Volume 50, Issue 5

When Sharon Weil embarked on her first term as a co-chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland Annual Campaign last year, she made this comment on the subject of soliciting donations: “I never was afraid to ask, because the worst thing is someone is going to say no, and I don’t take no,” she said.

When the World Affairs Council of Oregon announced that it would present the authors of the controversial new book “The Israel Lobby and U.S.

Co-chairs of the Jewish Federation of Portland’s premier Annual Campaign kickoff event Opening Night Mara Shlachter, and Marge Cohn pause for a photo with Broadway musical headliner and Opening Night featured guest Shoshana Bean, a Portland native, during the gala celebration Oct. 25 in the elegantly appointed ballroom of the Mittleman Jewish Community Center.

NEW YORK—Pro-Israel advocates have been taking it on the chin of late, but they fired back last month, holding a conference Oct. 21 aimed at Jewish critics whom they accuse of subverting and distorting the truth in their rush to heap scorn upon Israel.

The following is an edited transcript of an interview conducted in September with the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, about his new book, “The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and The Myth of Jewish Control.” It has been further edited by the Jewish Review to address only issues mentioned in stories in this Review.

Lantos’ Auschwitz comparison riles Dutch

WASHINGTON (JTA)—A comment by a U.S. lawmaker over Guantanamo Bay has angered Dutch officials. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Dutch officials that Europe is reacting far more harshly to the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay than it did to Auschwitz, disrupting diplomatic talks, according to The Associated Press.

Terrorism made Portman activist

JERUSALEM (JTA)—The anguish of a friend grieving over a terror victim in Israel led actress Natalie Portman to become an activist. “When I was at Harvard, a very close friend lost someone to the violence in Israel,” Portman says in a first-person essay that appeared last month in Parade magazine.

Jim Meyer has volunteered so many hours asking the right questions and making insightful observations on boards and committees that other community leaders describe him as “a mensch,” “the best there is” and a “reflection of” the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s theme: “Live Generously, it does a world of good.”

To order a new Jewish year calendar mail $7.50 to the Jewish Review Calendar, 6680 SW Capitol Hwy., Portland, OR 97219. Clearly indicate if there is an alternative mailing address that you would prefer.

Volunteers’ time, energy and ideas help non-profits “build community” and “save the world”; at the same time, volunteers reap benefits including satisfaction, new friends, new skills and, for some even, a new career.

One of the largest waves of immigration of the 20th century was the exodus of Jews to Israel after World War II. Nearly 700,000 came from 70 countries between 1947 and 1951, according to historian Martin Gilbert.

Last year the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland Annual Campaign and Israel Emergency Campaign raised a combined total of slightly more than $4.9 million. Out of that, $3,532,885 were distributed to various causes by the federation’s Allocations Committee.

Have you ever envisioned a plan that would help Jews at risk in Israel or another country overseas? If so, your project might be a candidate for Overseas Special Projects, a committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland that evaluates ideas submitted by individuals in the Portland Jewish community and allocates a slice of funds raised in the annual campaign to implement them.

Marge Cohn wanted to ensure continued support for the Jewish community that has meant so much to her. That’s why, when she learned about the Lion of Judah Endowment, she didn’t hesitate.

“Endowment gifts are outstanding examples of our Jewish values of tzedakah and tikkun olam—justice and repairing the world. Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, in partnership with the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation, is here to help donors realize their philanthropic goals through endowment gifts that support our community in perpetuity,” said JFGP’s Executive Vice President Charles Schiffman.

Dee Dee Myers, the first woman to serve as White House Press Secretary, will speak at the JFGP’s Women’s Philanthropy Committee “Impact” fund-raising event, formerly known as Connections, Jan. 29, 2008, at the Portland Hilton.

Crawl into bed at night and speak the words “collaborative financial resource development” and you might not need your Ambien or your Excedrin PM.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006. Israeli warplanes bombed a Palestinian base outside Beirut trying to strike Hezbollah guerillas who, earlier in the day, crossed the border, killed eight Israeli soldiers, and kidnapped two others.

Rabbi Ari Crockett, the former leader of Beth El Congregation in Milwaukie, was exposed as a “minister of deceit” by Portland’s NewsChannel 8 on March 21, 2007, following the Oregonian’s investigative story on July 30, 2006.

For several years Lester Salmenson sang with the choir at Rose Schnitzer Manor, and he didn’t miss a beat when he moved to the Robison Jewish Health Center a month ago.

Gym? Never stepped into one before 2007. Exercise? Used a treadmill a few times after having a child 25 years ago. Locker rooms? Didn’t want to fool with tricky combinations.

When Rabbi Michael and Cantor Ida Rae Cahana of Congregation Beth Israel came to Portland from New York in July 2006, they enrolled their four children in Portland Jewish Academy.

The fragrance of freshly baked challah is a powerful first impression for many newcomers to Oregon Hillel at the University of Oregon. A home-cooked Shabbat meal, followed by services in Hillel’s beautifully renovated sanctuary, is the starting point of many friendships, according to Claire Bane, co-vice president of cooking for the Jewish student organization.
   

Explore the Oregon Jewish Museum’s current exhibit and discover the extraordinary interaction between Jewish Portlanders and the Pacific Northwest’s largest repository of materials illuminating Jewish life and history.

A careful reading of this issue of the Jewish Review will make it clear that we are together engaged in one of the largest, most effective and most remarkable humanitarian ventures in human history: providing vitally needed social services to an entire nation (in the broadest, non-state meaning of the term) around the globe and around the clock.

I was disappointed and angry about four weeks ago when the person who stocks the lone Jewish Review newspaper box in Salem not far from the capitol building reported that the box had been spray-painted with swastikas.

Olmert too weak to compromise

Yediot Aharonot says that “Of all those going to Annapolis, only Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has something to sell, real merchandise—territories.”

The following is the third of four excerpts from the memoirs of Dr. Moisey Wolf, who died in February. Born in Warsaw in 1922, Dr. Wolf left a rich account of his childhood in Poland, the war and its aftermath in the Soviet Union, his distinguished career as a psychiatrist in Moscow, and his new life in Portland after his arrival with his wife, Susanna, in 1992. Judson Rosengrant, the translator and editor of the memoirs, specializes in Russian language, history and culture. He lives in Portland.

Last February’s inaugural Weekend in Quest shabbaton presented in Astoria by Portland’s Institute for Judaic Studies and which featured Reed College Judaic Studies Prof.

Are you new to Portland or ready for a life transition? Time to make new friends, develop new interests or take old ones to another level? You always belong in your own community, and Jewish Federation of Greater Portland will help you find the right spot.

Eight lay leaders and staff members from the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland and local Jewish organizations will attend the annual General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities (representing 400 independent Jewish federations across North America), this year in Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 11-13, said Charles R. Schiffman, the JFGP’s executive vice president.

Israel is turning 60 in 2008 and Oregonians will be joining the celebration in all sorts of ways, said Priscilla Kostiner, chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s Israel Series.

Jewish Family and Child Service Executive Director Marvin Kuperstein announced his retirement from the agency as of Oct. 12.

“Super Sunday is a beautiful way to express tikkun olam, repairing the world, and building kehila, community,” said Alan Bacharach, co-chair for Super Sunday 2007.

NEW YORK (JTA)—After listening to a presentation about genocidal killing in the Darfur region of Sudan, Dean Schramm and other members of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Jewish Commit

WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Zionist Organization of America is making headway with its call on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to abrogate his Fatah party's constitution before U.S.-ba