Volume 50, Issue 11

Community. Continuity. Inspiration and responsibility.

Those were the themes, mixed with celebration and joy, as representatives of all parts of Portland’s Jewish community joined with national spokesmen and members of Kesser Israel to celebrate the official dedication of the congregation’s new home on Jan. 27.  read more »

Rabbi Joshua Stampfer took on the authors of the controversial book “The Israel Lobby” when he was the featured speaker at a World Affairs Council of Oregon gathering the evening of Jan. 25 at Portland’s Multnomah Athletic Club.  read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA)—The collapse of the border wall between the Gaza Strip and Egypt has done much more than break Israel’s siege of the Hamas-run strip. It also has opened up new, far-reaching strategic options for Israel while exposing it to grave new dangers.  read more »

Solomont prodded Kennedy on Obama

NEW YORK (JTA)—A key Jewish fund-raiser for Barack Obama prodded U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy to endorse the presidential hopeful.  read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Aid extended to Sderot by the Israeli military has improved conditions for the rocket-rattled town, Ehud Olmert said.  read more »

Last summer Portland teen Dana Bacharach spent nearly a month living in primitive conditions in a remote Tibetan school volunteering at a medical clinic. She still wants to help, but since returning “would be hard to do, ” she is raising money to help meet the dire needs she saw there.  read more »

Teens sold more than 80 loaves to raise more than $500 after purchasing the ingredients, enough to buy more than 30 ovens (two ovens cost $30). Post b’nai mitzvah coordinator Linda (Mateh Esther) Brownstein said that the teens decided to participate in the project to aid Darfur refugees, which has been adopted by the entire congregation as this year’s tikkun olam project.  read more »

Nearly 150 teenagers from at least seven Jewish youth groups turned out for a night of friendship, games and kosher food on Jan. 20.  read more »

About 120 teenagers, more than a dozen educators and four rabbis turned out for the second community-wide Wednesday Night School program designed to form bonds between Portland-area Jewish teenagers.  read more »

Nearly 65 attorneys flocked to the Benson Hotel Jan. 24 to learn about the history of anti-Semitism in the Oregon legal community and how to combat discrimination and bias.  read more »

Some 250 women turned out Jan. 29 to hear former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers discuss the power of a woman’s voice and then made sure their own voices were heard by closing more than $51,000 for the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland annual campaign.  read more »

PRAGUE (JTA)—Being tagged the Britney Spears of historians is among the many tribulations Jan Tomas Gross has endured since debuting his book on anti-Semitism after the Holocaust in his native Poland earlier this month.  read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA)—Two films with Jewish themes were nominated for Academy Awards in the Foreign Language Film category.

Israel’s entry “Beaufort” and Austria’s “The Counterfeiters” received the nod last month from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  read more »

Becca Bernstein peeks through a keyhole to explore the question of what makes a life unique and singular.  And, as a result, she creates over 100 tiny paintings of familiar and mundane things that become symbolic imagery for a person’s life-journey.  read more »

In the past two years, the number of visitors to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi death camp in southern Poland, has nearly tripled to an unprecedented one million people annually.  read more »

Rabbi Yitzchok and Mimi Feldman arrived in Bend in late November to set up the eighth Chabad Center in Oregon.  read more »

Caron Blau Rothstein has joined Congregation Neveh Shalom as program coordinator.

Rothstein will enhance existing programming and develop new program options in areas including family programming, havarot, tikkun olam, Israel-related activities and holiday events.  read more »

Hebrew School students of Congregation Anshe Shalom in Klamath Falls deliver toiletry bags to the women’s crisis shelter, Marta’s House, also in Klamath.  read more »

NEW YORK (JTA)—Miles Lerman helped found the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and for three decades was a vital contributor to its success.  read more »

For his 90th birthday, Nate Director, Noahch Ben Shmuel, son of Samuel and Shifra Director (of blessed memory), was called up to the  orah at Congregation Shaarie Torah to read his Bar Mitzvah  read more »

Lower courts must consider a 12-year-old’s opinion in deciding a parental battle over circumcision.

