.

SATURDAYS

Saturday Mindfulness Gatherings: 9:30 a.m. Hosted by Hospice of the Valley. To join by phone dial 1-253-215-8782, meeting ID 486 920 2119#. To get the Zoom link or for more information, contact Gill Hamilton at ghamilton@hov.org or 602-748-3692.

Book Discussion: 1:30-2:30 p.m. Join Or Adam Congregation for Humanistic Judaism on the third Saturday of every month for a virtual book discussion. For more information and to register, contct oradaminfo@gmail.com.

SUNDAYS

Soul Study: 7:15 a.m. An online class exploring the secrets of the Tanya and Jewish mysticism, taught by Rabbi Pinchas Allouche. Cost: Free.

Anxiety in the Modern World: 6 p.m. Learn the secrets of the Torah for living stress-free in the current environment in a virtual class with Rabbi Boruch, with Chabad of Oro Valley. Cost: Free. Tune in using this link: zoom.us/j/736434666. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Chassidus Class: 9 a.m. Learn about the Chasidic movement with Rabbi Yossi Friedman. Cost: Free. Tune in using this link: ChabadAZ.com/LiveClass. For more information, visit chabadaz. com. Jewish War Veterans Post 210: 10 a.m. Any active duty service member or veteran is welcome to join monthly meetings, now virtual, every third Sunday. Cost: Free. For more information, email Michael Chambers at c365michael@yahoo.com.

Seniors

THURSDAY, JAN. 13

All Things Senior Expo: 9 a.m. Every year, Scottsdale Senior Services brings together an extensive collection of exhibitors who provide products, resources and valuable services to the 50+ community. The expo will be held at 7408 East Osborn Road, Scottsdale. For more information, visit scottsdaleaz.gov/seniors/seniorexpo. For questions, contact the Rebecca Kurth at 480-312-8456 or RKurth@ScottsdaleAZ.gov.

MONDAY

Sip & Schmooze: 11 a.m. Sip on kosher coffee or tea, enjoy a homemade pastry and Schmooze with great company every second Monday of the month at Luci’s Barn at the Orchard, located at 7100 North 12th St., Phoenix. RSVP Appreciated: chani@sosaz.org or (602) 492-7670. For more information, visit sosaz.org.

Featured Presentation: 12:30 p.m. Join Smile on Seniors Mondays and Wednesdays to learn from a variety of presenters about topical issues, like Q&As with medical professionals, entertainers and lectures. Cost: Free. For full details, visit sosaz.org/virtual or email Rabbi Levi Levertov at levi@sosaz.org. JN

Upcoming Special Sections

Camp & School Guide

January 21

Showcase your educational and camp offerings to Jewish families looking for the perfect fit for their children during these difficult times.

Senior

February

Serving survivors

Café Europa chairperson Susan Getz helps put lunches in bags for Holocaust survivors. The Phoenix Holocaust Association program continues to serve survivors in Greater Phoenix, despite the pandemic.

OF SHERYL BRONKESH

Bon appétit!

The Sun Lakes Jewish Congregation Men’s Club had a delicious lunch at the new Brooklyn V’s Pizza in Chandler on Dec. 7. It was a great opportunity to catch up, share some funny stories and enjoy each other’s company.

Casa Grande hosts first menorah lighting

Casa Grande added Chanukah to its official holiday calendar, and in December 2021 held a public celebration along with a large public menorah.

Welcome Coach!

Jedd Fisch, the Jewish, first-year head football coach for the University of Arizona Wildcats, looks on as his team plays Arizona State University at Sun Devil Stadium.

PHOTO BY JOEL ZOLONDEK

Chanukah party and mixer

Post Grad-AZ Jewish Dating hosted an in-person Chanukah party for its members to mix and mingle.

Israeli NBA star has big night in Phoenix

Washington Wizard’s Jewish and Israeli sophomore star Deni Avdija played against the Phoenix Suns on Dec. 16. Although the Suns won the game, Avdija scored 14 points and was the second-leading scorer for the Wizards that night.

PHOTO BY JOEL ZOLONDEK

This COMMUNITY page features photos of community members around the Valley and the world. Submit photos and details each week to editor@jewishaz.com by 10 a.m. Monday.

CONTINUED FROM

society and various children’s charities. “In particular animal and children’s causes are close to my heart because they have no voice,” Singer said. “If you have the ability to help others, you definitely should.”

This philosophy extends to her employees. During the height of the pandemic, Singer did her best to support her employees when they needed it — especially financially when stores were originally closed.

“Sue’s personality is not one that brags on her contributions so there is not a lot of fanfare with her accomplishments,” Anderson said. “However, as an on-looker, I know how much she cares about our community, cares about the causes that are important to our community and how much she cares about her staff.”

As the owner of multiple bakeries and juice shops, no one day is the same for Singer. She spends a lot of time helping manage each retail location, and of

MILESTONES

course, is on hand to step in to do what is needed at any time. She shared that her original Scottsdale location of Nothing Bundt Cakes is the busiest, so she is most often there. She’s also proud that the store is certified kosher.

For fellow moms with entrepreneurial goals, Singer advised that they do their research first, and that it takes a leap of faith. “Being an entrepreneur has changed my life for the better,” she said. “For other moms who want to be entrepreneurs, I always let them know to do the work and believe in themselves. And, like I tell my daughters, to give their 100%.

“Part of being Jewish to me, and teaching my daughter who just had her bat mitzvah about being Jewish, is to have a servant’s heart,” Singer added.

