By Jerry Barrish, , Seattle I wish to commend the JTNews and Charlene Kahn for the coverage of the disbanding of the Jewish Club of Washington (“Mission complete: Club’s disbanding marks the passing of a generation,” May 11). I was especially pleased at seeing the photo of Klaus and PaulaContinue Reading
By Rocky Silverman, , Seattle Rebuttal to the plea: “Justice, justice we will pursue and make history“ by Rabbi Zari Weiss (Rabbi’s Turn, May 11). With all deference not to offend the rabbi, Washington State has same-sex partnership laws that contain over 170 rights and responsibilities in its provisions forContinue Reading
By Robert Wilkes , Special to JTNews Most American Jews agree; Israeli settlements on the West Bank are an impediment to peace. Not me. In my view, settlements hasten peace. Before you order me boiled in matzoh ball soup, consider this. Those who fault Israel for the failure to achieveContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Brett Alkan found a kidney donor through Facebook and it appears he is on the, ahem, cutting edge of a trend (sorry!). The day after I interviewed the future transplant recipient, NPR aired a story on trends in organ donation. These include adding donation statusContinue Reading
By Rivy Poupko Kletenik , JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, I am so sad for Shavuot. It’s almost over before it gets started! The upcoming festival is so low key, with no big seder, no temporary abode on the deck or backyard. Can’t we come up with something a bit, dareContinue Reading
By Rabbi Ron-Ami Meyers , Congregation Ezra Bessaroth Various theories are advanced in our classic literature as to why on Passover, chametz — leavened products — are so reviled: Some suggest they represent haughtiness, while the Talmud views it as symbolic of man’s “evil inclination” that draws him away fromContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist When I asked Hilary Stern how she was inspired to work for Casa Latina, the immigrant aid organization, she offered “the Jewish answer,” explaining, “my grandparents were immigrants and…if they hadn’t made that decision, my life would have been completely different. I’ve really benefitted fromContinue Reading
By Gershom Gorenberg, , Jerusalem In his letter (“Difficult decisions,” April 27), David Shayne misrepresents my views and my comments during my recent visit to Seattle. The subject of my talk was not the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic stalemate, and I did not assert that Israeli settlements and Benjamin Netanyahu’s intransigence areContinue Reading
By Margie Coles, , Seattle Thank you for your coverage of author Gershom Gorenberg (”Unraveled from the jaws of victory,” April 27) who spoke about preserving Israel’s democracy on April 17 to a packed house at Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle. I would like to add a few commentsContinue Reading
By Rabbi Zari Weiss, Kol HaNeshamah On January 4, 2012, I had the privilege of participating in an historic event at the state capitol, when Governor Christine Gregoire announced she would introduce legislation to ensure marriage equality for all people in Washington State. It was exciting and moving to beContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel , JTNews Columnist While Israel celebrates the 100-year anniversary of the founding of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israeli innovations all too often seem to fall “under the radar” of most of the general public today. The country’s contributions include medical research, new technologies, advances in biotechnology,Continue Reading
By Rabbi Donniel Hartman , Shalom Hartman Institute For everything there is a season — a time to mourn and a time to celebrate, a time for introspection and a time for congratulation, a time for self-correction and a time for appreciation. As a people and as a nation weContinue Reading
By David Shayne, , Seattle Last week, I attended a talk given by Gershom Gorenberg, who authored the nuanced and well-written “Accidental Empire,” a history of Israeli settlements following the Six-Day War. I am sorry that I cannot say as much for his talk. Like many on the Zionist left,Continue Reading
By Donna and John Mollan, , Anderson Island We read the article on the Titanic survivors (“Continue Reading
By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, I don’t know what to think after seeing the Oscar-nominated Israeli movie, “Footnote.” On one hand, it was exhilarating to see the inside world of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University and to have a glimpse of the intricate inner workings of Talmud study. OnContinue Reading
By Wendy Elisheva Somerson, , Seattle The article “A chronology of the cancelled invitations to gay and lesbian Israelis“ (March 30) left out important details. As one of the people who was present when the LGBT Commission made their decision to cancel the StandWithUs event and who later spoke atContinue Reading
By Mark Bloome, , Seattle We suffered a great public opinion defeat with the City of Seattle LGBT commission’s egregiously bad decision not to meet with the Israeli LGBT group (“A chronology of the cancelled invitations to gay and lesbian Israelis,” March 30). While I know that all sorts ofContinue Reading
By Rabbi David Fine, Union for Reform Judaism Years ago I passed a signboard whose message has remained with me. “Religion is what happens after the sermon.” Simple and powerful. We are at the tail end of Passover. The rituals of the seder are behind us — or are they?Continue Reading
By Menachem Z. Rosensaft , JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) — The destruction of Solomon’s Temple by the Babylonians in 586 BCE was the first great national tragedy in Jewish history. During the subsequent exile, four fast days commemorating the calamitous event were added to the Jewish calendar:Continue Reading
By Wendy Rosen , Special to JTNews Undeterred by the superstitions associated with Friday the thirteenth, negotiators are slated to meet in Istanbul on April 13 for new talks on resolving the threat of Iranian nuclear capacity. There, Iranian representatives will sit with the P5+1 group — the U.S., Russia,Continue Reading
