Volume 50, Issue 9

Jewish Portland’s whirlwind planner of cool events for young adults now has a hub from which to launch her multitude of programs.

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel and Hamas may be about to strike a deal that would include a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of the abducted Israeli soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

Lottie Mendelson always said, “You are successful if you leave the world a better place for having been here.”

LOS ANGELES (JTA)—Radio host Michael Medved, a hardcore Republican, and political scientist David Luchins, former adviser to the late U.S. Sen.

“The Jewish Americans”, a three-part documentary film written and directed by the Emmy Award-winning filmmaker David Grubin, examines the struggle of a tiny minority to make its way into the American mainstream. While the story of Jewish life in America is emblematic of the American immigrant story, it is also a unique story of ongoing discrimination and stereotyping coupled with some of the most remarkable accomplishments in American history, the arts, commerce, science and academia.

Dr. Erik Schoenberg knows how it feels to get a hand up in the world and now he gives back by putting a fresh face on life for those who have undergone traumatic experiences.

This year’s gala evening on March 8 to benefit residents of Robison Jewish Health Center is all about returns.

Ari Stone boarded a plane at Portland International Airport Dec. 25 bound for New York and from there on to Israel, his new home.

More than 400 guests and volunteers attended Portland Jewish Academy’s 46th Annual Auction held Dec. 16 at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center.

A vandals apparently was interrupted at the Eastside Jewish Cemetery in Troutdale in December.

When the crowd rolls in for Monte Carlo Night Feb. 9 at the Jewish Business Network’s second annual fund-raising event in Vancouver, they’ll get a first-hand account on one of the three charities receiving proceeds from the evening.

Ever since the Sabbath after Sukkot, when the communal synagogue reading of the Torah began anew, I haven’t been able to attend a Jewish wedding without thinking about the Netziv’s unsettling, if simple, observation.

Soprano Sheerya Shivers and clarinetist Reina Abolofia will perform Jewish and classical compositions in a free concert, Jan. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at Lincoln Hall, Room 75 at Portland State University.

From Noah’s Bagels to Isaac Bashevis Singer stories, New York’s Lower East Side evokes images of Eastern European Jews. But a small, distinctive group of Greek Jews also lived here; their ancient culture traces to the first Jewish settlement in Europe.

As Allison Victor turns the lively music on, 40 people swirl around the room. Blue streamers and balloons decorate the wooden-floored gymnasium. A colorful menorah lights the table full of treats. Licorice, cheese, oranges, driedels, it’s Tuesday night Israeli folk dancing at Café Shalom, and it’s time for the Hanukkah party.

Bolton back at JINSA

WASHINGTON (JTA)—John Bolton re-joined the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, returned as a member of JINSA’s board of advisers.

Poll finds Sderot residents want out

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Nearly two-thirds of residents of an Israeli town targeted by Palestinian rocket crews would leave if they could. A poll published Dec. 21 in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot showed that 64 percent of those living in hardscrabble Sderot would leave if they had the means and opportunity, while 35 percent said they would not.

The Jewish Review recently received a grant in the amount of $11,700 from the Judith and Edwin Cohen Foundation of Vestal, N.Y.

The grant marks the third consecutive year that this family foundation has provided funding to the Jewish Review—each year in increasing amounts.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, which has contracted with Community Newspapers, Inc., of Portland for the past 14 years to produce the Jewish Review, notified CNI in December of its intention not to renew their contract.

The federation, which has published the Review since its founding in 1959, and CNI partnered in 1993 to produce the newspaper, which was facing financial challenges at the time.

The Oregon Jewish Community Youth Foundation recently presented the Jewish Review with an unsolicited grant in the amount of $252.

Each year since its founding the OJCYF has chosen to include the Jewish Review among the organizations it helps.

Mah Jongg players in Portland who ordered their Mah Jongg cards through Rosanne Levi last year raised $440 for TASK, the disability awareness program of Jewish Family and Child Service.

Orders placed for Mah Jongg cards by Jan. 31 again will benefit TASK.

Ozreinu, a Torah study/spiritual support group for parents of children with any type of special needs, is expanding to two meetings in two locations in January in an effort to reach as many parents as possible.

A program of TASK, the disabilities awareness program of Jewish Family and Child Service, Ozreinu has been meeting at Congregation Neveh Shalom since the spring of 2006.

Havurah Shalom invites the community to join its Tu B’shvat (Celebration of the Trees) featuring storyteller Will Hornyak of local and national fame.

