Valley View

In our weekly Flashback section, we go into our archives to find treasures we can share with you. This week, we have a recollection from Dan Abrams, who has lived in Phoenix since 1946 and recently retired from Abrams Realty & Management. Here, he shares his connection to the early days of the Jewish News and its first publisher. 

When Congregation Beth Tefillah was founded in 2010, the fledgling Orthodox synagogue consisted of just a few families and Rabbi Pinchas Allouche.

Sheryl Press is the director of Campaign & Women’s Philanthropy for Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix. She and 10 other Valley Jewish leaders in the community took part in Jewish Federations of North America’s mission to Berlin and Budapest. Here are her reflections on the trip.

It was looking like a very good year for the Jewish Tuition Organization of Greater Phoenix and the state’s corporate private school tax credit program.

“The Reds,” “The Red Scare,” “The Red Menace.” Those of us who lived during the Cold War remember hearing those phrases or at least being familiar with them. As part of the last generation to enter adulthood with the Soviet Union still in existence, the phrase I most remember was President Ronald Reagan’s “The Evil Empire.”

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

Events

Summer in Arizona is the deadliest time of the year. With temperatures regularly hovering between 110 and 115 degrees, the homeless are particularly vulnerable, especially when they lack access to drinking water.

With excessive heat warnings expected to be in effect across the Valley and the Southwest this weekend, sisterhoods from a number of synagogues are heading north to Flagstaff to beat the heat and attend the Women of Reform Judaism Southwest Area Day, also called “ReJEWvinating in the Forest.” It is the first WRJ Area Day to take place in Flagstaff.

On the evening of June 23, the Balsz Community Center in Phoenix was filled with the smell of injera bread, the colorful ensembles of Karen dancers and poetry, and rap in at least four languages. It was part of Many Voices and One Humanity, the last in a series of events held throughout the week as part of World Refugee Day Phoenix.

It’s tough being a weekly newspaper. We send the paper to press on Tuesday and then, as if on cue, some major event happens a few days later. It’s inevitable. But the Jewish News always finds a way to keep a story fresh and relevant for the following week by getting local reactions and reporting on the aftermath.

The Council of Religious Advisors at Arizona State University’s Tempe campus elected Debbie Yunker Kail, executive director of Hillel at ASU, as its new president.

For several years, the Jewish News did not publish any issues in July. The staff essentially took a summer break. But in the summer of 1976, that practice led to this paper not writing anything about one of our nation’s most important milestones: our 200th birthday.

Events

In late April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released findings showing a 15 percent increase in autism spectrum disorder over previous estimates. But Arizona bucked this trend by reporting a slight decrease.

When the new website Mitzvah Hub, a partnership between Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix and Jewish Family and Children’s Service, launches this fall, it will become much easier to find volunteer opportunities within the Jewish community.

Lauren Saks barely breaks a sweat as she jumps and squats while cheering on a panting crowd via her headset. You’d never know the leader of Fall into Fitness, a free group exercise class offered by the city of Phoenix through its FitPHX initiative, once avoided exercise.

The Arizona Israel Technology Alliance and the Arizona Technology Council will lead a state contingent of business people and investors on a trip to Israel this October.

In 2016, 65.6 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced, more than at anytime since World War II. That’s roughly equivalent to the entire population of the United Kingdom.

Charlotte Adelman was checking her Facebook account in 2016 when she noticed a message that took her back 70 years to when she was hiding under a bed while German soldiers looked for her, nearly stabbing her with a bayonet as they did so. The message was from Alain Quatreville, the son of the family that had hidden Adelman for nine months during the war.

A n immigration policy that separates asylum-seeking parents from their children is drawing criticism from immigration advocates and leaders within the Jewish community, both nationally and here in the Valley.

Rachel Hoffer, a board adviser with Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix’s NowGen program, traveled through Morocco and Spain with Danielle Gross, a first-year member of Jewish Federations of North America’s National Young Leadership Cabinet and a participant in NowGen.

As they do every Memorial Day, local members of the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. (JWV) participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona. They also raised money to benefit organizations providing services for veterans by selling poppies at a number of local Fry’s Food & Drug Stores.