By Diana Brement, Jewish Sound Columnist If you know me, you know I’m a regular blood donor who enjoys nagging folks to do the same. Lynn Gottlieb is a much better example than me, however. Having donated over 100 pints, she’s earned a leaf on the Puget Sound Blood Center’sContinue Reading
1 Seattle auctioneer David Silverman has built on his foundation as a song-and-dance man to help countless organizations raise money for good causes. An auctioneer has “a huge advantage to being in theater,” he says. “You have to be able to make that flip [from] making people smile…to getting themContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist 1I reached out to David Feinberg after seeing his name in a Seattle Times’ Pacific Northwest Magazine article about local beekeepers who have worked with SeaTac Airport to set up hives there, “for artistic and commercial and genetic reasons,” David explains. The hives are keptContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist “I’m completely non-practicing and in fact a (polite) atheist with a very dim view of religion in general,” jazz radio host Dick Stein averred in an email when I contacted him for an interview. I assured him I couldn’t care less. What I wanted toContinue Reading
By Diana Brement , JTNews Columnist Joshua Friedes says he’ll be able to use a lot of what he learned championing marriage equality in this state in his new job as director of regional operations and strategy at J Street. The pro-Israel organization supports a two-state solution for Israel andContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Once in a while, even a reporter likes to be interviewed confesses KIRO radio human interest reporter Rachel Belle, whose “Ring My Belle with Rachel Belle” airs weekdays during the Ron and Don Show — for which she is also an on-air personality — andContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Here’s some interesting trivia: Kidney dialysis was invented in Seattle. (I was reminded of this during a visit to the new Museum of History and Industry in Seattle’s burgeoning South Lake Union neighborhood.) Dialysis — now available pretty much everywhere — is particularly important toContinue Reading
By Diana Brement , JTNews Columnist When the head of her temple announced he was going on a reconciliation journey to Auschwitz, Dee Endelman found herself saying, “”˜I’ll go with you’…although at the moment I wasn’t sure why.” The temple in question is Dai Bai Zan Cho Bo Zen Ji,Continue Reading
By Diana Brement , JTNews Columnist “This is the first time I’ve been the main, lead part,” notes Jack Fleischmann, 12, one of the two boys playing of Oliver in The 5th Avenue Theatre production of “Oliver!” which opened in Seattle last week. Speaking to him a few hours beforeContinue Reading
By Diana Brement , JTNews Columnist After her brother Mark Koller died from kidney cancer in 2011 at age 51, it set Lisa Kutzke on a quest “to do something in memory of him.” One day the long-time Stroum Jewish Community Center fitness trainer spotted her client, Thellea Leveque, sittingContinue Reading
By , I was intrigued by Laurie Frankel’s second novel, “Good-bye For Now.” When Laurie’s protagonist Sam, a brilliant computer programmer, is fired from his job, he begins casting about for something to do. Seeing his girlfriend Meredith so bereaved by her grandmother’s unexpected death, Sam devises a way toContinue Reading
By Diana Brement , JTNews Columnist Since graduating from Northwest Yeshiva High School in 2006, Elisheva Goldberg has achieved her goal of living and working in Israel. The resident of Jerusalem’s Abu Tor neighborhood (and former JTNews intern) wears two professional hats: She is an international relations analyst and editorContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist 1 With the addition of Aaron Katsman to our stable of JTNews columnists, we can truly say we are a world-renowned organization. A Seattle native, the son of Rabbi Phillip Katsman and the late Tzivia Katsman, Aaron attended Seattle Hebrew Academy, Northwest Yeshiva High SchoolContinue Reading
By Diana Brement , JTNews Columnist Some expert JTNews sleuthing has turned up yet another Maccabiah games medalist from the greater Seattle area. Just kidding. Ben Belur’s grandfather, Jack Belur, sent an email telling us that Ben had been part of the U.S. Men’s golf team competing in Israel thisContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist After chatting with Zach Grashin about hummus for half an hour, I had to go home and make myself a batch. It wasn’t Garbanzo Bros.’ chef David Babani’s recipe. That is a top-secret component of Garbanzo Bros., the business Zach and David founded last year.Continue Reading
By Diana Brement , JTNews Columnist Our state sent three competitors and one coach to the Maccabiah games in Israel last month. Since reporting two issues ago that tennis player Bill Cohon came home with two medals, I learned that both our state’s other athletes medaled, too. Half-marathoner Terry Robinson,Continue Reading
By Diana Brement , JTNews Columnist After reading only the first three pages of Matthew Amster-Burton’s memoir, “Pretty Good Number One: An American Family Eats Tokyo,” I was overcome with the need to visit that city. The food writer, humorist and finance columnist, his wife Laurie, and daughter Iris spentContinue Reading
By Diana Brement , JTNews Columnist Actor, writer, and now television producer Simon Hamlin says Seattle’s Pike Place Market was always one of his favorite places. He has fond childhood memories of shopping there with his mother and, as a member of the Behar family, and “related in some wayContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist 1 A third Washington State athlete will represent the U.S. in Israel’s 2013 Maccabiah Games beginning July 18 (see “Singing for a Cure,” Mar. 18, 2013, for more on the other two). Bill Cohon of Shoreline will play grand masters tennis in the international gamesContinue Reading
By Diana Brement , JTNews Columnist 1 Just a couple of weeks ago, Eliana Rudee was part of a panel on the future of Jewish leadership at the Israeli Presidential Conference in Jerusalem. The Mercer Island High School grad, who friends and family call Ellie, was already in Israel. SheContinue Reading
