Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

NEW YORK (JTA) — The recent Op-Ed in JTA championing human rights in Iran was very compelling but for two facts: It was co-authored by two of Israel’s greatest advocates, and they published it in JTA, a Jewish media outlet. As a community, we can be willing to bomb… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – The June 12 Iranian presidential election was fraught with fraud and fear — candidates vetted for their loyalty to the Supreme Leader and the Revolutionary Guards, the press muzzled by the imprisonment of independent journalists, and the leaders of Iranian civil society in detention. The absence… Read more »

North Korea refugee and human rights activist Shin Dong-hyuk demonstrating for human rights in North Korea outside the White House, July 10, 2012. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

BRUSSELS (JTA) — When guards dragged Shin Dong-hyuk from his North Korean cell in 1995, he was pretty sure the end was near. Dong-hyuk, then just 13, was born in the prison known as Camp 14, not far from Pyongyang. Camp 14 is part of a network of political… Read more »

Pro-choice supporters at a candlelight vigil in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, Jan. 22, 2013. (Photo by Allison Shelley/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Liberal Jewish groups fired a verbal barrage against a restrictive abortion bill passed by the Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives, calling it “egregious,” “outrageous,” “an affront,” and “deeply disappointing.” Such strong language is unusual in any case for groups that must engage with Congress, but especially… Read more »

HIAS-assisted refugees in Chad (HIAS)

(New York, NY – June 20, 2013) – HIAS, the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees, today launched The Welcome Initiative, a campaign to raise awareness around issues surrounding the treatment and welcome of refugees. Central to the campaign is the Affirmation of Welcome, a call to action to… Read more »

Barbra Streisand hugs Israeli President Shimon Peres after performing at his 90th birthday celebration in Jerusalem, June 18, 2013. (Kobi Gideon/GPO/FLASH90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — World leaders praised and serenaded Israeli President Shimon Peres in honor of his upcoming 90th birthday. The prime-time birthday celebration Tuesday night marked the start of the fifth annual Israeli Presidential Conference. Two of every three Israeli television viewers tuned in to the ceremony, which was… Read more »

Left to right, Geulah Elementary School classmates Avraham Siton, Ora Bogomolny and Mashiach Moshe Shem-Tov meet for lunch in Florida months before their 60th reunion in Israel. Siton would die two days before the June 12 reunion.(Courtesy Ora Bogomolny)

The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends. BALTIMORE (JTA) – Ora Bogomolny sounded subdued, as if the phone call to her Israel apartment had disturbed her sleep. Indeed, she had experienced a nightmare just hours before receiving the call from “Seeking Kin” on June… Read more »

Protester standing on top of a barricade during a demonstration near Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, June 11, 2013. (Lam Yik Fei/Getty)

TEL AVIV (JTA) – As the budding protest movement in Turkey against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan struggles to gain a foothold, Israel is watching the developments with some measure of ambivalence. On the one hand, Erdogan has led Turkey away from a close alliance with Israel, using his… Read more »

Hassan Rohani, Iran's president-elect, is a former national security adviser and ex-nuclear negotiator. (Creative Commons)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Former national security adviser, former nuclear negotiator, a decades-old friendship with the supreme leader — Hassan Rohani is as Iranian establishment as it gets. Which is why, some Iran watchers say, he may be an invaluable asset in the quest to reduce tensions between the Islamic… Read more »

“The Complete Caregiver Support Guide” by ESTER LEUTENBERG and Carroll Morris received a Silver 2013 Benjamin Franklin Award in the category of psychology from the Independent Book Publishers Association at a ceremony in New York City on May 29. The book was published by Whole Person Associates. Leutenberg has… Read more »

RAFE PASKAL CENTUORI, son of Kim Paskal and Steven Centuori, celebrated becoming a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday, May 4 at Congregation Or Cha­dash. He is the grandson of Evelyn McNeill and the late Herbert Paskal of Tucson and the late Roseanne and Robert Centuori of Tucson. Rafe attends Tucson… Read more »

Debbie and Bruce Frent of Tucson announce the engagement of their daughter, Jessica Megan Frent, to Clifton Calvin Davis III, son of Charlene and Rusty Davis of Paradise Valley, Ariz. A May 2014 wedding is planned.… Read more »

PAMELA HEIMAN DUBIN, M.D., has been named care manager for SELECT Care Managers, a service of JEWISH FAMILY & CHILDREN’S SERVICES OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA. Previously, Dubin practiced medicine for one and a half years and was a science officer with Weil Life­styles for seven years. She is a volunteer… Read more »

Zachary Solomon Orman, 28, died in a paragliding accident at the Los Cienagas National Conservation Area near Sonoita, Ariz., on April 7, 2013. Born in Merced, Calif., and raised in Murphys, Calif. Mr. Orman graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz with a degree in neurobiology. He… Read more »

Ronald C. Janoff, 85, died June 4, 2013. Born in New York City, Mr. Janoff served in the United States Merchant Marine in World War II and in the U.S. Coast Guard. He graduated from New York University with a bachelor’s degree in 1948. Mr. Janoff was a real… Read more »

Participants at the Isabella Freedman Senior Camp in Falls Village, Conn., dancing next to the tree mural they created, with notes expressing the accomplishments in which they take the most pride and their hopes serving as the leaves. (Courtesy Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center)

Not many people attend summer camp with their parents. Mindelle Pierce went with her mom when her mother was in her 90s. They chose a two-week program for senior adults at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, Conn. Aside from typical camp activities such as swimming… Read more »

A daughter, MIRA CLEMENTINE RAY, was born May 11, 2013 to Julie and Prasenjit Ray. Grandparents are Nancy and Jerome Glaser of Los Angeles and Kumkum and Asit Baran Ray of Charleston, W. Va.… Read more »

... and at their wedding in 1953.

Sally and Sid Brodkin will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary on June 14 with a celebration at home with their family. They were married on June 14, 1953 at the Benson Chateau in Brooklyn, N.Y. The couple lived in Forest Hills, Queens for five years, Williston Park on Long… Read more »

A son, YANAI DRUKER, was born March 8, 2013 to Oren and Meirav Druker of Moshav Dekel, Israel. Grandparents are Lora Stern Druker and Yoram Druker of Moshav Dekel and Marcello and Diana Wasser of Kibbutz Nirim, Israel. Great-grandparents are Carol and Alvin Stern of Tucson and Araham and… Read more »

GILA SILVERMAN won a first place award from the Arizona Press Club for non-metro social issues reporting for her article in the Dec. 28, 2012 edition of the ARIZONA JEWISH POST, “Be kind: Ben’s Bells replace dreidel for Winterhaven Festival of Lights.”  The judge wrote, “This easily could have… Read more »