Tucson Hebrew Academy (THA) is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

Jewish day school A Jewish day school is a modern Jewish educational institution that is designed to provide children of Jews, Jewish parents with both a Jewish and a secular education in one school on a full-time basis. The term "day school" is used to differentiat ...

Tucson, Arizona Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

, United States.

History

Tucson Hebrew Academy (THA) was founded in 1973Braun, Phyllis (September 13, 2019
"THA Tikkun Olam Dinner to Celebrate co-founder Bertie Levkowitz"
''Arizona Jewish Post''. Retrieved May 4, 2025. by couples Bertie and Jack Levkowitz, a native of

; Betejoy and Arthur Oleisky; and Judy and Dave Leonard. Oleisky, the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

rabbi of Congregation Anshei Israel, had decried the lack of a

in Tucson during a 1971

Yom Kippur Yom Kippur ( ; , ) is the holiest day of the year in Judaism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, corresponding to a date in late September or early October. For traditional Jewish people, it is primarily centered on atonement and ...

sermon. After the committee balked at the idea of setting up the school according to the tenets of

Orthodox Judaism Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Torah, Written and Oral Torah, Oral, as literally revelation, revealed by God in Ju ...

, THA was founded with the intention of accepting students from a wide swath of the local Jewish confessional community, along with setting high standards for general education. The Levkowitzs later served on the school's

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

. THA's new campus was funded by

Payless Shoe Source Payless ShoeSource Worldwide, LLC (formerly known as Payless ShoeSource Inc.), was an American multinational discount footwear chain. Established in 1956 by cousins Louis and Shaol Pozez. Payless was a privately held company owned by Blum Capita ...

founder Louis Pozez, and the school is a beneficiary of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. In a November 2011 ceremony emceed by

Richard Carmona Richard Henry Carmona (born November 22, 1949) is an American physician, nurse, police officer, public health administrator, and politician. He was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as the seventeenth Surg ...

and featuring Nevada congresswoman

Shelley Berkley Shelley Berkley (née Rochelle Levine; born January 20, 1951) is an American businesswoman, politician and attorney who has served as Mayor of Las Vegas, mayor of Las Vegas since 2024. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ...

as guest speaker, THA board members bestowed the Tikkun Olam () award to congresswoman

Gabrielle Giffords Gabrielle Dee Giffords (born June 8, 1970) is an American retired politician and gun violence prevention advocate. She served as a member of the United States House of Representatives representing from January 2007 until January 2012, when ...

.(October 27, 2011
"THA Tikkun Olam Award to Honor Giffords"
''Arizona Jewish Post''. Retrieved May 4, 2025.

Ron Barber Ronald Sylvester Barber (born August 25, 1945) is an American politician. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 2012 to 2015. Barber, a member of the Democratic Party from Arizona, served as district director for U.S ...

and Stephanie Aaron accepted the award on behalf of Giffords,(November 4, 2011
"U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Honored by Tucson Hebrew Academy: Tikkun Olam Award to Recognize Giffords' Commitment to Public Service"
Federal Information & News Dispatch. Washington, D.C. Retrieved May 4, 2025. who was recuperating after having been nearly assassinated in a mass shooting the previous January.

Enrollment

THA is a private school. Student rolls had been in slow decline, with 199 enrolled in the 2001 school year, 196 in 2004 and 175 enrolled in 2011.

Academics

Located at 3888 East River Road in Tucson, THA is an accredited

. It received recognition from the

National Blue Ribbon Schools Program The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...

in 2005. THA regularly hosts

STEM Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

fairs, with the

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a 98-acre (40 ha) zoo, aquarium, botanical garden, natural history museum, publisher, and art gallery founded in 1952. Located just west of Tucson, Arizona, it features two miles (3.2 km) of walking path ...

, the

Pima Air & Space Museum The Pima Air & Space Museum is an aerospace museum in Tucson, Arizona, US. It features a display of nearly 400 aircraft spread out over on a campus occupying . It has also been the home to the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame since 1991. Overv ...

, and the

International Dark-Sky Association DarkSky International, formerly the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), is a United States–based nonprofit organization incorporated in 1988 by founders David Crawford, a professional astronomer, and Tim Hunter, a physician and amateu ...

being among the fifty exhibitors in 2016.

Faculty

, Johanna Shlomovich is THA's head of school.

Community

THA opened its doors to the Tucson Jewish community for

High Holy Days In Judaism, the High Holy Days, also known as High Holidays or Days of Awe (Yamim Noraim; , ''Yāmīm Nōrāʾīm'') consist of: #strictly, the holidays of Rosh Hashanah ("Jewish New Year") and Yom Kippur ("Day of Atonement"); #by extension, th ...

prayer services. The school

inaugurated In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inau ...

its first

Torah scroll A Sephardic Torah scroll rolled to the first paragraph of the Shema An Ashkenazi Torah scroll rolled to the Decalogue file:Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue, Interior, Tora Cases.jpg">Torah cases at Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue, Mumbai, India ...

on March 17, 1996. The scroll was written in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

by a Polish-trained ''

sofer A sofer, sopher, sofer SeTaM, or sofer ST"M (, "scribe"; plural , ) is a Jewish scribe who can transcribe Sifrei Kodesh (holy scrolls), tefillin (phylacteries), Mezuzah, mezuzot (ST"M, , is an abbreviation of these three terms) and other religio ...

'' (scribe; ) around the time of the end of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. The THA choir was one of two Jewish choirs, along with the Tucson Jewish Youth Choir, which performed at the Tucson Meet Yourself festival.Engelken, Claire (October 9, 2008
"Tucson, Meet (and Eat) Yourself!"
''Tucson Citizen''. Retrieved May 4, 2025. "Expect traditional performances, plus a recently added 'Meet the Street and Youth Culture' series of events that includes hip-hop dance groups, a high school steel drum band, two Jewish choirs and a graffiti artist ... Tucson Hebrew Academy Choir ..."

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1973 establishments in Arizona Schools in Tucson, Arizona Private elementary schools in Arizona Private middle schools in Arizona Jewish day schools in Arizona Private K–8 schools in the United States