HEADLINES | 6
PULLOUT SECTION | B1
COMMUNITY
SENIOR LIFESTYLE
Arizona is the latest state to adopt IHRA definition of antisemitism
Seniors in our community became a new rabbi, win weightlifting competitions and try to redefine ageism.
MAY 6, 2022 | IYAR 5, 5782 | VOLUME 74, NUMBER 18
Two local teens elected to NFTY national board RUDY MALCOM
I
t was at sleepaway camp when Noa Apple, then about 9 years old, first told someone she liked girls. She didn’t come out as bisexual until her sophomore year of high school. And about a year ago, Apple, now a high school senior at Pinnacle High School in Phoenix, also came out as genderfluid, meaning that her gender identity fluctuates. She said that confiding in friends at NFTY Southwest helped give her the language to describe her gender and sexuality. Before she came out, her friends test ran she/they pronouns for her (she now uses both), speaking to the open-mindedness, comfort and support that she has received from the local arm of the Union for Reform Judaism’s youth movement. Meeting fellow LGBTQ people “showed me that people can define who they are instead of letting society define who they are,” she said. “I finally started to figure out who I was.” Similarly, before NFTY, Apple didn’t really know what Judaism meant to her. NFTY has helped her realize that it means something different to everyone and that “there’s no set or correct way to engage with one’s Jewish identity.” Apple is also a member of Congregation Beth Israel and is involved in Beth Israel Temple Youth (BITY). She knows that Judaism inspires her commitment to pursuing justice and equality, particularly through mental health and LGBTQ advocacy. For this reason, she may one day become a lobbyist or lawyer. Next year, she’ll start studying political science at Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University, to prepare for her future career. SEE NFTY, PAGE 2
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Remembering Gerda Weissmann Klein MALA BLOMQUIST | MANAGING EDITOR
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n May 1, a virtual tribute to Gerda Weissmann Klein was held through the organization she co-founded, Citizenship Counts (citizenshipcounts.org). The Klein family also created a virtual tribute memorial on the website inviting the public to share thoughts, memories and photos about Weissmann Klein. After the entries are collected, the family intends to turn these messages and tributes into a book. Weissmann Klein died April 3 in Scottsdale, where she lived since 1985. She and her husband, Kurt Klein, moved to Arizona after he retired. She was born May 8, 1924, to Helene and Julius Weissmann in Bielsko, Poland. Weissmann Klein was a teenager when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939 and soon after, her brother, Arthur, was taken away on a transport. In April 1942, Gerda and her parents were ordered into the Bielsko ghetto. Two months later, Gerda, her mother and father were separated. Her parents were transported to Auschwitz and she never saw them or her brother again. Weissmann Klein was sent to perform forced labor as part of the Gross-Rosen camp system. She completed a SEE KLEIN, PAGE 3
Alysa Cooper and her grandmother, Gerda Weissmann Klein.
COURTESY OF ALYSA COOPER
Empowering women in the financial planning process Jackie Adler has been a student of women’s empowerment since she was a little kid. See page 8. COURTESY OF JACKIE ADLER
KEEP YOUR EYE ON jewishaz.com
NATIONAL
ADL says anti-Zionism runs the same risk of violent attacks as antisemitism
INTERNATIONAL
Speaking about Zelensky, Russian foreign minister says Hitler also had Jewish ancestry
ISRAEL
Ukraine Holocaust survivors land in Israel on eve of Holocaust remembrance day