Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

Lobbying in Washington, D.C., for an increase in protections for immigrant families was an invigorating experience, says Nicolas Rios, a high school student and member of Tucson’s Jewish-Latino Teen Coalition.  Rios, 16, a junior at BASIS Tucson North, heard about the JLTC from his college preparatory counselor. Growing up… Read more »

Amy Hirshberg Lederman (Courtesy Lederman)

A group of leaders from the local Jewish community recently received a unique opportunity to study 21st-century leadership issues from a Jewish perspective. The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona sponsored the flagship LEAD 2017 leadership program, held Jan. 4-March 22 at Tucson Hebrew Academy and the Jewish Federation. A… Read more »

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona proposes amendments to its constitution, which will be voted upon by its membership at its annual meeting, May 11 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. As required by the constitution, these changes are available for review at jfsa.org/constitutionamendments. It is… Read more »

Rabbi Stephanie Aaron

In conjunction with Jewish Family & Children’s Services, Beth Shalom Temple Center in Green Valley will present a free ethical will workshop for the Jewish community, led by Rabbi Stephanie Aaron, on Tuesday, May 9, 10 a.m.-noon. Unlike a medical directive or living will, or a will detailing bequests… Read more »

Sophie Loeb

Sophie Loeb, a second-year medical student at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, has a strong commitment to care for those in her own backyard. Loeb is the 2017 recipient of the Shirley Curson Medical Scholarship from the UA Hillel Foundation. The scholarship recognizes the commitment… Read more »

  (JTA) – Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States soared 86 percent in the first three months of 2017 after rising by more than one-third in 2016, according to the Anti-Defamation League. There has been a massive increase in harassment of American Jews, largely since November, and at least… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – President Donald Trump got the memo on the Holocaust and the Jews. In a barrage of statements this week from the president and his aides, the Trump administration wants you to know, he gets it, he really gets it: The Holocaust describes a genocide committed only… Read more »

(The Nosher via JTA) — I can’t eat borscht that comes from a jar that’s been sitting on a supermarket shelf for who knows how long. So sue me. Tell me I’m a snob. I just can’t. It’s the wrong color, it’s too thin and has these shimmering chopped-looking… Read more »

The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will hold a panel discussion on the immigration crisis in Southern Arizona at its Spring Leaders Forum on Friday, April 28. The breakfast event will begin at 7:30 a.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, with the… Read more »

JEWISH FAMILY & CHILDREN’S SERVICES OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA has named LIZ HERNÁNDEZ director of marketing and communications. Hernández was previously marketing manager and then director of public relations and communications at Jewish Family & Children’s Service in Phoenix.  Born in New York City and educated through high school in… Read more »

(Left) Kip Perkins from the Physics Factory (with their Physics Bus) lights propane-infused bubbles on the hand of a Tucson Hebrew Academy fifth grader.

THA converts STEM to STEAM Some 1,200 people visited Tucson Hebrew Academy’s third annual STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) Festival on Sunday, March 26. Jennifer Lehrfeld, STEM coordinator and science department head at THA, included an art component this year, turning STEM to STEAM. The festival’s hands-on exhibits included… Read more »

  (JTA) — Even before the communist candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon emerged as a serious contender for the presidency in France, the elections were shaping up to be a fateful moment for the country’s 500,000 Jews. Many of them are deeply worried about the rise in the polls of Marine… Read more »

  TEL AVIV (JTA) – Gaza is rebuilt. The West Bank is flourishing. And the trains run from Tel Aviv to Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital. This is the peaceful future being pitched by Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz. In recent months, he has been shopping around a pair of ambitious economic… Read more »

  NEW YORK (JTA) — At first glance, The New York Times’ hiring of another white, Jewish male opinion-page columnist is anything but news. But the arrival of Bret Stephens, formerly the foreign affairs columnist for The Wall Street Journal, may be especially resonant for American Jews. Stephens, 42,… Read more »

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Decades after her death at a Nazi concentration camp, Anne Frank’s restless spirit in heaven finally finds a soulmate in Zef Bunga, an Albanian teenager who was murdered in a revenge killing. Anne, whose world-famous diary recounts her two years in hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam with… Read more »

  LOS ANGELES (JTA) – A one-hour TV program airing tonight on PBS links an incredible Holocaust escape story to advanced scientific techniques. “Holocaust Escape Tunnel,” a “Nova” production to be shown April 19, sheds new light on the attempt by 80 imprisoned men and women — mostly Lithuanian Jews… Read more »

Gilbert (Gil) Alan Kurland, 86, died April 6, 2017. Mr. Kurland had a long career with the New York Life Insurance Co., first in the Cleveland area and later in Tucson. Survivors include his wife of 63 years, Elaine J. Liberman Kurland; daughters, Debbie (Richard) Kurland Rich and Dana… Read more »

Gary E. Zinman, 80, died March 31, 2017. Mr. Zinman was born in Butler, Pa., where he and his family operated clothing stores including the  Jay Shoppe. He was a graduate of Penn State University, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity. In Butler, he… Read more »

Milton Silverman, 99, died March 25, 2017. Mr. Silverman was born in Cleveland, Ohio. His career in the insurance industry included working with his son, Kenny Silverman. Mr. Silverman was preceded in death by his wife of 59 years, Shirley. Survivors include his children, Kenny (Moira) Silverman and Gale… Read more »

Herman (Chaim) Gladstone, 93, died March 24, 2017. Dr. Gladstone was born in New York, N.Y. He married Renee Rechtman on Feb. 24, 1945. He attended college and medical school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and took his residency in psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital in New York. He served… Read more »