By Rosi Meier Benz , , Harstine Island Today (Jan. 27) is Holocaust Remembrance Day, I heard the TV anchor voice say over the grinding of coffee beans. The thought and visual seeped into my head as I watched the hot water filter through the Melitta paper-lined cone into myContinue Reading
By Josh Basson, , Seattle Ron Kampeas’s insightful front page column was quite informative (“Clinton, lawmakers pushing for talks,” Jan. 15). The Palestinians are resisting returning to talks without pre-conditions as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is calling for. No such conditions were made in prior negotiations. Israeli PrimeContinue Reading
By Kate Lesser, , Seattle I just received the Jan. 15 edition of the JTNews. The front-page photo has a picture of a party. I was hoping for a picture of the Israeli emergency medical response team that is now in Haiti. I saw a picture of them hard atContinue Reading
By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, The earthquake in Haiti really got me thinking. I donated to relief work — that was a given. Yet I find myself glued to news broadcasts, watching the reports of the dreadful situation and the efforts being made to reach out toContinue 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 Rabbi Moshe Kletenik and Rabbi Barry Freundel , Recent allegations of impropriety on the part of the founder and head of Eternal Jewish Family, an organization involved with potential converts to Judaism, have again focused the attention of the Jewish community on the conversion process. Rather than dwellContinue Reading
By Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky, Chai Center of Greater Seattle Your list of wishes and hopes for the coming year are probably exactly the same as mine. No doubt high on that list are the important “big ones:” Peace in Israel and the world at large, financial stability, safety in ourContinue Reading
By Susan Monas, President, Congregation Beth Shalom, Seattle As president of the board of Congregation Beth Shalom, I was dismayed to see the recent heading in the JTNews “Meet the Synagogue” (Special section, Dec. 25). Given the many choices of synagogues in Seattle, I wondered how the synagogues listed wereContinue Reading
By Richard Silverstein, , Seattle I would like to correct two errors in Leyna Krow’s otherwise excellent report on the Iran-Israel conference I organized at Town Hall on December 16 (“Iran, from the left,” Dec. 25). First, there were over 100 people in attendance, not 40 as Krow reported. Second,Continue 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 Rabbi Bruce Kadden, Temple Beth El, Tacoma Like most rabbis, I often speak to non-Jewish groups who want to learn more about Judaism. One of the most common questions I get is: “What do Jews believe about Jesus?” Although most Christians understand that we do not believe he wasContinue Reading
By Lawrence Black, , Seattle After reading the Jewish Federation’s response to the Haq guilty verdict, I had the following angry reaction: I saw no condemnation of Islamic extremist ideology/Muslim hatred — the motivation and driving force of Haq’s actions. The Federation is against “hatred” in general — so MuslimContinue 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 Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, I saw the Coen brothers’ new film A Serious Man, and I don’t know what to think. Is it good for the Jews or not? I couldn’t help but squirm during the film, thinking about what my non-Jewish fellow viewers were thinkingContinue 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 Susan (Liebman) Benyowitz, , Los Angeles, Calif. Professor Ed Alexander’s review of The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower was extremely enlightening. Thank you very much. Continue Reading
By Rachelle Baruch, , Cincinnati, Ohio I want to thank Yehuda Reinhartz for his lovely article (“The need to fill the holes,” Nov. 27). I found it inspiring and hopeful. Thank you for publishing it. Continue Reading
By Carole Glickfeld, , Seattle The new movie An Education is about a predator, a man who brings in black people to a neighborhood in order to scare old ladies into moving out so he can acquire the property cheaply. He also preys upon a 16-year-old young woman. This wouldContinue Reading
By Elliott Magalnick, , Denver, Colo. I read the article, or rather parts of the article “Holiday Stuffing” (Nov. 27), treats and eats for gifts, but being Jewish, I read it backwards as I do with many magazines. I was reading about fish and the naming of some local stores’Continue Reading
By Rabbi Avrohom David, Seattle Kollel One of the misconceptions many Jews have is that you are either religious or not religious — that Judaism is either all or nothing. When I suggest to someone to study a little each day or take on a small observance of mitzvot, theContinue Reading
