Alina Dain Sharon, JNS.org Wild booze-filled nights, toga parties, and even hazing. Those are the popular culture images that come to mind when thinking of fraternities and sororities, especially for those who are not personally exposed to Greek life on American campuses. But the Jewish college fraternity Alpha Epsilon PiContinue Reading
Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, The Jewish Sound Passover’s coming. What will you be drinking? If only this were the most pressing question as we move into the weeklong love-hate holiday of matzoh (with butter? Tuna? Cream cheese? In the form of soggy pizza?), family table drama that rivals onlyContinue Reading
Rivy Poupko Kletenik, Jewish Sound Columnist Dear Rivy, There’s no getting away from it. Pesach is up next. I’ve been known to embrace the “Pesach denial attitude” in past years — closing my eyes as I pass the Passover aisle in the supermarket, delicately stepping away from the over-the-top, gung-hoContinue Reading
(JTA) — Ukrainian Jewish businessman announced his candidacy for president of Ukraine in the May elections. Rabinovich, 61, the owner and co-founder of Jewish News One and co-chair of the European Jewish Parliament, made the announcement during an interview Tuesday for the Vesti.ua news website and online radio service. InContinue Reading
If you’re looking for a way to celebrate Passover this year, many of our local synagogues and organizations across the state will be hosting seders. Whether you’re looking for a specific neighborhood or region, or a seder that will feel comfortable for your own traditions, we’ve got them here. Continue Reading
Uriel Heilman, JTA News (JTA) — When the leaders of Winnipeg’s Jewish federation sat down 13 years ago to try to figure out a way to reverse the community’s decline, they came up with a novel idea: recruit Jews from overseas. The idea was pretty straightforward. Capitalizing on the pro-immigrationContinue Reading
Tori Gottlieb, Special to The Jewish Sound Thirty-six years ago, Beit Hatfutsot — literally, “House of the Diaspora” — opened in Tel Aviv. The museum, founded with the goal of being a central archive and memorial for Jewish life, assumed the responsibility of documenting Jewish communities all over the worldContinue Reading
Janis Siegel, Jewish Sound Correspondent Capping a year-long effort to repair and re-scribe its Torah while celebrating its 10th anniversary, Congregation Kol HaNeshamah will welcome Master Bible scholar and Brandeis University’s Dora Golding professor of biblical studies Prof. Marc Zvi Brettler as its scholar in residence during the last weekendContinue Reading
Ari Rudolph, Special to The Jewish Sound NEW YORK (JTA) — A key component that unifies a people or nation is a common language. The Jewish people are no exception; the Hebrew language is an essential element of what constitutes the Jewish nation. Hebrew often is the only common languageContinue Reading
Emily K. Alhadeff Associate Editor This story complements the JTNews’ new podcast, “A Freilechen Seattle,” available here or at the iTunes store. Subscribe to The Transcript podcast on iTunes. Jeffrey Grossman’s retirement dream was to learn Yiddish. “As I got older, I can’t tell you what it was, it litContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews With seven months and two major events under his belt, Keith Dvorchik is beginning to feel like he’s getting his feet under him. “You forget what the beginning is really like,” said the CEO and president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, who joinedContinue Reading
By JNS.org A new letter to President Barack Obama signed by 83 of 100 U.S. senators outlines “core principles” that the senators believe must be part of a final deal on Iran’s nuclear program. The senators wrote that any agreement “must dismantle Iran’s nuclear weapons program and prevent it fromContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews Richelle Willner Martin and Gabi Benisti hold the trophy from their victory at the national Jewish Unity Mentoring Program Challenge, a program of the NCSY youth group. The pair was one of four teams from around the country to travel to New York this weekContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, JTNews Who is a Jew? This oft-pondered, never sufficiently answered question was the topic of a recent three-part class led by Rabbi Oren Hayon for Jconnectors at Hillel at the University of Washington this winter. But this was no ordinary identity discussion group. HayonContinue Reading
By , JTA World News Service JERUSALEM (JTA)—A Knesset committee will have to vote again on a bill allowing local rabbis to oversee conversions to Judaism in Israel after approving the measure. On Wednesday, the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee supported the bill in a 7-4 vote following a contentiousContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick , Editor, JTNews With another session in Olympia now behind us, JTNews asked the members of Washington State’s Jewish caucus to give us their insights into how things went for our state and our Jewish community. How did this session benefit our Jewish community? Sen. David FrocktContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — The battle between members of Congress and the State Department over tourist visas for Israelis features two competing archetypes of the young Israeli traveler. The lawmakers paint a picture of a world traveler, matured by service to country, who deservesContinue Reading
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA)—Dear Friend, I understand you’re thinking of becoming a rabbi. Mazel tov! Getting into a seminary shouldn’t be too hard. During the decade between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s, four consequential new rabbinical schools opened in America: the liberal Orthodox Yeshivat ChoveveiContinue Reading
By Robert Gluck, JNS.org The recently deceased Sid Caesar made America laugh, and in so doing, revolutionized television comedy. His trailblazing style was infused with Jewish influences, according to Eddy Friedfeld, co-author with Caesar on his biography “Caesar’s Hours: My Life in Comedy, With Love and Laughter.” “Sid was partContinue Reading
By Binyamin Kagedan, JNS.org The names of religious holidays are usually fairly straightforward, pointing us to the central symbol or theme of the festival. Pesach refers to the ancient lamb offering, the korban pesach; Shavuot, meaning “weeks,” points to the careful counting of seven weeks that precede it; Sukkot areContinue Reading
