By Jessica Davis, JTNews Correspondent When Eastsiders Cooksie and Lionel Kramer arrived from South Africa nine years ago, they discovered a shortage of live jazz east of Seattle. Instead of just complaining about the lack of their favorite music in their new neighborhood, they did something about it. They startedContinue Reading

By Joshua Rosenstein, other Simone Edwards, a 6’4″center for the Seattle Storm WNBA team does not look like your average Israeli. When she speaks English, the Jamaican-born Edwards doesn’t sound much like an Israeli either. But when you hear her sing “Hatikva,” which she knows by heart, there can beContinue Reading

By Manny Frishberg, JTNews Correspondent It’s 6 o’clock in the morning and Peter Alexander is more cheerful than anyone has a right to be at this hour. But then, he should be. At 25, he’s already anchoring the “Q-13 Morning News” and the media is comparing him to NBC “Today”Continue Reading

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By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent Leaders from Jewish organizations and interfaith groups who spoke at Temple De Hirsch Sinai’s recent community-wide meeting on June 6, “Beyond Conflict: Toward Dialogue, Reconciliation and Peace,” actually agreed on one thing — that if there is to be some sort of peace in theContinue Reading

By David Chesanow, JTNews Correspondent The reminiscences were sometimes tearful, often humorous and always heartfelt as members of Temple Beth Hatfiloh honored Rabbi Marna Sapsowitz, who has stepped down from her pulpit after serving this South Sound congregation for 13 years. The June 30 gathering included singing, the showing ofContinue Reading

By , Special to JTNews The Stroum Jewish Community Center of Greater Seattle was recently awarded a 2002 Communications Award for “maintaining standards of excellence” in promoting its 2001 Night & Day for the “J” annual fundraiser. The Jewish Community Centers of North America Association honored the Stroum JCC withContinue Reading

By , Special to JTNews The Seattle Hebrew Academy announces the (re)opening of its Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC) at its north Capitol Hill site. The program, once operated by SHA, has just completed a two-year association with the Stroum Jewish Community Center. Rabbi Shmuel Kay, SHA head of school,Continue Reading

By Manny Frishberg, JTNews Correspondent Families happen in all sorts of ways. People marry and have babies as they always have; “blended families,” bring together children in second marriages. In some cases people resort to modern science to help have children when the old-fashioned ways fail. For Steven and RachelyContinue Reading

By Max Huer, other NEW YORK, June 5 (JTA) — As Robin Wehl listens to an Austrian radio station streamed over the Internet, she understands bits and pieces of the German that her father, who left the country on the eve of World War II, spoke when Wehl was aContinue Reading

By Donna Gordon Blankinship, Editor, JTNews It took the wisdom of King Solomon — and more than 50 hours of meetings — for two Jewish Federation committees to figure out how to allocate funds from the 2002 Community Campaign, which brought in $374,492 less to allocate than the previous year’sContinue Reading

By , Special to JTNews Over 770 children will be joining the Camp Solomon Schechter family for its 48th summer, having doubled in size over the past five years under the direction of executive director Hilary Buff. This year, the camp welcomes Jodi Sperling as its full-time director and fifthContinue Reading

By Allison Covey, Special to JTNews After only four short days of being in the state of Israel — a land of war and religion, ancient culture and modern metropolises — I found myself standing in front of the Western Wall (Kotel) in the center of Old Jerusalem. The holiestContinue Reading

By Stephen Adler, Special to JTNews Would you knowingly deal with a company that owes you or your parents money? Would you knowingly deal with a company that owes members of the Jewish community money on their insurance policies? Large European insurance companies sold insurance to Jews in Germany, France,Continue Reading

By Rita Weinstein, Special to JTNews When the Sisterhood of Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue decided to beautify the walls of the social hall, they also decided to approach the project from an entirely new angle — they decided to involve the entire congregation in creating the art. Although “artContinue Reading

By Jessica Davis, JTNews Correspondent Recently, Rabbi David Forman’s 15-year-old daughter’s school in Israel was designated a bombing target for Palestinian terrorists. A 19-year-old Palestinian girl went there to attack, but was caught before the school could be damaged. Despite the fact that Forman’s teen-age daughter now talks to herContinue Reading

By David Chesanow, JTNews Correspondent Manli Ho, daughter of Holocaust rescuer Dr. Feng Shan Ho, addressed an audience of some 60 appreciative listeners on the subject of her father on May 23 at the Wing Luke Asian Museum. The evening program began with a short video about Dr. Ho thatContinue Reading

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By Jessica Davis, JTNews Correspondent Despite its own financial troubles, Seattle Hebrew Academy recently raised $10,500, enough to buy 20 bulletproof vests for children in Israel. The school was the top fund-raiser among some 170 schools worldwide participating in the vest campaign, Rabbi Shmuel Kay, the school’s headmaster, told studentsContinue Reading