Volume 51, Number 15

Founded in 1987, the Oregon State Holocaust Memorial Program this year looks at Germans and the Holocaust: Then and Now in a series of programs April 20-23.  read more »

The Sussman Fund was established in 1981 by Lillian and Gilbert Sussman to proivde grants to Jewish students from Oregon toward their higher education.  read more »

Deadlines for scholarships administered by the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation are April 15 and May 1.  read more »

Invitations have been mailed for the Oregon Jewish Museum art auction, scheduled for Sunday, May 3, at the Governor Hotel.  read more »

The 17th annual Portland Jewish Film Festival gets under way this month.  read more »

On March 21, The Oregonian reprinted a Los Angeles Times guest-opinion piece by writer Ben Ehrenreich in which he argued that Zionism is the central roadblock to peaceful coexistence between the Israelis and the Palestinians.  read more »

Last year, some 500 people enjoyed a Passover seder at one of the 10 Chabad Centers in Oregon and Southwest Washington.  read more »

PASSOVER PREP—Rabbi Zalman Krems kashers items before Passover last year at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center.  read more »

Kenny & Zuke’s, the downtown deli, will open their second location April 7 on Northwest Thurman Street across from Food Front.   read more »

Twenty-eight years ago, Marsha Gilbert started embroidering gift items in her home business so she could stay home with her children.  read more »

In October 2007, Mort Simon decided to come out of semi-retirement and resume his financial services business full time so he could donate more to charities.  read more »

Naturopathic physician Shani Fox is offering free consultations with cancer patients on April 5, May 3 and June 7 to explain how naturopathic medicine can work in tandem with conventional medicine to enhance patients overall well-being during a stressful period.  read more »

Albert Menashe and Eden Rose Brown were the only Oregon attorneys included on the list of Top 100 lawyers in America, published in the March Worth magazine.  read more »

The Schlesinger Companies have restored the Oregon National Building to its original name, the Selling Building, in honor of Ben Selling a former state legislator who served briefly as Governor and who was named Portland’s first “First Citizen.”  read more »

As a Jewish volunteer engaging young adults in the community, Portlander Jodi Berris, 29, found she had more in common with Europe’s young adult leaders than she does with young leaders in large U.S. Jewish communities.  read more »

The Oregon Jewish Community Youth Foundation is accepting grant applications.  read more »

Mati Agam, clad in a short-sleeve AZA T-shirt, recently stood up in front of a dozen Oregon Jewish Community Youth Foundation peers, explaining during an allocations committee meeting why a portion of the group’s $2,500 dollars should go to the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School.  read more »

The Foundation for Jewish Camp named Rachel Rothstein, associate director of B’nai B’rith Camp, as one of the first participants in its Yitro Leadership Program, part of FJC’s ongoing effort “to bring top-level executive management practices to Jewish overnight summer camps and develop camp experiences that shape and secure children’s Jewish identity for the future.”  read more »

Last month, two Congregation Beth Israel members dedicated their b’nai mitzvah projects to knitting for the needy.  read more »

The Zidell family will receive the 11th Rabbi Joshua Stampfer Community Enrichment Award April 30 at the Benson Hotel.  read more »

As part of its observance of its golden anniversary, the Jewish Review is sponsoring a regional essay contest.  read more »

Scores of Portland residents will gather at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, April 8, at the Maimonides Jewish Day School to perform the rarest event on the Jewish calendar: They will gather together, peer upward toward the sun, and recite a blessing known as “the Blessing of the Sun.”  read more »

VISITORS FROM AZERBAIJAN—Rabbi Aron Fischer, second from left, who runs a school in Baku, shakes hands with Elin Suleymanov, the Los Angeles-based consul general of the Republic of Azerbaijan.  read more »

Maimonides Jewish Day School Auction honorees Dr. Anthony and Priscilla Kostiner opened the Mitzvah Moment with a pledge of $3,600  read more »

A sellout crowd of more than 350 attended the Oregon AIPAC Community Dinner at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center March 29.  read more »

When a few dozen families gathered April 11, 1909, on the sand dunes of the beach outside Jaffa to allocate land for a new settlement, they took the first critical step toward establishing what is today Israel’s commercial and cultural capital.  read more »

