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A R I Z O N A

JEWISH POSTVolume 66, Issue 5 26 Adar 5770 March 12, 2010

JEWISH POST

Candlelighting Times: March 12 ... 6:11 p.m. March 19 ... 6:16 p.m. March 26 ... 6:21 p.m.

INSIDE

Arts & Culture .................................................7

Classifieds .....................................................19

Community calendar...................................26

Letter to the editor ........................................4

Local ....................................................2, 3, 6, 7

National .................................................. 10, 17

News briefs ....................................................9

Opinion.......................................................4, 5

Our town.......................................................25

Passover recipes...........................................12

Pets................................................................17

P.S...................................................................21

Religion.........................................................19

Restaurant guide.....................................10, 11

Synagogue directory ...................................18

World ............................................................24

URJ leader Rabbi Eric Yoffie to celebrate Temple Emanu-El’s 100th year

Wildcat strays from objective reporting, say some community members

In our troubled economy, religious con-gregations of all stripes are struggling.Yet it is precisely these economic chal-

lenges that make congregations even moreimportant now, says Rabbi Eric Yoffie, pres-ident of the Union for Reform Judaism.“What we offer is support and communityand refuge in difficult times, and those areespecially essential at a point where peopleare feeling vulnerable and kind of batteredby what’s happening in the world aroundus,” he says.

Tucsonans will have an opportunity toshare that sense of community with Yoffiewhen he joins Temple Emanu-El for its Cen-tennial Shabbat service on Friday, March 26at 7:30 p.m. to celebrate the congregations’

100th anniversary and its vitality under theleadership of Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon, whohas been senior rabbi for more than 10 years.

“I’ll be focusing on the wonderfulstrengths of this congregation and howmuch it brings to the community. It’s a causefor celebration, not simply because it’s 100years old ... but more because it’s just a won-derful example of a vibrant dynamic Reformcommunity,” says Yoffie, president of theURJ since 1996. Temple Emanu-El is theoldest synagogue in the state, with adult ed-ucation and outreach programs that areamong the largest in the Southwest.

The URJ, which is the congregationalarm of the Reform Jewish movement inNorth America, represents 1.5 million Jewsin more than 900 synagogues across theUnited States and Canada.

It is North America and Israel that hold

the key to the future of the Reform move-ment, says Yoffie, although the movement isalso working hard to build its presence inEastern Europe and the former SovietUnion.

Israel has or will soon have the largestJewish population in the world, surpassingthe United States, says Yoffie.

“We think Israel will benefit from astrong Reform presence, progressive reli-gious values in the Jewish state,” he says. “Weare a small movement now [in Israel], butthat movement is growing and we’ve madesome exciting progress. We’re also workingfor religious freedom in the Jewish state in avariety of forms.”

Israel, says Yoffie, “belongs to Jews every-where and therefore has to be welcoming toJews everywhere.”

PHYLLIS BRAUNAJP Executive Editor

Rabbi Eric Yoffie See Yoffie, page 2

Enough is enough, say some membersof the Tucson Jewish community.The Arizona Daily Wildcat, the Uni-

versity of Arizona’s student newspaper, hasbeen presenting only one side of the storywhen it comes to Israel, they contend. Thelatest objection was prompted by a Feb. 15front-page “opinion piece masquerading asnews,” says Ken Miller, 61, UA Hillel Foun-dation board member specializing in Israelissues, Jewish Community Relations Coun-cil executive chair for Israel affairs, and a UAgraduate student.

The story in question, “Human rights vi-olations: UA group calls for President Shel-ton to sever UAPD-Motorola contract,” waswritten by Jennifer Koehmstedt. The article

states that in 1999, the UA Police Depart-ment entered into a $203,000 contract withMotorola Corporation that still exists today.The article quotes Hali Nurnberg, a UA sen-ior majoring in sociology and a member ofthe Community for Human Rights, thegroup calling for divestment, as saying, “Mo-torola is very heavily invested in the Israelioccupation of Palestine. They have all sortsof technologies being used with large civiliandeaths.” Koehmstedt’s story cites an articlepublished in 2009 by Human Rights Watch,an independent human rights monitoringgroup, that ties Motorola to Israel’s produc-tion of drone aircraft.

A letter accusing the Wildcat of “biasedand unethical practices,” written by Hillel’sIsrael Team of students and Lily Winchester,a member of the UA CUFI (ChristiansUnited for Israel on Campus) club and a

senior majoring in journalism, was deliveredto Wildcat Editor in Chief Lance Madden, asenior majoring in journalism, on Friday,March 5, by a group of Hillel students, alongwith Winchester and Hillel Executive Direc-tor Michelle Blumenberg and Director ofEngagement Laura Wilson Etter. The letterwas signed by more than 570 UA students,parents, faculty, staff and community mem-bers.

One serious concern with the Feb. 15“Human Rights Violations” article, whichthe students’ letter addressed, was that UAPresident Robert Shelton was misquoted,says Blumenberg. Shelton was quoted in theWildcat as saying, “I certainly haven’t madeup my mind. I’m gathering information ...In terms of divesting, I also need to get someadvice from council [sic], and that’s always

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University of Arizona students Aaron Jacobs, left, and JoelKanter look at the Feb. 15 edition of the Arizona DailyWildcat, which featured controversial stories on Israel.

SHEILA WILENSKYAJP Assistant Editor

See Wildcat, page 6

Passover features ... pages 12, 14