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Dear Subscribers and Members of our community, As the final chapter of this 91-year-old newspaper comes to an end, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the board and staff of The Jewish Sound (a.k.a. JTNews and The Jewish Transcript) for its unwavering support and commitment through theContinue Reading

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By Diana Brement, Jewish Sound Columnist Please hand me that freshly sharpened stylus. I need to etch this in cuneiform on my clay tablet. When it’s dry, I’ll call the Pony Express to carry it to my editor. Then a typesetter will set my words, one letter at a time,Continue Reading

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By Rabbi Olivier BenHaim, Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue Our tradition assumes the possibility of four different levels of interpretation to any text, from the literal to the esoteric. One of these levels, the allegorical level, allows us to understand our Biblical stories as universal archetypes relating to the human spiritualContinue Reading

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By Rabbi Mark Spiro, Living Judaism   Obese Ohio man found fused to chair he sat in for 2 years A morbidly obese Ohio man was in the hospital Tuesday after police found him fused to a chair he had not moved from in two years and were forced toContinue Reading

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By Rabbi Anson Laytner, Special to the Jewish Sound After the Washington Coalition of Rabbis, the umbrella body for non-Orthodox rabbis in our state, wrote a letter criticizing the showing of “The J Street Challenge” here in Seattle because it potentially would sow seeds of mistrust among Jews here, weContinue Reading

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By Jay Ruderman, JTA World News Service BOSTON (JTA) — In the past decade, a new class of Jewish mega-givers has emerged, reshaping the Jewish philanthropic landscape. This has been, without a doubt, a tremendous boon for Jewish life. Super-donors are facilitating the expansion of the Jewish enterprise. With theirContinue Reading

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By Edward Alexander, Special to the Jewish Sound “In the modern world, the Jew has perpetually been on trial; still today the Jew is on trial, in the person of the Israeli—and this modern trial of the Jew, this trial which never ends, begins with the trial of Shylock.” —PhilipContinue Reading

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By Rabbi Seth Goldstein, Temple Beth Hatfiloh Here is a scenario: A synagogue is faced with a tight budget. Examining its options, the board of the congregation decides not to do any additional fundraising, but instead decides to just cut programs. Doesn’t sound too realistic? As a congregational rabbi myself,Continue Reading

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By David Shayne, Special to The Jewish Sound “In other cases, the more or less universally used description of ‘eligibility” [to be considered ‘refugees’] included those people who were forced to leave ‘permanent’ or ‘habitual’ homes. In the case of Arab refugees, however, the definition had been broadened to includeContinue Reading

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By Rabbi Shaul Engelsberg, Derech Emunah Seattle Jewish Girls High School My wife’s grandfather, Mordechai Szimonowitz, survived World War II. When the Nazis forced all the Jews of Budapest, Hungary to move into the ghetto, Zeide — as we called him — was able to procure false identification papers andContinue Reading

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By Jamie Rubin, Kveller.com (Kveller via JTA) — Since the news of the recent Disneyland measles outbreak and the subsequent chatter on Facebook began, I discovered I have at least four Facebook friends (and likely a few more) with healthy, non-immunocompromised, vaccine-aged children who have decided, for non-medical reasons, to not vaccinate.Continue Reading

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By Susanna Heschel, JTA World News Service HANOVER, N.H. (JTA) — The 50th anniversary of the 1965 march at Selma is being commemorated this year with the release of the film “Selma.” Regrettably, the film represents the march as many see it today, only as an act of political protest.Continue Reading

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By Mayim Bialik, Kveller/JTA World News Service I grew up in a public school that had enough Jewish kids that I felt represented. I went to Hebrew school twice a week and had a chavurah, or fellowship, through my Reform synagogue with kids my age. A portion of my family was Orthodox. IContinue Reading