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Ted Kulongoski says the media got it wrong when they labeled his recent trip to Israel a trade mission. Oregon’s governor preferred to call his trip on the eve of Israel’s 60th anniversary a “business development mission.”

It was a trip focused on global warming and a trip from which the governor, who has led a high-profile agenda to combat global warming, returned convinced that Israel has some important lessons for Oregon and America.

When Itka Zygmuntowicz arrived in the Auschwitz death camp at age 15, she and the other Jews wondered if the thousands of emaciated beings that they saw were from another planet.

After its annual benefit banquet April 17, the Oregon Jewish Community Youth Foundation appears on its way to a successful year of fund-raising, according to John Moss, executive director of the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation, the youth foundation’s parent organization.

On May 16, Congregation Beth Israel will usher in a year of celebration, marking the 150th anniversary since the founding of the synagogue and the 80th year of worshiping in the historic Byzantine-style sanctuary in Northwest Portland.

A series of services, speakers and events to commemorate this historic milestone has been planned for 2008-09, beginning with the 150th Annual Meeting on Friday, May 16.

The 10th annual community-wide celebration of Lag B’Omer at Alpenrose Dairyville will be 5-8 p.m., May 22.

Featuring carnival games, entertainment and activities for all ages, the event traditionally draws hundreds to the free celebration of Jewish unity. Kosher food is always for sale during the event.

Peterson gets Insight fellowship

Moishe House founding resident Matt Peterson, 24, was one of 10 recent college graduates nationwide named as fellows in Insight: the Schusterman Fellowship for Jewish Community.

Paul Burnstein became the new executive director of Sinai Family Home Services in March, joining the Jewish agency’s new home care manager Regina Silbert, who arrived in January.

Locally produced, kosher-supervised milk is now available in Oregon.

Until recently, a few hundred people in the Pacific Northwest have been getting milk shipped in from the Midwest, according to Rabbi Zalman Krems, kashrus administrator of Oregon Kosher. Now Oregon Kosher has teamed up with the Seattle Va’ad to initiate local production of kosher-supervised milk, known as Cholov Yisroel Milk.

Talmudic Ethics, a six-week course offered by the Jewish Learning Institute, has been approved for nine credit hours by the Oregon State Bar, including   three ethics credits.

The May course runs six Tuesday evenings in Lake Oswego or six Wednesday evenings in Portland. Cost is $100. Participants need no prior knowledge of the Talmud and no formal legal training.

When Marianne Rosson watched “The Rape of Europa,” the film brought back memories of her privileged life in pre-war Berlin and the turmoil that followed.

Debbie Friedman will perform and lecture in Portland May 18 and 19. A legendary Jewish composer, singer and recording artist, Friedman has recorded more than 20 albums and performed in sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall and in cities across the nation.

Louis Olenick of Portland has been selected as a member of the Pacific Music Festival 2008 Academy. The Festival takes place July 5-31 in Sapporo, Osaka, and Tokyo, Japan.

Olenick recently performed in Portland during spring break when he joined his parents Amy Shapiro and Jeffrey Olenick at Rose Schnitzer Manor March 20 for a Purim presentation.

Prosecutors in Seattle April 30 wrapped up their case against the Muslim-American man charged in the July 28, 2006, shooting rampage inside the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.

Being in Israel in the 21st century, one often wonders what Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, would think of this modern-day state if he could see it.

The malarial swamps of prestate Palestine have been replaced by rapidly growing cities with glitzy shopping districts, carefully landscaped parks and six-lane highways that run between high-rise office buildings and limestone apartment complexes.

In just 60 years, Israel has evolved from an agricultural country whose major export was Jaffa oranges to a modern nation that exported in excess of $17.7 billion of high tech products in 2007.

Portland State University and the University of Haifa have signed an Academic Institution Agreement that enables PSU to send students officially to the overseas program at the University of Haifa to receive PSU credit for their work.

As Israel prepares to celebrate its 60th birthday, flags wave and words of celebration echo throughout the country.

Oregonians will be celebrating Israel’s 60th birthday in venues ranging from schools and synagogues to Israel itself. The milestone birthday has spawned a plethora of opportunities to party, learn and honor the Jewish state.

The Vishnitzer and Belzer Hasidim in her Jerusalem neighborhood dress like princes or nobility from past generations. The non-Hasidic prefer suits and hats. And, 20-year-old Portlander Sara Jones finds life in Kiryas Mattersdorf like wearing clothes that fit.

At the University of Oregon, This Is Israel (a new student organization focusing on Israel awareness), Stand With Us and Oregon Hillel are hosting a week of activities for Israel’s 60th birthday.

Health care professionals are invited to hear an insider’s view of the region and people of New York Times best-seller “Three Cups of Tea,” when local physician, geologist and mountaineer Dr. Steve Boyer speaks May 20 on “K2 and the Baltoro Glacier: Where Continents Collide in Baltistan.”

The Jewish Women’s Round Table announces its 16th Annual Song of Miriam honorees.  The Song of Miriam Awards honor women who volunteer their time and energy to ensure the continuity and vibrancy of the Jewish community of Oregon and Southwest Washington.

Gan Israel Day Camp plans field trips including museums, amusement parks, TV stations and parks such as Blue Lake Park, right.

New Camp Solomon Schechter Director Sam Perlin wants to strengthen the camp’s ties to Portland, the city that spawned it, and uphold the vision of the camp’s founder, Rabbi Joshua Stampfer.

Clark County Chabad will offer a Mini Gan Israel day camp for preschoolers this summer. Children, aged 2 to 4, will be able to attend the only Jewish camp operating in SW Washington.

The following is excerpted from a blog written by Callie Souther, a rabbinic student at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, on March 6, the evening a terrorist shot and killed eight students at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem. Souther is the daughter of Portlander Adrienne Souther and stepdaughter of Stan Geffen.

OLLER-SCOTT

Sarah Oller and Ryan Scott of Portland announced their engagement Aug. 31. Ms. Oller is the daughter of Dale and Earl Oller of Portland; Mr. Scott is the son of Gale and Art Scott and Leila and Rick Arnopolin of Chicago.