HEADLINES | 8
CAMP & SCHOOL | 18
FBI RECOGNIZES LOCAL LEADER
SENDING A CHILD TO SLEEPAWAY CAMP
Paul Rockower, executive director of the JCRC, receives the Director’s Community Leadership Award
Jodi Woodnick, LCSW, shares the benefits of an overnight camp experience
APRIL 12, 2024 | NISSAN 4, 5784 | VOLUME 76, NUMBER 16
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Israel official speaks ‘Connection through experience,’ to joint session of Phoenix Holocaust museum touts Arizona legislature immersive technology about Hamas and heeding the words V of an enemy SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
I
srael Bachar was on his way to his New York office in lower Manhattan when the first plane hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. By the time he arrived, the second plane had struck and any illusion that the attack might have been an accident evaporated. More than two decades later, “the fear and trauma” of that day are still vivid in his memory, as are “the noise, the mayhem and the destruction as the towers came crashing down,” he told a joint session of the Arizona legislature on Wednesday, April 3. On that infamous September day, America learned an important lesson: “When an enemy tells you that they are going to do something, believe them,” Bachar, consul general of Israel to the Pacific Southwest region, told Arizona legislators. Just as Osama bin Laden had promised to strike at the heart of the United States, Hamas taught Israel to heed the same lesson in nightmarish proportions on Oct. 7. “Our society has been traumatized,” he intoned. Bachar had only been in his current post in Los Angeles a month when the Hamas attack took place, and his first months in office have gone somewhat differently than originally planned. This week was his first time in Arizona, and he hopes to visit at least twice a year going forward. (He already plans to be in Tucson next month to meet with its Jewish community.) “I feel very much at home in
isitors to the up-and-coming Hilton Family Holocaust Education Center will begin their roughly 90-minute tour in light, move to darkness and end up back in the light. The intention behind each exhibit is to reflect the architecture of its space. Both teams working on the $30 million museum, the building’s architects and the exhibition’s designers, were on hand to show off their combined vision at the Arizona Jewish Historical Society (AZJHS) on Tuesday, Image of proposed building. COURTESY OF MOTLEY DESIGN GROUP VIA ARIZONA JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY March 26. For example, the ‘Upstanders Hallway,’ in which people who stood up to Nazi brutality are honored, utilizes soaring architecture and “tree of life” imagery that will be activated with a light source. “We want to take advantage of the space’s light — to start from a hopeful place,” said James Burns, one of G&A’s exhibit designers. G&A is the firm designing all of the exhibits in the new center. He explained that even going up a set of stairs to the second floor, where the bulk of the exhibits will be, is going to be a responsive experience. With each step, visitors will be engaged with messages about the Holocaust SEE MUSEUM, PAGE 3
What’s for brunch? Food blogger Francine Coles shares recipes to serve during Passover. See page 14. PHOTO COURTESY OF FRANCINE COLES
SEE OFFICIAL, PAGE 2
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