Volume 50, Issue 6

“There is no reason today we should be having a luncheon on a genocide that is almost five years old; there must be something we are not doing right as individuals, a nation, a world,” said grassroots activist Gabriel Stauring.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (JTA)—Jews have never considered Norman Mailer one of their own as they have Bellow, Malamud, the once pariah Roth or even the skeptical Woody Allen. I think they are mistaken.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (JTA)—Facing mounting skepticism over the upcoming U.S.-led, Israeli-Palestinian peace summit, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a massive gathering of Jews here that progress toward a two-state solution is vital in dealing with Iran.

TEL AVIV—Even as Israel’s government prepares to talk peace with the Palestinians, Israel’s army is girding for war in the Gaza Strip.

Chabad conference hosts nearly 3,000

NEW YORK (JTA)—Chabad rabbis pray at the gravesite of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, Nov. 9 in the Queens borough of New York.  Nearly 3,000 rabbis from 72 nations were in New York for the annual International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries.

Police conduct raids in Olmert probes

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israeli police raided government offices as part of three probes against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (JTA)—A self-described professional Jewish lesbian. A Web guru who calls himself the Orthodox Anarchist. A young, Oscar-winning producer.

“My philosophy on allowing a synagogue to grow is very simple—If I worry about the kids, the parents worry about the building,” said Rabbi Arthur Zuckerman, who became Shaarie Torah’s new rabbi Aug. 15.

Former Jewish Family and Child Service Executive Director Marvin Kuperstein heads into retirement confident that the gains he made during his four years leading the agency will continue.

“Mah Jongg in Florida is different,” Dorothy Dworkin explains above the sound of clicking tiles. “Not brutal, but they do take it seriously.”

At the traditional 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, Congregation Neveh Shalom began a Veterans Day ceremony to honor Jewish-American veterans.

The Holzmans and Stampfers join together to ceremonially break ground for the new Rabbi Joshua and Goldie Stampfer Chapel, for which the Holzman family donated $1 million.

“I’m feeling hopeful. Even though national health care is a disgrace, there is something each of us can do to make a difference,” Dr. Jill Ginsberg told the 50 people gathered for a program on volunteer opportunities for health care professionals.

After a career with the Bicycle Transportation Alliance that has spanned nearly a decade, Scott Bricker has been named the cycling advocacy and education group’s new executive director.

The recent death of Rebbetzin Lea Raichik of Los Angeles, has prompted two Portland women—Raichik’s daughter and granddaughter—to reflect on the commonalities and differences three generations of women have experienced as Chabad emissaries in a rapidly changing world.

Tickets are going fast to the Hanukkah Jewish Celebration Night at the Blazer’s Dec. 9 game against the Milwaukee Bucks, presented by the Portland Trail Blazers in collaboration with Chabad of Oregon.

In response to requests from parents of summer campers, Chabad of Oregon will offer a Winter Break Camp for the first time this year.

David Fuks and his wife DeAnn Sullivan enjoyed the Light a Fire Awards Ceremony Oct. 30, at which Fuks was honored as “Most Extraordinary Executive Director” for his work as head of Cedar Sinai Park. Portland Monthly and the Oregon Community Foundation present the Light a Fire Awards to celebrate metro area charities, volunteers and staff.

When Hadas Horenstein returned from Young Judaea’s high school leadership camp in New York last summer, she wanted to find a way to share the Young Judaea experience with other Jewish youth in Portland.

Shaarie Torah Rabbi Emeritus Yonah Geller, 87, died about 10 p.m., Nov. 15, following a fall down his porch steps on Nov. 13.

Volunteer to make connections on Dec. 2 at Super Sunday

Super Sunday “Make the Connection” is Dec. 2 at Hoffmann Hall on the Portland State University campus. This community-building event chaired by Alan Bacharach and Steve Bloom supports the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s Annual Campaign.

Congregation Kesser Israel and Portland Kollel are joining forces to sponsor a special community Shabbaton Nov. 16 and 17.

A Sept. 30 class visit to the Sunshine Pantry, a local grass-roots agency operated out of a small warehouse in a Beaverton business park, inspired  Congregation Beth Israel Religious School third-grader Lily O’Brien to start taking tzedakah seriously.

On Nov. 6, Susan Bernstein, director of education at Congregation Neveh Shalom, hosted a delegation of Muslim leaders from Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania through the U.S. Department of State professional development program known as the International Visitor Leadership Program.

