Volume 51, Issue 1

Obama: Tighten screws on Iran

NEW YORK (JTA)—Barack Obama said the world should tighten the screws on Iran before Israel feels its back is up against the wall.  read more »

When members and friends of Congregation Neveh Shalom gather at the Southwest Portland synagogue the weekend of Oct. 25, it will be to do more than merely celebrate the completion of a months-long construction project and a years-long capital campaign that will have renovated the existing facility and added two new buildings.  read more »

Portland synagogues go back to the California Gold Rush, when Jewish merchants migrated north to start drygoods and other stores throughout Oregon. For religious, geographic and cultural reasons, an escalation of new congregations started in the late 1970s.  read more »

In addition to endorsing the Sept. 14 Social Justice Institute, Oregon Board of Rabbis members plan to speak about social justice issues from the pulpit one Shabbat during September, which coincides this year with the Jewish month Elul.  read more »

Rabbi Emanuel Rose of Portland, emeritus rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel, will lead Rosh Hashanah services this year at what is on track to become Bend’s first Reform Jewish congregation.  read more »

The Portland PJ Library will partner with the Mittleman Jewish Community Center and the Portland Jewish Academy day school for a number of Sukkot activities.  read more »

Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, sugar-free chocolate or hard candy—whether they choose to sit in mixed seating, the men’s section or women’s section, participants who answer a question during services at Congregation Shaarie Torah also have their choice of reward.  read more »

The Oregon Board of Rabbis and the Mittleman Jewish Community Center will kick off the high holiday season with the 10th annual Jewish Educational Shuk and community-wide selichot service Sept. 20.  read more »

Americans for a Safe Israel wants Congress to conduct a thorough review and reassessment of the Road Map for Middle East peace and the two-state solution.  read more »

A free Sept. 8 meeting for Jewish agency and congregation leaders and ushers will teach participants how to keep their facilities secure and deal with disruptive individuals.  read more »

The Maimonides Society for Jewish health care professionals begins its fifth year with a mix of tradition and innovation.  read more »

“Child Abuse Reporting: A Jewish Perspective” will be the topic of the next Solomon’s Legacy luncheon, noon-1:30 p.m., Sept. 17 at the Hilton Executive Tower, 545 SW Taylor St.  read more »

The Oregon Holocaust Resource Center has a new address and phone number: P.O. Box 9040, Portland, OR 97207; 503-245-2733 or 888-515-OHRC (6472).  read more »

Two distinguished scholars will discuss the impact of émigrés from the former Soviet Union on the United States and Israel Sept. 14-16 at Portland State University, as part of the observance of the 25th anniversary of Portland’s Institute for Judaic Studies.  read more »

Portland’s Institute for Judaic Studies will host the president of the American Jewish University as the keynote speaker at its 25th anniversary banquet Sept. 18 at the Benson Hotel.  read more »

Cut off from Multnomah Village’s midweek dive bar scene, a hard-hitting college-aged poker player races up a blackened 33rd Place to procure additional money for a tournament that is well under way.  read more »

“We want people to know we take their whole wellness seriously,” said MJCC General Manager Shannon Hokkansen.  read more »

One would think Solomon Greenberg took science classes this summer at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center.  read more »

Aquatic therapist, Laurie Shepard-Glenn believes buoyancy, resistance and hydrostatic pressure make water a unique medium. Immersion helps circulation and reduces inflammation, she explained.  read more »

Jeff Senders never expected to end up in Albany although his family’s history there goes back generations. But after growing up in Portland and serving in the military, a counselor job brought him back to town.  read more »

In the Aug. 15 Jewish Review Neil Goldstein, the executive director of the American Jewish Congress, is quoted as saying, “We must get off of (our) dependence on foreign oil.”  read more »

This is a true and wonderful story of how a recent article in the Jewish Review sparked a life-giving change for someone in need. The article was the story of a kidney transplant between two dear friends, David Rosenberg and Marshall Spector.  read more »

This fall, Portland will join the roll of communities offering a Jewish Outreach Institute program geared to help the some 200,000 non-Jewish mothers nationally who within the context of skyrocketing Jewish intermarriage have agreed to raise their children Jewish.  read more »

How parenting in general, and Jewish parenting in particular, affects adults is the focus of a new parenting group developed and facilitated by Jewish educator and parent Deborah Eisenbach-Budner.  read more »

Portland Hadassah begins the third session of its Machon discussion group with a completely new type of curriculum focusing on personal recollections of Jewish women in America.  read more »

