Volume 50, Issue 16

Raise your voice and say “Not on Our Watch.” More than 30 organizations joined to bring this message to Portland on April 5 as part of Genocide Awareness Month.

About 200 people ranging from teenagers to seniors gathered at the First United Methodist Church to hear John Prendergast, co-chair of the Enough Project (www.enoughproject.org), talk about the Darfur region of Sudan.

“A beautiful night of celebration” featuring some of the “delightful cultural achievements of Israel” entertained and moved an audience of 150 people ranging from children to elders.

WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Bush administration has taken the groundbreaking step of identifying some virulent criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism, as it warns that anti-Jewish attitudes and incidents are on the rise worldwide.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland umbrella has been expanded to cover two more organizations—The Florence Melton Adult Mini-School and Maimonides Jewish Day School.

SEATTLE (JTA)—Lawyers on both sides are facing challenges as the trial is about to start for the man accused of shooting up the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle more than a year and a half ago.

WASHINGTON (JTA) – The leader of Reform Judaism has a “troubling disrespect for the truth,” Pastor John Hagee said.

His comments were in response to the call by Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, for Jews to dissociate themselves from the evangelical leader.

Historian Friedlander wins Pulitzer Prize

NEW YORK (JTA)—Holocaust historian Saul Friedlander won a Pulitzer Prize. Friedlander, 75, was awarded a Pulitzer in the general nonfiction category this month for his book “The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945.” The prize comes with a $10,000 purse.

Holocaust museum using Google Earth

JERUSALEM (JTA)—The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is using Google Earth to pinpoint genocide testimony. Its “World is Witness” program launched April 4 tracks witnesses in Rwanda and Congo who describe the 1994 Rwanda genocide. It is to be the first of a number of reports on genocide.

For the Weiss/Parker family, donating blood is a mitzvah stretching across four generations and more than 30 years with its roots in World War II.

“If Arafat had invested one half of the money he received, the Palestinian people would not have erupted into violence.”

B’nai B’rith Camp Director Michelle Koplan was one of the 19 inaugural graduates of The Foundation for Jewish Camp’s Executive Leadership Institute. She was honored at a special graduation ceremony in Boca Raton, Fla.

Eitan Bronstein and Muhammad Jaradat, organizational leaders who support the Palestinian “right of return” to Israel, spoke at Reed College April 1 as part of a national tour to commemorate what they termed al-Nakbah (catastrophe), referring to the “Palestinian expulsion and dispossession” from Israel in 1948.

“It’s time to look beyond the two-state vision and the roadmap, which have clearly failed, and think how can we ensure Israel’s security and really do something to help the Palestinian Arabs to get out of refugee camps,” said Richard Hellman, president of Christian’s Israel Public Action Campaign.

Greg Phillips thinks Portland may be the epicenter of a new age in theater—he called it “a renaissance of shared experience in art.”

Amidst Chaim Gross’ paintings and sculptures at the Oregon Jewish Museum, Lorraine Widman—artist, teacher, author—spoke about 20th-century Jewish avant-garde sculptors, whom she called modern art pioneers. The Gross exhibit runs through May 25.

Israelis Tamar Mullee and Sharon Elboim have been in the United States for 18 years and seven years, respectively, but the ties they feel to their homeland prompted them to launch a business that aids other Israelis.

On Sunday April 27 at 3 p.m., storyteller Sarah Stein will debut her one-hour show called “Circus on the Streets” (Jewish Family Stories from the Lower East Side) in the chapel at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center.

About 350 people turned out to watch some 160 singers, including the Neveh Shalom Adult Choir above, sing songs of Israel at the fourth annual Portland Jewish Choral Festival April 6 at Congregation Neveh Shalom.

BALA CYNWYD, Pa. (JTA)—Sarah Feldman is a 20-year-old University of Pennsylvania sophomore who is supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton because she believes Clinton is the “best one” to move the country beyond George Bush, the only president she has known in her adult lifetime.

148 women prepare to drink the first of four glasses of wine at the Passages to Freedom '08 seder for women held at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center April 8. The event was co-sponsored by the MJCC and the Women’s Philanthropy Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland.

NEW YORK(JTA)—Like skilled novelists, Jewish cooks miss no opportunity for symbolism. Think of Hanukkah latkes sizzling in oil or Purim’s hamantaschen.

In honor of its 25th year of hosting seders in Portland, Chabad of Oregon is hosting five seders—two on the west side, one on the east side, one in Clark County and one for college students—as well as offering various options on preparing for Passover.

