Rick Steves in the Holy Land: Strictly travel, and understanding
By Boris Kurbanov, Special to The Jewish Sound Last October, America’s favorite travel guru Rick Steves left for Israel with one goal: To “show both narratives” and help people in the West better understand the players involved in the Holy Land. There, he filmed his latest TV travelogue, “Rick Steves’Continue Reading
Something different to break the fast
By Michael Natkin, Jewish Sound Columnist From May through October, we have a farmer’s market just a couple of blocks from my house. Our regular ritual is to swing by in the afternoon, select what looks great, then walk home and figure out what to cook with our bounty. IfContinue Reading
Focusing on ISIS in U.N. speech, Obama virtually ignores Iran
By Uriel Heilman JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) — President Obama devoted the bulk of his U.N. speech to the fight against violent Islamic extremism and hardly mentioned Iran’s nuclear program. In his address last year to the General Assembly, Obama spent a great deal of time talkingContinue Reading
Most Israelis favor greater religion-state separation, new study shows
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service TEL AVIV (JTA) – During the past 18 months, the governing coalition in Israel has passed legislation to extend the nation’s mandatory conscription to the haredi Orthodox — a group currently exempted from military service — and Knesset leaders have advanced bills that wouldContinue Reading
To beat back Islamic State, a prescription for the president
By Janis Siegel, Jewish Sound Correspondent The Unites States needs to play hardball. When it engages in talks with Iran over its uranium enrichment program during the U.N.’s General Assembly meeting, which commences Thursday, it must keep air strikes on the table. So writes Michael Singh, the Washington Institute’s managingContinue Reading
Samis allocations sustain the community, locally and in Israel
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, The Jewish Sound This past year, the Samis Foundation allocated over $4 million to local Jewish education and camps, disaster relief, Jewish life, as well as social services and war relief in Israel. Though Samis’s work is evident across the community, these figures areContinue Reading
Ukrainian health official: Uman pilgrims may bring Ebola
(JTA) — A Ukrainian health official warned that Jewish pilgrims converging in Uman may bring with them the Ebola virus and other epidemics.Larissa Kachanova, who heads the local branch of the Ukrainian government’s Sanitary and Epidemiological Management Center, issued the warning Sept. 18 ahead of the arrival of approximatelyContinue Reading
Search for Ebola cure comes from Israel
By Janis Siegel, Jewish Sound Columnist Since 2002, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev virologist Dr. Leslie Lobel has been traveling to Africa more than four times a year testing the blood of Ebola-infected survivors. Lobel is trying to figure out exactly why the more than 120 subjects in his studies eitherContinue Reading
At 2014 U.N. General Assembly, ISIS likely to dominate discourse
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service ANALYSIS NEW YORK (JTA) — The circus is coming to town. No, there won’t be marching elephants, lion tamers or motorcycles jumping through rings of fire. But there may be wolves in sheep’s clothing, tightrope walking and motorcades blocking traffic. We’re talking, ofContinue Reading
What Obama’s speech has to do with Israel and the Palestinians
By Ami Eden, JTA World News Service ANALYSIS NEW YORK (JTA) — President Obama did not mention Israel or the Palestinians during his address to the nation last week. But his pledge to lead a U.S.-coordinated effort to destroy ISIS could end up doing more to get Israeli-Palestinian negotiations backContinue Reading
Recipes from our history
With 2014 marking our 90th anniversary, we decided to take a look back at our history to help you create your High Holiday menu. What you will find here — and what you can download as an ebook by visiting jewishsound.org/cookbook — is a selection from every single High HolidayContinue Reading
Top 10 viral videos of 5774
By Anthony Weiss, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) — For a few days this year, they clogged up our Facebook feeds and then, perhaps, our subconscious. In our list of the top viral videos of 5774, we bring back those videos that had you hitting “share” again and again. Prairie dogsContinue Reading
During the holiest of days, we are all responsible for one another
By Rabbi Oren Hayon, Hillel at the University of Washington We call God by many names — practically as many names as there are human experiences of the Divine. Literally dozens of metaphors for God fill the pages of our sacred scriptures and our prayer books. We call God shepherd,Continue Reading
Chabad day school lives on despite losing its home
By Janis Siegel, Jewish Sound Correspondent Despite having to leave its building in Seattle’s Maple Leaf neighborhood after a six-year, post-recession, uphill financial struggle to buy it, the Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder has found a new site and is now open and bustling. Nearly 80 students from preschool through 8thContinue Reading
Moms for Israel to send their teens on new leadership program in Jewish State
By Dan Aznoff, Jewish Sound Correspondent Every mother of a Jewish teenager will likely agree that leadership is a natural ability within most young people. And a new program that sends high school students to live in Israel for two months has been created to cultivate that inherent aptitude. The program thatContinue Reading
The High Holy Days — A time for endings and beginnings
Rita Frischer Special to The Jewish Sound As the leaves turn, we turn — from summer’s indulgences to the crisp demands of fall as school resumes and our work schedules intensify. At the same time, Judaism asks us to turn inward as well. We practice teshuvah, returning to our bestContinue Reading
Three Myths of Rising Global Anti-Semitism
By David Chivo, Special to The Jewish Sound The media is awash these days with coverage about the rise of anti-Semitism around the world. If we are to respond, we first need to understand that this situation is not new phenomenon, but the rehashing of the same old story. Myth #1:Continue Reading
The Boys in the Boat: A big hurrah for our hometown heroes
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, The Jewish Sound For those of us that live in or grew up in Seattle, “The Boys in the Boat” (Viking Penguin, paper) is even more special than the tens of thousands of readers that last year made this book a silent bestseller, inspiring its paperbackContinue Reading
70 years on, a missing private comes home
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service ARLINGTON, Va. (JTA) — The scene at Arlington National Cemetery last Friday was not quite routine, but nor was it unusual: A clergyman said a prayer, an army NCO handed Bernard Gavrin’s closest living relative a folded U.S. flag, and a volunteer —Continue Reading