News (Page 185)

By Donna Gordon Blankinship, Editor, JTNews The wandering Jews of the Seattle Hebrew Academy are moving again this fall. As a temporary solution to keep the school running while earthquake damage is addressed, the Orthodox Jewish day school is splitting its student body in half this year. Middle-school students willContinue Reading

By , Special to JTNews Cooper thanked 13 police officers assisting in the investigation who were volunteering their off-duty time to provide security at the day’s rally. He concluded by asking the community to “step up and give us 22,000 pairs of eyes and ears and to give us aContinue Reading

By David Chesanow, JTNews Correspondent OLYMPIA — Congregants of Temple Beth Hatfiloh were among some 300 community members attending an interfaith vigil in June at a local Vietnamese Buddhist temple, the scene of two vandalism incidents. The temple’s rabbi, Marna Sapsowitz, spoke at the gathering, and about 10 members ofContinue Reading

By , Special to JTNews Many parents have sent their children on the Alexander Muss High School in Israel (AMHSI) program. Now adults will be able to experience it for themselves in an abbreviated version, Oct. 16—31, 2001. Maureen Davis, AMHSI Adult Session chair, says, “Now that we all haveContinue Reading

By David Sabban, other During this turbulent and important time in Israel’s history, I was given a phenomenal opportunity, along with my friend and colleague Leslie Strasser, to be part of an Israel experience. Birthright Israel is a partnership of private philanthropists, the State of Israel and local Jewish Federations,Continue Reading

By Manny Frishberg, JTNews Correspondent A former Catholic seminary and retreat center may not be the first place people expect to find a large number of Jews teaching and studying, but Bastyr University is an exceptional place in a number of ways. Since 1996, the school has been on itsContinue Reading

By Gigi Yellen-Kohn, JTNews Correspondent Congregation Ezra Bessaroth this month officially welcomes Rabbi Salomon Cohen to its bimah as its new spiritual leader. Rabbi Cohen, his wife, Raquel, and their five children have traveled far — all the way from Spain — to resettle in Seattle, but in fact, theyContinue Reading

By David J. Litvak, Special to JTNews A Spokane chavurah, Havurat Shabbat, is working to establish a second congregation in Spokane, eastern Washington’s largest city. The chavurah, which has been meeting formally for approximately seven years, is preparing an application to submit to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, whichContinue Reading

By Jessica Davis, JTNews Correspondent When Seattle native Marci Chentow was a kid, she never thought of living in Israel, let alone being an international relations associate of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. “Did I know then where I would end up? Absolutely no,” she said in a recentContinue Reading

By Donna Gordon Blankinship, Editor, JTNews Rabbi Daniel Weiner has had a rare opportunity this past year — a chance to spend a long time getting to know his new congregation before becoming the senior rabbi at Temple De Hirsch Sinai on July 1. “It takes a good year orContinue Reading

By Donna Gordon Blankinship, Editor, JTNews Leaders of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle allocated a total of $5.9 million to Jewish causes here and abroad for fiscal year 2002 — about $150,000 more than was allocated in fiscal 2001. The $5,917,040 allocated makes up the bulk of pledges fromContinue Reading

By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent Jewish representatives on the Church Council of Greater Seattle, a coalition of about 450 churches in King and South snohomish counties, are strongly criticizing the council for harboring anti-Semitic views, disseminating anti-Israel literature and seeking to silence Jewish viewpoints on the Middle East peace process.Continue Reading

By Jessica Davis, JTNews Correspondent More than 200 attended a Torah dedication at Sephardic Bikur Holim and Bikur Cholim-Machzikay Hadath on July 1, when Mark Birulin and his sister Gloria presented a new Torah to Seattle Hebrew Academy. The Orthodox Jewish day school had an older Torah, which has beenContinue Reading

By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent The Jewish Studies Program at the University of Washington has set its sights on two areas of research that play to the strengths of the Pacific Northwest and that they hope will establish the department as a premier Jewish academic and research destination. With theContinue Reading

By Jessica Davis, JTNews Correspondent After 34 years at Northwest Harvest, Executive Director Ruth Velozo is retiring at the end of this month. She says she will listen to God to show her where he wants her next: “There is still much to be done.” Hundreds of people crowding Seattle’sContinue Reading

By Donna Gordon Blankinship, Editor, JTNews Talk to the people who knew and loved Herb Rosen and you may begin to form the mistaken impression that he worked in the construction industry. But Rosen, who died June 19 at age 79, did not construct buildings with his hands; he formedContinue Reading

By Jessica Davis, JTNews Correspondent The Seattle Jewish Chapel has its first permanent home in more than two years, following the dedication at the end of June of the Mel Wolf Tahara, where the Jewish traditions for preparing a body for burial will be performed. The new building, which isContinue Reading

By Donna Gordon Blankinship, Editor, JTNews When Rabbi Earl Starr sat down to reminisce recently about his 30 years at Temple De Hirsch Sinai, one of the first things he did after taking a sip of tea was to make a joke about gathering information for his obituary. For aContinue Reading

By Donna Gordon Blankinship, Editor, JTNews During a year when many saw the impacts of an economic downturn, the Jewish community dug deep to pledge more than $9 million to the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s 2001 Community Campaign. The total of $9,040,000 fell short of the $10 million goalContinue Reading