Volume 50, Issue 17

Ted Kulongoski says the media got it wrong when they labeled his recent trip to Israel a trade mission. Oregon’s governor preferred to call his trip on the eve of Israel’s 60th anniversary a “business development mission.”

It was a trip focused on global warming and a trip from which the governor, who has led a high-profile agenda to combat global warming, returned convinced that Israel has some important lessons for Oregon and America.  read more »

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA)—It’s about 6 p.m. on May 14, 1948, and a friend and I are leaving a UNESCO conference here to catch the train back to Berkeley.  read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Why does the U.S. establishment seem so intent on prosecuting an 84-year-old man for crimes allegedly committed nearly a quarter of a century ago?  read more »

When Itka Zygmuntowicz arrived in the Auschwitz death camp at age 15, she and the other Jews wondered if the thousands of emaciated beings that they saw were from another planet.  read more »

NEW YORK (JTA)—The chairman of the United Israel Appeal announced that he would not seek a third term in office, citing controversy over his harsh criticisms of the top leaders of the North American federation system.  read more »

P.A. to shun Israel’s celebrants

JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Palestinian Authority threatened to boycott President Bush and foreign dignitaries who attend Israel’s Independence Day celebrations.  read more »

Pollard: I don’t know Kadish

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Jonathan Pollard says he does not know alleged spy Ben-Ami Kadish. Kadish, 84, allegedly passed American military secrets to Israel during the same period as the former Navy intelligence analyst.  read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Israel’s U.N. ambassador called Jimmy Carter a “bigot” for meeting with Hamas leaders last month.  read more »

After its annual benefit banquet April 17, the Oregon Jewish Community Youth Foundation appears on its way to a successful year of fund-raising, according to John Moss, executive director of the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation, the youth foundation’s parent organization.  read more »

On May 16, Congregation Beth Israel will usher in a year of celebration, marking the 150th anniversary since the founding of the synagogue and the 80th year of worshiping in the historic Byzantine-style sanctuary in Northwest Portland.

A series of services, speakers and events to commemorate this historic milestone has been planned for 2008-09, beginning with the 150th Annual Meeting on Friday, May 16.  read more »

The 10th annual community-wide celebration of Lag B’Omer at Alpenrose Dairyville will be 5-8 p.m., May 22.

Featuring carnival games, entertainment and activities for all ages, the event traditionally draws hundreds to the free celebration of Jewish unity. Kosher food is always for sale during the event.  read more »

Peterson gets Insight fellowship

Moishe House founding resident Matt Peterson, 24, was one of 10 recent college graduates nationwide named as fellows in Insight: the Schusterman Fellowship for Jewish Community.  read more »

Paul Burnstein became the new executive director of Sinai Family Home Services in March, joining the Jewish agency’s new home care manager Regina Silbert, who arrived in January.  read more »

Locally produced, kosher-supervised milk is now available in Oregon.

Until recently, a few hundred people in the Pacific Northwest have been getting milk shipped in from the Midwest, according to Rabbi Zalman Krems, kashrus administrator of Oregon Kosher. Now Oregon Kosher has teamed up with the Seattle Va’ad to initiate local production of kosher-supervised milk, known as Cholov Yisroel Milk.  read more »

Locally produced, kosher-supervised milk is now available in Oregon.

Until recently, a few hundred people in the Pacific Northwest have been getting milk shipped in from the Midwest, according to Rabbi Zalman Krems, kashrus administrator of Oregon Kosher. Now Oregon Kosher has teamed up with the Seattle Va’ad to initiate local production of kosher-supervised milk, known as Cholov Yisroel Milk.  read more »

Talmudic Ethics, a six-week course offered by the Jewish Learning Institute, has been approved for nine credit hours by the Oregon State Bar, including   three ethics credits.

The May course runs six Tuesday evenings in Lake Oswego or six Wednesday evenings in Portland. Cost is $100. Participants need no prior knowledge of the Talmud and no formal legal training.  read more »

When Marianne Rosson watched “The Rape of Europa,” the film brought back memories of her privileged life in pre-war Berlin and the turmoil that followed.  read more »

Debbie Friedman will perform and lecture in Portland May 18 and 19. A legendary Jewish composer, singer and recording artist, Friedman has recorded more than 20 albums and performed in sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall and in cities across the nation.  read more »

Louis Olenick of Portland has been selected as a member of the Pacific Music Festival 2008 Academy. The Festival takes place July 5-31 in Sapporo, Osaka, and Tokyo, Japan.

Olenick recently performed in Portland during spring break when he joined his parents Amy Shapiro and Jeffrey Olenick at Rose Schnitzer Manor March 20 for a Purim presentation.  read more »

Living in Portland from 1992-98, registered dietitian Chana Kaufman founded and operated the Kosher Connection, a gift basket business featuring kosher foods. Now remarried and living in Israel, Chana Rubin has written a book combining her interests in Judaism and nutrition.  read more »

Ice cream, music and friends—is there a better way to kick off summer?

On Sunday, June 1, the three Schneiderman sisters accompanied by Tom Grant on piano will kick off summer at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center with a Sundae Sing-Along at 4 p.m.  read more »

Portland’s Profile Theatre, which each season presents the work of just one playwright, will present a full of season of Neil Simon plays when the curtain goes up on its 12th season next fall.

