By , Special to JTNews Every year since 2007, the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle has given out the Pamela Waechter Jewish Communal Professional Award, which recognizes one of the many outstanding professionals who works to better Jewish life in our area. The award is named for Waechter, who diedContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent The 20 or so moms and dads who came to the final lecture of the parenting series at the Stroum Jewish Community Center “kvelled” when asked about their children. “They are sensitive,” said one parent. They are kind, loving, curious, helpful, tender, extremely active, greatContinue Reading
By Robert Shay , Special to JTNews The National Museum of American Jewish Military History is located at the headquarters of a little-known historic veterans organization, the Jewish War Veterans of the USA. Founded by 76 Civil War veterans in 1896 and located in a quaint two-story brownstone in Washington,Continue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews Despite more than $5 billion in budget cuts made by elected officials in this year’s legislative session, the Jewish community fared relatively well. The month-long special session ended Wednesday, Many of the programs that Gov. Christine Gregoire had eliminated from her initial budget were retained,Continue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews Compared to a vote this week by a municipality in Scotland that will no longer allow books by Israeli authors on its library’s shelves, the removal of a few items from a food co-op might seem like, well, a tub of hummus. In this context,Continue Reading
By Tim Klass, JTNews Correspondent Pirkei Avot, a section of the Talmud traditionally studied between Pesach and Shavuot, begins with the passing of the Torah to Moses, then to Joshua, the elders, the prophets and, finally, the rabbis. This may be read as a kind of franchise. Seven weeks afterContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent The College of Idaho is a highly unlikely future center of Jewish learning, but the small liberal arts school founded in 1891 by William Judson Boone, a descendant of American explorer Daniel Boone, is now on the verge of another meeting with history — JewishContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Correspondent It all started with bad news — and really poorly timed bad news at that. “On my 35th birthday — over eight years ago — I was diagnosed with stage-three breast cancer,” recalls Polly Lysen-Halpern. “I found the lump three days earlier.” Her sons, NoahContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent When three observant Jewish men on a flight from Mexico City to Los Angeles in March alarmed the flight crew by standing, wrapping black leather straps to their arms, binding small black boxes to their heads, and praying loudly in Hebrew, they were removed fromContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews Religion in America runs in cycles. Sometimes it ebbs, sometimes it flows. Currently, says Prof. Jonathan Sarna of Brandeis University, this country is experiencing a religious recession, and the Jewish community is not exempt. “The number of Americans who claim that their religion is ‘none’Continue Reading
By , JTNews Correspondent Two local Jewish veterans, Robert Shay and Alan Silverman, have launched the Jewish Veterans Remembrance Project to recognize Jewish veteran gravesites throughout the Seattle area this Memorial Day. Shay and Silverman are currently gathering the names of deceased Jewish veterans from the greater Seattle area, asContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Assistant Editor, JTNews “I have given my background to just about every population except my own,” says Diane Burnett, the new director of the Alternatives to Addiction program at Jewish Family Service. “I had been told about the position here at JFS, and I wasn’t evenContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff , Assistant Editor, JTNews As Giti Fredman talks, a theme emerges: Inspiration. She describes how she landed in West Seattle (of all places), building Jewish community and leading women’s trips to Israel as a result of inspired choices and an unusually grounded sense that she canContinue Reading
By Eric Nusbaum, JTNews Correspondent Yariv Oppenheimer, secretary general of Israel’s Peace Now (Shalom Achsav) movement kicked off his three-day trip to Seattle with a speech and discussion at Hillel at the University of Washington on May 2 that varied from his usual speaking engagements: Nearly all of Oppenheimer’s questionsContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews CorrespondentContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews CorrespondentContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Correspondent Readers can often benefit from learning history through fiction, a testament to historical fiction’s enduring popularity. An author can “know” a fictional character more deeply, creating a more sympathetic, moving and personal portrait than an historical figure might make. This in turn gives the readerContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Correspondent Judaism Imagine: John Lennon and the Jews, A Philosophical Rampage, by Ze’ev Maghen (independent, paper, $12.50). Don’t be put off by the title of this book, it’s about a lot more than John Lennon, although the author uses a critique of the song lyrics asContinue Reading
