5759 in the Valley

Phoenix Jews stand up and fight

Jewish News Staff

It was a year in which Jewish residents in the Phoenix area drew a line in the desert sand over anti-Semitism and civil rights.

In response to affronts in the form of thoughtless remarks by legislators, cartoons in the news media, syndicated radio programs and the release of prisoners, members of the local community in the Jewish year 5759 stood up to protect their rights, beliefs and families.

The year began with news that the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency had agreed to grant early prison release to home arrest for former skinhead Michael Bloom, who had once plotted to blow up black churches and Jewish organizational facilities.

Gov. Jane Hull convinced the board to reconsider, which it did, and Bloom remained incarcerated - temporarily. In the ensuing months, the Anti-Defamation League, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and the governor's office would continue to express opposition to Bloom's release, only to see him leave the Department of Corrections' minimum security facility in Yuma in August, 1999.

Among other local Jewish stories to make national news and talk shows was the flap over comments made by State Rep. Barbara Blewster (R-Dewey) to Rep. Barbara Leff (R-Paradise Valley) that she didn't realize Leff was Jewish because she has blond hair and doesn't have "a big hooked nose." Blewster later apologized.

Eleanor Eis-enberg, executive director of the Arizona Civil Liberties Union, was busy on several fronts, including challenging annual Bible Week proc- lamations issued by Gov. Jane Hull and Gilbert Mayor Cynthia Dunham. Hull later agreed to drop the state proclamations. The Gilbert case is currently pending before a federal judge.

Also in Gilbert, town and school officials raised concerns about a white supremacist gang, and the town council considered joining the International Association of Character Cities, which is affiliated with an evangelical Christian group.

The ACLU also continued a court fight against the legislature over a tax credit for donations to organizations that fund scholarships for students to attend private and religious schools. The U.S. Supreme Court is deciding whether to hear the case.

A Valley psychologist took her own stand against anti-Semitism by refusing to renew her contract for a call-in advice program at KFNX-AM, when the station declined to drop a syndicated program featuring a white supremacist.

And on another broadcast media front, Rabbi Robert Kravitz, area director of the American Jewish Committee, joined other religious leaders in unsuccessfully fighting Cox Communications' decision to drop the Odyssey Channel, a multi-faith, religious-oriented cable television network.

Kravitz later joined with Hillel at Arizona State University and Jewish federation leaders in objecting to a Tribune Newspapers cartoon that used a Nazi character to disparage public education and a Jewish educator/writer at ASU. Tribune editors subsequently apologized for the cartoon.

September/October 1998

The Phoenix Community Eruv (an area where Sabbath proscriptions against carrying and pushing do not apply), which had opened in November, 1997, to serve some 300 Sabbath-observant Jews in central Phoenix, was disrupted by construction work on bridges spanning Interstate 17.

Valley attorney Neil Hiller was installed as president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix.

The American Jewish Committee sponsored a swearing-in ceremony for 225 Arizona residents who became naturalized U.S. citizens at the Herberger Theater in downtown Phoenix.

Kol Ami Temple Youth hosted some 180 teens from around the Southwest at a Southwest Federation of Temple Youth social weekend.

Ethnic folk musician Tish Dvorkin, an Arizona Commission on the Arts roster artist who teaches music at Temple Beth Sholom in Mesa, performed Russian-Jewish folks songs and stories under the name of "Loca Rosa" as part of the Creative Arts Tour at Mesa Public Schools.

Andi Minkoff received the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix's Medal of Honor; Randi Sherman was presented the Lee Amada Young Leadership Award; and Steve Hilton received the Sy Clark Young Leadership Award at the federation's 57th annual meeting, which drew nearly 400 guests.

Albert Plotkin, rabbi emeritus at Temple Beth Israel, received the first annual Dan O'Meara Extraordinary Servant Award given by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

Valley Jewish congregations joined other religious communities for an interfaith Children's Sabbath, organized by the Arizona Ecumenical Council in an effort to draw attention to the social needs of children.

The Sylvia Plotkin Judaica Museum at Temple Beth Israel reopened its Tunisian Legacy exhibit, which had been in storage for almost two years, since the congregation moved to its new campus in 1997.

Chabad of Phoenix opened a thrift store at Cave Creek and Sweetwater roads to support the organization's outreach programs.

