By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, Jewish Sound Columnist Dear Rivy, Two issues, both Hanukkah related. Every year we host our family’s Hanukkah party, which is lovely and we are happy to do it. Issue number one: I feel as if most of my family knows nothing about what Hanukkah is reallyContinue Reading
(JTA) — The parents of Steven Sotloff, the Jewish journalist who was beheaded by a member of ISIS, will light a public menorah in Miami in his memory. Arthur and Shirley Sotloff will light the first candle of Hanukkah on Tuesday night at the Chabad center. “Steve was a proudContinue Reading
By Menachem Wecker, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) — Dimly lit, the stone slab, or stele, doesn’t look particularly noteworthy, especially when compared to the more lavish sphinxes, jewelry and cauldrons one encounters en route to the room where it is installed. Indeed, in a Twitter post thisContinue Reading
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service (JTA) — When the season’s first snowstorm descended on Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights a few weeks ago, it didn’t take long before M, a career sergeant in the Israel Defense Forces, received a phone call from Leon Blankrot. “What do youContinue Reading
By Anthony Weiss, JTA World News Service LOS ANGELES (JTA) — A decade ago in Los Angeles, two organizations opened their doors with a call to prayer — or they would have if they had any doors to open. Ikar, led by Rabbi Sharon Brous, and Nashuva, led by Rabbi Naomi Levy,Continue Reading
By Suzanne Feinspan, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — I sat down last week to write about what happened in Ferguson. As I began to write, there was no doubt in my mind that there would be a “next time” as soon as we hit the next news cycle,Continue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff Associate Editor, JTNews The only thing missing was the campfire on December 8 when 30 people gathered with the Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State to practice one of the oldest arts in the world: Storytelling. The event, the first of its kind in many years,Continue Reading
Nina Badzin Kveller.com MINNEAPOLIS (Kveller.com) — We Jews have two choices in our approach to the Christmas season: Resent it or embrace it. I for one vote for a big, sloppy embrace. In the name of love thy neighbor and tolerance, I say we hug it out with Christmas alreadyContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, The Jewish Sound On Nov. 28, the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle announced that 14 organizations would receive nearly $64,000 to help build programs for our local Jewish community. The Federation’s Ignition grant program offers up to $5,000 for pilot or one-time projects that help support theContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, The Jewish Sound Roya Hakakian was 12 when her country erupted in revolution. The daughter of intellectual Jewish parents in Tehran, she did what comes naturally to frustrated youth: She began writing poetry. Poetry, she told me in the restaurant of her downtown Seattle hotel,Continue Reading
By Boris Kurbanov, Jewish Sound Correspondent Sharing stories of its history, reuniting alumni, and looking to the future, Camp Solomon Schechter celebrated its 60th anniversary on Dec. 6 with a gala at the Hilton in Bellevue. The Tumwater-based independent children’s overnight camp was founded in 1954 by Portland’s Rabbi JoshuaContinue Reading
By Anthony Weiss, JTA World News Service (JTA) — Last week’s departure of most of the editorial team at The New Republic — including Franklin Foer, Leon Wieseltier, Judith Shulevitz and Julia Ioffe — didn’t just blow a hole in the landscape of American journalism. It also threw into doubt theContinue Reading
By Steve Lipman, The Jewish Week NEW YORK (The Jewish Week via JTA) — Just three weeks after terrorists killed four worshippers in a Jerusalem synagogue, a man entered a Brooklyn shul and stabbed a 22-year-old Israeli student. New York police officers fatally shot the 49-year-old assailant, who reportedly shoutedContinue Reading
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The stabbing of a rabbinical student at Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in New York underscores three things that Jewish security officials have been urging in recent years: Be alert for copycats, cooperate with law enforcement and don’t stay away from shul. American Jewish community officials have been on theContinue Reading
(JTA) — An Israeli man studying for the rabbinate in New York was stabbed while praying at Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Brooklyn. Levi Rosenviat, 22, who lives in the West Bank’s Gush Etzion bloc of settlements, was stabbed at 1:45 a.m. Tuesday in the neck and elsewhere in the synagogueContinue Reading
By Hillel Kuttler, JTA World News Service The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends. BALTIMORE (JTA) — “Seeking information on Harry and Yetta Frishman, who lived in Paterson, N.J., and moved to Tacoma, Wash., and then Home,” read the brief email to “Seeking Kin.” TheContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, The Jewish Sound Fresh out of Israel and already scooping up a first place award at the Tribeca Film Festival is “Zero Motivation,” a darkly delightful girl-buddy comedy about the banality of daily life in Israel’s defining institution, the army. “M*A*S*H” meets “Orange is theContinue Reading
By Hillel Kuttler, JTA World News Service PHILADELPHIA (JTA) — In text accompanying a new exhibition at this city’s National Museum of American Jewish History, Sammy Davis Jr. is quoted on why he converted to Judaism. “I became a Jew because I was ready and willing to understand the plightContinue Reading
By Robert Gluck, JNS.org The miracle of Hanukkah is an epic story of conservation, as one day’s worth of oil lasted for eight days in the Jewish Temple. Now, in some circles, energy conservation and energy independence are increasing hallmarks of modern-day Hanukkah. One of the first organizations to emphasizeContinue Reading
Here’s how David Krantz, president and chairperson of Aytzim: Ecological Judaism, suggests how you can take on a new environmental commitment for each day of Hanukkah: Change incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent or, better yet, LED bulbs. Commit to wearing sweaters in the winter instead of turning up theContinue Reading
