HEADLINES | 10
WOMEN AUTHORS
Four local Jewish women authors share their recent releases
CHARITABLE GIVING | 17
SCHOOL SUPPLIES
Jewish Family and Children’s Service is holding a school supply drive through May 31, 2022
MARCH 25, 2022 | ADAR II 22, 5782 | VOLUME 74, NUMBER 15
Scottsdale woman starts email campaign to boost Ukrainian’s spirits MALA BLOMQUIST | MANAGING EDITOR
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arolyn Leff was 13 years old when she first met Gennadiy Kats. Kats and his family arrived in Arizona in 1991 from Kyiv, Ukraine. Leff ’s mom, Barbara, was in charge of the Russian Resettlement Program at Tempe Chai in Phoenix and worked with a group of about 90 volunteers to help several families assimilate in the Greater Phoenix area. Today Kats lives in California and is the CEO of Fit For Bucks, an app that tracks steps on an iPhone or Apple Watch that can then be redeemed for awards from participating merchants in the community. Since the beginning, Kats has outsourced his application’s development to a company in Russia. He has employees there, along with two full-time employees living in Ukraine, Bogdan Pychyniuk, 20, and Vladyslava Klenina, 23. Shortly after the war in Ukraine began, Leff was watching the horrific footage on television. “One image that sticks in my mind was when a Russian tank ran over an elderly man in his car who was trying to flee to safety,” said Leff. “He miraculously lived and I was watching it thinking, ‘I want to do something, but I don’t want to do what everybody else is doing.’” When she was speaking to Kats a few days later, she came up with the idea for an email campaign — like a modern-day version of being a pen pal. Kats shared Pychyniuk’s and Klenina’s email addresses and Leff sat down at the computer that night to send them both messages. “I started [writing] and it just flowed out,” said Leff. “I SEE UKRAINE, PAGE 2 wrote from the heart.”
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Genocide Awareness Week moves to Tempe MALA BLOMQUIST | MANAGING EDITOR
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he annual Genocide Awareness Week (GAW) will kick off its 10th anniversary at a new location: Arizona State University in Tempe. GAW was previously held at Scottsdale Community College (SCC). The state’s three universities (ASU, Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona), Phoenix Holocaust Association and the Rosenbluth Family Charitable Foundation are bringing GAW to the ASU Tempe campus the week of April 4-9, 2022. John Liffiton founded, planned and implemented the annual week-long genocide conference every April for the last nine years at SCC. He retired in 2021 after more than 20 years as an English research and composition professor. In 2018, Liffiton felt that GAW had outgrown the venue at SCC and he wanted it to go somewhere bigger where it could be sustainable. He approached Dr. Hava TiroshSamuelson — director of Jewish Studies at ASU and Volker Benkert, assistant professor and School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (SHPRS) faculty — SEE GENOCIDE, PAGE 3
Scottsdale Artist Robert Sutz’s painting is used for promotional material for GAW. COURTESY OF ROBERT SUTZ
Passover pajamas Children can now wear matzah-print pajamas to the seder. See page 15. COURTESY OF MATZA PAJAMAS
KEEP YOUR EYE ON jewishaz.com
NATIONAL
Colorado invokes a pro-Israel state law to divest its pension fund from Ben & Jerry’s
INTERNATIONAL NY rabbis bear witness to the catastrophe — and compassion — on Ukraine’s border
ISRAEL
Singapore to open embassy in Israel after 57 years of ties, in sign of Abraham Accords’ spillover effects