Members of Reform congregations from across the state gathered at Temple Chai in Phoenix for the first-ever Arizona Reform Community Shabbat.

The Arizona Board of Executive Clemency, responding to pleas from the Anti-Defamation League, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and the governor's office, agreed to reconsider granting early prison release to home arrest for Michael Bloom, who had once plotted to blow up black churches and Jewish organizations' facilities.

The Israel at 50 Mission, sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, took 137 members of the Valley Jewish community to Israel for eight days during Israel's 50th anniversary year.

November 1998

Ron Bookbinder, president and chief executive officer of Bookbinder Realty and Investments, and Jerry Colangelo, president and chief executive officer of the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks, received 1998 Jewish National Fund "Tree of Life" awards at a dinner on the field at Bank One Ballpark.

Jason Tie of Scottsdale, then a senior at Desert Mountain High School and a member of Temple Chai in Phoenix, attended the National Young Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C.

Valley religious leaders, including Rabbi Robert Kravitz of the American Jewish Committee, unsuccessfully fought Cox Communications' decision to drop the Odyssey Channel (a multi-faith, religious-oriented cable television network) in favor of the Travel Channel.

"Jews Around the World: Cultural Intersections" a symposium held at Arizona State University and Temple Beth Israel, examined how Jews' religious and secular culture has evolved over the centuries through interaction with other traditions.

The American Jewish Committee presented a panel discussion titled "Hate on the Internet" at Temple Beth Israel with panelists Kenneth Stern, AJC program specialist on anti-Semitism and extremism; Michael Geenaco, an assistant U.S. attorney; and Charles Calleros, a professor at the Arizona State University College of Law.

The Arizona Jewish Theatre Company opened its season with "Kuni-Leml," a musical based on the 1880s Yiddish farce "The Fanatic, or the Two Kuni-Lemls."

A Dead Sea Scrolls seminar in Scottsdale suggested that many ideas and literary devices used by the writers of the Christian Bible's New Testament, including words attributed to Jesus, actually reflect those recently discovered in Jewish texts that pre-date Jesus, but that likely were known to him and his followers.

Rabbi Mark Bisman of Scottsdale's Har Zion Congregation was one of three rabbis from the western United States honored by the Jewish Theological Society for their years of service to the Jewish community and the Conservative movement.

The 26-part series "Jewish Cooking in America with Joan Nathan" began airing on KAET-TV Channel 8.

Battlelines were drawn, as the Arizona Civil Liberties Union got a federal restraining order against the town of Gilbert's and the state's respective Bible Week proclamations.

Heath Blumstein was appointed director of the Jewish Federation's Young Leadership Division and Jonathan Kaufman as the agency's Annual Campaign director.

Attorney Sandra J. Fromm was elected 1998-99 local chairwoman for the National Conference for Community and Justice, formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

A report released by the Arizona Department of Public Safety showed that, for the first time since it began keeping track, no religious organizations in Phoenix or Tucson reported any hate-motivated crime during the third quarter of 1998.

The Anti-Defamation League in Phoenix joined other ADL offices and Jewish organizations to fight a plan for a Western states' presidential primary on a Saturday, as proposed by the Western Presidential Primary Task Force, comprised of political leaders from the eight Rocky Mountain states.

The Phoenix chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women held a shower and brunch to benefit Chrysalis Shelter, which provides a haven for women and children who are victims of domestic violence.

December 1998

The Arizona Jewish Historical Society presented the multi-generational Ziskin family, headed by longtime Valley residents Hadassah and Harold Ziskin, with the Dorothy Pickelner Enduring Legacy Award.

Temple Solel in Paradise Valley inaugurated the writing of its new Torah, scheduled for completion by Shavuot in the year 2000. The temple commissioned sofer Rabbi Shmuel Miller to scribe the new Torah.

Marlene Liepack retired after 19 years as office manager with the State of Israel Bonds.

The Desert Foothills Jewish Community Association formed for Jewish residents in and around North Scottsdale, Carefree and Cave Creek.

Alon Unger, then a senior at Arizona State University, was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in England.

The Valley's fledgling Bucharian Russian synagogue, Congregation Ahavat Torah, received an anonymous donation of $3,500 through the local Jewish Community Foundation.