The program will be 4-5:15 p.m., Jan. 12, at Havurah Shalom, 825 NW 18th Ave., Portland. The event is free and open to the public but RSVP is requested by Jan. 9 to info@havurahshalom.org or 503-248-4662.

Seven Jewish teenagers from Portland will be featured in the January/February edition of JVibe, a magazine for Jewish teens.

The seven, all associated with the Oregon Jewish Community Youth Foundation, discuss their visions of an ideal presidential candidate.

At the recent United Synagogue biennial national convention in Florida, Portland’s Congregation Neveh Shalom was recognized with three Solomon Schechter awards.

In the area of publications, Neveh Shalom received both a gold and silver award.

Performance artist and writer Miriam Feder has published a lovely and elegant small book she calls “About Love; the bittersweet heart,” which compiles the text of a dozen of her sensual, sometimes saucy and poignant written works, which are also pieces she either has or will perform.

Congregation Beth Israel will present a four-week film series entitled “The Jewish Experience as seen in 20th Century American Movies.”

Scheduled for Sunday afternoons in January and February, each session will feature the work of key Jewish performers, writers and directors, and will be followed by a discussion led by Lloyd Cohn, owner of Watch This! DVD.

B’nai B’rith Camp will hold a information night about summer camp sessions, weekend getaways, program, staff and more on Sunday, Jan. 6, at 12:30 p.m. at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center, 6651 SW Capitol Hwy., Portland.

BB Camp serves youth entering second through 11th grade. Located on a lakeside campus of the scenic Oregon coast, BB Camp is a premier Jewish resident camp in the Pacific Northwest.

Members of B’nai B’rith Youth Organization recently donated $52,000 to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

Raised by students, the funds went primarily to JDC’s AMEN initiative—a program that engages Israeli teens in volunteer service.

December marked the debut of “The Torah: A Women’s Commentary,” which brings together the scholarship and insights of women from all segments of the international Jewish community.

To the editor:

Just need to make a clarification for you. In a recent issue you noted that Portland attorney Richard Liebman was “among Portland’s Jewish lawyers on the Best Lawyers in America” or some similar accolade. 

For the first time the West Coast has a Young Judaea Impact shaliach (ambassador) devoted to deepening young adults’ connections with Israel.

Based in Los Angeles, Nadav Ben-Gal works with those aged 18 to 35 in the expansion of Young Judaea, a Zionist youth group sponsored by Hadassah. In November he visited college campuses in Portland and Eugene. He said he plans to return to Oregon periodically throughout 2008.

NEW YORK (JTA)—Thousands of evangelical Christian donors now have a powerful seat at the table of the Jewish Agency for Israel, the vanguard of the Zionist movement.

NEW YORK (JTA)—Raymond Epstein, a former leader of several Jewish organizations, died Saturday. He was 89.

TEL AVIV (JTA)—Jews have lived in Iran since biblical times, surviving 2,700 years of rotating dynasties from Persian kings and Mongol rulers to today’s ayatollahs, all the while buildi

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel seems set to start 2008 with a major foreign policy achievement: During U.S. President George W. Bush’s visit here next week, Israel and the United States are expected to announce a significant upgrading of diplomatic, economic and military ties.

WASHINGTON (JTA)—In his 27 years in the U.S. Congress, Rep Tom Lantos had two constituencies—California's 12th District, encompassing parts of San Francisco, and the ghosts of the Jews who perished in his native Europe.

NEW YORK (JTA)—An hour before the start of what has become one of the biggest Jewish party nights of the year, the sidewalks of Chinatown filled with their usual hustle.

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Seventeen months after the last shots were fired in the 2006 summer war between Israel and Hezbollah, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s political future again is under a cloud due to his poor performance in the war.

NEW YORK (JTA)—While the Jews of Kenya seem unscathed by the country’s political crisis, Jewish nongovernmental agencies that work there and elsewhere in Africa are bracing for the long-term effects of the sudden outbreak of violence.

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA)—Bettina Kurowski is the chair of the 2008 fund-raising campaign of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and active in her Conservative synagogue.

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Turning out the lights before you leave Jerusalem may be an odd way to say you care, but it's what President Bush wants.

NEW YORK (PRNewswire-USNewswire)—Ms. Magazine has long been in the forefront of the fight for equal rights and equal opportunities for women.  Apparently that is not the case if the women happen to be Israeli.

JERUSALEM (JTA)—In their sixth major peacemaking effort since the unsuccessful 1991 Madrid peace conference, Israeli and Syrian negotiators face even tougher challenges than their failed predecessors.