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Local professional Matthew Isiogu received Phoenix Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Award
Longtime family business says goodbye, a deep dive on Prop. 137 and Stephen Schwartz to perform at Phoenix Symphony Gala
SEPTEMBER 6, 2024 | ELUL 3, 5784 | VOLUME 76, NUMBER 25
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Beth El honors Phoenix Hebrew Academy’s new poll workers, playground honors child’s memory defends democracy on Shabbat M SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
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n a bid to promote civic engagement, Beth El Phoenix honored poll workers during Shabbat and hosted two of the state’s highest officials to discuss democracy. Arizona Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer spoke to a crowd of Beth El congregants about the perilous state of democracy and what to do about it after Kiddush on Saturday, Aug. 17. Beth El Rabbi Nitzan Stein-Kokin thanked poll workers for their contribution to society during the Shabbat service, and asked others to consider volunteering at the polls for the November election. The Phoenix rabbi has spent considerable time in the last few months thinking about partisan political divides and the way they’ve deepened in recent years, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic drove discourse online and social media algorithms encouraged people to see only those opinions they already shared rather than reflect on, or be challenged by, differing perspectives. “Our information culture does not expose us to different opinions, and now people can’t even talk about politics in a polite way. I’ve seen it in our families, and our communities, and it’s very concerning to me,” SteinKokin told Jewish News. “I grew up as a strong believer in democratic civil discourse. To get things done, to support and build community, you need to work together, across different political alliances, and we’re losing that ability more and more,” she said. Stein-Kokin is interested in the work of A More Perfect Union: The Jewish Partnership for Democracy, a nonpartisan organization focused on mobilizing the American Jewish community to protect and
ore than 100 people gathered on a late August morning to celebrate the opening of Phoenix Hebrew Academy’s (PHA) new playground and pay homage to its namesake, Sonya (Sonzee) Ahava Zaila. The sun was bright and the morning’s temperature hovered in the 90s, with the lightest of breezes keeping the outdoor event bearable. None of it was lost on Randi Zaila, Sonzee’s mother. “Today was a fitting temperature for Sonzee. She loved it hot and hated the cold,” Zaila told Jewish News. “She really loved the wind. Every time there’s wind, I think, ‘That’s Sonzee.’” Sonzee was bor n with CDKL5 deficiency disorder, a rare developmental epileptic encephalopathy caused by Randi and Sam Zaila with their five children in 2018. From left are Laeya, Sonzee, mutations in the CDKL5 gene. Sadly, in Meena, Noam and Tzvi. COURTESY OF RANDI ZAILA the second month of 2020, at the age of 4, she passed away. Almost immediately after her death, the Zailas decided to honor their daughter by building a “desperately needed” new playground at PHA, their children’s school. However, the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit full force in March, effectively shelved the project for a few years. On Sunday, Aug. 25, PHA Head of School Rabbi Baruch Harris was finally able to welcome PHA’s families, friends and faculty to experience and enjoy what he called an “expansive playground designed with students’ best interest in mind.” It includes a large, shaded structure with 32 active play elements SEE PLAYGROUND, PAGE 3
High Holidays For rabbis writing High Holiday sermons during the Israel-Hamas war, procrastination pays off. See page 19. COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
SEE DEMOCRACY, PAGE 2
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