Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

Until 2009, right-wing Portuguese politician José Ribeiro e Castro didn’t have much interest in the expulsion of his country’s Jewish community in the 16th century. That changed once Ribeiro e Castro opened a Facebook account. Online, the 60-year-old lawmaker and journalist connected to several Sephardic Jews, descendants of a… Read more »

September is National Preparedness Month. It’s a great time to plan for an emergency or disaster. It is a myth that “nothing ever happens in Tucson!” We are fortunate to live where few natural disasters occur. Earthquakes are very rare, hurricanes don’t come our way and a tsunami just… Read more »

Arlene Barth with a few of the thousands of dolls in her collection (Renee Claire)

Walk around Arlene Barth’s eastside Tucson home and you will find over 2,300 pairs of eyes looking your way. Barth, RN, MSN and captain (retired) from the U.S. Public Health Service began collecting dolls in 1996. They are present in every room of her home; organized on tables, spilling… Read more »

Friends of the Israel Defense Forces has closed its Arizona chapter, which was based in Phoenix. Administrative duties will be handled by the national office in New York, which will be in touch directly with FIDF supporters in Arizona. “We would like to express our deepest gratitude to the… Read more »

In an effort to combat the national obesity epidemic that also afflicts children and families locally, the Tucson Jewish Community Center is implementing Discover: CATCH® Early Childhood — a new wellness initiative. The program has already been instituted in 19 JCCs across the country. Starting this month, children enrolled… Read more »

Todd Rockoff

Todd Rockoff, the new president and CEO of the Tucson Jewish Community Center, has worked for JCCs from Akron, Ohio, to Calgary, Alberta. He started out at age 16 as a camp counselor in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y. “I’m honored to never have received a paycheck from anyone… Read more »

Hoogvliet was among four Dutch supermarket chains that distanced themselves from a boycott on Israeli settlements goods they were said to be enacting. (Creative Commons)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (JTA) — Two weeks ago, the Dutch public learned of what appeared to be an unprecedented victory for European advocates of boycotting Israeli products. Four major supermarket chains reportedly declared a boycott of products from the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. But the… Read more »

The world’s first lab-grown burger could be parve and thus paired with dairy products. (David Parry / PA Wire)

NEW YORK (JTA) — When the world’s first lab-grown burger was introduced and taste-tested on Monday, the event seemed full of promise for environmentalists, animal lovers and vegetarians. Another group that had good reason to be excited? Kosher consumers. The burger was created by harvesting stem cells from a portion… Read more »

Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich, left, and Rabbi Menachem Margolin of the Chabad-affiliated Rabbinical Centre of Europe have been at odds publicly over Schudrich's handling of the kosher slaughter case in Poland. (Creative Commons/Facebook)

(JTA) — A few weeks before Poland’s parliament voted last month on whether to overturn a ban on ritual slaughter, Rabbi Menachem Margolin was scheduled to meet the Polish president in an effort to find a solution to the problem. The ban had been imposed in January, when a Polish… Read more »

FC Barcelona at the Western Wall (Tazpit News Agency)

At the Washington press conference held on July 30, US Secretary of State John Kerry declared that the Israelis and Palestinians will aim to reach a final status agreement to end their conflict in the time frame of nine months. He also had some words to say about the… Read more »

Last month, I attended the annual conference of the American Jewish Press Association, along with other editors, publishers and staff of Jewish newspapers from across North America. One of the most intriguing tidbits at the final day’s “show and tell” session was a video cooking show from the Yiddish… Read more »

Dave Blackburn, shown at center during last week's opening ceremony, is attending the Maccabiah as a paralympian in table tennis after six previous appearances as an able-bodied softball pitcher. (Courtesy Dave Blackburn)

RAMAT GAN, Israel (JTA) — Dave Blackburn beamed triumphantly, surrounded by a crowd of American athletes and cheering spectators. It was like old times, the great pitcher basking in applause. But Blackburn wasn’t being ushered off the field with a championship trophy in hand as he was after leading… Read more »

(L-R): Israeli negotiators Yitzhak Molcho and Tzipi Livni, Vice President Joe Biden, President Barack Obama, and Palestinian negotiators Saeb Erekat and Mohammed Shtayyeh at an Oval Office meeting to discuss the formal resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, July 30, 2013. (U.S. State Department)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — After 20 years of stops, starts and a bloody intifada in between, John Kerry believes he can pull out a final status Israeli-Palestinian peace deal in nine months. What clock is the U.S. secretary of state trying to beat? According to his aides, the one ticking… Read more »

An Orthodox woman blows a whistle in protest against efforts to promote women's prayer at Jerusalem's Western Wall, July 8, 2013. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — On the morning of July 8, at the beginning of the Hebrew month of Av, the Western Wall plaza was a cacophonous mess. Women of the Wall, the activist group that holds women’s prayer services each month at the site known as the Kotel, loudly sang… Read more »

This week the EU took three steps that together prove Europe’s ill-intentions towards the Jewish state. First, last Friday the EU announced it is imposing economic sanctions on Israel. The sanctions deny EU funds to Israeli entities with an address beyond the 1949 armistice lines. They also deny EU… Read more »

This week’s news cycle opened with a flurry of reactions to Secretary Kerry’s announcement last Friday evening that “an agreement that establishes a basis for resuming direct final status negotiations” had been reached. On Thursday, the Israel Policy Forum sent a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu signed by 140 prominent American Jews… Read more »

Klara Ilona Swimmer, M.D., 88, died July 18, 2013. Born in Hungary, Dr. Swimmer met her husband, George, as a teenager. They married in May 1944 on the steps of the then-locked synagogue. Soon after she was put on a train and taken to Auschwitz, along with her mother… Read more »

Nechama (nee Marilyn) Devore, 73, died June 7, 2013. Mrs. Devore was trained and certified as a chaplain at University Medical Center. Survivors include her husband, Samuel; and daughter, Karen (Joel) Heller of Tucson. Services were held at Congregation Or Chadash with Rabbi Thomas Louchheim and Cantor Janece Cohen… Read more »

Mildred Elaine “Millie” Wool (nee Goodman), 89, died July 3, 2013. A lifelong resident of Waukegan, Ill., and a frequent winter visitor to Tucson, Mrs. Wool graduated from Waukegan High School and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. After her marriage in 1948 to Buddy Wool, they started their life… Read more »

When swimmer Garrett Weber-Gale heard his name announced last Wednesday as the U.S. flag bearer for the opening ceremony of the 19th Maccabiah Games, he just about lost his breath. A two-time gold medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Weber-Gale had spoken with JTA earlier this week about the… Read more »