Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Pete Buttigieg, the gay veteran who has earned national attention for leading the revitalization of South Bend, Indiana, where he is mayor, joined a crowded pack of Democrats seeking the party’s presidential nomination. Buttigieg, 37, emphasized in his announcement Wednesday the three attributes that make him… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Reports of rollbacks in Palestinian aid projects are emerging as massive cuts in U.S. aid to the Palestinians kick in. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that up to 90,000 Palestinians will not get food aid in programs that are administered by nongovernmental organizations funded by U.S.… Read more »

(JTA) — The longtime editor in chief of Belgium’s largest Jewish newspaper has announced he is resigning and running for parliament, partly in a bid to reverse recent bans in the country on the slaughter of conscious animals for meat. Michael Freilich, 38, who has edited the Antwerp-based Joods… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Kirsten Gillibrand who just joined a soon-to-be crowded field for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 would seem familiar as well as alien to the Kirsten Gillibrand who won an upset campaign for Congress in 2006. Like Kirsten Gillibrand 1.0, the latest model was earthy… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — My dad, who grew up in a time and place where his Judaism only marked him as an outsider, never really got my professional fascination with all things Jewish. That all changed when nearly 20 years ago I got a job with the Forward, the… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — To the degree that you know anything about Yiddish anarchism, it probably boils down to one name: Emma Goldman. And even then you are probably more familiar with Goldman as an immigrant firebrand and ur-“nasty woman” than for the truly radical content of her political… Read more »

(JTA) — A rabbi was appointed to serve in the Illinois legislature, a first for the state. Rabbi Yehiel Kalish, 43 and a father of six, was sworn in to the state’s House of Representatives on Sunday night. The Orthodox spiritual leader will be representing a district that is… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Kamala Harris, the junior senator from California, is reportedly set to announce her bid for the Democratic presidential nod. Harris, 54, is a progressive on most issues who draws some ire from the left for her tough-on-crime posture when she was California’s attorney general. She pleased… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — April Baskin, one of three Jewish women newly appointed to the Women’s March Inc. steering committee, says it is unrealistic to expect co-founder Tamika Mallory to explicitly condemn Louis Farrakhan for his anti-Semitism. There is “a long history of asking black leaders to condemn each… Read more »

The Jewish History Museum and Holocaust History Center will hold a free screening of “Who Will Write Our History” on Sunday, Jan. 27 at noon at The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd., joining hundreds of partners in a global screening event for International Hololocaust Remembrance Day. The 90-minute… Read more »

One of the world’s leading flamenco and classical guitarists and composers, Adam del Monte, will present scenes from the flamenco opera “Llantos 1492” during the 2019 Tucson Desert Song Festival, Jan. 15-Feb. 5. “Llantos 1492,” the world’s first flamenco opera, is in keeping with this year’s festival theme of Latin… Read more »

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s PJ Library program is launching “My Shabbat Adventure with Friends,” a new program to help PJ Library families to reach out to other families in the local Jewish community. Host families will commit to holding three Shabbat dinners for two to four families,… Read more »

Jim Brochu stars in “Zero Hour: The Zero Mostel Story” for the Invisible Theatre this weekend. The play is set in the legendary actor’s painting studio as a naïve reporter attempts to interview the famously volatile artist, prompting an explosion of memory, humor, outrage and juicy backstage lore.  Mostel,… Read more »

Bill Epstein

The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre will present “My Life in Sports,” written and performed by Tucsonan Bill Epstein, Jan. 17-27. “A coming-of age story, a cautionary tale, and a love story, ‘My Life in Sports’ is a dramatic memoir about the romance of men and sports, about the games… Read more »

Award-winning Tucson artist Lynn Rae Lowe; her son, Damion Alexander; and her grandson, Sam Alexander, 19, are among 13 artists featured in “United by Art,” an exhibit on display at the Mexican Consulate in Tucson, 3915 E. Broadway Blvd., through Feb. 8. “I am honored to have an opportunity… Read more »

Alma Hernandez, MPH, the first Mexican American Jew to be elected to the Arizona state legislature, was included in Lilith magazine’s “7 Jewish Feminist Highlights of 2018.” She was previously featured on the cover of the magazine’s Fall 2018 issue. Hernandez will represent Legislative District 3, on Tucson’s west… Read more »

Tucson Hebrew Academy’s lower school (kindergarten through fourth grades) put on a ’50s-style Hanukkah Hop show of song and dance on Thursday, Dec. 6. The production was attended by parents, grandparents, other family and friends.… Read more »

(JTA) — A student at the Hebrew Academy of Miami died in a fall from the ninth story of his high-rise condominium building. Samuel Farkas of Miami Beach was locked out of his family’s ninth-floor condo on Tuesday evening and was trying to climb down the balcony from the floor… Read more »

Rabbi Ruven Barkan and his wife, Adina Weber, hosted a dinner at their home on Wednesday, Dec. 19 for rabbis and educators who participated in a three-day border immersion program in Nogales, sponsored by the Kino Border Initiative. Rabbi Thomas Louchheim of Tucson’s Congregation Or Chadash called in to… Read more »

Miriam Romero received the Arizona English Language Teacher of the Year Award at the Arizona Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition Services 2018 Conference, held Dec. 5 at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort. Romero is a teacher at Carrillo K-5 Magnet School in the Tucson Unified… Read more »