New faces on Jewish Family & Children’s Service board

ADL Arizona is gearing up for its annual Torch of Liberty Award ceremony, its flagship fundraising event to recognize and reward those who are doing the most good for the community.

At Temple Chai, Rabbi Bonnie Koppell has helped families struggling with the threat of drug addiction, and she’s seen the tragic consequences of substance abuse. 

Jewish singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb will visit Tempe’s Zia Record Exchange on Nov. 29 for Black Friday. Her visit is in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of her platinum hit single, “Stay (I Missed You).”

If the idea of plunging both hands into a yeasty mound of risen challah dough sounds grounding, generative and gleeful, you are not alone. 

On Monday, Nov. 11, we celebrate Veterans Day by honoring all the courageous individuals who have served our country, maintained our freedom and kept us safe. Our veterans have exercised an unwavering commitment to protecting us, and now that they have been discharged and/or are retired, we,…

Stefan Schlüter’s mission for the past 30 years has been to improve the relationship between Germany and Jews around the world. That mission came from his time serving in the German Federal Foreign Office from 1979 until 2017. 

The Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix’s Business & Professionals group will present Spotlight, a networking event featuring the star of Bravo network’s “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles,” Josh Flagg. 

The president of the National Council of Jewish Women Arizona, Civia Tamarkin, did not mince words when it came to the country’s level of gun

The East Valley Jewish Community Center has partnered with Boston University’s Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies to create an annual lecture series. The series will focus on providing Holocaust education and is a project of the EVJCC's Center for Holocaust Education and Human Dignity.

Limmud AZ’s advance learning event, Taste of Limmud, is about to enter its third year. Taste of Limmud is designed to give the Phoenix area a small preview of the bigger learning event coming in February, Limmud AZ. Both programs offer educational workshops and discussions, with the goal of …

As Beth Joseph Congregation joins the rest of world Jewry in celebrating Simchat Torah next week, it will also join more than 40 North American synagogues that aim to make Simchat Torah more meaningful for women.

In an attempt to keep up with its expanding student population, Torah Day School of Phoenix is installing five modular buildings to its campus.

In the 1980s, Dungeons & Dragons was considered the cause for moral panic among religious circles, particularly in Christian communities. By now, public perception of the fantasy game has positively shifted thanks to Internet communities and platforms such as YouTube. Through this change…

On the weekend before Rosh Hashanah, an anti-Semitic group posted white nationalist stickers around college campuses across the nation. Three Phoenix-area schools were targeted according to two reports from the AZ Mirror. 

For nearly 10 years, the Phoenix division of PJ Library has brought books to families all across the Valley to help them build a personal Jewish library. Recently, the library just hit a new milestone by delivering its 150,000th book on Sept. 17.  

In January, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix hired its new executive director, Paul Rockower. 

For the first time in its 14 year history, Mt. Sinai Cemetery had help cleaning its monuments. Members of Congregation Or Tzion volunteered their time and labor in preparation for an important religious service the cemetery will host next month.  

BJE to hold volunteering events to welcome Jewish New Year

Scottsdale startup Mouthguard Club recently sponsored the men’s and women’s Israeli national football teams for their performances in the International Federation of American Football’s 2019 European Flag Football Championships. 

In an effort to promote more interfaith communication, the East Valley JCC has started two new speaker series, the first of which launched on Sunday, Sept. 15. 

On Wednesday, Sept. 11, the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix launched its inaugural Women’s Professional Panel. 

In many ways, 20-year-old Israeli ice hockey player David Levin has the ultimate underdog story. 

The High Holidays are an especially busy time for a rabbi, and it makes the preparation a high-pressure endeavor. Some rabbis prepares for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur for several months, if not a year, in advance. But for the five new rabbis who made Phoenix their home this summer, there we…

Thirty-three high school students crammed into a small classroom at the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center in Scottsdale on Tuesday, Aug. 20 for an opening night program about Hebrew High.

Rabbi Ephraim Weiss’ passion as a rabbi is Jewish education. He believes that Jewish learning doesn’t and shouldn’t stop after Sunday school, but is something that continues every day. 

With any luck, the newly launched iGen Parenting education series will make it easier for parents to help their tweens navigate those transitional years. 

AZ senators sign letter supporting reparations for Holocaust survivors

It was a hectic day at the community challah bake at the Chabad of Phoenix. 

A panel of five alumni of the Bureau of Jewish Education’s Hebrew High will give a talk on Tuesday, Aug. 19 in advance of the 2019-’20 academic year. 

In the wake of the two mass shootings that occurred within 13 hours of each other this weekend, the First Church United Church of Christ of Phoenix hosted a candlelight interfaith vigil to mourn the victims of the shootings. The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix worked to…

Dr. Howard Kaye will not allow himself to be depressed. He said he can be sad, but the practicing rheumatologist chooses to maintain a positive outlook despite the tragedy he faced.Kaye lost his wife, Lori Gilbert- Kaye, on April 27, 2019, when a shooter entered the Chabad of Poway in Southe…

Temple Solel Senior Rabbi John Linder first learned about the Arava Institute of Environmental Studies during a sabbatical he took to Israel in the spring. He was looking for organizations that focus on conflict resolution and collaboration in the Middle East, and he came across the AIES.“Wh…

Rabbi Mindie Snyder leaves Congregation Lev ShalomOn July 31, Rabbi Mindie Snyder completed her tenure as the spiritual leader of Congregation Lev Shalom in Flagstaff. Congregation Lev Shalom first welcomed Rabbi Snyder in the fall of 2015.“It has been an honor to serve the community of Nort…

Congregation Lev Shalom is only a few miles south of Mount Elden, where the Museum Fire is burning nearly 2,000 acres of forest.

Rabbi Mindie Snyder of Congregation Lev Shalom in Flagstaff chose to honor the late Rabbi Yosef Garcia — the president of the Association of Crypto-Jews of the Americas and founder of Avde Torah Jayah in Chandler, and a friend to Snyder — not by just mentioning his achievements as a spiritua…

Randi Jablin, founder of the Shabbat Dinner Club, never underestimates how difficult dating can be. Even with the advancements of dating technology that are supposed to make dating easier, she still believes the best way to get people to connect is to get them to meet in person.

From the outside, an observer might have assumed that Hannah Kaplan and half-dozen other preschoolers at the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center’s Early Childhood Center were playing with their food. 

Married couple Suzanne Dreyfus and Sue Fimmen attended a happy hour hosted by the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix’s new LGBTQ initiative.