Chabad of Clark County. Kid-friendly seder begins at 8:30 p.m. $25 for adults and $15 for kids. Paid reservations due by April 14, call 360-993-5222 or e-mail info@chabadclarkcounty.com. Chabad Jewish Center, 9604 NE 126th Ave., Ste. 2320, Vancouver.

Young adult activist Jodi Berris once again is organizing a meal swap for young adults  in need of a place for Passover Seders and all other Yom Tov meals.

Those willing to host a meal and young adults (18-39 year old) wanting a place to eat a Pesach meal should contact Berris by Monday, April 14. E-mail Jodiberris@aol.com or call 248-760-0743 to either host or attend a meal.

She told about the pregnant woman who screamed and cried as hospital staff moved her to the lightly injured area. The 17-bed emergency room deals with life-threatening injuries, she explained, like the time a Qassam rocket hit 67 Israeli Defense Force soldiers.

After just three months, 14 of the 100 Chai Baby welcome bags funded by two grants have been delivered to grateful new parents in the Portland area.

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin delighted the audience with his trademark distillation of Jewish wisdom and humor April 6 at Congregation Shaarie Torah.

P’nai Or of Portland is holding a double mitzvah raffle—ticket sales support the Renewal congregation’s education program and the top prize of a Toyota Prius Hybrid aids tikkun olam (repair the world).

Beit Am/Mid-Willamette Valley Jewish Community has extended the contract for its first full-time rabbi—Rabbi Benjamin Barnett—for four more years.

The Jewish Review has hired Gail Halladay as its advertising sales representative as the newspaper moves toward reclaiming its advertising sales department.

In March, Jennifer Greenberg joined the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland as Special Events Coordinator, a part-time position.

Bedouin Muslim and Israeli Deputy Consul General Ismail Khaldi and will be the keynote speaker to honor Israel’s 60th Independence Day in Ashland.

The keynote talk will kickoff a free four-day celebration at Havurah Shir Hadash in Ashland, at 7 p.m., May 4. Other special events will take place at both Ashland synagogues: Temple Emek Shalom and Havurah.

On April 8, Portland was granted nine spots to bring a girls soccer team to the 2008 JCC Maccabi Games, to be held in Detroit on Aug. 17-22.

They will join two soccer players from Seattle and compete in the 7 v 7 soccer tourney as part of the games.

BBYO’S Greatest won the first season of Jewish men’s basketball organized by Portland Jewish Events and the Moishe House. Team members are, from left, Ben Eder, Boaz Stark, Josh Erde-Wollheim, Dan Scheinman and Kenji Kurosaki, and not pictured, Leigh Feldman, Jeremy Rogers, Marc Tobin and Brad Chusid.

To our Jewish community:

Throughout history, Jewish communities have needed a place to meet, talk, socialize, learn and bond. For us in Portland, that place is the Mittleman Jewish Community Center—the heart and soul of our community.

Immigration restrictionists frequently charge that American Jewish attitudes about immigration are mired in a sepia-toned time warp where bubbes in babushkas and wide-eyed zaydes are still hobbling off boats from the old country.

KAREN FINK

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA)—Tibet was on the minds and signs of most of the thousands of demonstrators who turned out to protest Chinese human rights abuses as the Olympic torch passed through San Francisco on its way to Beijing.

WASHINGTON (JTA)—In recent weeks the Obama campaign has sought to bolster its outreach to Jewish voters with a big name: Daniel Kurtzer, the first Jewish U.S ambassador to Egypt and the first

The Jewish Review is conducting a survey of its readership. Click below to take the survey now and then enter the optional drawing for the coastal getaway: http://www.jewishreview.org/node/12292.

NEW YORK (JTA)—If the producers of "Constantine's Sword" were looking to send a message about the implications of their film for Catholic-Jewish relations, they scarcely could have chosen a more appropriate theatrical release date.

TEL AVIV (JTA)—A group of influential liberal bloggers touched down for a glimpse at the reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this week, swooping in for a closer look at Gaza by helico

NEW YORK (JTA)—Exit polls showed Hillary Clinton taking the Jewish vote in winning the April 22 Democratic primary in Pennsylvania.

Clinton, a U.S. senator from New York, defeated U.S. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), winning 55 percent of the vote to his 45 percent.

SEATTLE (JTA)—After choking back tears several times in order to continue her testimony, Dayna Klein finally broke down and sobbed when she recalled fleeing the Seattle Jewish federation in July 2006 and passing her friend, Pamela Waechter, who was lying face up, dead, on the stairway landing.

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Jimmy Carter is sounding a positive note about his meetings with Israel's enemies, but few of the major players in the region seem to share the view that the former U.S. president achieved any significant progress.