Volume 50, Issue 18

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Ehud Olmert is fighting for his political life on three fronts: legal, political and in the court of public opinion.  read more »

While Jewish leaders across America were hailing the recent rejection of Israel divestiture proposals at the quadrennial General Conference of the United Methodist Church, a Portland-area Methodist leader cautioned that the Israel divestiture issue was not consigned forever to church history.  read more »

NEW YORK (JTA)—Jewish groups have been worried for months that the United Methodist Church at its convention would revive a push for anti-Israel divestiture measures.  read more »

NEW YORK (JTA)—The Democratic race may have a few more weeks left, but U.S. Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain already are waging a bruising battle for Jewish support in the general election.  read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA)—Israel is positioning itself to lead the world into the age of the electric car.

With $200 million in funding from private investors and support from the Israeli government, Shai Agassi is laying the groundwork for Israel to become the first test case for the gasoline-free electric car.  read more »

Credentials at risk for al-Dura reporter

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel’s top court is being asked to revoke the media credentials of a French television station and reporter in the Mohammed al-Dura affair.  read more »

Forward gets new editor

NEW YORK (JTA)—Jane Eisner, the former editorial page editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, has been tapped to be the next editor of the Forward. Eisner was nominated May 12, and was expected to be approved at a May 18 meeting of the Forward Association, the group that oversees the newspaper and its Web site.  read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA)—President Bush is about to preside over a series of events that mark the unraveling of the core principles of his Middle East peace policy.

His mid-May trip to the Middle East—what was to have been Bush’s triumphal coronation as Israel’s best friend ever in the White House—is becoming, at least in policy terms, a repudiation of his three nos: no to negotiating with terrorists, no to negotiating with their state sponsors and no to getting ahead of the Israelis and Palestinians in peace talks.  read more »

On a holiday associated with Jewish unity, the community is once again invited to a free celebration of Lag B’Omer at Alpenrose Dairyville, 5-8 p.m., May 22.

The 10th annual community-wide celebration of Lag B’Omer will feature carnival games, entertainment and activities for all ages. The event traditionally draws hundreds of people from across Portland’s Jewish spectrum to the free celebration of Jewish unity. Kosher food is for sale during the event.  read more »

Portland businessman, philanthropist and Jewish community leader Jordan D. Schnitzer proposed to the Portland City Council April 30 that a new park under construction in the heart of downtown be named “The Simon and Helen Director Park” in honor of his maternal grandparents.  read more »

The Oregon Jewish Museum’s 2008 gala Art Auction held May 4 at the Governor Hotel grossed approximately $160,000, up about 8.1 percent from last year’s $147,000, according to preliminary figures provided by the museum.  read more »

Rachel June-Graber said the highlight of her 11-day trip to Cuba with 24 Catlin Gabel classmates was the evening she left the group to attend Shabbat services at the Beth Shalom synagogue in Havana.  read more »

“Champagne is always good for you,” she said, as her friend of 65-years reached for a glass. In fact, the whole place was bubbling when 24 women who grew up together in Portland gathered for the 75th Birthday Bash. Giant red balloons and photographs of the women as teenagers set the scene at the Stockpot Restaurant’s (8200 SW Scholls Ferry Road) private banquet room on May 5.  read more »

American Jewish Committee-Oregon Chapter will honor U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) with its 2008 Human Relations Award at a dinner on Tuesday, May 27. The dinner will be held at the Benson Hotel, with a reception at 6 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m.  read more »

Margie Miller had two qualifications for her current job as a grief counselor at a Long Island family center for families of those who died on 9/11—her husband Joel Miller died on impact when Flight 11 hit Tower One and she had done programming for Women’s League of Conservative Judaism, so she transferred those skills to programming for families of 9/11 victims.  read more »

Jewish Family and Child Service plans a Diamond Jubilee to celebrate 60 years of serving the Portland Jewish community.

