By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, JTNews Twelve years ago, Jodilyn Owen was invited by her sister-in-law to her nephew’s birth as a “pseudo-doula” to boss her older brother around. “The goal was to help him be involved in the way that he could,” she said. “I fell in loveContinue Reading
By Tori Gottlieb, JTNews Correspondent Devorah Kornfeld moved to Seattle in 1974 and almost immediately became involved with Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder (MMSC), a private Jewish day school and the only Jewish Montessori preschool in Seattle. Now approaching 39 years of service with MMSC, Kornfeld is preparing to move intoContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, JTNews Torah Day School, the Orthodox pre-K—8th grade Jewish day school in Seattle’s South End, will welcome the 2013-14 school year in a new space on Beacon Hill. This is the third building for the school in its seven years of existence. The priorContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Columnist With its double-overtime, lasting two months beyond its normal conclusion, our state’s recent extended legislative session was grueling by all accounts. But it was necessary, points out Rep. Gerry Pollet (D-46). “It had, on one hand, a beneficial impact,” he observed recently. In April, “theContinue Reading
By , JTNews Correspondent State Representative Marcie Maxwell (D-41st) has resigned from her position to join Governor Jay Inslee’s Legislative Affairs and Policy Office as its senior education policy adviser. Prior to serving three terms in the Washington State Legislature, Maxwell served on the Renton school board for eight yearsContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent Steve Kasner is banking on his 20 years of community service, including his role as the current chair of the East Bellevue Community Council since 2006 and his extensive teaching and sports coaching on the Eastside, to win the 2013 primary election bid for positionContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, JTNews On Rosh Chodesh Av, the first day of the Hebrew month of Av, the controversial group Women of the Wall were praying at the Kotel in Jerusalem when they were pelted with insults and hard-boiled eggs by a group of Haredi men. TheContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent No Israeli businesses or researchers were represented at the 2013 Life Science Innovation Northwest biotech and biomedical conference this July at the Washington State Convention Center, but two savvy and shrewd Jewish communal leaders, Charles Broches and Barry Kaplan, are committed to changing the statusContinue Reading
By Compiled by Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews The first place art contest winner in the 9th-12th grade category is Alexander King, an 11th grader at Stadium High School in Tacoma. The image is one of three identical images, with the exception of the numbers on the arm, which correspond toContinue Reading
By Tori Gottlieb, Special to JTNews Founded in 1984 by Leslie and Abigail Wexner, the Wexner Foundation has become one of the premier organizations dedicated to the development of Jewish leadership. This month, the Wexner Foundation’s Heritage Program, which specifically supports volunteer leadership, will be sending a cohort of 100Continue Reading
By Melissa Rivkin, Special to JTNews Today I said farewell to Alex, our latest foreign student who is returning to Latvia and then on to Hungary where he will enter business school in the fall. Our house seems empty. We are missing Alex already! Alex is one of over 25Continue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, JTNews In its brief existence, Israel has made enormous strides. But the popular impression that the state is an indefatigable miracle of creation is eroding. “Will Israel exist in 50 years?” is no longer a cynical question. “That’s my husband!” Adi Koll exclaimed. “SometimesContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent Likening the final 2013-2015 state budget deal to a tied score baseball game in the bottom of the ninth inning, Washington’s Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee was philosophical about the inevitable compromises on new taxes and transportation funding. But, he said, he’s ready to work withContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick , Editor, JTNews The Stroum Jewish Community Center’s Mercer Island site looks the same until you make your way toward the back of the building. That’s where you’ll find temporary walls in front of the old auditorium, and you’ll hear plenty of construction noise, but what theContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick , Editor, JTNews Come next week, when Keith Dvorchik spends his first days in his office at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, he’s got one item on his agenda: To listen. “When I get off the plane, my first job needs to be to meet withContinue Reading
By Gwen Davis , JTNews Correspondent Rabbi Mordechai Farkash of the Eastside Torah Center is thinking about the full synagogue experience. “When people come in the shul, there will be couches in a section of the lobby, so if they are not comfortable yet with going to shul, they canContinue Reading
By Charlene Kahn, JTNews Correspondent In a move that continues to cement the historic relationship between Spain and the Iberian Jews, a member of the Seattle Sephardic community received a public service award from the University of Washington for his commitment to preserving Ladino culture and heritage. On Friday, JuneContinue Reading
By Debra Rubin, JTA World News Service (JTA)—Five years ago he was D-Black, a hip-hop artist rapping about the violence, gang activity and drugs of his African-American ‘hood. Today he’s Nissim Black, an Orthodox Jew davening in a Sephardic shul in Seattle and writing songs he describes as rap/urban alternativeContinue Reading
By Gwen Davis, JTNews Correspondent Yom huledet sameach! Congregation Kol HaNeshamah in West Seattle celebrates its 10th anniversary on June 21. Founding rabbi Michael Adam Latz will be in attendance, along with former interim rabbi Anson Laytner and current rabbi Zari Weiss. The celebration includes a potluck dinner, kabbalat ShabbatContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, JTNews What is the role of the American Orthodox rabbi today? It’s a question with more than one answer, and it’s a question South Seattle’s Orthodox synagogues have been struggling with for years. Rabbi Moshe Kletenik joined Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath in 1994 withContinue Reading
