Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (JTA) — Every Friday at noon, my 2-year-old daughter and I rush through the doors of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City here to meet my father for lunch. We are usually late, and the JCC’s Heritage Center, catering to active seniors (and their… Read more »

A policewoman and police car are seen at the entrance of the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kan., following the fatal shootings there, April 13, 2014. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The suspect in deadly shootings at two Jewish institutions in suburban Kansas City made no secret of his hateful views, but nobody anticipated the attack that claimed three lives on Sunday. The shooter was identified as Frazier Glenn Miller, a 73-year-old white supremacist. The attack illustrates… Read more »

Deborah A. Shacter, 62, of Rockville, Md., died March 16, 2014. Born in San Francisco, Ms. Shacter was raised in Bethesda, Md. She attended the University of Arizona, then transferred to Montgomery College in Rockville. She was an information management consultant whose clients included the National Wildlife Federation, Smithsonian… Read more »

Miriam Novack Sternstein, 85, died March 21, 2014. Mrs. Sternstein and her husband, Aaron, moved to Tucson from Chicago in 1949. She worked in the family business until retirement. After retirement, Miriam volunteered at the University of Arizona Medical Center for more than 25 years. Donating over 13,000 hours… Read more »

Edwin Greenberg, 85, died March 28, 2014. Mr. Greenberg was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. Mr. Greenberg was preceded in death by his wife of 51 years, Lois. Survivors include his children, Dean (Mel) Greenberg and Sandy (Carl) Hand, both of Tucson, Melody (John) Pehote of Warren, Mich., and Randy… Read more »

Gerald Schneider, 96, died April 1, 2014. Raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Mr. Schneider served his country in World War II and participated in the initial assault on Normandy. He moved his family to Tucson in 1964. Mr. Schneider was preceded in death by his wife of 49 years, Eleanor.… Read more »

“You do not come to Israel to learn. You come to Israel to feel,” said a speaker at Israel Independence Hall. My feelings were so deep and profound that tears welled up uncontrollably often on Congregation Or Chadash’s mission to Israel, March 5 to 12. Let me try to… Read more »

The cast of ‘Olive and the Bitter Herbs,’ (L-R): David Alexander Johnston, Eric Anson, Susan Claassen, Susan Kovitz and Jack Neubeck (Tim Fuller)

Actress Olive Fisher, known for her “Gimme the Sausage” commercial, is a classic New York curmudgeon at war with the world in general and her next door neighbors in particular. Her closed-off life is shaken by the appearance of a ghost in her mirror, but that’s the least of… Read more »

The cast of “Love, Loss and What I Wore,” (clockwise from top left): Avis Judd, Carley Elizabeth Preston, T. Loving, Carlisle Ellis and Carrie Hill.

Five women explore identity and relationships in “Love, Loss and What I Wore,” a play by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron, based on the best-selling memoir by Ilene Beckerman. In monologues that are by turns comic and bittersweet, the characters recall prom dresses and cowboy boots, parents and lovers,… Read more »

Amy Hirshberg Lederman

Ever since I can remember, I have been in a relationship with God. Despite growing up in a family of agnostics, I always believed in, and even felt, the presence of God in my world. My idea of God as a child was that of a Biblical God —… Read more »

Israelis call for the release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard during President Obama’s visit to Jerusalem, March 19, 2013.

In a last, desperate, attempt to save the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks from failure, a tripartite deal was hurriedly cooked: Israel would reportedly freeze settlements and release Palestinian prisoners, the Palestinians would stay at the negotiating table, and the Americans would release Jonathan Pollard, the former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst,… Read more »

A key component that unifies a people or nation is a common language. The Jewish people are no exception; the Hebrew language is an essential element of what constitutes the Jewish nation. Hebrew often is the only common language in the room — the lingua franca — when Jews… Read more »

Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub

Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub, rabbinic director of the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services of New York’s National Center for Jewish Healing, will present at Congregation Anshei Israel’s “Torah and Healing” study session on Saturday, April 26 at 5 p.m. Weintraub, a licensed therapist, will lead “The Taboo… Read more »

Theodore Sasson

The University of Arizona’s Center for Judaic Studies will host “Continuity and Discontinuity in Jewish Culture,” the annual Western Jewish Studies Association conference, next month. Membership in the WJSA is not required to attend the conference. Theodore Sasson, senior research scientist at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies… Read more »

Rabbi Yossi Winner and his wife, Naomi, set up a Chabad tent on the University of Arizona mall each week.

Every Tuesday, my wife, Naomi, and I sit on campus under a tent meeting with students as they pass by in between their classes. One such Tuesday, a few weeks ago, I encountered an individual holding a big sign that read, “You all deserve hell.” After about an hour,… Read more »

Stuart Mellan

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has announced its slate of recommended officers and directors for the 2014-15 program year. The list of 26 names (see below: Nominees for JFSA officers, board named ) marks a significant restructuring of the JFSA board, which previously numbered more than 100 members.… Read more »

Gilberto Bosques

The 2014 community Yom HaShoah Commemoration, “Diplomatic Acts of Conscience and Courage,” will honor Tucson’s Holocaust survivors and Mexican diplomat Gilberto Bosques. The event will take place on Sunday, April 27 at 2 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El, and will begin with a procession and candlelighting ceremony by local Holocaust… Read more »

Four generations, including Oshrat Barel, director of Tucson’s Weintraub Israel Center (third from right), her grandmother, mother and daughters, celebrate Mimuna in Israel in April 2013.

As a first-generation Israeli of Moroccan descent, Oshrat Barel is bringing a personal touch to “Mimuna! Israeli-Moroccan Nights,” a traditional end-of-Passover celebration the Weintraub Israel Center and Temple Emanu-El will present on Tuesday, April 22 at 6:30 p.m. at the synagogue. The evening will include live music, Moroccan sweets… Read more »

Rosie Eilat Kahn and Terry Allen Perl, JFSA Woman and Man of the Year

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will honor its 2014 award winners at its annual meeting and awards celebration on Thursday, May 1 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. “Feddy’s,” the custom metal and glass awards designed by Lynn Rae Lowe for the Federation, and other… Read more »

Ronnie Sebold

For more than 30 years Ronnie Sebold has been involved with the Tucson Hebrew Academy. She volunteered for 22 years, held two staff positions and her three children attended THA for a total of 19 years straight. Next month THA will honor Sebold at its annual Guardian Appreciation Brunch.… Read more »