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By David Brumer, , Seattle The Olympia, Washington Food Co-op has the dubious distinction of being the first within the grocery co-op movement in America to boycott Israeli-made products. This is unsurprising, because Olympia is a beehive of anti-Israel, anti-Zionist activities, from the classrooms of Evergreen State College to itsContinue Reading

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By Rabbi Daniel A. Septimus, Temple De Hirsch Sinai In the Winter 2009 edition of Reform Judaism Magazine, the Union for Reform Judaism shared the results of a survey on post-B’nai Mitzvah retention. The impetus for conducting the study was quite simple: The leaders of the Reform movement have observedContinue Reading

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By Adrienne Weller, , Seattle I am glad to see coverage of the Olympia Co-op’s decision to boycott Israeli products. (“Olympia co-op votes to boycott Israeli products,” July 23). It is a principled and courageous action and naturally they are taking heat for it. Many Jews like myself are notContinue Reading

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By Josh Basson, , Seattle Thank you, Erez Ben-Ari, for a very moving column (“Not just for anyone,” July 9) making a very important point about how organ donation saves lives. Albert Behar and his family are very close friends of mine. I have nothing but admiration and respect forContinue Reading

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By Joel Magalnick , Editor, JTNews There’s going to come a time in the not-so-distant future that the news of a food cooperative or some company deciding to boycott Israel isn’t going to make the front page of the JTNews. And if the past year is any indication, these eventsContinue Reading

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By Kimberly Wolf, , Sammamish I just read the article on the Federation’s fundraising efforts (”As projected, Federation campaign ends down,” July 9). This article shows why Federation leaves me cold and has me not donating. I have a disability and in the past have looked to Federation for help,Continue Reading

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By Nevet Basker, , Bellevue Philip Gerson (“A compassionate search for reality,” July 8) repeats a number of common but erroneous myths about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He describes the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo as being built on “Palestinian land annexed to Jerusalem in 1967.” In fact, as I am sureContinue Reading

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By Philip R. Scheier, , Shoreline Conflicting viewpoints on the Mideast’s eternal problems are the stuff of honest reporting and always welcome. However, the July 9 issue of the JTNews, with its two slanted, lengthy articles targeting Israel as the culprit for daring to defend itself against non-stop Arab attacksContinue Reading

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By Robert Wilkes , Special to JTNews This is the second in a series of columns by Robert Wilkes, who has taken upon himself the nearly hopeless task of convincing Jews it is in their best interest to vote Republican. I describe my wife Nancy as kinetic. She must alwaysContinue Reading

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By Dr. Marc Kramer, Executive Director, RAVSAK: The Jewish Community Day School Network, New York, NY I am delighted to join in congratulating Beth Huppin of the Seattle Jewish Community School on being chosen as one of three outstanding Jewish educators to receive the nationally acclaimed 2010 Covenant Award. Beth’sContinue Reading

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By Peter Mark, , Seattle In Rabbi’s Turn on June 25 (“Just a bit too interesting“), Rabbi Jonathan Singer referred to “Israel’s attack on the “˜peace’ activists” and wrote that “Israel treated the approaching Gaza flotilla convoy as giants.” To characterize what happened at sea as an “Israeli attack” isContinue Reading

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By Josh Basson, , Seattle The insightful column by Robert Kaufman (“The tragic indoctrination of Rachel Corrie,” June 25) should concern us all. It is disconcerting to know that Evergreen State College in Olympia, a state-funded institution, has turned into a private playground by radical anti-Israel faculty. Jewish students shouldContinue Reading

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By Philip Gerson , Special to JTNews From May 25—June 5, I joined in a Compassionate Listening Project delegation to Israel-Palestine, where I spent seven days in Israel and East Jerusalem and four days in the West Bank. Our group consisted of 24 people from North America that included Christians,Continue Reading

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By Rabbi Jacob Elisha Fine, Hillel at the University of Washington One of the occupational hazards of being a rabbi is that self-identified atheists seem to have a habit of making sure you know that they don’t believe in God. Never mind theorizing the impetuses for such self-disclosures, I haveContinue Reading

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By Rabbi Jonathan Singer, Temple Beth Am When I was growing up, my sister loved to share with me the well-known Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times!” I understood right away why living in too interesting times is a curse — far better is it to live inContinue Reading

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By Jeffrey Weiser , , Redmond How is one to react to a headline like “Evergreen students urge divestment” (June 11)? Disgust? Anger? Worry? Disgust because the ignorance of modern Middle Eastern history and the anti-Israel bigotry of these kids is simply appalling. They should know better. They aren’t illiterates.Continue Reading

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By Josh Basson, , Seattle Your front-page column by Leslie Susser (“Israel facing tough choices on Gaza as criticism of blockade mounts,” June 11) was quite informative. Israel rightly insists its naval blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory will continue. It was imposed in June 2007 after Hamas violently expelled FatahContinue Reading