The decision Jan. 25 by the Oregon Supreme Court returns to the lower courts a case pitting the father, a former Medford resident who now lives near Olympia, Wash., against his ex-wife.  read more »

NEW YORK (JTA)—After split decisions in both parties in early primary states, the focus is shifting to Super Tuesday, when states with some two-thirds of American Jews hold presidential primaries or caucuses.  read more »

About 10 teenagers from Young Judaea spent an hour Jan. 21 serving lunch to some of Portland’s homeless at the Blanchet House of Hospitality in the Old Town section of Portland.  read more »

Shabbat Shebang drew more than 60 teenagers for a Shabbat dinner at the home of NCSY Portland Directors Rabbi Chanan and Meira Spivak Jan. 18.

Based on the national NCSY Friday Night Lights program, Shabbat Shebang has been growing steadily since the Spivaks became the area directors.  read more »

This January, a new program promises to make the tomes of the Talmud accessible to interested adults.

The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, Chabad Lubavitch’s adult Jewish education worldwide network, invites dedicated learners in 15 cities, including Portland, to participate in MyShiur: Advanced Learning Initiative Talmud courses for serious students.  read more »

Rabbi Richard Address, who heads the Department of Jewish Family Concerns of the Union for Reform Judaism, will be in Portland as a scholar-in-residence for Congregation Beth Israel the weekend of Feb. 15-16.  read more »

For the third year, the B’nai B’rith Men’s Camp Association’s Dor L’dor Fund will cover 50 percent of the cost of tuition for first- time campers entering second, third and fourth grades enrolling in BB Camp’s Maccabee session, June 23-June 30.  read more »

The B’nai B’rith Men’s Camp Association, the Foundation for Jewish Camping and a record-breaking $15-million gift from an anonymous donor to FJC will provide $1,000 grants for first time campers enrolled in a three-week session of B’nai B’rith Camp.  read more »

It’s hardly surprising that President Bush’s eight-day Middle East tour last month failed to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process begun two months ago at Annapolis. That’s because the administration is pursuing a diplomatic track that’s totally detached from the troubling reality on the ground.  read more »

Jewish Family and Child Service is undergoing a strategic planning process to look at the benefits of the services provided, as well as where changes need to be made.

In order to provide the best services possible to the community, JFCS has developed a Community Agency Survey and a Community Member Survey to ensure many voices are included in this process.  read more »

A $2,000 grant from the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation will enable Jewish Family and Child Service to offer a Respite Care Program for families with children or adolescents with a disability.  read more »

ELLEN HOCKELY

Portland native Ellen Hockley participated in the Hasbara Fellowships, an Israel activism training program. Ms. Hockley was one of 150 students selected from 75 universities and an applicant pool of more than 400.  read more »

NEW YORK (JTA)—Sharon Goldstein felt a little lost when she started to look for an early childhood education program for her soon-to-be year-old twins, Benjamin and Jaden.  read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA)—The first Palestinian suicide bombing in more than a year has provided Israelis with a stark reminder of the security risks overshadowing recent peace efforts.  read more »

BOSTON (JTA)—The 2008 primary election already is shaping up to be one of the most interesting, and unpredictable, in years.  read more »

NEW YORK (JTA)—Only nine months into Hillary Clinton's tenure in the U.S. Senate, our nation and state were attacked by terrorists.  read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA)—After the long-awaited final report of the Winograd Commission of inquiry into the Second Lebanon War was published last week, all eyes turned toward Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.  read more »

NEW YORK (JTA)—Lior Liebling davens everywhere: in the backyard, in school and on the swing set.  read more »

NEW YORK (JTA)—With John McCain’s big wins on Super Tuesday, speculation is likely to increase about his running mate. Could it be Joe Lieberman, who was flanking the GOP frontrunner last night during his victory speech in Arizona?  read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Jimmy Hoffa: the mysterious disappearance, the giant of the U.S. labor movement, the battles with the Kennedys over alleged improprieties—the hero of Israel?  read more »