HEADLINES | 6
SPECIAL SECTION | 16
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CAMP & SCHOOL GUIDE
Gabi Messinger talks Yelp
Shemesh Camp at The J prepares for summer
APRIL 16, 2021 | IYAR 4, 5781 | VOLUME 73, NUMBER 17
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As border crossings After year without hugs, grandparents spike, local Jewish and grandchildren excited to reconnect leaders call for E action NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER
NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER
E
ddie Chavez Calderon lives his life two years at a time. The Arizona Jews for Justice’s campaign director’s status as a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is reevaluated on a two-year cycle. “The DACA system is basically a Band-Aid that temporarily protects us. And that really sucks,” he said. Chavez Calderon is one of more than 640,000 DACA recipients. The program was implemented during former President Barack Obama’s administration and allows United States’ residents who were illegally brought to the country as children to remain in the U.S. But not as citizens. “I’m reminded every day of the hardships of being an immigrant and being semi-undocumented,” Chavez Calderon said. He was four years old when he and his mom walked into Arizona without documentation in 1999. Fleeing violence, they trekked more than 1,200 miles from a rural town in Mexico. As President Joe Biden’s administration works on new policies to meet an increase in unaccompanied minors crossing the border, Chavez Calderon and others in the Jewish community point out the time for federal immigration reform is long past due. “Even from the time I migrated, some of the spaces and the facilities used are exactly the same, the treatment of migrants is exactly the same, the vilification of migrants is exactly the same,” Chavez Calderon said. “It’s really sad to see that so many years have passed, and we’re still in the exact same situation.” Preliminary data from border officials shows the number of people crossing into the U.S. reached its highest levels in at least 15 years in March, according to data reviewed by the SEE IMMIGRATION, PAGE 2
va Markowitz, 11, hugged her grandparents for the first time in over a year the week before Passover. “It feels amazing,” she said. “I miss hugging them because I’m really close with my grandparents and they just make me really happy.” As more grandparents are vaccinated against COVID-19, long-awaited visits with grandchildren — and the hugs that come with them — are finally happening. More than 75% of Americans aged 65 and older have received at least one vaccine dose, and more than 54% are fully vaccinated, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released April 6. Norman and Hana Kahn, Eva’s grandparents, said hugging their three granddaughters was their top priority after receiving their second vaccination dose in March. “They had been begging us to hug them and it was really emotional.” Despite living in Phoenix, only six minutes from their grandchildren in Paradise Valley, the Kahns saw Eva and her two older sisters only a handful of times over the past year. They always wore masks and sat outside, more than 10 feet apart. “It was very difficult for us, for them and for everybody,” said Norman, 75. Before the pandemic, he and Hana, 74, would see their grandchildren “almost constantly,” going out to dinner, driving them to school and activities and going away together on vacations. They weren’t the only ones who keenly felt the distance from their grandchildren due to the fear and social
Norman and Hana Kahn with their granddaughters.
PHOTO BY LORI KAHN
restrictions the pandemic brought about. Two weeks after getting their second vaccination dose in late February, Merle and Jeff Leyton drove from their home in Desert Ridge straight to their daughter’s house in North Scottsdale to give her two grandsons, ages 12 and 8, “the tightest and the longest hugs — it was just wonderful.” Living only about 4 miles apart, the Leytons were always a big part of their grandsons’ lives. Their daughter and son-inlaw both work, and they frequently helped with pickups and drop-offs. SEE HUG, PAGE 3 “When COVID came, the world
Celebrating b’nai mitzvah despite COVID-19 Bar and bat mitzvah students unroll a Torah at Temple Beth Shalom of the West Valley. Even with COVID’s restrictions, b’nai mitzvah celebrations go on. To read more, go to p. 14. PHOTO COURTESY OF DANA EVAN KAPLAN
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Argentinian journalist exposes antiDelegation of American Jewish leaders to visit Israel in first post-pandemic travel Semitic, neo-Nazi groups in Latin America
ISRAEL
Celebrating Israel’s 73rd birthday on April 15