By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews The staff of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle received a shock when they assembled for a staff meeting first thing Monday morning: Their president and CEO, Richard Fruchter, announced his resignation, effective September 30. Fruchter and his wife “were thinking about this for aContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, JTNews Margaret Hollinger’s disintegrating photo album contains black paper pages with fading black-and-white snapshots of Europe, 1945. The images start in Wales, where she arrived as part of the 120th Evacuation Field Hospital, and they follow the cadre of army nurses through France, theContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, JTNews Leo Hymas was 18 years old when he and three other American soldiers, members of General Patton’s Third Army, used Bangalore torpedoes to blow open the gate at Buchenwald. He was not prepared for what he would find. “I had no idea; neverContinue Reading
By Yossi Klein Halevi, Special to JTNews My friendship with David Brumer began with an email. He’d written an Op-Ed in defense of Israel for his local daily newspaper, David wrote me. Would I mind taking a look at it? It was during the terrible days of the second intifada,Continue Reading
By Olivia Rosen, Special to JTNews The Department of Homeland security will grant $9.7 million out of $10 million to Jewish organizations nationwide this year as a part of its seventh annual Non-Profit Security Grant Program. The Seattle area is set to receive $139,500, yet it is unclear exactly howContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick , Editor, JTNews Ken Weinberg, longtime CEO of Jewish Family Service of Greater Seattle, announced on June 20 that he would retire from his position after 38 years of working for JFS. JTNews sat down with Ken to discuss his tenure and his future. JTNews: Why areContinue Reading
By Herb Levine, other On Sunday, June 10, Rabbi Zalman Heber greeted some 400 guests to celebrate the opening of the new Chabad Jewish Center — the first synagogue built in Tacoma and Pierce County since the Reform Temple Beth El opened its doors in 1968. “How long has itContinue Reading
By , JTNews Correspondent On June 10, the Jewish youth philanthropy group J.Team announced the recipients of this year’s philanthropic funds. J.Team’s 19 teen members awarded $11,750 of community-donated dollars to six organizations: | $1,000 to New Horizons Ministries, which offers services to youth on the street | $2,000 toContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews Clarification: In the article about Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder’s financial troubles (“Day school hangs by a thread,” June 22), the terms of loan the school received from the Samis Foundation would convert to a grant should MMSC raise the amount of the loan. The schoolContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews The hardest thing Michael Oren has ever done occurred while he was an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces seven years ago, during the disengagement from Gaza. “I went into houses and pulled people from houses, and I haven’t gotten over it since,” said Israel’sContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel , JTNews Correspondent As tensions remain high over the progress of Iran’s nuclear program, an Iranian civil-military relations expert, Ali Alfoneh, told a Seattle crowd at Temple De Hirsch Sinai that in Iran today, a corrupt and increasingly powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps does not fear theContinue Reading
By Charlene Kahn, JTNews Correspondent Teachers, heads of school, rabbinic and lay leaders from the region’s Jewish educational and religious institutions gathered together during the last two days of May for a new take on a subject almost as old as Judaism itself: Jewish education. Education, partnerships, outreach, use ofContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews To download a PDF of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s Fiscal Year 2013 grants, click here. Depending upon which agency you talk to, the end of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s 2012 Community Campaign is either the best of times or the worstContinue Reading
By , JTNews Correspondent Congratulations to our 2012 graduates! Yuen Lui The 8th-grade graduating class of the Jewish Day School, in alphabetical order: Amanda Baruch, Evan Brown, Rebecca Brown, Benjamin Cape, Noa Dunn, Audrey Immel, Jake Lewine, Lia Lewine, Alexander Lustig, Lotan Mizrahi, Jamie Pearl, Sophie Rittenberg, Zach Robin, SophieContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Assistant Editor, JTNews Life is bittersweet for kosher consumers in Seattle. On May 9, the kosher certification agency OK announced that Trader Joe’s chocolate chips, which it had previously certified parve, or acceptable for a milk or meat meal, would now be certified dairy. Kosher certificationsContinue Reading
By Dikla Tuchman , JTNews Correspondent Why wouldn’t a Jewish cross-country bike ride launch from Seattle? The region ranks number two among major American cities in which people commute to work by bike. The percentage of people who use bicycles as their primary mode of getting to work in SeattleContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel , JTNews Correspondent In his new book, “Israel and the Bomb,” writer, historian, and one of the world’s foremost voices on nuclear weapons and Israel, Dr. Avner Cohen, reveals the contents of newly declassified historical memoranda and transcripts from some of the highest-level conversations between world leadersContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews Jack Benaroya was a first-generation American. Having felt that this country had given so much to him, he wanted to give what he had in return. “He always felt that there were so many opportunities here,” said Becky Benaroya, Jack’s wife of 70 years. “HeContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent Some call it drive-by Judaism, when parents drop their kids at a synagogue for Hebrew school, take off to shop or grab some coffee, and then return to shuttle them home or out for a meal. It is exactly the model Rabbi Olivier BenHaim ofContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews All of the 2012 Block Award and Rosen Scholarship recipients onstage at the Stroum Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island. For 53 years, the Seattle chapter of the American Jewish Committee has awarded more than 1,000 Seattle area teens — some of them Jewish, manyContinue Reading
