News (Page 158)

By Britten Schear, JTNews Correspondent A computer scientist advocating less time in front of the computer is as hard to imagine as a politician holding himself to single-sentence answers during a debate. It is then reasonable to be skeptical of Professor David Levy’s warning that overloading on information is morallyContinue Reading

By Miriam Terlinchamp, JTNews Correspondent For a solid 18 months, life took a very different turn for Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, the nationally acclaimed author, Jungian therapist and leader of Renewal Judaism. As a vibrant speaker, scholar, mother and teacher, Rabbi Firestone’s schedule brimmed with classes, services and lectures. For aContinue Reading

By Manny Frishberg, JTNews Correspondent Rob Jacobs may be a new face around the ADL’s regional headquarters in Seattle, but he has been working for human rights throughout his life. He also brings some of the most varied experience to the regional director’s post in recent memory. Before moving intoContinue Reading

By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent Hundreds of concerned citizens gathered at Town Hall in Seattle on Feb. 9 to hear two interfaith religious leaders speak about Mel Gibson’s soon-to-be-released film, The Passion of the Christ. The movie has motivated many interreligious groups around the country to call it a misinterpretationContinue Reading

By Jessica Davis, JTNews Correspondent Twenty-five years after acclaimed architect Louis “Lou” Kahn mysteriously died from a heart-attack in Penn Station, his son Nathaniel Kahn went on a search of his father with a documentary titled My Architect. An Estonian Jew who immigrated with his family to Philadelphia in 1906,Continue Reading

By Joel Magalnick, JTNews CorrespondentContinue Reading

By Joel Magalnick, JTNews Correspondent With the announcement of this year’s Seattle Jewish Film Festival lineup comes a project undertaken by the festival’s organizers, which viewers will see before the popcorn even gets cold: visual vignettes of local faces on-screen, talking about what it means to be Jewish in AmericanContinue Reading

By Joel Magalnick, JTNews Correspondent Even lunch will be educational at this year’s Mini-CAJE workshop. The lunchtime lesson for this local conference of the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education, titled “The Knowing is in the Eating: The Jewish Foods We Teach, ” will be taught by Carol Starin,Continue Reading

By Diana Brement, JTNews Correspondent My mother reports that during a recent conversation about religion, my brother said to her that none of their discussion mattered, since we were “all descended from converts.” My brother referred, of course, to the Khazars, the greatly mythologized central-Asian tribe whose royal family ledContinue Reading

By Joel Brodsky, Special to JTNews With sweat dripping down the side of my face and my legs aching from hours of uphill cycling, I wondered to myself, will this hill ever end? Lifting my head and looking out at the expanse of lush green and high rolling hills ofContinue Reading

By Manny Frishberg , JTNews Correspondent Three years after the start of the second intifada and the end of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, Herb Keinon sees the security wall and “unilateral disengagement” as the most popular approaches to restoring a sense of security among the Israeli people.Continue Reading

By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent Land. To some it is nothing more than dirt, a few rivers and maybe some trees. But for many Jews, Muslims and Christians living today in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza is a promised land. Those few square miles of soil hold the destinyContinue Reading

By Joshua Rosenstein, Special to JTNews Celia Kerr, a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Washington, traveled to Israel on the most recent Hillel birthright trip this past December. Before the trip, she identified as a Jew and generally supported the idea of Israel, but she did not feel anyContinue Reading

By Dan Aznoff, Special to JTNews Growing up in the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, Miriam Bogoslavsky spent her childhood at the keys of her beloved piano. She hoped the music could somehow drown out the sights and sounds of oppression. Today, she is free toContinue Reading

By Melissa Marlowe, Special to JTNews Michele Blue is seriously contemplating purchasing a tool belt. Ever since stepping onto her first worksite in 1996, she felt it would be a helpful asset to the volunteer work she does; right now, Blue is building her ninth home. A Mercer Island native,Continue Reading

By Joel Magalnick, JTNews Correspondent Before now kids had to go all the way down to Santa Rosa, Calif. — or even farther — just to attend a Reform Jewish summer camp. Beginning in the summer of 2005, that will no longer be the case. With the purchase last monthContinue Reading

By Manny Frishberg , JTNews Correspondent George Gordon knew his younger sister was dead. When he was a 14-year-old Jewish resistance fighter in Warsaw, a comrade reported that the hospital Krystyna and their mother were working in had been destroyed, killing everyone inside. So, when as an older man inContinue Reading

By Joel Magalnick, JTNews Correspondent Jewish bakery Sweet Lorraine’s will serve its last rugelach on Feb. 1. The building at 3055 21st Ave. W in Magnolia that housed both the storefront and production area was sold this month. The new landlord has raised the rent by approximately 60 percent, accordingContinue Reading

By Manny Frishberg , JTNews Correspondent These are hard times for commercial real estate in Seattle, which also means harder times for Jewish day schools in the area. The connection between the two is the Samis Foundation, which controls the 500 properties acquired over the years by Samis Land CompanyContinue Reading