By Rabbi Jill Borodin, Congregation Beth Shalom This Shabbat, February 6—7, we will celebrate a special Shabbat: Shabbat Shirah, the Sabbath of Song. Shabbat Shirah’s name comes from the reading of the Song of the Sea, sung by Moses and the children of Israel after crossing the Red Sea, inContinue Reading
By Josh Basson , , Seattle There is little doubt that Israel is morally justified in its offensive war against Hamas. No nation can sit by and allow its territory to be rocketed with impunity. Not if it wants to remain a nation for long. Israel’s response to seven yearsContinue Reading
By Rabbi Daniel Septimus , Temple De Hirsch Sinai We are told about a 10-year-old whose father was driving him home from religious school. The father asks, “So, what did you learn about today?” The child responds: “The teacher told us about the Israelites’ escape from Egypt. They came toContinue Reading
By Rabbi Anson Laytner , Special to JTNews On one side of the road were three young demonstrators holding signs saying “Pro-Israel, pro-Palestine, pro-ceasefire” and “Not in my name.” On the other side of the road was an older demonstrator, wearing an Indian feather headdress, handing out flyers that declared,Continue Reading
By H. Eric Schockman, Ph.D. , President, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, For the past seven years, you have joined together as a community to support MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger’s work to end hunger at an annual Hanukkah party. The continued success of this event is dueContinue Reading
By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, What’s a Jew to do? One positive aspect about the developments in the Mideast is that it has pushed the Bernie Madoff story deeper into the nightly news programs. Now, there might be a remote possibility that the last human to findContinue Reading
By Rabbi Shalom Ber Levitin, Congregation Shaarei Tefillah — Lubavitch, Regional Director, Chabad of the Pacific Northwest I will always remember Rosh Chodesh, Kislev 5769 — Friday, November 28, 2008 — as we all tried to process the traumatic events that shook the whole world with the terrorist attacks inContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Amy Hilzman-Paquette, principal of Hebrew High (the Community High School of Jewish Studies, more formally) has been selected to attend this year’s Institute for Informal Jewish Education’s Legacy Heritage leadership seminar, which starts in February. The institute is based at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.,Continue Reading
By Ron Kampeas , JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — For some relief from the misery of Israel’s south and Gaza, here’s a joke from the second intifada: An American Jew at a party in New York tells an Israeli friend, “I’d love to visit, but it’s just tooContinue Reading
By Rabbi Charna Klein , , Seattle Regarding Diana Brement’s M.O.T. column (“Journalist is lay leader of Whidbey NAS,” Dec. 19, 2008): The story about Allison Buckholtz’s leadership at NAS Whidbey Island is certainly inspirational and she is to be praised for her contribution. However, the article states that sheContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Editor’s note: This article has been corrected regarding the status of the Buckholtzes lay leadership certification. Alison Buckholtz became the Jewish lay leader of the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station — by default. As the family — husband Scott and little ones Ethan and EsteeContinue Reading
By Rainer Waldman Adkins, Barbara Lahav , Seattle chapter, Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, Seattle Members of the Seattle chapter of Brit Tzedek v’Shalom (Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace) would like to thank the significant number of our local clergy who signed on to the national Brit Tzedek v’Shalom rabbinic letterContinue Reading
By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, Every year we do the same thing for Hanukkah — light the candles, make a few latkes. I know there are probably a lot of books that have information and, I am sure, some Web sites, too, but I do not haveContinue Reading
By JTNews editorial committee , JTNews We can’t escape the bad news about our economy. It’s on television, it’s in the newspapers — this one being no exception — and for many of us, it stares us in the face when we look in the mirror. But that doesn’t meanContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews, Karen Chachkes, Publisher, JTNews, Seattle As the year draws to a close, all of us at the JTNews and jew-ish.com would like to you wish you a happy Hanukkah. While we traditionally think of this time of year as a time to celebrate, for someContinue Reading
By Rabbi Yohanna Kinberg, Temple B’nai Torah This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, said the Lord of hosts. Whoever you are, O great mountain in the path of Zerubbabel, turn into level ground! For he shall produceContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist Even though he is now an Ohio resident, and has been for a while, Sam Chestnut says he draws upon his education at the Seattle Hebrew Academy and growing up in Seattle, “almost weekly in my professional experience,” calling the school “one of the keyContinue Reading
By Dr. Rafael Medoff , Special to JTNews The recent Time magazine cover depicting Barack Obama as a Franklin D. Roosevelt lookalike dramatically illustrated the widespread expectation that the new president intends to govern in the spirit of FDR and the New Deal. This perception has been reinforced by anContinue Reading
By Josh Basson , , Seattle I am outraged by the recent radical Islamic terrorists massacre of innocent civilians that occurred in Mumbai, India. In particular, the savage murder of Chabad House’s Rabbi Gavriel Noah Holtzberg and his wife indicates senseless and baseless blind religious hatred that has left theirContinue Reading
By Rabbi Rob Toren, Samis Foundation A few weeks ago, I was privileged to see a wonderfully rich film about the life and teachings of Rabbi Yosef B. Soloveitchik. The film was presented by the Seattle Hebrew Academy with support from Marty Selig — thank you to both! Rabbi SoloveitchikContinue Reading
