“They performed for their lives,” says the flyer for Seattle actor/writer David Natale’s play, The Westerbork Serenade. And that’s precisely what happened. During World War II, a group of Jewish cabaret performers at the Westerbork transit camp in Holland delayed their ultimate fate by putting on shows for their fellowContinue Reading
For the last three years, a lot of people around Olympia, including the members of local congregation Temple Beth Hatfiloh, have been visiting a small village in early 20th-century Russia on Christmas Day. This year for the Christmas holiday evening, members are instead traveling back to the 1960s, on NewContinue Reading
When it comes to matters of humor, Julie Mains, owner of Mainstage Comedy and Music Club in Queen Anne, is not inclined to be politically correct. “Jews are genetically bred to be funnier than other people,” Mains said. “That’s a fact. You can look it up, I’m sure it’s inContinue Reading
Jon Entine considers himself “a practicing Jewish atheist.” His rather unconventional views, as well as his passion for his Jewish heritage, suffuse his new book, Abraham’s Children: Race, Identity and the DNA of the Chosen People (Grand Central Publishing, 2007). “My Jewish heritage is very important to me and IContinue Reading
Pomegranates have a special place in Jewish culture and history: they are reputed to have 613 seeds, which symbolizes the 613 mitzvot in the Torah. The Song of Solomon mentions pomegranate wine. Medieval Jewish mystics saw representation of the divine emanations of God in pomegranates such as that which dweltContinue Reading
Why does classical music matter? As the Seattle Opera announces the appointment of the Israeli conductor Asher Fisch to its newly created Principal Guest Conductor position, readers of this paper will no doubt reopen the Wagner conversations, as they did when he conducted Lohengren at McCaw Hall in 2004. HisContinue Reading
The reading and translation of each week’s Torah portion is the longest-running example of continuous performance in human history. Having been passed down for thousands of years, the sacred ritual of performing the weekly parashah fell out of favor about a millennium ago, but one man has made it hisContinue Reading
What does spirituality mean in a Jewish context? A quick Google search shows there is no real consensus. Prayer, ritual and Kabbalah all surface, but there is agreement that we should know more, study more, and participate more. The most traditional way to connect spiritually is through worship and ritual.Continue Reading
What’s a Jew to do? December can be the cruelest month. Friends host “Christmas parties,” co-workers foist throwaway gifts wrapped in red and green on anyone and everyone, the politically correct offer up “Happy Holidays” greetings long after Hanukkah has passed, and one more rendition of Barbara Streisand singing “WhiteContinue Reading
When November rolls around, many Jewish music and art lovers around the Puget Sound region often think about one thing as they prepare for Hanukkah and winter hibernation: KlezFest. After taking a year off while Temple Beth Am, the host of the music festival, underwent construction on its Kehillah Center,Continue Reading
Stephen Sadis didn’t get into video production for the glory. “We’re not really awards people around here,” said Sadis of the Seattle-based Sadis & Vaughn production house. “There are all kinds of corporate awards out there that you can go after, but it’s just not our thing.” Sometimes, however, aContinue Reading
The Israeli Opera’s music director, Asher Fisch, has just been appointed as Seattle Opera’s Principal Guest Conductor. No stranger to Seattle audiences, Maestro Fisch conducted the performance that inaugurated McCaw Hall in 2003. He was most recently seen on the podium there this past August. The stylish, hardworking Israeli isContinue Reading
On a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem last December, Hannah Miller, now a senior at Seattle’s Northwest School, scanned the map of Eastern Europe, and, as she put it in an article for her school newspaper, “did the math for Eastern Europe’s Jews.” Romania and HungaryContinue Reading
If the first year was an experiment to see if the project would work, the second year will capitalize on the success of that experiment. Drash, the Jewish and Northwest-themed literary journal founded by Temple Beth Am music director Wendy Marcus, is currently ramping up for its second issue, toContinue Reading
When Ayelet Waldman reads something by Michael Chabon she doesn’t like, she takes her complaints right to the source. Honey, this sucks. Chabon quickly shakes his head. “No, no. It’s not like that. It’s more like, “˜I see a problem here,’ or “˜You can’t do this.’” Waldman, a petite womanContinue Reading
As Jews, “we tend to focus on the “˜oy vey’ moments,” in our history, author Maggie Anton told the Seattle Chapter of Hadassah’s annual kick-off brunch in September. But the author of the successful Rashi’s Daughters trilogy focuses on a relatively safe and prosperous time for Jews in her novels.Continue Reading
This year marks the 10th season of Music of Remembrance, the Seattle-based organization dedicated to music from and about the Holocaust. For its Tenth Season Gala concert on November 4, MOR will present the world premiere of a new commissioned work by Seattle Symphony Music Director Gerard Schwarz. Opera superstarContinue Reading
David Williams, a second-generation Seattle author writes about the natural world outside his own front door. Jane Isenberg solves murders in and around Hoboken, New Jersey, through the efforts of her fictional alter-ego, Belle Barrett. Clyde Ford focuses on nautical themes set in the islands of the Puget Sound, sometimesContinue Reading
The central dynamic of mixed-faith romantic comedies, as every Woody Allen fan knows, is a wild and crazy Jewish character acting as a liberating catalyst for his (or her) uptight, non-Jewish lover. The winning romantic comedy Ira & Abby flips that tired convention on its head right out of theContinue Reading
Seattle is the focus of David Klinghoffer’s latest book, Shattered Tablets: Why We Ignore the Ten Commandments at Our Peril, but he won’t lead you to fascinating shops in the Pike Place Market or set you wandering off in search of misty beaches on nearby islands. Klinghoffer instead takes usContinue Reading
