By Hilary Bernstein & Richard Fruchter, Director, Pacific Northwest Anti-Defamation League & President & CEO Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, [JTNews editor] Joel Magalnick believes our Jewish community failed (“We failed,” June 26). On the contrary, our community behaved prudently. When Westboro Baptist Church, a hate group from Topeka, Kan.,Continue Reading

By Jeremy Miller, , Seattle John Rothschild offers a provocative perspective on the financial issues faced by the Jewish Federation (Letters, June 26). He suggests eliminating funding of the Seattle Hebrew Academy, the Chabad Cheder and Northwest Yeshiva High School because of their definition of a Jewish child based uponContinue Reading

By Rabbi Bernie Fox, Head of School Northwest Yeshiva High School, In a recent letter to the JTNews titled “Double standards” (June 26), the writer suggested that Federation should limit its allocations for those organizations that serve and welcome the entire community. This criterion would exclude Orthodox schools from fundingContinue Reading

By Steve Krafchick, , Seattle If what John Rothschild reports is truly the admissions policy of the [day schools], then I want to weigh in and support John’s call for the Federation cutting funding to these schools. The schools subject to those admission policies can only serve a very smallContinue Reading

By Rabbi David Twersky, , Seattle John Rothschild’s “brilliant” suggestion (Letters, June 26) as to how to partially solve the Jewish Federation’s financial crisis — namely by elimination of funding for Orthodox day schools — represents the classic case of someone who is so open minded that his brains fallContinue Reading

By Rabbi Alan Cook, Temple De Hirsch Sinai Last year, Temple De Hirsch Sinai undertook a precious task. For the first time in our congregation’s history, we wrote a brand new Torah. This was a significant undertaking, and we opted to make it an educational opportunity for our community: RatherContinue Reading

By Pinchas Zohav , , Bellevue Israel is probably more safe from nuclear attack than most any location on the planet. The obvious fact is that if Iran or any other source would detonate a nuclear device anywhere in Israel’s territory, it would instantly take out the third most holyContinue Reading

By Murray A. Marcus, , Seattle In your issue of June 12, 2009, you wrote “Please stay away.” I think that was the wrong message. They stayed away when Hitler started and 6 million Jews died. The only way to defeat these people is to confront them and to letContinue Reading

By Joel Magalnick , Editor, JTNews The Anti-Defamation League’s national director Abe Foxman has a mantra, “Never again,” that he calls upon constantly to remind us of the dangers of complacence in the face of the drumbeat of racism that led to the Holocaust. So why is it, when we’reContinue Reading

By Dee Simon and Laurie Warshal Cohen , Special to JTNews The recent fatal shooting at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. is a stark reminder that each of us has the responsibility to stand up to prejudice and hate whenever and wherever we encounter it. SaraContinue Reading

By Alice Woldt, Transitional Executive Director, Washington Association of Churches The member denominations and institutions of the Washington Association of Churches deplore the message being brought to Seattle by Fred Phelps and his band of hate-mongers from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. We stand in support of you, ourContinue Reading

By Tammy Kaiser, , Seattle resident of a nearby barracks. There are not sufficient words to describe the feeling of singing “Hatikvah” overlooking the site of a former Nazi concentration camp, or the feeling of laughing in Auschwitz, suddenly overwhelmed with joy because we survived to tell the story. EverywhereContinue Reading

By John Rothschild, , Seattle In the last issue of JTNews, there was an article on the funding crisis for the Jewish Federation (“Federation officials brace for sharp campaign drop,” June 12). As I was reading this article, the amazing spontaneous events in Iran were happening. I began thinking ofContinue Reading

By Rabbi Vicki Hollander, Congregation Shaareth Israel, Lubbock, TX In my 14 years in the rabbinate in the Pacific Northwest I had the pleasure to serve Beth Hatfiloh in Olympia, Temple Beth Or in Everett, the Jewish Community Center in Bremerton, Herzl-Ner Tamid on Mercer Island, Or Shalom in Vancouver,Continue Reading

By Josh Basson, , Seattle Leslie Susser’s insightful front page column was quite informative (“Is Hamas reassessing its strategy?” May 29). Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal’s offer to Israel of a 10-year truce with clearly unacceptable conditions to both Israel and Western governments is a futile attempt to improve its internationalContinue Reading

By Rabbi Levi Backman, Chabad of Whatcom County On June 20, Jews around the world will commemorate 68 years since the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and his wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushkah, arrived in the U.S. in the midst of World War II. Additionally, June 25 corresponds to “GimmelContinue Reading

By Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum , Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation when God spoke the words of the Ten Commandments to our entire people at Mount Sinai. The most frequently asked question in Jewish life today is: “Why doesn’t God speak to us like that now?” We say: “If only we hadContinue Reading

By Josh Basson, , Seattle Michael J. Jordan’s insightful front page column was quite informative (“Was Durban II a success or failure?” May 1.) It is apparent by the boycotts, walkouts and the hateful attacks on Israel by Iran’s president, Durban II must be remembered by Jews and non-Jews alikeContinue Reading