Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

  WASHINGTON (JTA) — For years, the leaders of America’s most established Jewish organizations – AIPAC chief among them – have assured their members that when it came to Israel, there wasn’t much difference between the Democratic and Republican parties. Even suggesting that control of the White House or… Read more »

RICHARDSON, Texas (JTA) — Urbandictionary.com is an open-source site where the average citizen contributes definitions to new and old words and slang. As the High Holidays approach, I’ve been contemplating the phrase “epic fail.” According to one entry on Urbandictionary.com, epic fail means “complete and total failure when success should… Read more »

BERLIN (JTA) – In a corner of former East Berlin, where shabby, red brick buildings meet cobblestone streets, lies a new Promised Land. Kanaan — a casual, vegetarian Middle Eastern restaurant named for the biblical lands before they were conquered by the Israelites — is something of a dream come true. And that’s not just… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A Florida state senator caught up in a boycott-Israel controversy. A Wisconsin state representative who combated anti-Israel bias on his campus. The diversity of Israel-related outlooks among the 63 candidates endorsed by Our Revolution underscores the eclecticism of the left-leaning movement launched last week by Bernie… Read more »

(The Nosher via JTA) — This is a perfect salad to eat for lunch on a weekday or as a first course for a brunch or even during a holiday like Rosh Hashanah. It’s especially nice when served plated individually and topped with the sweet potatoes and cashews. Note:… Read more »

  NEW YORK (JTA) — While making the film “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” Natalie Portman had to put her palm in front of her mouth, repeat Hebrew words and feel how the air hit her skin. If Portman felt her breath, it meant she was saying the… Read more »

  (JTA) — It kills me to say this, but I may owe a Yom Kippur apology to Dieudonne M’bala M’bala. My extensive reporting about this French comedian of Cameroonian descent consistently portrayed him as a fanatical, vulgar and racist provocateur whose acts serve as a thinly veiled pretext for venting a… Read more »

  KANSAS CITY, Mo. (JTA) – At 6-foot-6 and 340 pounds, veteran NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz isn’t just a force of nature, but a product of good ol’ Jewish nurture. “My size comes from a childhood that included an excess of matzo ball soup, latkes, and tons of… Read more »

  NEW YORK (JTA) — When Jessica Abdelnabbi-Berrocal wanted her local public schools in Jersey City, New Jersey, to close for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha in September, she looked to her Jewish heritage. The daughter of a Sephardic Jewish mother and Catholic father, Abdelnabbi-Berrocal never had any… Read more »

Jerusalem (TPS) – The Jerusalem Municipality has been promoting a unique initiative to build a cable car that would connect the city’s western neighborhoods with the Old City and Mount of Olives in its east. While the city intends for the project to serve its residents as well as… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Rebecca Raab was shopping recently in a South Florida Costco, wearing the trademark Orthodox outfit of a long skirt and baseball cap, when an employee waved to her and said “Shalom! We’re voting for Trump because we can’t have Hillary in the White House. She’s… Read more »

  WASHINGTON (JTA) – Can you go alt–right without going anti-Semitic? The movement that has emerged from conservatism — and in some ways has turned against it — appears to be nudging its way into the American mainstream as it attaches itself to the success of Donald Trump, the… Read more »

When Israeli soccer agent Tzvi Kritzer decided to build a monument in the Lithuanian town of Molėtai (Malat in Yiddish), where most of his family was murdered during the Holocaust, and to bring the relatives of the victims to the town for a memorial march, he was told to… Read more »

Biblical archaeology was revolutionized several years ago when evidence of the existence of the alleged kingdom of David was brought to light in the form of a fortified Iron Age town excavated in the Elah Valley by Hebrew University Professor Yosef Garfinkel and Israeli Antiquities Authority archaeologist Saar Ganor.… Read more »

  (JTA) — Last year I joined some 3,000 people at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark for a wide-screen showing of Mel Brooks’ 1974 Western parody “Blazing Saddles.” In the onstage interview that followed, Brooks, then 89, was beside himself in his delight at sharing his 42-year-old comedy with a real… Read more »

Surgeon follows tradition of service Major Carl Chen, U.S. Air Force (right), administers the oath of commissioning to Captain (Dr.) James Wiseman, who is entering the medical corps of the U.S. Air Force Reserve as part of the 301st Medical Squadron, Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base, Fort Worth,… Read more »

STACI KRUPINSKY is a new commercial lines sales executive for Lovitt & Touché, where she will focus on workers’ comp and business insurance in select markets. Previously, she owned a Farmers Insurance Agency in Tucson. Before that, she worked as a sales trainer and agency business consultant for Farmers… Read more »

Jillian Cantor

JILLIAN CANTOR, author of “Margot” and “The Hours Count,” will speak at Antigone Books on Sept. 2 along with fellow Tucson author Mark Beauregard. Riverhead Books recently released the paperback version of “The Hours Count,” Cantor’s acclaimed historical novel about a woman who befriends Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.… Read more »

A son, ZEV YISRAEL KWASMAN, was born June 17, 2016 to Orit and Adam Kwasman of Scottsdale, Ariz. Grandparents are Della and Donald Kwasman of Tucson, Livia Sklar of Alpharetta, Ga., and Myron Sklar of Mt. Vernon, N.Y. Great-grandparents are Allan Charles of Tucson and Serena Goldring of Miami… Read more »

Claire Nasch, 94, died Aug. 14, 2016. Mrs. Nasch was born in Konstanz, Germany. Survivors include her sons, Victor Nasch and Richard Nasch; brother, Jack; and one  granddaughter. Services and interment were in New Jersey. Memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, 1159 N. Craycroft Road, Tucson,… Read more »