By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist All Bar and Bat Mitzvah kids are special, but Andrew and Esther Schorr of Mercer Island can be allowed a little leeway in thinking their son, Eitan is even more special — in fact they call him their “miracle baby.” In 1996 Andrew was diagnosedContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Bellevue residents Nathan Hemphill and Jonathan Newman, both age 16, put together a team this year to compete in the Big Climb for Leukemia and Lymphoma. They called their group Seattle Stride and made the 1,311-step climb up the Columbia Center on Sunday, March 21.Continue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Lice Knowing You. No, that’s not a typo. It’s Nancy Gordon’s new lice-removal salon on Mercer Island. After running a mobile business for three years, “I decided to go to the salon model for a variety of reasons,” she says. Customers asked for it, sheContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist The 11 Washington State youth who participated in Nesiya’s six-week summer program in Israel are busy finishing up the year of community service that program requires. Local coordinator Joy Maimon told me that the community service component distinguishes Nesiya from other Israel travel programs forContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, Jewish Sound Columnist We Washingtonians are a bookish lot (Seattle once again has topped the list of most literate U.S. cities, according to a survey by Jack Miller, the president of Central Connecticut State University). This results not only in a lot of book reading, but aContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Rabbi Harry Zeitlin is one of those multi-faceted, multi-talented people — photographer, musician, composer, plus he runs a small teaching synagogue, Beit Ha’Ari. Located above a small suite of offices in Seattle’s Wedgwood, we met there for a widely digressing interview earlier this month. “AsContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Matt Lemchen, BBYO program director for the Evergreen region of Washington, Oregon and Northwest Canada, was recently awarded the International BBYO Arnie Weiner Award for Professional Excellence in Furthering the Principles of AZA and BBG, BBYO’s young men’s and young women’s divisions. The award isContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist I’ve wanted to interview Seattle Times food writer Nancy Leson for a long time, so I was very excited when we finally talked on the phone last week in a wide-ranging and entertaining conversation. Nancy has been serving food, cooking food or writing about foodContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, Tahoma National Cemetery’s chief bugler, Bernie Moskowitz. (Courtesy Bernie Moskowitz) It wasn’t too hard to track down Bernie Moskowitz. The Tahoma National Cemetery gladly gave me the number of their Chief Bugler and Bernie was home when I called. After a discussion about getting a decent bagelContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist A guilty secret: I’m hooked on “Hoarders,” the new hit TV show on A&E. So it was great to find out it was conceived and is produced right here in Seattle by Jodi Flynn, director of development for Screaming Flea Productions, and her team. “WeContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Al Ziontz photo by Marianne McCoy “People urged me to write the book — specifically my wife,” says Bellevue resident Alvin Ziontz of his memoir, A Lawyer in Indian Country. Seventy-eight-years old when he started in 2006, he remembers thinking, “I’d better get busy.” He’dContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist With H1N1 so much in the news these days, I wanted to talk to someone on the front lines of fighting this new virus, and settled on Gary Goldbaum, M.D., MPH, health officer for the Snohomish Health District. Before getting to the flu, I neededContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Don Shifrin, M.D. was a tad nonchalant when I spoke to him about winning the American Academy of Pediatrics Holroyd-Sherry Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions in the field of children, adolescents and the media. It’s clear, however, that he is extremely passionate about his areaContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist A UW graduate is rubbing shoulders and leashes with some of Hollywood’s most popular stars and their pets. Jacob Fenton, originally from Portland, graduated from the University of Washington in 2001 with a business degree. While attending the U, he served as undergraduate president ofContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Why North Bend? That was the foremost question in my mind when I heard renowned concert violists Emanuel and Lenore Vardi had moved to Seattle’s far east side. There is a story, of course, with two parts. In 1992 Manny, as he’s called, injured hisContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Seven Washington residents are among hundreds of volunteers nationwide nominated for the first United Jewish Communities local heroes award. (UJC is the national umbrella body that serves local Jewish federations). We’ve got profiles of each here. Margot Kravette is the only local volunteer to beContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Ilana Long is a funny person; and if you saw her perform stand-up comedy in the days before she had kids, you know this. For those who have missed those days, Ilana has written a book, The Binky Conspiracy: True Tales of Mommydom, so youContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Sculptor and glass artist Gabriel Bass, a Mercer Island native now living in Jerusalem, recently completed and installed a ner tamid (eternal light) and menorah commission for the Abayudaya Jewish community in Uganda. The commission came from a California couple who are deeply involved withContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Harry Rutstein’s book, The Marco Polo Odyssey: In the Footsteps of a Merchant Who Changed the World, recently won the independent publisher’s association prize for best travel book. Harry is the only person to travel Polo’s route from Italy to China (others have traveled sectionsContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Northwest Yeshiva High School graduate Matthew Feldhammer is now doing graduate research in biochemistry at the University of Montreal. Recently he was awarded a first place Prix d’Excellence (Prize of Excellence) in all categories by Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center at the University of Montreal forContinue Reading
