Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

Living as Jews in America, we are slowly relinquishing personal and group responsibility to our government elites who are supposed to be stewards of our freedoms. Washington political elites pander to us as we lose more and more of our freedoms afforded us by our Constitution and our heritage.… Read more »

When world leaders converge on New York this month, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will again be present. The occasion is the opening of the United Nations General Assembly session. This time, though, Ahmadinejad comes with enhanced diplomatic credentials. He is no longer just head of Iran; he also chairs… Read more »

Meryl Press

Volunteers — defined as those “who perform a service willingly and without pay” — are the backbone of many organizations, helping them fulfill and sometimes expand upon their core missions. In this special “Volunteer Salute,” the AJP presents brief snapshots of volunteers from the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona… Read more »

Marjorie Hochberg

Some are native Tucsonans, one grew up in Moscow, all dreamed of singing — and Tucson’s cantorial soloists also all are women. A few of the younger soloists began singing at local congregations following their B’not Mitzvah, connecting them more deeply to their Judaism. During this High Holiday season,… Read more »

In these heated months before the presidential election, we step back to pray during the High Holidays and hope for the best for our country, Israel and the world. Throughout the year, many Jewish Tucsonans are engaged in social activism and involved in politics on a local or national… Read more »

Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon

The great beauty of the Jewish High Holy Day season is the wonderful opportunity it provides for each of us to start over. Whatever it is that we have done in the past year, whoever we have offended, however we have failed, we now have the chance to begin… Read more »

Last Yom Kippur, a fasting Brenda Rienhardt sat in the hallway outside her classroom studying for a test while watching online Yom Kippur services on her laptop. “I wanted to keep up with what was going on religiously and not fail my test,” said Rienhardt, 26, a Fort Lauderdale,… Read more »

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are our holiest days of prayer and personal reflection — and a time to remember people in need. Each year, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona works with synagogues and local Jewish agencies on Project Isaiah, a food… Read more »

A Holocaust education teacher in-service, “Digital Literacies and Holocaust Education: Teaching the Holocaust with Video Testimonial,” will be held Thursday, Sept. 20 at the University of Arizona College of Education,1430 E. 2nd St., in the Kiva Auditorium. The program, which will feature Sheila Hansen, the lead trainer of the… Read more »

  The 2012-2013 Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra season will feature five local composers, including two world premieres by Tucson artists, “Running the Rim” by Jay Vosk, which opens the series in October, and “Landscapes” by Peter Fine, which will conclude the series in May. The Vosk premiere will be… Read more »

  American Physicians and Friends for Medicine in Israel will hold an Emergency and Disaster Preparedness Course, Nov. 3-8, in Israel. In conjunction with the Ministry of Health and the medical corps of the Israel Defense Forces, the course offers emergency and peacetime preparedness techniques. Local physician Ken Brandis,… Read more »

Rabbi Miriam S. Jerris

Rabbi Miriam S. Jerris of the Society for Humanistic Judaism will lead the Secular Humanist Jewish Circle’s third annual High Holiday “Celebration of Community and Connection” on Saturday, Sept. 22 at 9:30 a.m. The service will include moral and ethical teachings related to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, as… Read more »

  I know how you’re feeling. Your despair is palpable. Your resignation is visceral; your frustration is visible. You open The New York Times, Ha’aretz or The Jerusalem Post and you think you don’t know the place anymore. You can’t swallow, you fume. You give up. You’ve always supported… Read more »

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

The start of the Jewish New Year, the month of Tishrei, is filled with holy days, among them four foundational celebrations: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah-Shemini Atzeret. They are quite different from one another. Yet we may also think of all four holidays as two pairs… Read more »

Rachel Meyer demonstrates an axe kick

The thrills of the summer Olympics are behind us, but Tucsonan Rachel Meyer, a 16-year-old Taekwondo champion, has a new international competition to look forward to: the 19th World Maccabiah Games in Israel next July. Meyer will turn 17 at the games in Jerusalem and will compete in the… Read more »

I applaud your comments associated with my letter to the editor on Aug. 24. It renews my faith in the objectivity of the AJP. Thanks for publishing both my and your comments. —Ken Miller… Read more »

Ken Miller ends his Aug. 24 letter by criticizing the Arizona Jewish Post for publishing a partisan viewpoint. Let’s leave aside Miller’s own partisan statement that a cartoon satirizing Romney’s Israel trip is “just another liberal attack on Romney.” Much more disturbingly, how can the AJP let stand Miller’s… Read more »

You remember the classical description of Jewish people and opinions? When two Jews are in discussion, there are three opinions. The AJP has no need to apologize for publishing a variety of viewpoints; it’s one of the paper’s, in fact, any paper’s, strengths. Additionally, it behooves those who write… Read more »

When Rabbi Shafir Lobb was first visiting Congregation Ner Tamid eight years ago, I was assigned the job of helping to make the landing in Tucson as soft as possible.  Now eight years later, I would like to acknowledge the contribution that Rabbi Shafir made beyond the Jewish community… Read more »

Yafit Josephson as an Israeli army officer in "New Eyes" (Courtesy Invisible Theatre)

As a struggling young actress in Los Angeles, Yafit Josephson should have been glad to get parts — any parts. Yet Josephson, 30, who was born in L.A. but raised in Israel from age 2, who served proudly in the Israel Defense Forces before moving to California to study… Read more »