Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

(JTA) — The 13-year-old Israeli girl killed in her West Bank bedroom on Thursday also was an American citizen. A State Department spokesman confirmed at a news briefing that Hallel Yaffa Ariel of Kiryat Arba, a Jewish settlement near Hebron, was a U.S. citizen, several media outlets reported. Muhammad… Read more »

  (JTA) — Dirty, hot and exhausted Israeli soldiers waiting for their bus home from the army base tend, understandably, to be in a hurry to get on board. But when I was living in Israel during the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising, soldiers didn’t jostle to be first in… Read more »

  (JTA) — Last week Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said that if Hillary Clinton asked him to be her running mate, he’d take the job. “If Hillary Clinton came to me and said, ‘Al, I really need you to be my vice president, to run with me,’ I would… Read more »

WHIPPANY, N.J. (New Jersey Jewish News via JTA) — Bathrooms accessible for transgender children and staff are old news at Camp JRF, the Reconstructionist movement’s summer camp in South Sterling, Pa. Five years ago the camp posted signs on bathroom doors stating “This bathroom may be used by any… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Acknowledging for the first time that he will not be the Democratic presidential nominee, Bernie Sanders said he was not yet ready to endorse Hillary Clinton. In an expansive interview aired June 22 on C-Span, Sanders said he hoped to speak at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia… Read more »

(JTA) — Writer Calvin Trillin may be most famous today for his humorous musings on food, family, travel and love. But before he won the Thurber Prize for Humor in 2013; before “Uncivil Liberties,” his humor column for The Nation — he has lovingly called it “a pinko magazine published… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Rep. Jerry Nadler, a graduate of the Crown Heights Yeshiva who represents one of the country’s most Jewish congressional districts and is the co-founder of the congressional Israel Working Group, likely never expected to be called anti-Israel. But the 12-term incumbent’s Democratic primary challenger, Oliver… Read more »

  JERUSALEM (JTA) — Religionization! Religionization! To read the newspaper headlines in Israel, to view its documentary films and attend its expert panels with academics, a stranger might think that upon landing at Ben Gurion Airport, he or she will have arrived at nothing less than a Hebrew-speaking version… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Eve Goldberg’s son, Isaac, was in a panic. He had to get out of college. Isaac Goldberg Volkmar had been at the University of Rhode Island for less than a semester in 2009 when he called his mother desperate to escape. He had joined a… Read more »

Great Britain and the rest of Europe woke up to a new reality Friday as a slim majority of British voters said their country should leave the European Union. Markets trembled, British currency crashed and British Prime Minister David Cameron announced his pending resignation. It was a major blow to an alliance… Read more »

(JTA) —  Only a week ago, Jeremy Corbyn seemed to have survived his biggest public relations debacle as the leader of Britain’s Labour Party:  the proliferation of anti-Semitic rhetoric among its members. Yet this week, the British vote to leave the European Union achieved what Corbyn’s opponents failed to… Read more »

Camp J time capsules Summer campers at the J traveled through time to visit Old Tucson Studios and learn about the Jewish History Museum time capsule that was opened by Gabrielle Giffords in 2010. They decided to make their own time capsules and stuffed them with a penny, recent… Read more »

KIM EGITA is the new chief financial officer for the JEWISH FEDERATION OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA. Previously, she was finance and assets director at Our Family Services, where she oversaw the financial aspects of its 2012 merger with New Beginnings for Women and Children, where she had been administrative director… Read more »

Annette Katzeff, 95, formerly of Tucson, died June 11, 2016. Mrs. Katzeff was preceded in death by her husband, Albert. Survivors include her children, Rochelle (Louis Stamler) Katzeff of Tucson and Karen (Jerry) Morris of Chicago; two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Services were held at Evergreen Mortuary with Rabbi… Read more »

Sharon Iris Roffman, 61, died June 3, 2016. Born and raised in Tucson, Ms. Roffman graduated from Rincon High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Arizona. She worked for many years in the health care field, first as a medical assistant to several… Read more »

Brownie Ebner, 104, died May 10, 2016. Mrs. Ebner was born in Providence, R.I. but raised in New York City. Until she retired, her jobs were mostly secretarial, culminating with her position at a local Tucson high school. She was active in the Pioneer Women (the Labor Zionist women’s… Read more »

Bernard A. “Bernie” Amster, 66, died May 10, 2016. Mr. Amster was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He lived in Arizona for 47 years where he was a purchasing agent and entrepreneur. Mr. Amster was preceded in death by his brother, Steven Howard Amster. Survivors include his daughter, Melissa (Patrick)… Read more »

Danit Yona, 22, one of two Israelis working as counselors at the Tucson Jewish Community Center’s Camp J this summer, says she learned her nearly flawless, American-accented English from watching TV shows like “Full House,” “Family Matters” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” after school. “I also had a… Read more »

At the Shay-Shay Community Garden at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, enthusiastic amateur gardeners tend sunflowers, enormous squash, cherry tomatoes, spiky artichokes and other bounty. The 23 plots opened for use in mid-March, says site coordinator Susanne Kaplan, who has served on the board of the nonprofit Community Gardens… Read more »

The Jewish dietary laws, termed kashrut, are many and complex. According to the Torah and the Talmud, Jews may not mix meat and dairy, and may eat only fish with scales and fins, and meat from ruminants with cloven hooves. Pareve — foods containing neither meat nor dairy, including… Read more »