Walk into Kristy Wood’s office and you’ll notice an abundance of chairs. In addition to the dozen mismatched cast-offs surrounding a large conference table, there’s another dozen along one wall, stacked three rows deep, each one with its own name and personality.  read more »

Eugene-native Robin Romm was 19 when her mother received a cancer diagnosis. Six years later, her mother called to say that her cancer had spread. Romm’s first thought, strangely enough, was that she needed a dog. Mercy, the hound she adopted, became an integral part of her mother’s final days.  read more »

Robin Sandler thinks, and paints, big.  read more »

Long before Israel’s strike against Hamas last year, “Waltz With Bashir” had staked its claim as the most important film of 2008.  read more »

Portland’s Jewish community and the Catholic Archdiocese of Portland will collaborate in a community-wide Holocaust Memorial Day observance hosted by Portland Center Stage on the Main Stage of the Gerding Theater at the Armory on April 20 at 7 p.m.—erev Yom HaShoah.  read more »

Facts about Jewish genetic disorders will be the topic at noon, April 19, at a free program at Congregation Neveh Shalom.  read more »

I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer last summer at 35. I have a good prognosis and conclude active treatment in March, which was Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.  read more »

For the past three and a half years, Jodi Berris has tried to ensure that all Jewish young adults who are interested have a comfortable place to enjoy a holiday meal.  read more »

Portland Jewish Academy will welcome families to celebrate Passover with creative activities during the popular Matzah to Macaroons event on Sunday, April 5 from 12:30 to 3 p.m.  read more »

WOMEN’S SEDER—216 women enjoyed an uplifting and inspiring seder sponsored by the Women’s Philanthropy Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland and lead by Cantor Ida Rae Cahana.  read more »

NEW YORK (JTA)—Why is this Passover different than all other Passovers?  read more »

Jewish Family and Child Service is the host Web site for tools and information from the organizations and synagogues that have come together to form the Portland Jewish Community’s Economic Crisis Task Force  read more »

In response to ever-growing community demand for job search support, Jewish Family and Child Service has created two new free programs—one for all ages and one for young adults—to assist individuals who are unemployed or under-employed and looking for work.  read more »

When a shidduch (matchmaker) brings together passion and philanthropy as beshert (soulmates), wonderful things can happen.  read more »

On March 11, Congregation Beth Israel hosted a Jewish Community High School event of global importance.  read more »

NEW YORK (JTA)—It’s been a tough few weeks for the leadership of the United Synagogue, the Conservative movement’s synagogue association.  read more »

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JERUSALEM (JTA)—Jewish groups denounced a cartoon by a prize-winning political cartoonist as anti-Semitic.  read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Could a U.S. tax exemption be helping to hold back peace?  read more »

(JTA)—The warnings from Israeli pundits and foreign observers alike came almost as soon as Israeli President Shimon Peres picked Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu to form the next Israeli next government.  read more »

UMM EL-FAHM, Israel (JTA)—In a battle played out in courtyards, olive groves and the puddle-filled pavement, hundreds of youth clashed with Israeli riot police to protest a march in their Israeli-Arab town by a band of far-right activists.  read more »

In this time of economic crisis why is Steve Sirkin so upbeat?  read more »

As the executive director of the Oregon Area Jewish Committee, I participated in a June 16-26 intercultural visit to Turkey as a guest of the Rosegarden Turkish American Cultural Center.  read more »

The Jewish Review seeks an advertising sales representative with outside ad sales experience to handle sales for print and online.  read more »

Rabbi David Zaslow, who recently published a book on the Jewish roots of Christianity entitled “Roots and Branches,” will offer two courses on the subject, one in Portland and one in Ashland.  read more »

In 1934, the Soviet government established a Jewish homeland in Siberia. Officially called the Jewish Autonomous Region, many referred to it by the area’s capital city, Birobidzhan.  read more »

One development of modern Jewish life is the ba’al teshuva movement, the return of tens of thousands of secular Jews to an observant lifestyle based on the laws of the Torah as interpreted by the rabbis of old.  read more »

Joint meetings of the United States Congress are rare events. While joint sessions are usually called to hear presidential addresses, “joint meetings” are held to hear from U.S. officials or foreign dignitaries.  read more »