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Rabbi John Linder
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SEPTEMBER 23, 2022 | ELUL 27, 5782 | VOLUME 74, NUMBER 27
Water crisis draws Arizona’s house speaker to Israel SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
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rizona is facing a water crisis. The Colorado River, which Arizona and other Western states depend on for water, is at record low levels — so low that cuts have been implemented already, and steeper cuts are on the way, especially for the state’s farmers. With an acknowledged sense of urgency, Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers recently visited Israel to meet with leaders of water technology companies and legislative bodies in a bid to discover some of the desert nation’s secrets for dealing with a lack of water. “We were there to learn,” Bowers told Jewish News. “There are educated and tested people in Israel on this issue.” In fact, he met with so many people in a variety of places, he said it felt like “a forced march” at times, but the rigorous schedule paid off in the enormous amount of information he received. The main topics of discussion were desalination and its transportation issues, uses of newer technologies for determining water efficiency and its transport and regulation, especially in cities — “block to block, house to house,” he said. For things like desalination to pan out, however, time and a whole lot of money are needed. Whether there is the stomach for the sacrifices, he said, “is the $3 billion question because that’s just a low ball of what we’re looking at for desal.”
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers looks closely at water technology in Israel with his wife, Donetta. COURTESY OF SPEAKER RUSTY BOWERS’ OFFICE
One pointed conversation with the head of Mekorot, Israel’s national water company, stood out. Bowers said it was sobering because it emphasized that any water Arizona gets through desalination or other sources needs to be in a system that has supportable pressure gradients and does not leak. Arizona’s system is not where it should be. “We need to get our order right in how we go about this,” Bowers said. “Phoenix, for example, generally has an old system. There’s no reason to put very expensive water into a leaky system.” WATER CRISIS, PAGE 2
SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
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abbis across Greater Phoenix, like rabbis the world over, are sitting down right about now to put their thoughts to paper as they prepare to address their congregants for High Holidays. More than at any other time of the Jewish year, these sermons represent the best of long-form writing and deep
A big “I do” A Chabad couple holds UAE’s largest-ever Jewish wedding on anniversary of peace deal with Israel. See page 20.
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HIGH HOLIDAY SERMONS, PAGE 3
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