Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

WASHINGTON (JTA) – It wasn’t funny the first time prominent philanthropist Michael Steinhardt asked me to have sex with him. It wasn’t funny the second time, either. It wasn’t funny the third time, or the fourth time in that meeting. It wasn’t funny when he attempted to auction me off… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu’s week had been carefully scripted: Less than one month away from Israeli elections, the prime minister was traveling to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Donald Trump. A friendly photo op would become even friendlier when Trump announced that he wanted to recognize Israeli… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — More than 60 rockets were launched overnight into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip even as Hamas said it had accepted a cease-fire agreement. Egypt brokered the cease-fire, which was to take effect at 10 p.m. Monday, but rockets targeting civilian areas continued to fall until after… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli spacecraft Beresheet has sent home a video of a sunrise from the spacecraft’s point of view before it enters the moon’s orbit. The Beresheet camera also caught some selfie images with earth from 81,400 miles and nearly 165,000 miles away. It also sent back… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli army began attacking Hamas terror targets in Gaza in the wake of a rocket attack by the terrorist group that leveled a house in central Israel and injured 7. The Israel Defense Forces also sent two additional brigades to the Gaza border area –… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A long-range rocket fired from Gaza scored a direct hit on a home in central Israel, injuring seven, including two infants. Following the early Monday morning attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also serves as defense minister, announced that he would cut short his visit… Read more »

BERLIN (JTA) — One of Germany’s wealthiest families said it will make amends for its company’s Nazi past. In a spectacular announcement, the Reimann family, worth about $37 billion and the second richest in Germany, announced that new research had shown that the company’s Nazi-era directors, Albert Reimann and… Read more »

This article originally appeared on The Nosher. Pink pickled turnips are a fixture of Middle Eastern cuisine, and it’s hard to find a restaurant shawarma plate without them. Their rose-like magenta color makes you forget that these pickles are in fact made from an often overlooked root vegetable. Their… Read more »

The SculptureTucson Festival Show and Sale, the largest outdoor juried show in Arizona, will be held Saturday, April 6, 9:30-6 p.m., and Sunday, April 7, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., at Brandi Fenton Memorial Park, 3482 E. River Road. Now in its second year, the free festival will showcase more than… Read more »

Deena Gayle Hitzke, Ed.D.

LEAH (Let’s End Abusive Households), a program of Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona, with community partner Hadassah Nurses Council, will present, “Freeing Survivors of Domestic Violence from Stigma and Self-Blame” with Deena Gayle Hitzke, Ed.D., on Sunday, April 7, 10 a.m. to noon at Congregation Bet… Read more »

At a past Tucson Hebrew Academy STEM festival, a visitor plays an electrical fruit piano. ( www.thastem.com )

“How Things Work” is the theme for Tucson Hebrew Academy’s fifth annual free community STEM Festival on Sunday, April 7. Many exhibitors from previous years will be returning, along with some exciting new organizations, says Jennifer Lehrfeld, THA’s upper school science/STEM teacher. Vector Launch will invite students to send… Read more »

Nancy Lefkowitz is a “winter resident.” But the six months of the year she lives in Tucson, “we really live here,” she says, and her community engagement certainly proves it. “Having worked with Nancy over the last several years, I know she is always ready to take on responsibilities… Read more »

Congregation Beit Simcha will present a Jewish Comedy Night starring Rabbi Bob Alper on Sunday, March 31 at 7 p.m. Alper, “the world’s only practicing clergyman doing stand-upcomedy…intentionally,” holds a doctorate from Princeton Theological Seminary and served congregations for 14 years prior to his more than 30-year comedy career.… Read more »

The Peace Corps takes a unique approach to making a difference. The altruistic, hands-on, volunteer program, founded in 1961, provides social and economic development abroad. Through technical assistance, it promotes mutual understanding between Americans and foreign populations. Many U.S. college undergrads complete two-year assignments in developing nations, often working… Read more »

The Autism Society of Southern Arizona will hold its 13th Annual Autism Walk & Resource Fair on Saturday, April 6, in Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium at Kino Park Sports Complex, 2500 E. Ajo Way. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m. and the Walk and Resource Fair runs from 9 a.m.–1… Read more »

Tucson community members attended a vigil at the Muslim Community Center of Tucson on Monday to express solidarity and commemorate the 50 people killed in the March 14 shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Another 50 people were wounded in the shootings. Mayor Jonathan Rothschild spoke on… Read more »

Gary Kippur

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s annual Men’s Night Out event is getting a new format this year. There will be no keynote speaker for the event on Tuesday, April 9. Instead, it will begin at 6 p.m. in the Tucson Jewish Community Center Sculpture Garden with a whiskey… Read more »

(L-R) Rabbis Yossie Shemtov, Robert Eisen and Thomas Louchheim

Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging will present a three-rabbi panel lecture next month, “Why good things happen to bad people,” presenting the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jewish perspectives with Rabbi Yossie Shemtov of Congregation Young Israel, Rabbi Robert Eisen of Congregation Anshei Israel, and Rabbi Thomas Louchheim of… Read more »

Softball players across the country are coming together this summer to train for the Team Israel women’s softball team, which will be led by Stacey Iveson, the University of Arizona women’s softball director of recruiting-operations. Iveson is a former Wildcat player and coach, and won four junior college national… Read more »

The late Jack Sarver was an excellent tennis player. In fact, he started at the University of Michigan on a tennis scholarship, but his need to support his mother, three sisters and a brother made it impossible to continue his studies, says his daughter, Betty Anne Sarver. When Jack,… Read more »