Put a little Greek in your diet for the freshness of springtime
By Michael Natkin, Jewish Sound Columnist These green beans are perfect for a potluck; the beans themselves are blanched and shocked and then they will easily keep for a day in your refrigerator. The keys to successful blanching are to use a very large pot of well-salted water so theContinue Reading
Books you’ll never read
By Diana Brement, Jewish Sound Columnist 1 Unless you’re a prosthodontist or the managing partner of a law firm, chances are you’ll never read these books — and might never have heard of them until now. “Soft Tissue Management: The Restorative Perspective,” Ariel Raigrodski’s first book, comes out in May.Continue Reading
Celebrating a 5-year eternal flame
In search of old members: Ner Tamid’s 50th anniversary celebration for a shul that lasted five years Five years is a relatively short life for a synagogue, yet the 200 families that were members of Bellevue’s Congregation Ner Tamid from 1965 to 1970 share a special bond that endures, likeContinue Reading
With ‘Jewish Journey,’ PBS traces 350 years of migrations
By Tom Tugend, JTA World News Service LOS ANGELES (JTA) — “You survive, you honor us by living,” said Martin Greenfield, now a New York master tailor, recalling his father’s words after he was liberated from the Buchenwald concentration camp. The quote could easily be taken as the theme ofContinue Reading
Bringing the Passover seder to life — on a game board
By Gwen Davis , Jewish Sound Correspondent You’re starving, you’ve been sitting too long, you’re overtired, and the baby won’t stop screaming. Sound like a familiar Passover seder scene to you? Tamara Pester thought so. So she invented Passover Bingo, which will allow seder-goers to become more engaged in theContinue Reading
‘Kosher Soul’ plays on stereotypes — amusing some, angering others
By Anthony Weiss, JTA World News Service LOS ANGELES (JTA) — In the first episode of “Kosher Soul,” O’Neal McKnight, a Southern-raised African-American man about to marry a white Jewish woman from Seattle, has an epiphany about his upcoming marriage — it’s like a black-and-white cookie. “It’s all about the whole cookie,” heContinue Reading
Trail-blazing leader visits the Northwest to inspire, learn
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, The Jewish Sound In 1935, Lithuania-born Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan wrote “Judaism as a Civilization,” a book that reimagined the religion as a way of living and became the foundation for the Reconstructionist Movement. Many of Kaplan’s ideas are taken for granted today, but theyContinue Reading
Netanyahu ‘regrets’ partisan perception of speech; Rice calls planned address ‘destructive’
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told top Senate Democrats he regretted that his planned address to the U.S. Congress is being perceived as partisan, as President Barack Obama’s top security adviser said the speech was “destructive.” Netanyahu wrote Tuesday to decline anContinue Reading
This high school may have predicted Israel’s election results
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service RAMAT GAN, Israel (JTA) — When Isaac Herzog learned that his Zionist Union party had won the election with 32 percent of the vote, he posted a triumphant status update on Facebook. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had failed, Herzog wrote on Sunday, andContinue Reading
Opening the floodgates of Israel bashing
By Julie Wiener, JTA World News Service Commentary magazine called it “flood libel.” HonestReporting.com described it as “dam busted.” And Camera headlined it “Dam Lies.” Agence France Presse’s report earlier this week falsely alleging that Israel intentionally opened a large dam in the South in order to unleash floods upon Gaza’s already beleagueredContinue Reading
Honoring those who served
If you have visited one of our local Jewish cemeteries on Memorial Day you will have seen the efforts of a small group of local Jewish veterans who honor their comrades of past conflicts with a flag placed on each of their graves. In 1996, armed with a list ofContinue Reading
Doing downward dog in Ramallah
By Batya Ungar-Sargon, JTA World News Service Inhale your arms up into warrior one. Exhale and extend your arms into warrior two. I followed the instructor’s soft but firm voice as she led me and five other women through the yoga poses, and the deep breathing helped to calm my nerves. TheContinue Reading
Poll: Americans slightly in favor of Palestinian state
(JTA) — Slightly more Americans favor the establishment of an independent Palestinian state than those opposed, a new poll found. Forty-two percent of the 837 Americans surveyed by Gallup backed a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while 38 percent were against one, according to the poll releasedContinue Reading
Win for families is Round 2 in the Israeli-Palestinian judicial wars
By Ron Kampeas and Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service NEW YORK — Round 2 in the judicial wars between Israel and the PLO went to Israel, and Israel isn’t about to let the Palestinians forget it. A New York jury on Monday ordered the Palestine Liberation Organization and theContinue Reading
On foreign policy, Jeb Bush navigates between brother and father
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — As clearly as Jeb Bush has stated that he does not want his foreign policy chops assessed against that of his brother — or his father — his choice in advisers has only made things murkier. Of 21 advisers to theContinue Reading
Al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists urge attacks on ‘American or Jewish’ malls
(JTA) — A threat on “American or Jewish” shopping centers by the terrorist group responsible for the deadly 2013 attack on a Kenya mall has the U.S. security apparatus calling on the public to be vigilant. Al-Shabab, a Somali group affiliated with al-Qaida, posted a video over the weekend about theContinue Reading
Scandinavian Jews see silver lining in strong Muslim response to Denmark shootings
By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA World News Service As a longtime promoter of Jewish-Muslim dialogue in Denmark, Naveed Baig is no stranger to Copenhagen’s Great Synagogue. The imam at the capital’s Danish Islamic Center, Baig, 39, has on numerous occasions sat under the structure’s gold-and-white ceiling meeting with people he calls his “JewishContinue Reading
Freundel pleads guilty to 52 voyeurism charges
By Suzanne Pollak and Geoffrey W. Melada, JTA/Washington Jewish Week Rabbi Barry Freundel, the former spiritual leader at a prominent Washington synagogue, pleaded guilty to 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism. The plea Thursday means that Freundel could be sentenced to a maximum penalty of 52 years in prison and orderedContinue Reading
From blintzes to big sammies: One Northwest Jewish upstart makes way for another
By Boris Kurbanov, Jewish Sound Correspondent The sign posted on the front door read: “Stopsky’s was a project of the heart whose mission was to reconnect people to Jewish heritage, connect the community, and create homemade Jewish comfort cuisine from scratch. We achieved a lot of this, but in theContinue Reading