Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

Documentary explores PTSD and Holocaust

Sonia Reich is a Holocaust survivor who, as a child, hid from the Nazis in the forests of Poland and witnessed the murder of family members. Sixty years later, she’s transferred the horrors of her past to the present, experiencing late-onset post- traumatic stress disorder, which manifests in paranoid… Read more »

Marilyn Burkam

Marilyn Burkam

Marilyn Burkam, 76, died March 6, 2012. Born in Newark, N.J., Mrs. Burkam grew up in Las Cruces, N.M., and worked at White Sands Proving Grounds, where she met Edward Burkam. They married and moved to Union, N.J. They moved to Tucson in 1984 to be near their daughters.… Read more »

Daniel Silverman

Daniel Silverman, 83, ascended to a higher realm on Feb. 6, 2012. He was born in Chicago, Ill., in 1928 and lived there until 1967 when he moved with his family to Los Angeles, Calif., (where he still resided). Danny worked at MCA/Universal in the publicity department for more… Read more »

Recently kashered kitchen gives Tucsonan peace, peek into Passover prep

Lori Riegel prepares a meal in her newly kashered kitchen.

When I was in the eighth grade, my mother decided to kasher our kitchen. Each summer, after my sister and I returned from Camp Ramah, which was our first experience with kashrut, we’d asked if we could become kosher. In 1985, we were getting ready to move into a… Read more »

Leap of faith is essence of Passover holiday

Rabbi Yossi Winner

Each year on the holiday of Pesach some 500 Jewish students join my wife, family and me for the Passover Seders. It is an extraordinary scene! Who would have imagined that on a college campus where the challenges to Jewish identity and practice are many, a place where students… Read more »

Revamped website features Russian survivors

The TucsonSurvivors.org website has been updated to include the texts of 13 Russian Holocaust survivors’ testimonials, which have been translated into English. Each story is accompanied by photographs, many from the 1940s and ’50s. Richard Fenwick, a volunteer with Jewish Family & Children’s Services, provided the translations. The original… Read more »

JFCS, partners help families via Matza & More

Since 1970, Jewish Family & Children’s Services has helped local families celebrate a traditional Seder through its annual Matza & More Passover project. JFCS is joined by local synagogues and businesses that help collect and deliver a variety of food items to more than 300 individuals in need. Participating… Read more »

Operation Elijah matches Seder hosts, guests

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is partnering with local synagogues for Operation Elijah, an annual effort to ensure that every Jew in Southern Arizona has a seat at a Seder table for Passover. Now in its seventh year, Operation Elijah will match Seder hosts and guests for the… Read more »

Dramatizations add poignancy to JFCS Celebration of Caring

At Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona’s third annual Celebration of Caring fundraising event on March 7, there was more that was new than the meal time (lunch instead of breakfast) and the venue (the Doubletree Hotel). After a brief welcome by President and CEO Shira Ledman,… Read more »

Relative seeking kidney reaches out via Facebook

I am a Holocaust survivor and an active member of the community. My brother-in-law David Goldman is in dire need of a kidney donor as the kidney that my wife (his sister) donated to him 25 years ago is no longer working. He has been on dialysis for over… Read more »

In debate over nuclear Iran, lessons of Auschwitz remain relevant

Rafael Medoff

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to the Holocaust in his March 5 speech at AIPAC for the same reason that President Shimon Peres referred to it in his speech the day before and President Obama alluded to it in his news conference the day after: Because in the… Read more »

Seeing the world through Auschwitz lens amounts to Jewish PTSD

Michael Lerner

When I learned of the murder of dozens of members of my family in the Holocaust and then met my Israeli relatives whose Auschwitz numbers could hardly be missed on their arms, I decided to dedicate my life to challenging war, the denial of human rights, the hatred of… Read more »

In latest clashes between Israel and Gaza, it was Iron Dome to the rescue

Israel’s Iron Dome defense system near the Israeli town of Ashdod intercepted a volley of rockets fired by terrorist groups from the Gaza Strip area, March 11. (Flash90/JTA)

If Israel has its way, this is how future conflicts with Gaza-based terrorists will unfold: Israeli aircraft launch surgical strikes on rocket launchers; terrorist leaders are assassinated as necessary; Israeli civilians along the southern frontier are protected by advanced technology that shoots enemy rockets out of the sky; and… Read more »

Polish Jews fight to survive harrowing ‘Darkness’

(L-R): Milla Bańkowicz as Krystyna Chiger and Robert Więckiewicz as Leopold Socha (Jasmin Marla Dichant/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)

In the last few decades, German and French filmmakers — reflecting and, in some cases, bravely advancing national attitudes — have examined the Holocaust with both blunt candidness and shades-of-gray maturity. Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s profoundly responsible and beautifully made “In Darkness” represents a rare cinematic attempt to address… Read more »

Passover recipes to please the crowd and de-stress the chef

Salmon Cakes with Tropical Fruit Salsa

Passover may be the mother of all kit­chen yuntifs, but stay cool and don’t stress. Last year, 99 percent of the dishes I made for Passover weren’t actually Passover recipes. Of course they were kosher for Passover, but they didn’t require any major Passover ingredient tweaks. These recipes were… Read more »

Former ‘Jewish Jordan’ to grace Federation Men’s Night Out

Tamir Goodman, the ‘Jewish Jordan,’ is now retired from professional basketball.

Tamir Goodman, 30, has been known as basketball’s “Jewish Jordan” but these days he’s an inspirational speaker promoting Jewish identity, president of Tamir Goodman Sports Consultant LLC, a husband and father of four. A former professional player for the Maryland Nighthawks who’d previously sported jerseys for six seasons with… Read more »

Legacy signers break record at JCF event

Israeli Ambassador Uri Bar-Ner, left, presents Jewish Community Foundation Executive Director Carol Karsch with a Recognition Award on behalf of the state of Israel at JCF’s 20th anniversary celebration of its Endowment Book of Life on Feb. 7. Holding the award is Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona President and CEO Stuart Mellan. (Martha Lochert)

Nearly 400 community members attended the Jewish Community Foundation’s 20th anniversary celebration of its Endowment Book of Life on Feb. 7. Representatives of 12 community partners participating in Areivim, a nationally and locally funded pilot program to encourage community members to establish legacies to benefit each of the partners,… Read more »

AIFL to honor builders of ‘Diverse and Vibrant Tucson’

Ron Barber

The Tucson chapter of the America-Israel Friendship League will honor Kate Hoffman and Ron Barber with its Building a Diverse and Vibrant Tucson Award at its annual dinner on Sunday, April 15 at the Westin La Paloma Resort. Hoffman created the nonprofit Live the Solution, which helps Arizona families… Read more »

Israeli food bank chief boosts Tucson food rescue plans

Tucson Hebrew Academy seventh-grader Maxim Quint and Joseph Gitler, founder of Leket Israel, the National Food Bank of Israel

The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona and the America-Israel Friendship League recently hosted Joseph Gitler, founder and director of Leket Israel, the National Food Bank of Israel. Gitler was invited to visit Tucson because of Leket’s long association with both organizations; through its grants process, JCF has provided… Read more »