Painting the Torah
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, The Jewish Sound How do you see Torah? That’s the question Nancy Current and Jeremy Alk will be asking upon the launch of their new class, “The Genesis of Creativity: Using Visual Midrash to Capture the Jewish Imagination.” It’s not exactly a new question.Continue Reading
Jews on the ballot: Jon Zimmerman seeks a seat on the bench
By Janis Siegel, Jewish Sound Correspondent Born in New York City, raised in Connecticut, and settled in Seattle for the last 13 years, Seattle Municipal Court Position 2 candidate and Judge Pro Tem Jon Zimmerman is a lawyer in private practice who told the Jewish Sound that he wants toContinue Reading
Israelis growing hungry for vegan diet
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service TEL AVIV (JTA) — The music pounded, the liquor flowed, dancers filled the floor and khinkali meat dumplings and kababi skewers — staples of traditional Georgian cuisines — sat on almost every table. That was back in February, before Nana Shrier, the owner ofContinue Reading
Israeli company seeks to bring venture dollars to Northwest
By Janis Siegel, Jewish Sound Correspondent It takes one to know one, goes the popular saying. This year, it took CEO Jon Medved’s Jerusalem-based global venture capital equity crowdfunding platform and startup, OurCrowd, to launch its first startup IPO on the NASDAQ, ReWalk Robotics, and the first company of itsContinue Reading
For Ramallah’s man in The Hague, ICC drive is reluctant duty
By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA World News Service THE HAGUE, Netherlands (JTA) — Loading a newly released video of a beheading in Syria on his smartphone, Nabil Abuznaid, the Palestinians’ ambassador here, shakes his head in disbelief. “Look at those animals,” he says, referring to the fighters from the ISIS jihadistContinue Reading
AP’s veteran Gaza reporter leaves home to preserve belief in coexistence
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — Ibrahim Barzak spent his childhood counting the days to weekends, when he would travel with his father to see friends in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Ashdod and Jerusalem. For Barzak’s young sons, by contrast, the names of those cities conjure malevolent exotica.Continue Reading
Helping people survive and helping people sleep
By Diana Brement, Jewish Sound Columnist Steve Schwartz initially emailed me to say he’s “a Member of the Tribe who has found himself living and working with plenty of different tribes.” He might be referring to moving around a lot in the Midwest as a child before his family settled inContinue Reading
86-year-old Holocaust survivor honored with high school diploma
By Dan Aznoff, Jewish Sound Correspondent It’s never too late to finish high school. Henry Friedman had barely become a teenager when he was forced to hide in the confines of a cramped farmhouse attic. To escape the Nazi reign of terror, the young Friedman spent 18 silent months nearContinue Reading
Hitler used crystal meth, report says
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Adolf Hitler used the highly addictive drug crystal meth as part of his medical regimen of 74 medicines, according to a Daily Telegraph report on Saturday. Citing a 47-page document compiled by U.S. military intelligence on World War II, the report said Hitler tookContinue Reading
Authorities believe dozens more Israeli Arabs plan to join Islamic State
(JNS.org) The Israel Police and the Shin Bet security agency believe that dozens more Israeli Arabs are planning to join the Islamic State terror group after leaving Israel for Turkey or Jordan. Israeli authorities believe that at least 30 Israeli Arabs are already fighting for Islamic State, the al-Qaeda-affiliatedContinue Reading
Temple Mount attack foiled after police storm Al-Aqsa mosque
(JNS.org) Jerusalem Police units stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque compound early Monday and prevented dozens of masked assailants from carrying out a planned attack, Israel Hayom reported. The assailants had gathered on the Temple Mount with rocks and fireworks. Overnight, the assailants gathered weapons and prepared Molotov cocktails inside the mosque. They barricaded theContinue Reading
Conversion to Judaism: denomination by denomination
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service (This is part of a special report on conversion in America. Read our other pieces about who’s converting to Judaism, and about the 10 questions about Jewish conversion you want to know but are afraid to ask.) ORTHODOX Number of converts: Unknown. Over the last seven years,Continue Reading
So you want to convert to Judaism…
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service I understand you’re considering converting to Judaism. Shalom aleichem! What sort of conversion would you like? If Orthodox, the answer is no, no, no. Tradition dictates that prospective converts be rebuffed three times as a test of their true commitment. For a moreContinue Reading
Want to prevent suicide? Try some of that good, old-time religion
By Janis Siegel, Jewish Sound Correspondent As Jews worldwide welcome the New Year with prayers to be entered in the “eternal” Book of Life, Israeli scientists at Tel Aviv University found that religious observance in the lives of teens may play a significant role in preventing suicide in those whoContinue Reading
A Sukkat Shalom: One house, two faiths, sheltered in peace
By Rabbi Yohanna Kinberg, Congregation Kol Ami For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. — Isaiah 56:7 For the past 15 years, Congregation Kol Ami in Woodinville has shared space with the Bear Creek United Methodist Church (BCMU) — at one time out ofContinue Reading
Ralph Goldman, ex-JDC head and a builder of Israel, dies at 100
(JTA) — Ralph Goldman, a former leader of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and a central figure in Israel’s establishment, has died at the age of 100.Goldman, who served under David Ben-Gurion as Israel’s envoy to the United States, died Tuesday in Jerusalem, where he had lived forContinue Reading
BDS plea to anthropologists garners 360 names
(JTA) — More than 350 anthropologists from around the world have endorsed a boycott of Israel and its academic institutions.The statement was posted Oct. 1 on the website jadaliyya.com with 231 signatories and a call for others to add their names to the list. By last Friday, the list had reached 360Continue Reading
Religious observance protects Jewish teens from suicide, study finds
(JTA) — Religious Jewish teens are far less likely to attempt suicide than their secular Jewish counterparts, a new study finds.The study, led by researchers from Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine and Clalit Health Service’s Geha Mental Health Center, and published last week in the journal European Psychology,Continue Reading
Israel’s Health Ministry warns against gay conversion therapy
(JTA) — Israel’s Health Ministry issued a warning declaring that therapies aimed at changing patients from gay to straight are not supported by medical evidence and could be harmful.Signed by Health Minister Yael German, Sunday’s decision adopts the position of the Council of Psychologists and the Israel Psychological Association.The HealthContinue Reading
10 questions about Jewish conversion you want to know but are afraid to ask
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service (This is part of a special JTA report on conversion in America. Read our other pieces about who’s converting to Judaism, and about the denomination-by-denomination breakdown of how the different denominations do conversion.) Must coverts pass a test to become a Jew? Generally, no. Across all the denominations,Continue Reading