Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

NEW YORK (JTA) — Since 1972, when the Reform movement ordained its first female rabbi, more than 700 others have joined her ranks in that denomination alone. But a surprise awaited them, though few seemed to notice: The language on their ordination certificates was markedly different than that of their… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Boycott Trump? Mock Trump? Trump, the musical? Jewish liberals are ready to sow a summer of Donald Trump discontent in ways that aim both to bludgeon and entertain. Bend the Arc, an advocacy group, is convening its first national conference here next week aimed in part at… Read more »

(Cymera Caren-Boyd)

RABBI SHAFIR LOBB, formerly of Tucson, was named one of “America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis 2016” by the Forward. Lobb has been the rabbi of Congregation Eitz Chayim in Port Saint Lucie, Fla., for one year. Previously, she was rabbi of Port Saint Lucie’s Temple Beth El Israel for three… Read more »

The seventh grade class of TEMPLE EMANU-EL’s Kurn Religious School participated in the Association for Fundraising Professionals Youth in Philanthropy program. The students chose to support cancer research and, after issuing a request for proposals, selected the American Cancer Society as their fund recipient. The class raised $1,038, with… Read more »

Kiersten Jada Belkoff, daughter of Sandy Stein and Kenneth Belkoff, will celebrate becoming a bat mitzvah on June 4 at Congregation Or Chadash. She is the granddaughter of Howard Stein and the late Celina Stein of Tucson, and the late Michael and Shirley Belkoff of Hillside, N.J. Kiersten attends… Read more »

12 Torches Ceremony  Two hundred and fifty people attended the Weintraub Israel Center’s 12 Torches Ceremony and Dinner on Thursday, May 12 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The dinner was prepared by four Israeli chefs visiting from the Israel Center’s Partnership2Gether region. In Israel, the 12 Torches Ceremony… Read more »

Sid Lachter, 75, died May 12, 2016. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Mr. Lachter received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Manitoba. He went on to practice law in Minnedosa and Neepawa, Manitoba. His interest in politics led him to run for the Parliament of Canada in 1972 and… Read more »

Alex Soloway, 95, died May 12, 2016. A resident of Tucson since 1943, Mr. Soloway was a prominent builder in the Catalina Foothills with his father, Jacob. Mr. Soloway was preceded in death by his wife, Helen. Survivors include his daughter, Eleanor of Los Angeles; sisters, Lee, Edith and… Read more »

You know Shavuot is coming when you begin to see cheesecakes everywhere. Countless variations in the bakeries and supermarkets. Endless numbers of recipes in the media. Cheesecake is the iconic Shavuot dessert, as sacrosanct as a Hanukkah latke or Passover matzah ball. Unfortunately, cheesecake is one of those deceptively simple recipes,… Read more »

Israeli race-walking champion, academic and Holocaust survivor Shaul Ladany celebrated his 80th birthday on April 1 by walking nonstop for 80 kilometers, one kilometer for every year of his life — almost 50 miles. Ladany walked a circular track on the streets of his home community of Omer, near… Read more »

Angela Salmon, a program coordinator at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, doesn’t mind if her clients don’t always remember her name. She doesn’t mind if they sometimes have to search for the right words. When she and her clients are together on the Adventure Bus, a program for… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El’s Kurn Religious School will implement a new distance learning strategy to increase Hebrew school engagement in the upcoming academic year. Called Hebrew@Home, it will allow students in third through eighth grades who live in remote locations or cannot make it to the school for other reasons to… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — In a rare and sharp split with Israeli government policy, a group of Jewish community leaders want to get a proposal for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the next president’s desk. Two complementary U.S. and Israeli working papers to be launched next week propose… Read more »

Rabbi Joshua Stanton

  HOBOKEN, N.J. (JTA) — Kosovo is a “newborn” country, a majority Muslim state that fought for its independence from Serbia only eight years ago. Yet it has erected a Holocaust memorial outside its parliament, elected a female president, held pride parades in support of LGBTQ rights and supported the building… Read more »

Amy Hirshberg Lederman

I travel by air quite a bit and to be honest, it isn’t fun. Besides the stress of getting to the airport in sufficient time to remove half the clothing I put on just hours before, I generally arrive at my destination half-starved and sleep deprived. But the real angst… Read more »

On July 1, 20 nonprofit organizations will receive the first payments of grants totaling $328,335 from the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona’s competitive community grants process. Funding focused on three areas: Tucson Jewish Community, Israel and Global Jewry, and Tucson General Community. New this year were Synagogue Small… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — In Israel, when the two-minute siren sounds at 11 a.m. on Yom Hazikaron, the Jewish state’s Memorial Day, the nation comes to a halt. As we saw just two weeks ago, cars on streets and highways pull over, and drivers and passengers get out of their vehicles… Read more »

A year of service will soon begin for two Israeli teens and their work will bring them here to Tucson. Leah Genei Avuno, 17, of Kiryat Malachi and Bar Alkaher, 17, of Shimshit will arrive here at the beginning of August and they cannot wait to dig in. They are… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – When it comes to Israel, Democrats and Republicans simply do not see eye to eye, and for all their love of Zion, evangelicals will turn out for a candidate who is less than 100 percent on the issue. Welcome to the 2016 presidential election, when the… Read more »

After journeying from the Western Desert tombs of Egypt, through Dubai, Europe and Israel, two 3,000 year-old stolen artifacts are making their way home on Sunday. The two wood and plaster sarcophagi lids, painted and carved with hieroglyphics, were given to Egyptian Ambassador Hazem Khairat on Sunday by Dore… Read more »