Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

UCLA launches Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience

(LOS ANGELES)  – UCLA has opened North America’s first permanent academic home for the study of American Jewish music. Housed in the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience, which seeks to foster artistic creativity, scholarship, performance, and other cultural… Read more »

New semi-pro soccer team takes historic name: Tucson Maccabees

Members of the Tucson Maccabees semi-pro soccer team pause during a recent practice for a team meeting. (Courtesy Tucson Maccabees)

A new local semi-professional soccer team has its roots not only in the Old Pueblo, but also in “the old country.” “My first experience with soccer was as a young child in Romania when my father took me to a game,” recalls Meir Segal, the team’s founder and coach.… Read more »

Z3 online event brings big names to talk peoplehood, Israel, and the Diaspora

Todd Rockoff will lead a Z3 lunch and learn on Dec. 13.

This year’s Z3 event won’t be what people might expect. Now in its sixth year, Z3, which originally was dubbed Zionism 3.0, is an opportunity to talk about a wide range of issues in Israel and the Diaspora. But this is definitely not going to be your typical conference, and not… Read more »

In Focus: Northwest residents rock out to oldies

Vinyl Tap performs at The Gaslight Music Hall in Oro Valley Nov. 4.

Last month, on Nov. 4, Northwest residents joined The Ruth and Irving Olson Center for Jewish Life/Northwest Division of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona for a drive-in concert at The Gaslight Music Hall in Oro Valley. More than 50 people enjoyed a night of music under the stars… Read more »

In 30th year, Tucson International Jewish Film Festival turns to streaming

Ben Schwartz (left) and Billy Crystal in a scene from 'Standing Up, Falling Down'

The Tucson International Jewish Film Festival is celebrating its 30th anniversary with an abundance of films to stream. “While many things have changed, the power of film to bring us together has not,” Film Festival Co-chairs Cookie Little and Donna Dennison write on the festival’s welcome page. Using the… Read more »

Restoration of Bisbee-Douglas Jewish cemetery honors pioneer history

A visit to the Bisbee-Douglas Jewish Cemetery on March 11, 2020 revealed toppled tombstones and graves in need of repair. Volunteers made efforts to clean up the site in 2016, but the cemetery was not secure from vandals. (Photo: Virgil Hancock)

The recent restoration of the Bisbee-Douglas Jewish Cemetery, established in 1904, allows the Jewish pioneers buried there to “rest in dignity,” as Stuart Mellan, former president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, told the audience at the Federation’s “Celebrating Our Past, Creating Our Future” event on… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El WRJ creates new online gift shop, Hanukkah sale

The Baskin Blue Marbled Glass Arch Menorah is one of the items featured on the Temple Emanu-El WRJ Gift Shop's new website.

With their usual Hanukkah bazaar curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic, the Women of Reform Judaism at Temple Emanu-El have created an online gift shop and will be holding a 20% sale on Hanukkah items Nov. 23-Dec. 1. Items can be browsed here, including newly arrived menorahs, menorah drip trays,… Read more »

Jewish Federation, Foundation help address mounting problem of food insecurity in Southern Arizona

Community Food Bank team members provide food supplies in the drive-up emergency food distribution operation that runs Tuesdays and Thursdays at Kino Sports Complex. (Photo courtesy Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona)

It has been a long time since the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson has hosted more than a thousand cars on a regular basis. Yet that has been the scene many Tuesday and Thursday mornings in recent months as vehicles of all types, their occupants representing the diversity of… Read more »

Davis leaving Tucson’s Jewish History Museum to lead Baltimore museum

Sol Davis talks to middle school students from the Paulo Freire Freedom School at the Holocaust History Center in May 2018. (Photo courtesy Jewish History Museum)

As director of Tucson’s Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center for the past five years, Sol Davis, Ph.D., helped expand the possibilities for Jewish museums nationwide. “He took this idea and transformed it into a living testament of what a museum should be, which is not a place to store… Read more »

Business briefs Nov. 13, 2020

Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging was recently awarded funding from the We Are One/Somos Uno CARES Nonprofit Continuity Grant Program. This program was created by the Mayor and Council of Tucson to support local nonprofits by addressing necessary expenditures due to the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency. The… Read more »

News of note: November 10, 2020

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic headlines and post-election analyses, it’s easy to lose sight of just about everything else. But the Jewish world keeps turning. Here are recent Jewish stories from around the globe, selected by the AJP editorial team. Jonathan Sacks, former UK chief rabbi and Jewish intellectual giant… Read more »