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When Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker was taken hostage along with a few of his congregants in their Colleyville, Texas synagogue in January 2022, it sent a shudder through the nation’s Jewish communities, specifically its synagogues. Jewish clergy were already keenly aware of the vulnerability t…
Next fall, when Zack Okun starts his college career at Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University, he’ll have just enough course credits to make him a second-semester sophomore — even though he’s graduating from high school this spring.
Karolyn Benger was not surprised when she read that Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona employs a prominent follower of Nick Fuentes, given the congressman’s past support of and connections to Fuentes, a white supremacist leader. After all, two years ago Gosar drew the ire of Jewish groups…
Over the last 18 months, Tucson’s Prince Chapel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church experienced a series of troubling incidents. First up was a stone through one of the church’s stained glass windows. Then a bible and copy of “Harry Potter” were set ablaze and tossed into the window wel…
Avery Chadwick didn’t know it when she was first assigned a project about the Holocaust, but she soon discovered that she had something of a personal connection to the subject. Her grandfather’s longtime friend, Marc Yablonka, was the son of a survivor, the grandson of a murdered victim and …
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel joined Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego on Tuesday, May 9, as the mayor announced “an aggressive new effort to close the digital divide and connect more Phoenix residents to high-speed internet in 2023.”
Rabbi Emeritus David Pinkwasser will join Temple Emanuel of Tempe (TEOT) Rabbi Cookie Lea Olshein on the bimah June 9 to celebrate his 50th anniversary as a rabbi.
In 2001, ninth-grader Shulamit Izen, an out Jewish lesbian who felt isolated in her suburban Boston Jewish high school, decided to start a gay/straight student alliance (GSA). The struggle she faced convincing her fellow students, teachers, principal and broader Jewish community to accept he…
This May, the City of Phoenix plans to start cleaning up The Zone, a large homeless encampment in central Phoenix. The closure is in response to a March decision by a Maricopa County Superior Court judge to clean the area up by July after business owners sued the city, claiming adverse effects.
A makeshift shuk lined the far side of the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus’ parking lot on Sunday afternoon, serving as the entrance for the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center’s community-wide celebration of Israel’s 75th birthday. A multitude of Israeli flags and vendors selling J…
Jeremy Rovinsky has always held firm when it comes to spending Purim with his family rather than at work. Although it’s a holiday that doesn’t prohibit observant Jews from driving, using technology or other work-related things, Rovinsky views it as an important day to set aside exclusively f…
Elizabeth (Lizzy) Savetsky, an Orthodox Jewish social media influencer who entered the national spotlight in the fall of 2022 when she left season 14 of the reality television series “The Real Housewives of New York’’ after reportedly receiving a plethora of antisemitic messages, was hosted …
Red-and-white checkered tablecloths, strings of white lights and a recording of Dean Martin singing, “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore,” all helped give the playground of Pardes Jewish Day School the facade of a cozy Italian bistro, an apt setting for “The Rabbi…
The week of April 17-21, the 11th annual Rosenbluth Family Charitable Foundation Genocide Awareness Week (GAW) brought together genocide scholars and survivors, as well as artists and activists, for an educational initiative involving lectures, exhibits and storytelling on Tempe’s Arizona St…
Nona Siegel cares deeply about the environment. She has a degree in environmental science, follows a vegan diet and is a founding member of Temple Chai’s Eco Chai group, the Phoenix Reform synagogue’s “green team.”
Ari Simones was a relatively shy kid in high school, so when he was a high-school sophomore and heard about a new summer volunteer opportunity for Hebrew High students, he thought it sounded like a good way to meet a few new people and grow his small circle of friends.
A few years ago, when Rabbi Laura Geller was still the senior rabbi of Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills, California, she began to notice that many of her older congregants had started to drift away and she wanted to know why. At the time, she was also contemplating what her life after retirem…
Jewish summer camps are often lauded as places where young Jews develop Jewish identity and values more fully than they otherwise might, in addition to having fun and making lifelong friendships. That supposition rings true for Stefani Rozen, who spent much of her life in the camping world. …
Antisemitic vandalism in Arizona remained worryingly high last year, with 53 reported antisemitic incidents across the state, nearly double the amount from 2018, 2019 and 2020 and roughly the same as 2021. That number comes from the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) annual audit of antisemitic …
Morton (Mort) A. Klein, president of Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), wants the world “to be crystal clear” that, as a matter of faith, Jerusalem belongs only to Jews.
In 2013, Friends of Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) closed its Arizona chapter after 18 months in operation as part of a national reorganization plan. Still, over the last decade, it has kept a toe in Greater Phoenix’s Jewish communal activities and programs with a few locals who remained commi…
Linda Zell has been the face of the Jewish Tuition Organization (JTO) for the last two decades, but come July she will pass the executive director baton to Janet Silva to spend more time with family, travel and finally do some of the things she enjoys but hasn’t always had time for.
Rise Stillman was 14 when she was transported to Auschwitz in April 1944, a day after Passover ended.
In late February, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent and nonpartisan government agency, released a report stating that domestic terrorism increased by 357% in the last decade and found that racially or ethnically motivated extremists committed the most violent in…
Just over five years ago, in late 2017, a handful of Jewish women in Scottsdale bonded over their conservative political views and decided they should form a club where like-minded Jewish women could come together and feel free to talk about current events.