Five professors - Allison P. Coudert, Charles Dellheim, Norbert Samuelson, Gordon Weiner and Diane Wolfthal - from Arizona State University's Jewish Studies Program were selected to present papers at the Association of Jewish Studies Conference in Boston.

The Jewish Federation board of directors approved basic plans for the Jewish community campus to be built on a 10-acre plot of land on the southwest corner of 40th Street and Shea Boulevard in northeast Phoenix.

Solomon Schechter Day School's board of directors voted to end its membership in the Conservative movement's Solomon Schechter Day School Association.

The board of directors of the Jewish Community of Greater Phoenix voted to make the Council for Jews with Special Needs a constituent agency of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix.

January 1999

Joel Breshin, then regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, was among five people to receive the Phoenix Human Relations Council's Living the Dream Award, which recognizes individuals who have exemplified the ideals and teachings of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Evelyn Smith, who has led Interfaith Study Missions to Israel under the auspices of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation, and who founded the Hispanic/Jewish and the Black/Jewish coalitions, was one of two people receiving the Phoenix Human Relations Council's Calvin C. Goode Lifetime Achievement Award, named for the former Phoenix city councilman.

Temple Kol Ami of Scottsdale marked its 10th anniversary.

Planners of the Western Presidential Primary Task Force recommended that the proposed Western states' presidential primary be moved from its originally chosen date of Saturday, March 11, 2000, to March 10, 2000 - a Friday.

Temple Kol Ami's Rabbi B. Charles Herring was installed as president of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis.

Jewish Women International honored Susan Goldwater, executive director of Hospice of the Valley, at a luncheon at Temple Beth Israel in Scottsdale.

The Jewish Policy Center hosted a controversial forum at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel at which panelists Michael Medved, an author and radio host; author David Horowitz; Harvard University professor Ruth Wisse; Rabbi Daniel Lapin, president of Toward Tradition; and syndicated columnist Don Feder - all politically conservative Jews - discussed public policy issues.

The boards of directors of Solomon Schechter Day School and Temple Beth Israel approved a lease agreement to allow the school to move to the temple's Scottsdale facility, where the school would operate as an independent community day school.

The Arizona Board of Executive Clemency rejected a parole request for Michael Bloom, convicted a decade previously of plotting to blow up black churches and Jewish organizations' facilities.

Twenty students attended second semester classes at the new Phoenix Preparatory High School on the campus of the Chabad-Lubavitch Center, more than double the school's first semester total.

February 1999

Solomon Schechter Day School director/principal Barbara Gereboff's resignation from the position became effective.

Valley Jewish Youth launched its first fund-raising campaign, with a goal of $10,000.

The Komen Foundation granted funds to local chapters of Hadassah for Check It Out, a youth breast health awareness program.

The Orthodox Rabbinical Council of Greater Phoenix presented a lecture by Rabbi Yissocher Frand, senior lecturer at Baltimore's Yeshiva Ner Israel, at Young Israel of Phoenix.

Seven authors, including comedy writer Larry Gelbart and singer/songwriter Judy Collins, talked about their books during the Brandeis University National Women's Committee Phoenix chapter's annual Book and Author Luncheon at the Phoenician resort.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix board of directors voted in favor of a merger between the United Jewish Appeal and the Council of Jewish Federations.

The Solel School board of trustees approved plans for a new middle school to run through eighth grade.

March 1999

Moshe Fogel, director of Israel's Government Press Office, visited the Valley as the guest of Israel Bonds and made a handful of local appearances.

Rabbi and stand-up comic Bob Alper (whose humor column appears monthly in Jewish News), gave two performances at the Kerr Cultural Center in Scottsdale.

Bonnie Morris, director of education at Temple Solel and principal of The Solel Day School, was elected president of PARDeS, the Progressive Association of Reform Day Schools.

Temple Beth Sholom in Mesa celebrated the congregation's 50th anniversary.

A book was released by Phoenix author Mel Weiser chronicling the life of movie star Nick Nolte.

Temple Chai broke ground on a $2.2 million expansion project.

State of Israel Bonds honored Sanford and Florence Sunkin with the Shema Yisrael Award.

Comedienne Rita Rudner performed at the Solomon Schechter Day School Masked Ball.

April 1999

State Rep. Barbara Blewster (R-Dewey) apologized to the Anti-Defamation League's Phoenix chapter for remarks she made to Rep. Barbara Leff (R-Paradise Valley) that she didn't realize Leff was Jewish because she has blond hair and does-n't have "a big hooked nose."