Profile Theatre Artistic Director Jane Unger made the announcement April 28.  read more »

The global food crisis has been attributed by some reliable and thoughtful news outlets to speculation across international markets compounded by the price of oil and the related conversion of cropland to bio-fuel production.  read more »

Of all the other faith communities with which American Jews partner on a wide range of issues, none generates more internal discord than evangelical Christians.  read more »

It’s hard to believe, but it’s almost 35 years since a small group of students, grandmothers and homemakers got together to try to raise community consciousness about the plight of Jews in the Soviet Union.

Through clandestine visits to Jews in the Soviet Union, demonstrations and protests against visiting Soviet cultural groups, the hosting of former refuseniks and an endless flow of mail and telephone calls to Jews in the Soviet Union, the plight of Jews persecuted because of their Jewish activity and denied permission to leave became an item on the American communal agenda.  read more »

Prosecutors in Seattle April 30 wrapped up their case against the Muslim-American man charged in the July 28, 2006, shooting rampage inside the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.  read more »

Being in Israel in the 21st century, one often wonders what Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, would think of this modern-day state if he could see it.

The malarial swamps of prestate Palestine have been replaced by rapidly growing cities with glitzy shopping districts, carefully landscaped parks and six-lane highways that run between high-rise office buildings and limestone apartment complexes.  read more »

In just 60 years, Israel has evolved from an agricultural country whose major export was Jaffa oranges to a modern nation that exported in excess of $17.7 billion of high tech products in 2007.  read more »

Portland State University and the University of Haifa have signed an Academic Institution Agreement that enables PSU to send students officially to the overseas program at the University of Haifa to receive PSU credit for their work.  read more »

As Israel prepares to celebrate its 60th birthday, flags wave and words of celebration echo throughout the country.  read more »

Oregonians will be celebrating Israel’s 60th birthday in venues ranging from schools and synagogues to Israel itself. The milestone birthday has spawned a plethora of opportunities to party, learn and honor the Jewish state.  read more »

The Vishnitzer and Belzer Hasidim in her Jerusalem neighborhood dress like princes or nobility from past generations. The non-Hasidic prefer suits and hats. And, 20-year-old Portlander Sara Jones finds life in Kiryas Mattersdorf like wearing clothes that fit.  read more »

At the University of Oregon, This Is Israel (a new student organization focusing on Israel awareness), Stand With Us and Oregon Hillel are hosting a week of activities for Israel’s 60th birthday.  read more »

Health care professionals are invited to hear an insider’s view of the region and people of New York Times best-seller “Three Cups of Tea,” when local physician, geologist and mountaineer Dr. Steve Boyer speaks May 20 on “K2 and the Baltoro Glacier: Where Continents Collide in Baltistan.”  read more »

The Jewish Women’s Round Table announces its 16th Annual Song of Miriam honorees.  The Song of Miriam Awards honor women who volunteer their time and energy to ensure the continuity and vibrancy of the Jewish community of Oregon and Southwest Washington.  read more »

Gan Israel Day Camp plans field trips including museums, amusement parks, TV stations and parks such as Blue Lake Park, right.  read more »

New Camp Solomon Schechter Director Sam Perlin wants to strengthen the camp’s ties to Portland, the city that spawned it, and uphold the vision of the camp’s founder, Rabbi Joshua Stampfer.  read more »

Clark County Chabad will offer a Mini Gan Israel day camp for preschoolers this summer. Children, aged 2 to 4, will be able to attend the only Jewish camp operating in SW Washington.  read more »

The following is excerpted from a blog written by Callie Souther, a rabbinic student at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, on March 6, the evening a terrorist shot and killed eight students at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem. Souther is the daughter of Portlander Adrienne Souther and stepdaughter of Stan Geffen.  read more »

OLLER-SCOTT

Sarah Oller and Ryan Scott of Portland announced their engagement Aug. 31. Ms. Oller is the daughter of Dale and Earl Oller of Portland; Mr. Scott is the son of Gale and Art Scott and Leila and Rick Arnopolin of Chicago.  read more »

To the editor:

Many months ago Rabbis Laurie and Gary Ruttenberg-Schoenberg of Gesher called me to officiate as a Mohel at the brit of newborn. The child was born to a struggling family to whom the rabbis had opened their home.  read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Should Bat El Levy be asked at Israel's international youth Bible quiz next week about the messiah's coming, she may find herself in a bind.  read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Maria Amin barrels down the corridors of the hospital in a wheelchair she maneuvers by using a joystick she moves with her chin.  read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA)—A recent rabbinic court ruling in Israel is prompting thousands of converts in the country to worry if their conversions to Judaism are at risk of being revoked.  read more »

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA)—Alysa Stanton-Ogulnick isn't particularly interested in being a standard-bearer.

She's proud to be black, proud to be a woman and proud to be a 45-year-old single mother who raised her adopted child on her own.  read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA)—A large group of rabbis spanning Judaism's religious movements says it has an answer to the vexing question of how to send China an Olympic-sized message without harming the interests of athletes or Israel.  read more »

LATRUN, Israel (JTA)—"We called them the bomb chucker-outters," laughs the silver-haired octogenarian.  read more »

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) -- When Julie Lustbader was applying to colleges last fall, she wasn’t thinking about Jewish life on campus.  read more »