HEADLINES | 6
HIGH HOLIDAYS | 14
JEWISH HIGH SCHOOL
SYNAGOGUE SERVICES
Arizona Jewish Academy started the year with more students and a new name
A listing of High Holidays services across the Valley and in Northern Arizona
SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 | ELUL 17, 5784 | VOLUME 76, NUMBER 26
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Roving Rabbis Antisemitism, Israel and taking roam further action figure in this year’s High afield in Arizona Holiday sermons in search of the state’s rural Jews A SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
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arly this month, during his most recent threeweek trek across the state of Arizona, Rabbi Mendel Slonim was asked by several people why he visits at such a scorching time of year. This was Slonim’s fourth consecutive summer in the state representing Chabad’s international Roving Rabbis program, which seeks to reach rural Jews without much access to an organized Jewish community. “Everyone always asks why I’m here in the summer. It strikes them as wild to see two rabbis in the heat of the summer, but it makes things fun,” Slonim told Jewish News with a laugh. He and Rabbi Dovber Goldman, who traveled with him in Arizona, are so focused on their mission of reaching out to and showing care for every single Jew, no matter how remote, that they simply didn’t have time to worry about the high temperature. Two summers ago, the pair also worked together and they reconnected with several Jews they’d met during their earlier travels. “It’s surprising how many people remember me from year to year,” Slonim said. “Every connection and every person is special. I feel like I’m meeting a long-lost sibling or member of my family, and I’m dying to get to know them again.” The rural Jewish outreach program, which is in its 81st year, was originally developed by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, SEE RABBIS, PAGE 2
s the Jewish High Holidays approach, rabbis across the Valley are shaping sermons to help their congregations welcome the New Year, a time for both profound reflection and spiritual renewal. Every year, Greater Phoenix rabbis challenge themselves to offer insight and inspiration by weaving together both traditional and contemporary themes in order to engage listeners with messages that resonate personally and communally. That’s always a challenging writing assignment, but one obstacle making it increasingly difficult each year is the pace of the news cycle. Though Congregation Clockwise from top left: Rabbi Debbie Stiel, Rabbie John Linder, Rabbi Bonnie Koppell, Rabbi Mendy Deitsch, Rabbi Jeffrey Schesnol, Rabbi Dana Evan Kaplan and Rabbi Or Tzion Rabbi Andy Green already Andy Green. COURTESY OF JEWISH NEWS ARCHIVES knows a broad outline of what he plans to talk about in his sermons this year, given “how much happens and continues to happen, writing something now might not be sufficiently up to date for a few weeks from now,” he told Jewish News. For example, Green intends to talk at length about the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel and the rise of antisemitism, topics “it would be malpractice not to speak about,” he said. However, every day brings fresh information on life in Israel, the war in Gaza and new anxieties across the Jewish world. Even though he will not be able to let the ink dry on his sermons until the day he delivers them, he knows he will be talking about these issues in the context of maintaining Jewish pride. SEE SERMONS, PAGE 3
Campus pride As anti-Israel protests heat up again on college campuses, Jewish groups at the University of Arizona are focused on helping students take pride in their Jewish identities. See page 10. PHOTO COURTESY OF RISA BRUMER
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