Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

CARLOS CHAVEZ and ALLAN MENDELSBERG are among the 40 Under 40 honorees chosen by the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Congress. Chavez is the mentor match specialist for the Arizona’s Children Association Thrive Mentor Program in Pima County and Southeastern Arizona. The program provides volunteer mentors for youth aging out… Read more »

THA students earn spot in state math competition Tucson Hebrew Academy sixth grade students participated in a MathLeague.org competition held at University High School on Tuesday, Nov. 29 and won big. The team won second place school, and one student won third place overall. The students will go on… Read more »

(JTA) — If one thing jumps out about the nominations for the 90th annual Academy Awards, it’s the lack of big Jewish headlines to be plucked from them. “The Shape of Water,” Guillermo del Toro’s latest fantasy-tinted film, about an amphibian creature housed in a government laboratory, led the… Read more »

(JTA) — Like a lot of other Jewish men, I have been quietly keeping a scorecard of the number of Jewish men in the #MeToo headlines. Harvey Weinstein, Dustin Hoffman, Jeffrey Tambor, Mark Halperin, Leon Wieseltier, James Toback, Israel Horowitz, Al Franken, James Levine, Jeremy Priven, Woody Allen, Brett Ratner, Michael Oreskes, Bruce Weber — all have been accused in… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Arab-Israeli conflict is entering a phase more likely to lead to resolution than any that preceded it. The mindless mantra “there is no alternative to the two-state solution” is giving way to reality. The Palestinian Authority has never been a partner for peace. A 23rd… Read more »

  WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Oslo Accords? “Killed,” the Palestinian Authority president says, blaming Israel. The Israeli prime minister says the Palestinians are now “unmasked” — but naturally he blames the Palestinians. Notably, the United States is silent. The P.A. president, Mahmoud Abbas, delivered a rambling address of more… Read more »

Donald Philip Golos, 84, died Dec. 4, 2017. Mr. Golos grew up in Geneva, New York. He graduated from Cornell University, where he played varsity lacrosse for four years, and then served in the Marines. He was a manager at John Hancock Life Insurance Company before becoming a real… Read more »

Herbert Phil Meshel, 79, died Dec. 8, 2017. Mr. Meshel was predeceased by his wife of 49 years, Mara Lynn Meshel. Survivors include his children, Marlene (Ed) Bernstein of Santa Clarita, California, and Jodie (Brian) Montgomery and Andy (Sasha) Meshel, both of Tucson; six grandchildren; and his sweetheart, Lois… Read more »

Thomas M. Lewin, 86, died Dec. 13, 2017 in Minneapolis. Mr. Lewin was born in Berlin, Germany, and sent to England in 1939. At the end of World War II, he was reunited in Minneapolis with his father, who escaped Germany in 1940. Upon his father’s death, Mr. Lewin… Read more »

Tucson attorney Lowell Rothschild died Dec. 29, 2017. Mr. Rothschild, a founding partner of Mesch Clark Rothschild, received his J.D. in 1952 from the University of Arizona College of Law and had recently celebrated his 65th year in the profession. He was listed in the Best Lawyers in America… Read more »

(JTA) A haredi Orthodox grandmother’s delivery of her 20th child was no big deal to her, but it was an exciting event for the maternity department staff at Hadassah University Medical Center in Ein Kerem. The Dec. 20 delivery, a boy, was a natural birth. It was the 42-year-old… Read more »

Universities in Arizona, Mexico and Israel have formed a three-way partnership to cooperate on research, innovation and entrepreneurship. The partnership is made up of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the University of Arizona and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. According to Bruce Wright, associate vice president of the… Read more »

#MEAction Arizona, a local chapter of the myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) Action Network, meets Thursday, Jan. 18, 6 p.m. Those interested in advocating or building a community in Arizona for people with this disease may attend the meeting in Tucson at 210 N. Court Ave., or join virtually via BlueJeans… Read more »

One time there was a little boy who was playing the classic game of hide-and-go-seek. At one point in the game, while he was hiding, his peers got busy with something else, and instead of looking for their friend, they left him hiding there, while they went along their… Read more »

Several recent political measures in Israel — including announcements by Israel’s parliament, attorney general and ruling party — have significantly begun to undermine the possibility of achieving a two-state solution. Let me be clear: When discussing why the peace process has been stalled for so many years, one has… Read more »

On Easter Sunday in 1959, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. rose in the pulpit of his Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, to deliver a sermon that focused on his just-completed visit, with his wife, Coretta, to Jerusalem and its holy sites. King’s trip that month to… Read more »

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will hold its annual Super Sunday phone-a-thon on Jan. 28, 2018 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Volunteers will call members of the Tucson Jewish community seeking donations to the Federation’s 2018 Community Campaign. This year’s campaign theme is “100 Days of Impact.” … Read more »

The University of Arizona Hillel Foundation is going more local for this year’s fundraiser.  On Saturday, Feb. 17, at 6:30 p.m., Hillel will hold “A Night at La Cage Hillel” at the Stevie Eller Dance Theater building on the university campus. The event is crucial to supporting Hillel’s work… Read more »

Forgiveness is the ultimate spiritual freedom, says Edith Eger, Ph.D.: “It takes forgiveness to heal.” One of the last remaining Holocaust survivors, Eger, a psychologist, will be the guest speaker at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Women’s Philanthropy Connections 25th Anniversary brunch, “The Power to Heal,” on Feb.… Read more »

Communication. Give and take. Love. These are some the themes that emerged when the AJP spoke recently with nine couples in the Jewish community who have been married more than 50 years – six, remarkably, in the 60-plus range — about the secrets to a long marriage. Here, without… Read more »