Mein Yiddishe Papa: In defense of dad
By Ed Harris Households across America this month celebrated Father’s Day. June, with its “Dads and Grads,” is probably a great month for Hallmark, especially now that most of humanity has embraced Facebook as a way to offer free birthday congratulations, a transgression I have committed more than a fewContinue Reading
Western students’ proactive defense of Israel
By Janis Siegel, Jewish Sound Correspondent The Associated Students of Western Washington University’s board of directors, in an unprecedented move for a U.S. college or university, proactively and unanimously voted in June to reject all boycott, divestment, and sanctions movements at the school, a policy Israel-advocacy groups have endorsed. AimedContinue Reading
Jewish groups anticipate rupture after Presbyterians vote to divest
(JTA) — Jewish groups predicted a rupture with Presbyterians in the wake of a close vote favoring divestment from three companies that deal with Israel’s security forces in the West Bank. The Presbyterian Church-USA biennial General Assembly approved the measure 310-303 late last Friday evening after hours of at timesContinue Reading
Activists aiming to steer Israeli government funding to non-Orthodox
By Ben Sales, JTA World News TEL AVIV (JTA) — At 3:30 Shavuot morning, more than 100 people are seated on folding chairs singing in Yiddish as men walk around with shots of vodka and cups of coffee. Up front, a man in a black frock coat and black hatContinue Reading
Like Jews before them, Iraq’s Christians may face extinction after jihadist invasion
By Sean Savage, JNS.org For most Westerners, Iraq is a foreboding and dangerous place that is filled with extremists and daily violence. Yet as little as 75 years ago Iraq was a vibrant country that was home to many different ethnic and religious minorities, including large Jewish and Christian populations.Continue Reading
Gray and white matters: Mapping autism in the brain
By Janis Siegel, Jewish Sound Columnist As part of his U. S. brain initiative in 2014, President Obama visited Israel and learned about groundbreaking brain research developed by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers. This is part one of a two-part look at some of those technologies. He’s Ben-Gurion UniversityContinue Reading
Seattle rallies for kidnapped teens
By Boris Kurbanov, Special to the Jewish Sound Members of Seattle’s Jewish community gathered Wednesday, June 18 at the Stroum Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island to express solidarity, love, and support for the three Israeli teenagers kidnapped in the West Bank on June 12. Jews around the world haveContinue Reading
As spring turns to summer, our palates follow
By Michael Natkin, Jewish Sound Columnist Green garlic is one of those wonderful farmer’s market ingredients. You don’t often see it at grocery stores, but it’s at every market in the early summer months, where it overlaps with last year’s storage potatoes. Green garlic is simply the shoot of anContinue Reading
Canadians split on support for Israel and Palestinians, poll finds
TORONTO (JTA) — Canadians were evenly split in their support for Israel and the Palestinians, according to a new poll. The survey by the Toronto-based Forum Research found that 17 percent of respondents sided with Israel in the Middle East conflict, while 16 percent favored the Palestinians. Fully 64 percentContinue Reading
Search for abducted teens faces complicated political landscape
By Ben Sales, JTA World NewsTEL AVIV (JTA) — Since the three teenagers were abducted last week, Israel’s goals have been simple: Find them and punish their kidnappers.Realizing those goals, though, is far from a simple task.The international community has condemned the kidnappings, and Israel has spread its forces acrossContinue Reading
Israeli-Arab Knesset member says kidnappers are not ‘terrorists’
JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Arab-Israeli Knesset member said the kidnappers of three Israeli teenagers are not terrorists.“They are people that cannot see any way to change their reality, and they are forced to use these means until Israeli society wises up a bit and sees and feels the suffering ofContinue Reading
Families of abducted Israeli teens refuse to succumb to despair
By JNS.org As the days pass following the abduction of three Jewish teenagers near Hebron, the boys’ families are refusing to succumb to despair despite the uncertainty surrounding the situation. Hamas terrorists kidnapped Gilad Shaar, 16, Eyal Yifrach, 19, and Naftali Frenkel, 16, Thursday night while they were hitchhiking homeContinue Reading
Shushed Palestinians: My reflections on the UW’s BDS experience
By Nurit Asnash, Special to the Jewish Sound I had never heard about BDS (the boycott, divest and sanctions movement against Israel) until about a year ago when I attended an “Israeli Diversity Week” at Antioch University in Seattle. These three-day, 1-1/2-hour sessions were initiated by a courageous Israeli studentContinue Reading
World Cup combines love for soccer and faith
As the World Cup begins its first week of intense competition, a group of Argentinian Jews are not just focusing on the soccer fields of Brazil, but on a greater mission. For Mariano Schlez, Maxi Klein and Damian Beker, the World Cup is the perfect opportunity to make a three-day, 1,700-mileContinue Reading
Bitcoin makes aliyah: Cryptocurrency finds Israeli fans
By Ben Sales, JTA World News TEL AVIV (JTA) — Blocks away from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the headquarters of two major banks, in the corner of the lobby of a boutique hotel, Nimrod Gruber sticks his hand into an ATM. A few seconds later, a QR codeContinue Reading
With ribbon cut and prizes awarded, construction of a Holocaust museum prepares to commence
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, The Jewish Sound Henry Friedman had a message for the nearly 100 school-aged kids and their parents who sat in the shell of what will soon become the museum that bears his name: “It’s not for Holocaust survivors,” he said. “It’s for you.” The event, anContinue Reading
Let us build on the students’ experience
I was immensely moved by both the story of triumph and loss in Rabbi Hayon’s recent piece on boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS), and his courage in revealing the painful sacrifice wrought by such a victory (“How much have we lost?” May 30). So many of us decry the ManicheanContinue Reading
Invest in our young people
Thank you Rabbi Hayon for an honest assessment of the risk of limiting our response to boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) and all criticism of Israeli policy with the blunt and stultifying tools of the past (“How much have we lost?” May 30). While your commentary may draw the ireContinue Reading
A true victory
It’s wonderful that UW students working together, with the support of Rabbi Oren Hayon, StandWithUs Northwest, and others, helped defeat the anti-Israel divestment resolution considered by the UW student senate. But I would like to respectfully disagree with Rabbi Hayon’s characterizing their victory as possibly “Pyrrhic,” so costly that itContinue Reading