Calendar

May
19
Tue
Southwest Premiere of New Documentary “The Return” @ Cutler-Plotkin Jewish Heritage Center
May 19 @ 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm

The Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival and Generations After are excited to co-host the Southwest premiere of the new documentary film, “The Return”, at the Cutler-Plotkin Jewish Historical Society on Tuesday, May 19, 2015 at 7:00pm.

“The Return” is the fascinating story of four young Polish women who were raised Catholic, only to discover in their teens they were actually Jewish. Alongside the film’s quartet of dynamic twentysomethings, Zucker invites audiences to explore a tiny but growing sector of young Poles attempting to pioneer an authentic Jewish identity with little knowledge of their long-buried ancestry in a country still regarded as a “Jewish graveyard.”

Before World War II, Poland was the epicenter of European Jewry and home to 3.5 million Jews. In the aftermath of the Holocaust and through the fall of communism in 1989, only an estimated 20,000 Jews remain.

The Return’s award-winning director Adam Zucker will be present at the premiere and conduct a post-film question and answer session with the audience.

More information at www.gpjff.org. Phone orders only: 602-753-9366

Feb
27
Sat
NEW! Neshamah Minyan: A Service of and for the Soul at CAI @ Congregation Anshei Israel
Feb 27 @ 9:30 am – 10:30 am

Join us as Jordan Wiley-Hill, storyteller and founder/director of The Mindfulness Education Exchange, guides participants in how to deepen their relationship with the service, raise their prayer experience, and develop practices and understandings for everyday life.

Mar
5
Sat
NEW! Neshamah Minyan: A Service of and for the Soul at CAI @ Congregation Anshei Israel
Mar 5 @ 9:30 am – 10:30 am

Join us as Jordan Wiley-Hill, storyteller and founder/director of The Mindfulness Education Exchange, guides participants in how to deepen their relationship with the service, raise their prayer experience, and develop practices and understandings for everyday life.

Mar
12
Sat
NEW! Neshamah Minyan: A Service of and for the Soul at CAI @ Congregation Anshei Israel
Mar 12 @ 9:30 am – 10:30 am

Join us as Jordan Wiley-Hill, storyteller and founder/director of The Mindfulness Education Exchange, guides participants in how to deepen their relationship with the service, raise their prayer experience, and develop practices and understandings for everyday life.

Sep
24
Sat
Cong. Anshei Israel Neshamah Minyan: A Service of and for the Soul @ Congregation Anshei Israel
Sep 24 @ 9:30 am – 10:30 am

Join us as Jordan Hill, storyteller and founder/director of The Mindfulness Education Exchange, guides participants in how to deepen their relationship with the service, raise their prayer experience, and develop practices and understandings for everyday life.

Apr
23
Sun
Shalom in Every Home: The Role of Spirituality in a Healthy Household @ Jewish Community Center
Apr 23 @ 11:00 am – 12:30 pm

Sacred time and emotional fullness can help promote meaningful and long-term family health. Enjoy an interactive and reflective conversation about bringing family closer together through age-old practices such as transforming a dining room table into an altar to create shared family spirituality. Speaker Avraham Alpert is the spiritual leader of Congregation Bet Shalom in Tucson and is in his final year of rabbinical seminary at the Academy for Jewish Religion in Los Angeles after serving as a hazzan for more than 18 years. He leads services and officiates a full range of life cycle events, counsels people in need, trains students of all ages, coordinates lay-leaders, develops programs, and teaches creative classes.

This is one of two April lectures in the Shalom in Every Home Healthy Family Lecture Series sponsored by Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona and the LEAH program, which is funded by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona.

Oct
21
Sun
Israeli film: ‘Shelter’ @ East Valley JCC
Oct 21 @ 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

In “Shelter,” a Mossad agent is sent on a mission to protect a Lebanese informer while she recovers from plastic surgery. What should be an easy assignment quickly turns into a labyrinth of espionage and intrigue inside a safe house.

The film is part of an Israeli movie series held at the East Valley JCC, 908 N. Alma School Road, Chandler. Admission is free, donations are appreciated.

Reservations: 480-897-0588 or [email protected].

Click here for full Israeli movie schedule.

Jan
13
Sun
Klezmer Music Festival @ East Valley JCC
Jan 13 @ 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm

The East Valley JCC in Chandler will present its first Klezmer Fest in January 2019, which features two community events.

 

The screening of the documentary “The Last Klezmer: Leopold Kozlowski, His Life and Music,” followed by a musical performance by the film’s director and Klezmer expert Yale Strom, will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 10 at Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 N. Arizona Ave., Chandler.

 

A Klezmer Music Festival will take place noon-5 p.m. at the East Valley JCC, 908 N. Alma School Road, Chandler. The event will feature musical performances by Yale Strom, the Rural Street Klezmer Band and Jerusafunk.

 

The music festival will also include a Yiddish experience, with genealogy workshops, Yiddish poetry readings and songs, lectures and crafts. There will also be children’s activities, such as inflatables, face-painting and a petting zoo, as well as a Kosher Jewish Food Experience.

Tickets for the Jan. 10 event are $15. Tickets for the Klezmer Music Festival on Jan. 13 are $15, adults, $5 children up to age 12.

 

To purchase tickets, visit evjcc.org/klezmerfest or call 480-897-0588. Group tickets are available for $12 each for groups of 12 or more.

Mar
15
Sun
CANCELED Klezmer Fest @ East Valley JCC
Mar 15 @ 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm

The East Valley JCC and the City of Chandler will host the annual Klezmer Fest from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 15,  at the East Valley JCC, 908 N. Alma School Road, Chandler.

Lively and upbeat,  klezmer is the traditional Jewish folk music of Eastern European Jewish communities. Over time, the style of music has grown to include instrumental music, Yiddish vocal music and modern fusion music that combines klezmer with world music such as Afro-pop, rock or hip hop. 

This music festival will also include a Yiddish Experience that includes workshops and lectures focusing on topics such as genealogy and the Yiddish language. In addition, there will be children’s activities, such as inflatables, face-painting and a petting zoo, as well as kosher pizza and salads available for sale by Brad’s Mobile Pizza Oven. 

Local bands include Jerusafunk, a nine-piece ensemble from Phoenix that blends traditional klezmer music with American Funk and other world music genres, such as jazz, salsa and samba; the Rural Street Klezmer Band of Temple Emanuel of Tempe that plays traditional Jewish soul music inspired by Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Yiddish theater and American jazz; Zaftic, whose rich and succulent sound is a mixture of Turkish, Arabic, Baroque, Irish and jazz; and Klezmerkaba, an 11-piece band from Tucson whose repertoire consists of klezmer pieces steeped in Eastern European tradition, as well as familiar Jewish, Yiddish and Israeli pieces from different eras and ethnicities. The festival will conclude with a massive jam session featuring all the musicians.

Tickets are $15 adults, $5 children up to age 12.

Visit evjcc.org/klezmerfest

For advertising information, please contact [email protected].