Portland’s Jewish Theatre Collaborative will present a staged reading Sept. 14 at Portland State University of David Bezmozgis’ short story “Roman Berman, Massage Therapist” as part of the Institute for Judaic Studies’ three-day 25th anniversary celebration.  read more »

Israeli folk dance legend Yoav Ashriel—who choreographed such classic dances as Erev Ba, Hora Nirkoda, Hora Medura Ba’aviv and Layla Layla—will teach some of his famed dances Sept. 14 at the weekly Israeli folk dance held at the Fulton Community Center, 68 SW Miles St.  read more »

Miriam Feder will bring her one-woman show, “BIG WORDS: A kaleidoscope of follies enticing the heart and teasing the mind,” to Portland’s HipBone Studiofor two weekends:Sept. 19, 20, 26 and 27.  read more »

Late in Oren Jacoby’s documentary “Constantine’s Sword,” Rome-based Rev. John Pawlikowski declares to author and former priest James Carroll, “If you want to make religion a constructive force in society, religions must begin with an honest admission of those moments when they haven’t been a constructive force."  read more »

Many years ago when I lived in Astoria I often laughed to myself at the sight of two loaded log trucks passing one another in opposite directions. This happened all the time.  read more »

For more than 30 years Rosario Hinojosa has wanted to know all she could about her heritage.  read more »

DENVER (JTA)—After months of playing up their candidate’s support for Israel, Sen. Barak Obama’s advisers say the campaign is opening up a second front in the battle for Jewish voters.  read more »

The Portland Maccabi Club inaugural tournament drew 36 youth and teens for competition in six sports Aug. 24.  read more »

Enjoy beautiful historic buildings? You’ll love downtown Albany. Just 69 miles from Portland, the city has one of Oregon’s most varied collections. Four historic districts are listed in the National Register of Historic Places, most of them within 100 square blocks. Free illustrated walking tour guides explain the architecture and history along streets of charming shops and homes.  read more »

In honor of Chabad's 25 years in Oregon, Governor Ted Kulongoski and his wife Mary Oberst hosted 10 Chabad rabbis and their families for a kosher barbecue Aug. 19 at the governor’s mansion in Salem.  read more »

DENVER (JTA)—For the party trying to change the impression that it hasn’t got enough religion, Democrats got maybe a little too much on Aug. 24.  read more »

PISCATAWAY, N.J. (JTA)—Sitting in a meeting room in the Radisson Hotel here, 15 Orthodox cantors listen reverentially to a 1954 recording of the great Israeli cantor Leib Glantz singing the Selichot service.  read more »

In this stunning new work that is at once a coffee-table book to browse and a complete cookbook, Janna Gur brings us the sumptuous color, variety and history of today’s Israeli cuisine, beautifully illustrated by Eilon Paz, a photographer who is intimate with the local scene.  read more »

ST. PAUL (JTA)—The two vice-presidential candidates led the way Sept. 3 as the Obama and McCain campaigns worked to draw clear battle lines on Iran and Israel.  read more »

NEW YORK (JTA)—An award-winning professor touted as the new face of Yeshiva University is leaving his post as head of the honors program at its men's college following the discovery of his blog.  read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA)—One by one, until they numbered more than a thousand, they clambered up the bobbing rope and twine that God-fearing sailors centuries ago dubbed Jacob's Ladder.  read more »

NEW YORK (JTA)—An undercover video shot last month at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant has raised new questions about the company's slaughter practices and cost it the support of one of the country's leading experts on animal welfare.  read more »

MIAMI BEACH (JTA)—It was the most momentous week of this, or perhaps any, election cycle.  read more »

HONOLULU (JTA)—If there was any doubt that Sen. John McCain will shake up Washington and institute real change, the selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the Republican vice-presidential nominee has put that question to rest.  read more »

NEW YORK (JTA)—Don’t expect Howard Rieger to spend his last year on the job quacking. Rieger, the president and CEO of the United Jewish Communities, told JTA this summer that he plans to play the heavy during the next dozen months as he works hard to make sure that the relationship between the UJC and the network of North American Jewish federations becomes fully functional.  read more »

RAMAT RAZIEL, Israel (JTA)—It's harvest time at the Domaine Du Castel winery. Crates of small, plump grapes the color of blueberries are being loaded into a machine that removes them from their stems and pumps them through plastic piping into a towering, silver-colored vat.  read more »