Posts By PHYLLIS BRAUN - AJP Executive Editor

The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s U.S.-Israel Business Initiative signed a memorandum of understanding on May 9 pledging to work together to support ongoing initiatives and activities to strengthen the economic and commercial ties between Arizona and Israel. “I am so pleased… Read more »

(L-R) Kara Moeller, Ruth Kolker (model), Bob Couchman, and Janet Seltzer (model) at La Contessa [Courtesy Sharon Klein)

The Women’s League of Congregation Anshei Israel will host its annual brunch and fashion show on Sunday, June 3 at 10:30 a.m. at the synagogue. Handmaker will provide the catering and fashions will be presented by La Contessa. Father-daughter team Bob Couchman and Kara Moeller own La Contessa, located… Read more »

Some 65 people attended Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging’s  third annual three-rabbi panel lecture on Sunday, May 6, on “What is the Purpose of Prayer?” Rabbi Yossie Shemtov of Chabad Tucson said our connection to G-d is through prayer, and that davening (praying) before reciting the Shema is… Read more »

The recent Next Gen Men’s Group trip to Israel was no run of the mill tour. Participants returned believing that Israel-Palestine issues are far more complicated than they thought before the journey, says participant Larry Gellman. What defined the trip for Gellman and others was the unique opportunity to… Read more »

My mother died a day before Shavuot, two years ago. Three months later, at Yom Kippur services, I knew that I was finally an adult (at age 49) because, for the first time ever, I stayed in the sanctuary for the Yizkor memorial service. A year ago, at Passover,… Read more »

Building Bridges spring break Sarah Cassius, finishing her junior year at George Washington University with a dual major in international affairs and geography with a concentration in sustainability, traveled on a Building Bridges trip to Israel and the Palestinian Territories over spring break. The trip was sponsored by GWU’s… Read more »

Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin (Britta Van Vranken)

Search online for “Mount Sinai” and Google Maps will swiftly point you to a marker in Jabal Mousa, Arabic for Mount Moses, located in the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. Consult with a biblical scholar or geographer and you will hear about other locations such as… Read more »

Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, right, presents Temple Emanu-El’s commemorative plaque to Rabbi Richard Safran (Steve Shawl)

Rabbi Richard Safran honored with ‘Love and Laughter’ Temple Emanu-El held a brunch with the theme “Love and Laughter” on Sunday, April 29 to honor its adjunct rabbi and Tucson’s longtime community chaplain, Rabbi Richard Safran. The event, held at Hacienda Del Sol Guest Ranch Resort, included entertainment from… Read more »

Miriam Arden placed as a semifinalist at the 35th Annual National Shakespeare Competition in New York City on April 23, Shakespeare’s birthday, competing against 55 students from around the country. Arden, the daughter of Susan Brish and Scott Arden, and a junior at Catalina Foothills High School, won the… Read more »

David A. Berk, son of Debbie and Bill Berk, will celebrate becoming a bar mitzvah on Saturday, May 26 at Congregation Or Chadash. He is the grandson of Arlene and Marty Zuckerman of Tucson, and Sally and Mike Berk of Bonita Springs, Florida. David attends Orange Grove Middle School… Read more »

GABRIELLE ERBST has been named director of admissions at TUCSON HEBREW ACADEMY. A native Tucsonan and the first alumnus in this role, Erbst has been THA’s director of student support services for the past four years. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona with a bachelor’s in… Read more »

(JTA) — Hours before the Eurovision song contest’s kickoff, Rafi Kishon posted on Facebook a sobering message and a picture of himself wearing a head of lettuce for a hat. Israel’s entrant, he said, didn’t stand a chance of winning in anti-Semitic, anti-Israel Europe. “I’m sorry to disappoint you,”… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Donald Trump may have expected fanfares when he announced the U.S. would be leaving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and certainly Israel, Saudi Arabia, a number of Jewish groups and some foreign policy hawks exulted. But some of that support was tempered by Republicans and Democrats… Read more »

(JTA) – On Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu began his week by meeting his Cypriote and Greek counterparts to finalize the commercial export to Europe of Israeli gas that he has pushed to exploit for about a decade. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from nuclear… Read more »

(JTA) — President Donald Trump’s decision in December to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital drew wide international criticism, with 128 countries including the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada voting in favor of a United Nations resolution condemning it. But several countries saw Trump’s decision in a different light: as an example to follow.… Read more »

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — On the national day of mourning for Holocaust victims in the Netherlands, a major mosque in the kingdom’s capital celebrated the conversion to Islam of a Jewish survivor of that genocide. At least, that’s what Amsterdam’s Blue Mosque said. According to its Facebook, 87-year-old Sal van Coeverden… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — When war broke out on Israel’s northern border in 2006, Avigdor Guy remained calm. He lived in the northern port city of Haifa, but he didn’t think the war would hit home — until, that is, it did. “Twelve years ago, they asked me if… Read more »

  JERUSALEM (JTA) — Seventy-five years ago this month, a handful of rabbinical students in New York City helped mobilize hundreds of churches and synagogues nationwide to cry out against the Nazis’ mass murder of European Jewry. That remarkable interfaith protest is omitted from the U.S. Holocaust Museum’s new… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — An inflection point in American policy towards Iran came this afternoon, when President Trump announced he will re-impose nuclear sanctions on Iran and effectively withdraw the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal. Having done so, the administration should anticipate the range… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the Iran nuclear deal, is bad policy and calls into question America’s international credibility. Mr. Trump has now set the international community on a slippery slope, imperiling the national security… Read more »