By Jon Rosenberg and Lee Sherman , JTA World News Service charitable donations. Some 62.8 million volunteers in the United States provided more than 8 billion hours of their time to nonprofits in 2010 at an estimated value of $160 billion. Like other nonprofits, our own organizations in the JewishContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel , JTNews Columnist The facts about diabetes are startling. Of the 346 million people worldwide who now live with the disease, there are nearly 26 million in the United States, and hundreds of thousands in Israel. Fully 10 percent of adults in that country live with theContinue Reading
By Diana Brement , JTNews Columnist This past August found Henry Butler turning 90, and this past Purim found him pouring shots of schnapps, whiskey and other spirits at Temple Beth Am in Seattle. An active member of the congregation since the late 1950s, he’s handled that particular job forContinue Reading
By Rabbi Ben Aaronson, BCMH Capitol Hill Minyan If you look at a glass of wine closely enough, you will see the entire universe. —Richard Feynman, Nobel Laureate physicist The Passover seder is one of the most widely observed religious services. It recounts the Jewish people’s socio-political progression from slaveryContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist I easily spotted Carolyn Bernhard’s mass of gray curls on the TV monitor at my gym early last month. She and other volunteers from Prevention WINS were making an appearance on “New Day,” a Seattle daytime talk show on KING-5 TV. (Conversely, Carolyn wanted toContinue Reading
By Zach Carstensen, Director of Government Relations and Public Affairs, Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, Ron Leibsohn, Chair, Community Relations Committee, Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle , Seattle When Seattle’s LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) Commission canceled a scheduled reception with six Israeli LGBT activists, the strength of aContinue Reading
By Rivy Poupko Kletenik , JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, So much attention is lavished by all of us on the night of the seder; the meticulous preparations, the elaborate menu and of course the Seder proceedings themselves. Of course, what with the wide variety of Haggadahs that one can purchaseContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Recently named one of New York University’s 15 most influential students, Chelsea Garbell was nominated primarily for her work with Bridges, a Jewish-Muslim dialogue group sponsored by the Bronfman Center at the school and an official school club (www.bridges.bronfmancenter.org). The Seattle Hebrew Academy and NorthwestContinue Reading
By Rainer Waldman Adkins, , Seattle Philip Scheier writes (“An insult,” letters, Feb. 29) that J Street “claims it is pro-Israel, a claim rejected by all Israeli leaders, including Bibi, along with most observers, who have all turned down many invitations to address the J Street lobby.” Former Prime MinisterContinue Reading
By Paula Libes Chester, , Mercer Island Dear Mr. Wilkes: Did you neglect to wear reading glasses when you perused my letter bemoaning “wasted tomatoes” (“Repair and defend,” Letters, March 2)? I am a proud and active member of J Street. We are busting our kishkes trying to keep IsraelContinue Reading
By Lori Weinstein and Lee Sherman , JTA World News Service (JTA) — Thirty years ago, a Jewish woman experiencing domestic violence had few places to turn. Community leaders strongly resisted acknowledging violence for fear that it would harm marriages and break up families. Few services existed for women seekingContinue Reading
By Wendy Rosen , Special to JTNews If the leaders in Tehran hoped for signs of a U.S.-Israeli policy rift over the Iranian nuclear program, President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu surely left them disappointed. The extensive common ground the two men share suggests that their private two-hour White HouseContinue Reading
By Rabbi Cindy Enger , Congregation Beth Israel Several weeks ago, I traveled to New Jersey. I journeyed across the country from Bellingham to Princeton University to deliver the memorial address at the annual Service of Remembrance, which is part of each year’s Alumni Day schedule of events. It isContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel, JTNews Columnist Your chances of developing Alzheimer’s Disease double about every five years after the age of 65, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, but after the age of 85, the odds of developing the symptoms are almost 50 percent. As researchers around the world race to findContinue Reading
By Rabbis Martin and Daniel Weiner , Special to JTNews We represent two generations of rabbis, five decades of love for the State of Israel and advocacy for its security and well-being. We recall anxious moments we have shared together as father and son. There was a crisp fall morningContinue Reading
By Philip R. Scheier, , Shoreline Your Feb. 10 article by Emily K. Alhadeff, “Moving beyond the one-trick pony,” where the University of Washington’s Stroum Jewish Studies guest speaker Simon Greer alleged one of his goals is to change the tide of American Jewish politics from Israel-focused to America-focused, isContinue Reading
By Robert B. Godwin, , Lacey In the previous issue of JTNews is a review by Edward Alexander of Michael Weingrad’s marvelous work, American Hebrew Literature, published by Syracuse University Press in 2011 (“Continue Reading
By Robert Wilkes, , Bellevue In Paula Chester’s letter (“Wasted tomatoes,” Feb. 10) she states that my column (“Barghouti’s Own Life Reveals BDS Deception“) is offensive to those who “sincerely seek to repair the world.” All Jews I know long to repair the world, but some of us want toContinue Reading
By Rabbi Sholom Ber Levitin, Chabad-Lubavitch of the Pacific Northwest, Congregation Shaarei Tefillah-Lubavitch It was the summer of 2008, on a Shabbos afternoon in Brooklyn, New York, in the Hebrew month of Elul. It was the Shabbos before the yahrtzeit of my paternal grandfather Zeida Shmuel. I always make aContinue Reading
By Rafael Medoff , JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — The news that a Mormon temple in the Dominican Republic recently conducted a posthumous proxy baptism of Anne Frank, the most famous diarist of the Holocaust, undoubtedly will cause some offense in the Jewish community. Evidently the baptizers believeContinue Reading