Permanently leaving a domestic abuse situation is so arduous that people attempt it an average of seven times before getting away successfully, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Abuse survivors cite several barriers to escaping a dangerous relationship, including a lack of…
Nearly 700 members of the Jewish Funders Network (JFN) met in Phoenix for three days last week to talk about pressing global issues, learn best practices and discuss how they can improve the philanthropic work they are already doing.
Legislation to provide funding for security assistance to small nonprofit organizations, including synagogues and Jewish organizations, at high risk of terrorist attacks and hate crimes due to their mission or beliefs, passed its first big hurdle on Tuesday.
Temple Kol Ami (TKA) is rolling out a new option next fall for kids not quite ready for traditional kindergarten. The new class, called K Prep, is a certified-kindergarten program that offers a low student-to-teacher ratio, small-group instruction, a multisensory approach to math and literac…
Following Shabbat in late February, roughly 4,000 Jewish teenagers from across the country and around the globe gathered in Times Square, the heart of New York City, for CTeen’s “Meant2B” event. The annual international Shabbaton and celebration of Jewish pride saw teens jumping, dancing, si…
Last Friday, in a quiet cul-de-sac near Beth El Congregation in Phoenix, a dozen people — some old friends, others relative strangers — gathered at the home of Audrey Wolff and Stephen Winkelman to welcome Shabbat and share a meal.
Only a few weeks ago, in the days leading up to Purim, Shimon Boyer asked his four children, Tamar, Shevach, Nachman and Dov, to select a costume for the holiday. Tamar and Nachman were easy. They chose to dress as Queen Esther and Mordecai, respectively. Dov, as usual, would be a bear, but …
On most weekday mornings, Morah Lakie Blech makes breakfast for her family, gets her three children ready for school and heads out the door. When the weather is temperate, the kids grab their bikes, even the youngest, who is three and new to riding without training wheels — though Blech brin…
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced synagogues to take programming online, Temple Kol Ami’s Rabbi Jeremy Schneider was already using online platforms for Hebrew instruction and was keen to investigate more possibilities.
In July 2018, Israel’s controversial nation-state bill established Israel as the historic home of the Jewish people with a “united” Jerusalem as its capital and declared under law that the Jewish people “have an exclusive right to national self-determination.”
“I’ve loved seeing everyone back together for the biggest BBYO international convention ever!” 16-year-old Sadie Feinberg told a rapt audience just before Shabbat began on Friday, Feb. 17. The Scottsdale teen served as part of BBYO’s press corps during its 99th international convention (IC) …
Pardes Jewish Day School has a challenging, but very exciting, decision to make by the end of the school year. After about 18 months of work, “Resistors in Color,” the eighth-grade class’ artistic composition, which showcases many of the brave souls who not only resisted but fought back agai…
Two seats on the Phoenix City Council, Districts 6 and 8, still sit empty given that no candidate won the necessary majority of votes in November. The nonpartisan runoff election for both seats is March 14, and one of the candidates for District 6, which includes north-central Phoenix, Arcad…
Ian Turner cares passionately about the safety of Greater Phoenix’s Jewish community, which is why he helps recruit and train community members to take care of their own.
In the first of four “Mussar: The Jewish Way of Building Character” classes, offered in February by the Women’s Leadership Institute (WLI), Sharona Silverman invited her students to explore the concept of “humility.”
Zach Dunn recently ended his tenure as the executive director for Phoenix’s Temple Chai to take the same role at Congregation Ahavath Chesed in Jacksonville, Florida, close to his aging in-laws. It will be his third executive director role at a synagogue in his 13-year career.
On the second Shabbat of this year, Or Atid, a small and independent Jewish community in Prescott, held a rather unique commitment ceremony. Rabbi Julie Kozlow, Or Atid’s founder, along with 75 of its members, passed the Torah from one person to the next, until everyone had a chance to hold it.
On Tuesday, Jan. 18, while adults gathered in the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus’ social hall to talk about possible ways to unite the Jewish community, across the hall, Jewish teenagers came together as one.
Sophie Stern planned to be a dancer when she was 8 years old.
When Gov. Katie Hobbs was inaugurated in January, it was the first time in more than a decade for a Democrat to have the top job in Arizona. Although the Republicans still have the majority in both legislative chambers, her election reshuffled the political calculus in the state.
At Scottsdale’s Harkins Theatres Shea 14 next month, Jewish movie lovers will have the chance to hear directly from first-time filmmaker Marvin Samel, the director and creator of one of the Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival’s (GPJFF) three featured films.
One hundred and seventy-one retired rabbis gathered in Phoenix for the National Association of Retired Reform Rabbis’ (NAORRR) annual conference Jan. 5-9, but they weren’t there to reminisce about the good old days — at least, they weren’t only reminiscing.
Before they even met and married, Rabbi Levi Minsky and his wife, Chaya, shared one all-encompassing life ambition: They both wanted to run their own Chabad center one day.
Douglas Emhoff, the Second Gentleman of the United States, made a brief visit to the offices of Hillel Jewish Student Center at Arizona State University to speak directly to college students about antisemitism on Thursday, Jan. 18.
Dozens of hands shot up last Tuesday night the moment Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz opened the floor to audience questions. In person and on Zoom, roughly 100 people attended Valley Beit Midrash’s (VBM) panel “Can the Phoenix/Scottsdale Community be United?”