“I love what I do and am so grateful to be a business owner and to be able to serve the public. I appreciate my staff and the community’s support so much.” JN

GESHER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

an organization made up of speakers that can be hired for events or training, is an extremely important resource to educate the public about the disability community.

“It brings awareness in changing attitudinal barriers [and] creating employment,” she said.

Jewell said that, under Gesher, the company will continue to expand and showcase the disability community in new ways. She hopes to continue working with Damon Brooks Associates and spread her message about accepting people.

“If you want to change someone’s heart and allow them to be more open to people, you have to open the heart and put the message in. What comedy does is it comes in and opens your heart then I come in with a message afterwards,” she said.

The acquisition of Damon Brooks Associates will allow Gesher to expand nationally.

Richard Jolosky, a supporter of Gesher, thinks that the organization is heading

in the right direction by expanding their acquisitions. He supports Gesher because it is inclusive and provides “lots of activities that people with disabilities get left out [of].

“I think that’s probably the most important thing, to try and make life more inclusive for people who have disabilities,” he said.

Jolosky saw the effects of Gesher’s programming and decided to invest so they could continue their mission.

“The money we gave to charity was used for people we could see in the community,” he said.

Jolosky made a virtual appearance during the gala’s video presentation to speak about why he became involved with Gesher.

Hummell hopes that next year the event will be able to be held in person. Gesher’s primary concern, however, is to “keep everyone safe.”

“It was [overall] very successful,” Hummell said. JN

Marshall B. Block, MD, passed away Thursday, Dec. 16, after a 15-year battle with chronic lymphocytic leukemia He was 78.

Ruby Sarina Lammersen becomes a bat mitzvah on Jan. 8, 2022, at Temple Kol Ami. She is the daughter of Rebecca Lammersen of Scottsdale and Keith Lammersen of Scottsdale.

Grandparents are Joyce and Jim Stuehringer of Tucson; Josh and Natasha Tofield of Tucson; and Linda and Barry

Ruby believes in “doing Jewish” as her lifelong commitment as a bat mitzvah; she is helping repair the world through small acts and gestures of kindness and empathy every day.

A student at Pardes Jewish Day School, Ruby enjoys playing volleyball and has a passion for painting and photography, especially taking portraits

He is survived by his loving wife, Dale; three children, Lisa (Roy) Allyson (Randy) and Eric (Barbara); and six grandchildren, Levi, Benjamin, Dandara, Zaiya, Jonah and Ella; and sister, Phyllis Engler.

BAT MITZVAH

AYLA RAQUEL SZEW

Ayla Raquel Szew becomes a bat mitzvah on Jan. 15, 2022, at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. She is the daughter of Rebecca and Daniel Szew of Los Angeles.

Grandparents are Ann and Elliott Rachlin of Scottsdale; Celia and Yossi Szew of Pacific Palisades, California. Greatgrandfather is Sidney Lewinter of Redondo Beach, California. For her mitzvah project, Ayla volunteered at an assisted living facility.

A student at Sinai Akiba Academy in Los Angeles, Ayla enjoys dance and baking.

He was a dedicated father to his children and grandchildren and strove to help them prosper in their own worlds’ of endeavor, be it law, art or business. He was a caring and dedicated physician, researcher and educator, who over 25 years as editor in chief of Arizona Medicine, wrote over 200 editorials trying to promote better health care. He developed the first American Diabetes Association certified outpatient facility in Arizona for the care of patients with diabetes, and in so doing, helped train many diabetes educators, who ultimately took positions throughout Arizona, expanding the care given to patients with this disorder. He established the Mary L Wilson Clinical Research Center at the bequest of a patient, which helped to develop new therapies for patients with multiple kinds of metabolic disorders. As a researcher, early in his career, he helped develop the C-Peptide assay, which is still in use today to assess insulin secretory activity. It has led to a better understanding of the natural history of diabetes and helped to develop better treatment strategies for these patients. His greatest passion was to be creative and provocative whether it was in creating art, in telling jokes, in general discourse or being on the golf course. He tried to look at things differently in order to open peoples’ minds to new ideas and thoughts. His passion for golf late in life was not to be competitive and wager money but rather to be creative and see it as a challenge to adapt to. It was, he said, “like practicing medicine; each hole was like a new patient which had to be analyzed and understood in order to successfully navigate it. Even playing the same hole over and over again was like seeing the same patient on return as things changed between visits ( the pin was in a different position or the wind was blowing). The challenges never ceased from day to day.”

He had a very productive life filled with many wonderful memories from around the world to those closest to home. He will be missed by the many who knew him as a friend, as a physician and as a husband, father and grandfather.

BAR MITZVAH

Michael Levi Ulan becomes a bar mitzvah on Jan. 8, 2022, at Beth El Congregation. He is the son of Gail and Paul Ulan

Grandfather is Nick Gregos of Sun City.

For his mitzvah project, Michael is making critter burritos for the Arizona Humane Society and raising funds through sales of his 3D-printed designs.

A student at Madison Meadows Middle School, Michael enjoys 3D printing, music, archery, photography, fantasy football and attending Arizona Cardinal football games.

Donations in his memory can be made to Dr. Jennifer Brown’s Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Research Fund at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, P.O. Box 849168, Boston, MA 02284.

OBITUARY

LEONARD J. ROCKMAN

Leonard J. Rockman, 95, died Nov. 17, 2021. He was born in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania and lived in Tolleson.

He is survived by his spouse, Hannah Rockman; and his son, Alan Rockman. Services were held at Eden Memorial Park in Mission Hills, California. Arrangements by Sinai Mortuary. JN