Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild talks with Bishop Gerald Kicanis of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson Rothschild at the Jewish Community Relations Council breakfast on April 11. (Simon Rosenblatt)

“We must work together” was the mantra at the “Border Communities: Issues, Ideas and Initiatives” breakfast and panel discussion on April 11. “No mayor, no rabbi, no priest can address border issues alone,” said Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson, as an introduction to… Read more »

Jacob Carmi, far left, with three of the American engineers who helped his team restore C-97 cargo planes in Tucson for the Israel Air Force.

Could a salvaged airplane from Tucson have played a part in the Six Day War? Improbable, yet true. In 1967, three Israeli engineers, with a handful of American mechanics and help from the Tucson Jewish community, secretly put together four Boeing C-97 planes from scraps in a Tucson junkyard,… Read more »

From Commemoration to Celebration The uniqueness and in a way, also the beauty, of Israel’s Independence Day (Yom Haatzmaut) is that it doesn’t stand on its own. Holocaust Memorial Day (Yom HaShoah) and the Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror (Yom Hazikaron) serve as the buildup,… Read more »

Sarah Chen

As a young mom, the biggest single change I’ve noticed, Jewishly, is that I’ve gone from the happy-go-lucky Receiver of the Experience to the all-encompassing, ever-busy Provider. I used to sit around the Seder as a middle schooler rolling my eyes, sighing, wishing we could move faster. Then as… Read more »

The patio at Bodega Kitchen & Wine

Tucson isn’t the left bank of Paris, but elegant ambiance, lovingly prepared Southwest and ethnic dishes, and spring outdoor dining all contribute to the tasty local restaurant scene. “Spring creativity came to me in a dream last week about drinks,” says Chef Coralie Satta, owner of Ghini’s French Café.… Read more »

Students in the Tafnit program at the Amit State Religious High School in Kiryat Malachi, Tucson’s Partnership2Gether sister city, eat dinner during a study marathon.

While Arizona high school students have to take a test called AIMS, Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards, Israeli students need to face bagrut matriculation exams in at least eight subjects to finish high school with a degree recognized by the Israeli university system and used by the army and… Read more »

Bruce and Alayne Greenberg have been awarded the $2,500 Goldman Family Israel Scholarship Award from the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona for the Southwest Torah Institute 2014 Israel Experience Trip slated for May 4-18. Announcing the award on behalf of the Southwest Torah Institute, Rabbi Israel Becker expressed… Read more »

Young Women’s Cabinet, a two-year leadership development program through the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, is seeking young women of all Jewish backgrounds who are in their mid-20s through early 40s. The Young Women’s Cabinet consists of about 12 women each year who gain leadership development skills and exposure… Read more »

Hillels in North America have a new resource: www.JCollegeBound.org enables high school seniors to share their names and email addresses with the Hillel at the college or university they plan to attend. The Hillel director at the student’s new school will automatically be notified and will reach out to… Read more »

Israeli singer-songwriter Lior Balavi will perform at Tucson’s Israel 66 celebration at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on the evening of May 14, which will cap almost two weeks of events.

Tucson Celebrates Israel 66, almost two weeks of community-wide celebrations and commemorations coordinated by the Weintraub Israel Center, will take place May 2-14. “This year, the community decided to put Israel in the center, to dedicate more than one day to celebrating and honoring Israel,” says Oshrat Barel, community… Read more »

Gershom Sizomu

NABAGOYE, Uganda (JTA) — As we celebrate Passover, it is important to remember that as great as the miracle of the Exodus was, freedom was only the beginning. I know this from reading the Torah, but I also know from personal experience. I was born in Uganda to Jewish parents at… Read more »

“Berlin Diary” was the title of a book by William Shirer (author of the classic “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”) describing his experiences as a reporter in the dark days of Berlin in the late 1930s, as the early steps toward the Shoah were taking place.… Read more »

(JTA) — U.S. Secretary Of State John Kerry condemned as “grotesque” fliers that called on Jews in parts of Ukraine to register and pay a special tax to pro-Russian separatists. The fliers’ authenticity and origins are not clear. They appeared last week in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk,… Read more »

(JTA) — Pro-Russian separatists from Donetsk in eastern Ukraine denied any involvement in the circulation of fliers calling on Jews to register with separatists and pay special taxes. The fliers were distributed earlier this week in the city, where pro-Russian separatists led by Denis Pushilin this month took over… Read more »

Congregation Chofetz Chayim Yochanan Gordon and Rabbi Israel Becker held a mock sword fight as Gavriel Aronov snapped a photo at Congregation Chofetz Chayim’s Purim party on Sunday, March 16. The event, which included dinner and a professional magic show, was attended by more than 80 people.   Temple… Read more »

A daughter, LEEBA NEUMAN, was born Feb. 27, 2014 to Rachel-Leah and Rabbi Gilad Neuman of Baltimore. Grandparents are Shlomo and Yael Neuman of Tucson and Chaya and Rabbi Moshe Zwick of Baltimore. Leeba joins her siblings, Reuven, Tsivia, Yaakov, Orah and Aviva.… Read more »

Rodney Glassman

Former Tucson City Councilman RODNEY B. GLASSMAN, J.D., Ph.D., has joined Ryley, Carlock & Applewhite, a Phoenix law firm, to lead its external affairs and government relations practice. Glassman was most recently acting town manager of Cave Creek, Ariz. The Tucson office of RBC Wealth Management announced that the… Read more »

Filmmaker TAMAR HALPERN will participate in a Q&A following the Loft Cinema’s screening of the documentary she co-directed, “Llyn Foulkes One Man Band,” on April 24 at 7 p.m. Halpern, who lives in Los Angeles, spent her teen years in Tucson, graduating from Tucson High School. She is the… Read more »

In a photo from the late 1940s, Rabbi Osher Levitan (right) supervises production of Passover matzah at the Streit’s matzah factory on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

For the past year, filmmaker Michael Levine and producer Michael Green have been documenting the story of the last family- owned matzah factory in America, the Streit’s matzah factory on New York’s historic Lower East Side. The result is “Streit’s: Matzo and the American Dream” , a feature length… Read more »

In the Exodus story, Moses decides to rescue his people after he hears God speak to him through the burning bush. But when New York City-based artist Jan Aronson imagined the famous episode in which Moses must decide which path to take in life, she didn’t see a magic… Read more »