HEADLINES | 6
SPECIAL SECTION | 15
INAUGURATION INVOCATION
HOME DESIGN
Rabbi Bonnie Sharfman gave the invocation at Gov. Katie Hobbs’ inauguration on Jan. 5.
Minimal Living Concepts is designing additional spaces for Arizona homeowners.
1948
YEARS
2023
JANUARY 20, 2023 | TEVET 27, 5783 | VOLUME 75, NUMBER 9
Two congregations, one Jewish and one Baptist, went to Israel together. Here’s what they learned. SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
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n the second day of a 10-day November trip to Israel, Pastor Terry E. Mackey of Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Phoenix, stepped into the Jordan River to baptize his flock. Sixty Pilgrim Rest members and 22 from Scottsdale’s Congregation Beth Israel (CBI) toured the country Nov. 7-17 together. For most, it was a first visit and nobody, not even people who had been to Israel before, knew what to expect. Jews stood on the shore and watched the baptism, transfixed by the powerful image of their new friends immersing themselves in the same waters as Jesus in the New Testament. “Some of the Jews were moved to tears — it was incredibly emotional for everyone,” CBI Rabbi Stephen Kahn told Jewish News. Kahn knew some remarkable things could transpire for both congregations during this unique voyage, which “was really what I wanted.” He just wasn’t sure how those things would manifest. The baptism became one of the most talked-about moments on a trip full of talked-about moments. SEE TWO CONGREGATIONS, PAGE 2
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A crowded and enthusiastic Temple Chai installs its new senior rabbi SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
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ong before Rabbi Emily Segal stepped foot in Phoenix’s Temple Chai, before she even became a rabbi, there existed a hint of the path she would walk. During her bat mitzvah at Temple B’nai Shalom in Fairfax, Virginia, the young Segal said, “Dear God, this is my time. This is my prayer. This is my moment.” She elaborated by pronouncing her moment as one connected to the Jewish future. Temple Chai congregants learned this piece of her story from Segal’s own rabbi, Amy R. Perlin, who not only presided at the bat mitzvah but “saved every note, every email, every recommendation, every question” that Segal ever sent her. “I can trace the making of your rabbi, her thoughts, her lifelong desire to make Jewish choices and the Jewish song in her heart,” Perlin told approximately 400 people in Temple Chai’s sanctuary, who had come to watch Segal be installed as the temple’s senior rabbi on Friday,
Rabbi Amy R. Perlin, left, offers blessings to Rabbi Emily Segal, center, as Cantor Ross Wolman and Rabbi Bonnie Koppell stand next to her at her installation at Temple Chai on Friday, Jan. 6. COURTESY MARILYN ZOLONDEK
Jan. 6. “This is your moment Rabbi Segal, and we are blessed to share it with you,” Perlin said. The song-filled service was infused with emotion from the moment
Segal invited everyone to come in, find their seats and welcome the presence of Shabbat. Ron Paler, who attends services with his husband, Michael Loya, somewhat regularly, said he was SEE TEMPLE CHAI, PAGE 4
ListenUp app launches ListenUp, a storytelling app created by a Jewish couple in Scottsdale, offers hyperlocal community stories. See page 18. COURTESY OF LISTENUP
KEEP YOUR EYE ON jewishaz.com
NATIONAL
INTERNATIONAL
This year’s ‘Jewish Nobel’ is a group prize, As Boston dedicates a massive monument to Martin Luther King, local Jews march in solidarity going to Jewish activists supporting Ukraine
ISRAEL How to find newly released Israeli immigration records from 1919 onward