Stephen Dickstein

1939 - 2022

DICKSTEIN, Stephen

Physician, mohel, handyman, mensch - died peacefully at home in Tucson, Arizona on February 15, 2022. He was 82 years old.

Steve was born May 26, 1939 in Grand Rapids, Michigan to Bernard and Eve Dickstein, the third of five siblings. After Bernard returned from the war, the family moved to Flint, Michigan where Steve began his lifelong passion for taking things apart and fixing them. He also played the French horn in his high school marching band and became an Eagle Scout.

It was in medical school at the University of Michigan that Steve met Ruth Jacobs on a blind date. Love quickly blossomed, but it was Ruth's family bakery that sealed the deal. The couple married in 1963 and moved to California for Steve's medical internship and Naval service. They would visit the 5 Corners Bakery in Jersey City every chance they could with children Wendy and Jonathan for Steve's favorite pumpernickel onion bagels.

The family settled in Tucson in 1972 and Steve began his 35-year Urology practice, starting at the Tucson Clinic. Steve's greatest joy was participating in Jewish life. He helped found Tucson's High School for Jewish Studies, served as President of Temple Emanu-El from 1983-85, chaired Temple's ritual and music committees and organized the "Hevrah Kadishah" (burial committee). He blew the shofar on high holidays, sang in the choir for many years, studied Torah and attended services regularly, and knew where the circuit breakers were located if the power went out.

Steve left his greatest mark on generations of Jewish families as Southern Arizona's first Reform Jewish Mohel (conducting ritual circumcision), presiding over an estimated 500 brit milot (including his own three grandsons'). In the many years he provided this service, Steve never accepted payment and did it only as a "mitzvah," (good deed or commandment), enduring countless mohel jokes with patience and good humor.

Steve loved hiking, Wildcats basketball, his own bad puns, strawberry rhubarb pie and dessert in general. There was almost nothing he couldn't fix.

Steve's ongoing battle with Parkinson's didn't keep him from traveling to Africa, Machu Picchu, and Antarctica, where he took the polar plunge, and to Israel for his grandson's bar mitzvah, where he climbed Masada.

Steve is survived by his wife, Ruth; children, Wendy Verba and Jonathan Dickstein, their spouses, Jeremy Verba and Barclay Lynn; grandchildren, Emmett, Nathan and Leah Verba and Andrew and Emerson Dickstein; and siblings, Robert Dickstein, Ruth Reiter, Susan Krohn and Deborah Dickstein, plus numerous adoring cousins, nieces, nephews and friends.

Funeral Services will be held Friday, February 18, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. at Kol Ami Tucson, 225 North Country Club Road. Interment to follow at Evergreen Cemetery. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, please register to attend funeral services by calling Kol Ami's office at 520-327-4501. Vaccinations and masks required. The funeral service will be live-streamed and recorded.

Donations in Steve's memory may be made to the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona or Kol Ami Mitzvah Corp. Arrangements by EVERGREEN MORTUARY.