Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

Kate, the duchess of Cambridge, rides in a carriage back to Buckingham Palace in London in June 2013, is in labor in a hospital wing of St. Mary's Hospital named for a wealthy Jewish man. ( Chris Jackson/Getty)

NEW YORK (JTA) – When the news broke Monday that Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge and wife of Prince William, had gone into labor, it seemed that London could not have been more prepared. For weeks, reporters and photographers had been camped out in front of the maternity ward at… Read more »

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Jerusalem, June 28, 2013.(Amos Ben Gershom/GPO/Flash90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — We don’t know. That’s the operative phrase of the new round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks announced Friday and ostensibly set to begin in the coming days in Washington. We don’t know their parameters, or if Israel will freeze settlements, release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners or agree to… Read more »

U.S. Olympic gymnast and gold medalist Aly Raisman lights the torch during the opening ceremony of the 19th Maccabiah Games at Jerusalem's Teddy Stadium, July 19, 2013. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90/JTA)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — U.S. Olympian Aly Raisman lit the torch at the opening ceremony of the 19th Maccabiah Games, which features a record number of nearly 9,000 athletes. Thursday night’s ceremony at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem featured pyrotechnics and performances with hundreds of dancers and popular Israeli singers, as… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations will resume, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced. “The representatives of two proud people today have decided that the difficult road ahead is worth traveling,” Kerry said in the Jordanian capital of Amman on Friday, where he was on his sixth visit… Read more »

Bruce and Alayne Greenberg, parents of Anna Greenberg, who died May 28, 2013 after a valiant struggle with cancer, met with songwriter and actress Bette Midler last month in New York, where Midler is starring in “I’ll Eat You Last.” “Alayne and I had a heartfelt discussion with Bette… Read more »

Rashad Hussain

WASHINGTON (JTA) — During Ramadan, Muslim communities around the world experience a month of fasting, devotion and increased consciousness of their faith. They also remember those who are suffering around the world and seek an end to the forces of hatred that lead to violence against people of all… Read more »

In Kenya, the home of this young HIAS client, the immigrant aid society has taken in refugees from conflicts in neighboring countries, among others. (Courtesy HIAS)

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (JTA) — The new HIAS is not your grandmother’s Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and it’s certainly not the one that brought her mother over from the Pale of Settlement. After decades as the Jewish community’s foremost voice on immigration — first in leading the resettlement of Jews… Read more »

Former Montreal Canadiens coach Jacques Demers embraces his one-time goalie Patrick Roy at Roy's 2008 retirement ceremony at the Bell Centre in Montreal. (Photo by Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Of all the compelling stories of athletic achievement and challenges overcome that could be told by the 9,000 participants gathering in Israel for the 19th Maccabiah Games, it might be hard to find one to top Jacques Demers. He’s a coaching legend, having led the iconic… Read more »

Israeli Economics Minister Naftali Bennett, left, sampling some halvah at a factory in the West Bank Jewish settlement city of Ariel, June 4, 2013. (Assaf Shilo/Israel Sun/Flash 90/JTA)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (JTA) — The intensity with which Israel reacted this week to new European guidelines prohibiting support for projects based in disputed territories surprised not only EU diplomats, but also their Israeli counterparts. The guidelines, which preclude already nonexistent EU grants to Israeli entities in the West… Read more »

Esther N. Capin, 78, died July 14, 2013. Born in Chicago and raised in Los Angeles, she moved to Nogales, Ariz., in 1955 when she married Richard L. Capin. She was instrumental in developing mental health services for the Nogales community as well as a modern public library. She… Read more »

In your June 14 issue you feature an interview with the WWII veteran Nathan Shapiro (“Nathan Shapiro: Boy cantor at 10, active senior and ‘lucky guy’ at 95”). Mr. Shapiro is quoted as saying that the U.S. “would have lost hundreds of thousands of men” more in the war… Read more »

I have just read the Shout Out column written by Michaela Davenport (“For Tucson teen, March of the Living trip is heartwrenching, empowering,” AJP 6/28/13) and was incredibly moved. I had to re-read the brief notice about Michaela as I found it hard to believe that she is only… Read more »

I read with interest the article on Tucsonans bound for the Maccabiah Games (AJP, 6/14/13) and thought you might be interested in the fact that my son Jimmy Grabb, a native Tucsonan and former professional tennis player, is going to be inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of… Read more »

Romance blooms for Andrew West and Sophia Kerdoon in the Negev Desert.

Ask almost anyone who has been on Birthright Israel and they will tell you that the 10-day trip is a life-changing experience. This might sound cliché, but for many Tucsonans on the trip from June 10-20 — sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, local donors and the… Read more »

May 2013 Spirit orientation at the Rabbinical Seminary of America in Queens, N.Y., with Rabbi Israel Becker (right) and three members of this year’s Spirit team (left to right): Nosson Yeshaya Schwartz, Yaakov Tokayer, Shlomo Zalman Minkowitz

The Southwest Torah Institute’s long-running Dr. Paul W. Hoffert Spirit Program returns to Tucson Sunday, July 28 through Friday, Aug. 9, at Congregation Chofetz Chayim. The Spirit program offers two weeks of Jewish learning for Jewish men and boys, ages 8 and up. Participants may study virtually any topic… Read more »

Congregation Anshei Israel has announced its sixth year of “Rosh Hodesh: It’s a Girl Thing!” The program uses Jewish teachings to help pre-teen and teenage girls make healthy life choices. Keys to the program are an informal setting, small group size and activities designed to strengthen girls’ Jewish identity,… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El will once again offer Taste of Judaism, a free introductory class on Jewish spirituality, values and community, with four sessions beginning next month and one beginning in late September. More than 4,500 people have completed the course offered by Temple Emanu-El, now in its 14th year. Rabbis… Read more »

The Claims Conference recently negotiated an agreement under which the German government committed to providing approximately $1 billion over a four-year period for homecare for Jewish Holocaust victims, with the annual amount increasing every year through 2017. In Tucson, the Holocaust Survivor Program is part of Jewish Family &… Read more »

Rabbi Sandra Wortzel

It was easy for Sandra Wortzel to identify as Jewish growing up in New York City. It took years for her spiritual journey to sway her into becoming a rabbi. “I grew up completely secular,” Wortzel, 58, told the AJP. “My brother became a Bar Mitzvah but that’s it”… Read more »

Egyptian protesters hold an anti-Morsi poster in Tahrir Square in Cairo shortly before the military's ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, July 3, 2013. (Spencer Platt/Getty)

TEL AVIV (JTA) – For the second time in less than three years, Egypt is erupting in chaos, with a popular protest movement leading to a swift change in the country’s leadership. For Israelis, the Egyptian military’s removal of Mohamed Morsi from the presidency last week is a cause… Read more »