By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist No, this isn’t a series on the Kezner family. But if I hadn’t interviewed Larry Kezner’s cousin Llance last issue, Larry’s name would never have jumped out at me from a Seattle Times piece announcing Larry’s small-boat passenger ferry connecting Seattle’s South Lake Union andContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel , JTNews Columnist Editor’s Note: This marks the debut of a new monthly column, “Israel: To Your Health,” which focuses on innovations in the health and medical fields from Israeli research and higher learning institutions. It should come as no surprise to anyone in “the tribe” thatContinue Reading
By Avi Dichter , JTA World News Service Ashkelon, Israel (JTA) — Turkey, long one of Israel’s more stable and supportive partners in the region, expelled Israel’s ambassador. In Egypt, a peaceful partner to Israel since the two nations signed a treaty in 1978, the Israeli Embassy was attacked byContinue Reading
By Rabbi Simon Benzaquen , Sephardic Bikur Holim While shopping at the pharmacy last week, I couldn’t help notice they were selling home security cameras. These cameras are to be installed outside of one’s home to monitor any activity day and night for security purposes. Some cameras were expensive andContinue Reading
By Rabbi Stuart Light , Special to JTNews As parents searching for the ideal school environment for our children, we envision our progeny thriving in a school that focuses energy and attention on avenues and initiatives that lead toward exhibitable success. But what about exhibitable failure? You’d be hard pressedContinue Reading
By Cynthia Wroclawski, Manager, The Shoah Victims’ Names Recovery Project, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem In response to Eric Nusbaum’s article of Sept. 13, 2011 titled “The Family Reunion,” the article neglects to mention that the reunion was made possible thanks to a Page of Testimony submitted by Wolf Hall to YadContinue Reading
By Mordecai Goldstein, , Everett I agree with the letter writer (“Taking up too much space,” Sept. 16) who said we must not permit agents of our enemies to use our limited resources (i.e., print space in JTNews). And we should not forget that we do have enemies, and notContinue Reading
By Bob Kaufman, , Seattle In his stirring speech to the Sept. 18 StandWithUs gathering, Rabbi Daniel Gordis criticized American Jewish leaders for their silence on the coming UN vote on Palestinian statehood. The op-eds by Michael Weil and Mervyn Danker in the Sept. 16 JTNews provide ample evidence toContinue Reading
By Akiva Kenny Segan, , Seattle If it weren’t an Orwell-worthy twist of language interpretation, re: letter writer N. Goldberg’s claim that I am “not about free speech” after I’ve written in defense of JTNews editors for publishing letters with diverse opinions regarding Israel and the Palestinians, it would beContinue Reading
By Rabbi Mark S. Glickman , Congregations Kol Ami and Kol Shalom In late February 1946, Captain Seymour Pomrenze of the United States Army rode in a Jeep through Frankfurt, Germany. A blizzard howled through the city, and through the snow, Pomrenze could see bullet-ridden walls and the bombed-out remainsContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Oftentimes the greatest ideas are discovered by accident. Take Llance Kezner and his wife, Lori Peha Kezner, the founders of Garlic It!, their new garlic condiments produced in five flavors, as a case in point. Their “Private Reserve Caramelized Garlic Finish” won a “Sofi” awardContinue Reading
By N. Goldberg, , Bellevue Mr. Segan’s letter (“A free and open press,” Sept. 2) evades the issue, and begs for a reply. He is not about free speech. He wants the JTNews to be some sort of guardian of anti-Israel commentary and positions, even if those positions are identicalContinue Reading
By Michael J. Weil , JTA World News Service (JTA) — Israelis and Jews around the world are awaiting the Palestinians’ push at the United Nations for statehood with trepidation. The official response of the government of Israel and American Jewish groups has been to do everything possible to preventContinue Reading
By Mervyn Danker , J. Weekly of Northern California SAN FRANCISCO (j.weekly) — To establish its independence, Israel had to win a war against the combined might of the Arab nations in 1948. The Arab failure to destroy the nascent Jewish state became known, in Orwellian Arab vernacular, as “Nakba,”Continue Reading
By Robert J. Marx , JTA World News Service CHICAGO (JTA) — Time affirms what heroism discerns. The dedication of a statue in memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is a belated yet significant tribute to a man who did so much to redefine the meaning of ourContinue Reading
By Rabbi Harry Zeitlin , Congregation Beth Ha’Ari The Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzatto), the 18th-century Kabbalistic master, begins his classic, Derech HaShem, The Way of God, with this statement: “Kol ish m’Yisrael tzarich sh’ya’amin v’yeda.” “Every Jew needs to believe and to know….” He completes this with a strikinglyContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist With one British and one South African parent, Tamara Gittelson grew up moving frequently from London to Cape Town and back, interspersed with “a couple of years in Israel doing ulpan and living on a kibbutz.” By her own admission, she became a bit ofContinue Reading
By Rivy Poupko Kletenik , JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, Confession: I have a love-hate relationship with the High Holidays. On one hand, I very much look forward to the season of holiday meals, get-togethers and keeping all the family traditions. On the other hand I find all the talk ofContinue Reading
By Rabbi Beth Singer , Temple Beth Am One of the privileges of synagogue membership is that, in addition to vibrant services and life-long Jewish study, the synagogue is a place members often turn to with personal problems. In any given week, congregants sit with me and talk about theirContinue Reading
By Akiva Kenny Segan, , Seattle As an occasional-to-frequent pro-Israel advocate in the JTNews letters section — my first letter on Israel and the conflict was in 1999, the year I made my first teaching trip to Israel; my most recent followed my seventh teaching Israel teaching trip this MayContinue Reading