Kenny and Zukes Deli sliced up enough pastrami and other deli favorites to serve the 125 supporters of Jewish Family and Child Service who turned out for the Oct. 29 fundraiser for the agency’s TASK program, which supports individuals, families and children with disabilities through educational, outreach and activities throughtout the state.

Portland Jewish Women’s Circle is expanding its focus to include volunteer service to the community, in addition to Judaic programming for women in the community.

When the Jewish woodcarvers who decorated Eastern Europe’s synagogues came to America, they often made furniture, cigar store figures and ladies’ combs.

The race is on—the last three events are sold out! People on the waiting list have a chance, though—and a new series starts Jan. 8.

“At Such A Dizzy Height,” inspired by the paintings of Marc Chagall, is back as the second act of the Do Jump Holiday Show, a secular romp for the whole family at the Newmark Theatre Dec. 7-30.

Mazel Tov Orchestra plays its annual Hanukkah concert at Jimmy Mak’s on Dec. 8, beginning at 8 p.m.

If you missed Ari Goldman’s “Being Jewish: The Spiritual and Cultural Practice of Judaism Today” when it debuted, make it a point to seek out the updated Simon & Schuster pape

Nobel Peace Prize-winner Elie Wiesel’s 2005 novel is now available in paperback.

Beth Israel librarian Marvin Diamond was honored at Kabbalat Shabbat services Nov. 2 for his 10 years of service to the congregation.

As Jewish life in Vancouver is taking off with the announcement of a substantial gift that will enable Congregation Kol Ami to build a synagogue there, the Fort Vancouver Regional Library and the Shalom Chapter of Hadassah partnered to bring three programs to the community to celebrate Jewish Book Month.

In honor of Jewish Book Month families can visit the PJ “Pajama” Library display at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center throughout November to see sample books, reading lists and to sign up for the innovative Jewish reading program.

Uninformed readers of the general American press these days learn only two things about Israel. One is that it is consumed with war and peace. The other is that this small state of 7 million people deploys—or does not, depending on whom you are reading—the most powerful, homogenous lobby in Washington, bending the American government’s actions to its interests at will.

When I received the World Affairs Council e-mail announcing Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer’s lecture in Portland, scheduled for Oct. 24, I was hardly surprised. The two distinguished scholars already had crisscrossed the country several times with their anti-Israel dog-and-pony show, selling thousands of copies of their highly controversial book, “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.”

The following is the last of four excerpts from the memoirs of Dr. Moisey Wolf, who died in February of this year. Born in Warsaw in 1922 and a Portland resident from 1992, Dr. Wolf left behind a rich account of his childhood in Poland before the war, his experience of the war and its aftermath in the Soviet territory to which he had fled in 1939, his distinguished career as a psychiatrist in Moscow from 1955-1992, and his new life in America.

JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Annapolis conference is a chance for Palestinians to achieve statehood, Mahmoud Abbas said.

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Two new cutting-edge schools that opened in Jerusalem this fall are pushing the envelope on modern Orthodox education in the Jewish capital—and challenging rival schools

LOS ANGELES (JTA)—A prominent Orthodox rabbi has broken a taboo by publicly advocating that his community consider a possible division of Jerusalem to achieve a lasting peace with the Palestinians.

Living Legacy Workshops, a new project from Chabad of Oregon, offer hands-on group experiences such as matzah baking or pressing olive oil for various holidays.

Plans are under way for the annual “Women’s Day of Jewish Learning,” to be held 8:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Sunday, March 9, 2008.  The program is under the auspices of the Mittleman Jewish Community Center, which also serves as the venue.

Students and graduates of the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School visited the Holocaust Memorial in Washington Park Oct. 21 for the third annual Melton Ethics and Traditions in Action.

CURRY/RUDEN

NEW YORK (JTA)—Before year’s end, a U.S.-sponsored conference involving Israel and the Palestinian Authority will convene in Annapolis, Md., to frame yet another plan to end the Arab-Israeli war and create a Palestinian state. Sadly, this conference has as much chance of succeeding as did Oslo because the same mistakes that ensured failure then are being made now.

NEW YORK (JTA)—An Israeli court's decision this week to extradite an accused pedophile to the United States is giving renewed impetus to another sex abuse case that activists say has languished for more than two decades.

NEW YORK—One of the Jewish calendar's most widespread and public observances, the Hanukkah holiday has traditionally emphasized two miracles: the military victory of Jewish rebels over Greek invaders and the one vial of oil that lasted for eight nights.