The event will be Sunday, June 22, at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center. A no-host cocktail bar opens at 5:30 p.m. with special guest Michael Allen Harrison performing on the piano. Dinner will be served at 7 p.m., with a video production celebrating JFCS’s history and 60 years of service to the Jewish community.  read more »

Portland attorney and now former Oregon House Dist. 34 Rep. Suzanne Bonamici has been named to succeed Oregon Sen. Brad Avakian who resigned his Senate seat to become Oregon Labor Commissioner.  read more »

In just two short years, the Portland Kollel has taken flight. Now, say founding members Tzvi and Esther Fischer, it’s time to celebrate—and they’re inviting everyone to join the party.  read more »

Madeline Nelson felt the 2008 Joshua Stampfer Community Enrichment Award needed to be presented to her entire family since she considers social action a family rather than individual trait.  read more »

Even as the Nazis herded Toivi Blatt and the other Jews into the truck bound for the Sobibor death camp, the prisoners told each other hopefully, “They need us; they won’t kill us.”  read more »

Founded in 1987, the Oregon State Holocaust Memorial Program brings events to the mid-Willamette Valley each year during the “Days of Remembrance.” The committee of faculty, students and community leaders recruit well-known speakers several years in advance.  read more »

Taner Akcam had no problem publishing his book in Turkey. “But, you have to be ready for a trial and for them to kill you,” he explained.  read more »

This fall Congregation Shaarie Torah will expand it’s religious school to two days a week for kindergarten through fifth grade.  read more »

Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonies, string quartets, piano works, concerti and a host of other groundbreaking works are the staples of any concert season.  read more »

Portland’s Hand2Mouth Theatre in collaboration with Poland’s Teatr Stacja Szamocin and Portland klezmer musician Jack Falk this month and next will present the North American premiere of “From a Dream to a Dream,” an adaptation of the writing of Bruno Schulz.  read more »

Building on his play “40 Years in the Desert: A Bar Mitzvah Tale,” Portland author Robert Freedman has written an honest story of a Jewish boy coming of age in the carefree late 1950s and tumultuous 1960s.  read more »

It was a prophetic statement: “If I tell you what I know of the family, I know our family will go on living.”

So said 90-year-old János Szenti, great-uncle of artist Alex Appella, during their conversations in his home in Argentina a dozen years ago. As he answered her questions, a remarkable piece of art was taking shape.  read more »

Do Jump! returns to the Newmark Theater May 17-31 with an inspiring and joyful spectacle telling the true story of Gaviotas, a village in Colombia that is an exemplar of sustainable culture.  read more »

Rabbi Emanuel Rose will lead a discussion of the book he is currenly working on during Shabbat morning services on Saturday, May 31, at Congregation Beth Israel.  read more »

Things haven’t gone quite the way he had planned, but at age 65 Rabbi Moshe Cotel is contented.

After all, he has managed to achieve success in one of the most highly competitive endeavors, the world of classical music, abandoned it to explore his faith and discovered to his amusement that  music was the best vehicle for him to communicate his deep and abiding love of the Jewish religion, its thought and practice.  read more »

Jewish women poets may submit up to three poems for possible inclusion in an anthology planned by Paula Friedman.

Friedman is a poet and the former director of the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award for Poems on the Jewish Experience.  read more »

My typically jolly TV repairman was a little less upbeat than usual this morning. He began our chat with an unexpected question. “How long will it be,” he asked me, “before Israel disappears?”  read more »

Evangelical leaders on record in support of two-state solution

To the editor:

In “Jewish-evangelical Christian alliance good for Israel” (Jewish Review, May 1),Robert Horenstein asserts that evangelicals “generally oppose” any political division of the Holy Land. However, he fails to mention that many prominent evangelical Christians have spoken out in support of a negotiated, two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  read more »

The National Council of Jewish Women will present the Hannah G. Solomon Award to Rose Rustin June 8 at the Portland Section’s annual meeting.

The Hannah G. Solomon award is the highest award that NCJW bestows.  read more »

BIRTH

ZACHARY KLINE 

Zachary Joseph Kline was born March 25 to Roger and Dena Kline of Eugene. He joins big brother Samuel Nathan. Grandparents are Alfred and Myra Herpe of Daly City, Calif., and the late Roger Lynn Kline of Yakima, Wash. Great-grandparents are Esther Jachimowicz of San Francisco, Berthold Herpe of Daly City and Roger Lee Kline of Yakima.  read more »

NEW YORK (JTA)—The philanthropic trend toward investing in people rather than projects is getting a boost from one of America’s largest Jewish foundations.  read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA)—In its telling, the story of a notorious lynching of Jews is not unusual.

The storyteller, however, is: Abdurrahman Wahid, the former Indonesian president, and a leading Muslim scholar.  read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA)—A speech by President Bush that was supposed to have been the apotheosis of U.S.-Israel solidarity instead sparked a toxic political exchange in the partisan battle for American votes.  read more »

NEW YORK (JTA)—Amos Avgar won't talk about the signs of death he saw in Myanmar in the days immediately following Cyclone Nargis.  read more »