Board members at Solomon Schechter Day School and Temple Beth Israel signed a final lease agreement to house the soon-to-be-independent school at Beth Israel's facilities.

Kivel Campus of Care purchased 17 acres of land for $1.9 million at 59th Street and Bell Road in Phoenix, on which to build an assisted living facility.

Local organizations collected money from the Valley's Jewish community to aid Kosovar refugees.

Paradise Valley couple Phyllis and Leonard Friedel donated $2 million to the Jewish Community Foundation Perpetual Endowment, the largest known contribution to a local Jewish charity.

The Bucharian Russian synagogue in Phoenix marked its first anniversary.

Temple Kol Ami held its first "Adopt-A-Pet-Day."

May 1999

Longtime Anti-Defamation League Regional Director Joel Breshin resigned.

The Arizona Legislature passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which requires a compelling state interest for government to interfere with religious expression.

The Department of Public Safety released figures showing that after five years of steady increases, reported hate crimes in Arizona dropped in 1998.

Hollywood Director Steven Spielberg, through his Righteous Persons Foundation, granted the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix $45,000.

The King David School, formerly Solomon Schechter Day School, named Judith Fineman as its new director.

Pearl Newmark was honored by the Arizona Jewish Historical Society. She had served as its executive director from 1984 through 1998.

Tempe Mayor Neil Giuliano discussed his recent trip to Israel with Jewish News.

Valley psychologist Judith Engelman quit her radio program on KFNX (1100 AM) after the station refused to stop airing a syndicated show hosted by white supremacist William Pierce.

Arizona Jewish Theatre Company received a $25,000 grant from the Flinn Foundation to construct a set-building shop.

The Women's Department of the Jewish Federation and other Valley Jewish groups organized a team, Jewish Women for the Cure, to participate in the annual Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure, which raises money for breast cancer education, screening and treatment.

Sara Rovitch was installed as president of the NA'AMAT USA Kinneret Club by Ann Polunsky, director of development for the Deer Valley School Foundation.

The Valley Jewish community celebrated Israel Independence Day with a family event at the Phoenix Zoo. Those attending enjoyed dancing, singing, food and storytelling.

June 1999

Hy Rosenfeld handed over the editing reigns of the Anti-Defamation league's Arizona Newsletter to successor Joe Stocker.

Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert and his wife, Aliza, visited Scottsdale.

The Melton Mini School graduated its first 26 adult students.

Ethiopian refugee Lulseged Dhine fought deportation from Tucson.

The FBI in Phoenix hosted an open house for local law enforcement officers and civil rights activists, at which federal officials said fighting hate crime is a top priority.

An Arizona regional affiliate of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life was formed.

July 1999

Michael Bloom, the former skinhead convicted 10 years ago of plotting to blow up black churches and Jewish organizations' facilities, was granted house arrest by the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency. After learning of his pending release, Bloom apologized to the Phoenix Jewish community in an exclusive interview with Jewish News.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix's finance committee modified its grants allocations process.

The Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center hired Joanie Charnow as pre-school director.

Jewish Baby University held its first reunion at Temple Solel in Paradise Valley.

August/September 1999

Local Jewish agencies re-examined security measures at their facilities in light of an incident in Los Angeles in which a gunman burst into the lobby of the North Valley Jewish Community Center and opened fire, wounding five people - three of them children.

Gilbert police and town council members said Jewish residents don't have any particular reason to fear the Devil Dogs, an alleged white supremacist teenage gang.

The Gilbert Town Council, still awaiting a federal court decision on the constitutionality of Bible Week, considered joining the International Association of Character Cities, then delayed the vote because of concerns that the group was closely aligned with evangelical Christianity.

Michael Bloom was released from the Department of Corrections' minimum security facility in Yuma.

Alan Bright was appointed interim rabbi at Sun City West's Beth Emeth Congregation of the Northwest Valley.

Editors at Tribune Newspapers in the East Valley published a letter to readers apologizing for a political cartoon by Mike Ritter that critics said was anti-Semitic.

This year in review was compiled by Jewish News staff writers Tami Bickley and Chris Garifo, with an introduction and additional information by Managing Editor Anne Brady.

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