Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Reform movement and other liberal Jewish groups are urging Israel’s U.S. ambassador, Ron Dermer, not to accept an award from an organization deemed by the Anti-Defamation League to promulgate anti-Muslim extremism. The ADL itself stopped short of asking Dermer not to accept the award next… Read more »

  (JTA) — Men were writers and women were researchers. That’s the way it was when Lynn Povich and 45 of her colleagues at Newsweek decided to take a stand. In 1970, the women banded together and became the first women in the media to file a lawsuit on… Read more »

  (JTA) — On Monday, one day before Election Day, I received a call from a reader. She identified herself as a Reform Jew, 46, from Chicago. She had praise for JTA and our daily newsletter, but also a complaint: Our emphasis on the Trump campaign, including charges over… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – It started several months ago in anxious whispers among pro-Israel leaders. Now it has burst into the open in full-page ads in The New York Times and op-eds in The Wall Street Journal: Does Barack Obama have a lame-duck surprise in store for Israel? Or, as… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) – Jacob Silberstein used one word to describe the first presidential campaign he’s experienced as a voter: “underwhelming.” Like many of his classmates at List College, a joint program here between Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Silberstein voted for Hillary Clinton. He… Read more »

(JTA) – If you’re a Jewish-American liberal who believes that Donald Trump could never become president, British Jews have one word of warning: Brexit. Following the shocking referendum vote in June favoring a British exit from the European Union, many British Jews now believe that their liberal circles and cosmopolitan lifestyles… Read more »

  (JTA) — Some of us are voting for Trump. Most of us are voting for Clinton. But we Jews are all afraid. There are the scandals, yes. There are emails and sexual assault allegations and emails and fraud and racism and anti-Semitism and emails. There are issues like… Read more »

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WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Trump campaign has released a campaign ad promising to defeat an international global power structure featuring several prominent Jews in the financial world. The ad, the final Trump campaign ad before voters go to the polls Tuesday, has been criticized on liberal news websites and… Read more »

(JTA) — An Arizona teenager was sentenced to eight years in prison for plotting an attack on government buildings and the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Mahin Khan, 18, was sentenced on Friday in Maricopa County Superior Court a month after he pleaded guilty to charges of terrorism, conspiracy to… Read more »

Liz Weiner-Schulman with guitarist Misael Barraza-Diaz

Music to our ears Following Steve Schulman’s passing in 2013, his wife, Liz Weiner-Schulman, established the Steve Schulman Memorial Award in Guitar Endowment through the University of Arizona Foundation. On Sunday, Sept. 25, the UA’s Fred Fox School of Music presented the second annual Steve Schulman award recital in… Read more »

Audrey Reese Ecelbarger, daughter of Bess and Paul Ecelbarger, will celebrate becoming a bat mitzvah on Saturday, Nov. 12 at Temple Emanu-El. She is the granddaughter of Judi and Bob Rubin, Laura Ecelbarger, and Mark Thaler, all of Tucson. Audrey attends Gridley Middle School where she is an honor… Read more »

Darian Joseph German, son of Sophie M. German, will celebrate becoming a bar mitzvah on Saturday, Nov. 5 at Temple Emanu-El. He is the grandson of Caryll and John McCarthy of Tucson. Darian attends Tucson Hebrew Academy where he participates in Mock Trial. He enjoys art, teen choir and… Read more »

Aubrey Makenna Stellajean Zadorozny, daughter of Sara and Steven Zadorozny, will celebrate becoming a bat mitzvah on Saturday, Nov. 5 at Congregation Or Chadash. She is the granddaughter of Gary and the late Linda King, Maria and the late Peter Zadorozny, both of San Diego and the great-granddaughter of… Read more »

THE TUCSON JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER was voted “Best Gym” in the Tucson Weekly’s “Best of Tucson 2016” contest. Local women’s clothing designer LAURA TANZER won the Emerging Designer of the Year Award at Phoenix Fashion Week 2016. Tanzer’s collection is made in Tucson.   MICHAEL MARTINEZ, executive director of LIVE… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El Consecration The Temple Emanu-El Kurn Religious School consecration class of 5777 at Simchat Torah on Monday, Oct. 24.  … Read more »

Norman William Salmon, 90, passed away on Oct. 22, 2016 in Tucson at ‘Peppi’s House’ Hospice, after brief and unexpected health complications. Norman was a dedicated husband and father, survived by his wife, Phyllis, of 66 years; daughters, Chelley Salmon and Gayle Salmon Gale — and Alula Tzadik, who… Read more »

Rochelle Rubin, 80, died Oct. 22, 2016. Mrs. Rubin was an interior designer for more than 40 years, with projects across North America. Survivors include the love of her life, Irwin Sattinger; her and Irwin’s children, Mark (Leigh Bernstein) Rubin, Pam (Craig) Gleichman; Wynne (Pete) Haakenstad; Jane Wilson, who… Read more »

Tracy Salkowitz

When I was little, kids used to walk around the neighborhood asking for funds for everything from the PTA to the girl scouts.  We used to have tzedakah or charity boxes (pushkes) in our homes where we would drop coins to plant trees in Israel or to support Hadassah… Read more »

Stuart Mellan

“Weaving … is the essential art of creating the unified out of two opposites. If the meeting of opposites does not take place, nothing is created, for each element is defined by its opposite and takes its meaning from it.” — Dario Valcarenghi as quoted in “The Art of… Read more »