Volume 50, Issue 21

When the members of Eugene’s Temple Beth Israel gathered June 8 to dedicate their new building, congregation President Sharon Rudnick turned to that part of Exodus in which Moses adjures the Israelites to bring gifts that they may build the tabernacle as called upon by God to do.  read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israeli strategic thinkers are deeply divided over the implications of the truce between Israel and the Gaza-based Hamas fundamentalists. But whatever their perspective, most agree that it could have a profound impact on the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations.  read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA)—As the question of an Israeli attack on Iran edges from if toward when, a new question looms: What would the United States do?

The question is preoccupying not just the White House but the Obama and McCain presidential campaigns, although neither would address the matter on the record.  read more »

The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland has joined United Jewish Communities in an emergency relief effort for victims of natural disasters, including floods and tornadoes, that have wreaked havoc in the central United States since mid-May.  read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Comparing the challenge of overcoming his agency’s financial woes with the ancient Israelites’ struggle to enter the Promised Land, the chairman of the Jewish Agency’s budget committee tried to sound an upbeat note.  read more »

The weekly Lunch and Learn program at Rose Schnitzer Manor of Cedar Sinai Park, open to community seniors, will be discontinued as of July 25 because Multnomah County declined to continue its financial support, announced David Fuks, CEO of Cedar Sinai Park.  read more »

Alan Blank, co-chair of both the 2008 Jewish Federation of Greater Portland Annual Campaign and Neveh Shalom’s Capital Campaign, left for Denver June 19.

Blank, a partner at Stoel Rives for the past 20 years, accepted a job as senior vice president of legal and external affairs at Newmont Mining Corporation. Founded in 1921, Newmont is one of the largest gold companies in the world with about 15,000 employees in the United States, Australia, Peru, Indonesian and Ghana.  read more »

Rabbi Elizabeth Dunsker becomes the new rabbi of Congregation Kol Ami July 1, after “a rabbi search that may be the shortest in history,” according to the chair of the Reform congregation’s rabbinic search committee.  read more »

The Oregon Jewish Community Foundation and Mittleman Jewish Community Center announce the establishment of the new “Living Room Fund” to support Jewish groups that wish to hold meetings and events at the MJCC.  read more »

More than 100 people gathered in Vancouver, Wash., to watch Rabbi Levi Kagan write the first verses of a new Torah scroll that will be dedicated to the Clark County Jewish community.  read more »

“There are thousands of stories like mine,” said JFCS board member Erik Whitcher who welcomed attendees to the Jewish Family and Child Service Diamond Jubilee with the story of how a JFCS reunited his family after his great-grandfather moved alone from the east coast to work in Portland’s shipyards.  read more »

Community organizations and individuals interested in social action are invited to a free Social Justice Institute, 1-4 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 14, at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center.  read more »

The evening of June 12 was a time for looking back at recent achievements, looking to the future and honoring those in the Jewish community whose leadership and generosity have distinguished them.  read more »

The biggest dilemma on the table for Israel involves the Palestinians. That’s according Miri Eisin, a retired Israeli colonel who served 20 years in Israel’s intelligence community. She addressed the annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland June 12 in the Mayfair Room at the Benson Hotel.  read more »

Young Jews on the Come Up present a comedy show and dance July 2 at Someday Lounge.

Called “Curb Your En-Jew-Siasm,” the event will feature Los Angeles comedian Louis Katz, who at the age of 9 had his jokes read by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, and local funnyman Kyle Harbert. DJs will provide dance music.  read more »

When the American Jewish Committee Oregon Chapter becomes the Oregon Area Jewish Committee on July 1, the only change Oregonians are likely to notice is more focus on local priorities.

As of July 1, the OAJC is an independent affiliate of the AJC instead of a chapter of the national organization. OAJC already has received 501c(3) status under the Internal Revenue code as a non-profit corporation with charitable status.  read more »

Portlanders Michelle Caplan and Harley Felstein attended the sixth annual North American Chevra Kadisha Conference held June 1-3 in Edison, N.J.

The three-day conference, which attracted more than 125 people from around North America, was sponsored by Kavod v’Nichum—an umbrella group for hevra kadisha societies founded six years ago by David Zinner, who now serves as its executive director—and the National Association of Jewish Chaplains.  read more »

The poorest Jews on earth, according to international photographer Sharon Faulkner, are the elderly Jews of the former Soviet Union.  read more »

In honor of the 14th anniversary of the passing of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Chabad of Oregon will hold a July 9 program entitled “The Rebbe’s Vision: A Better Me, A Better We, A Better World.”  read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA)—In a new documentary film about the emotional journeys of American Jewish visitors to Israel, a young woman named Caryn Aviv takes a tour of the West Bank security fence.

As the camera pans across a line of graffiti on the wall that reads “From the Warsaw Ghetto to Abu Dis Ghetto,” Aviv says she is troubled and perplexed.  read more »

“Be warned,” says Jewish Theatre Collaborative (JTC) artistic director and founder Sacha Reich, “this teapot has been steeping a long time.”

On July 8, Jewish Theatre Collaborative presents “Tea,” directed by Reich. A staged reading of Israeli playwright Roni Pinkovitch’s play, this is the second in a series of three staged readings being presented in conjunction with a Portland State University summer course, “Israel Onstage: Israeli Society through Drama” offered by The Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies.  read more »

Jewish Review contributor Jill Timmons, a pianist and educator who writes about music, will take part through July 4 in a piano institute in Val de Loire, France.  read more »

Allow me to offer a few different observations concerning the illegal alien roundup at the Agriprocessors plant, otherwise known as Rubashkins, in Postville, Iowa.

I think vegetarians and vegans should support crackdowns on illegal aliens because without them, the meat industry, which they so heartily despise, could not survive. Literally. All that keeps it going is its access to illegal aliens.  read more »

In all probability, the forthcoming elections will leave us with results similar to those we got two years ago.

That is not to say that there will not be winners and losers. But the end result will be the same: an array of small to middle-sized parties that won’t be able to create a stable coalition government.  read more »

When Rabbi Joshua Stampfer addressed the Oregon Jewish Museum Annual Meeting on June 16, he recalled Israel’s miraculous accomplishments over just 60 years. Who would have thought Jews would have a home of their own only 50 years after Theodore Hertzl’s 1897 prediction? It was, Stampfer said, because “if you really will it, if you have the determination, if you have the intense desire—it’s not a dream.”  read more »

I recently received this e-mail from Dr. Gustavo Nivael del Toro Garcia:

“I am a family doc who currently practices in Dallas, Texas. I read your article about the pirate Jean Lafitte in which you mention that he was of Jewish ancestry. I have read other articles that deny he was Jewish. My great-great-grandmother was named Josefa Luisa Lopez Lafitta, and her grandfather was named Juan Lafitta. Laffita is the Spanish version of the French name Lafitte. I am intrigued by this because I have found out about my possible Sephardic Jewish ancestry. The name of my maternal grandfather was originally Brito and not Garcia. Brito is mentioned in Spanish Inquisition records as belonging to Jewish converts. Thank you for your attention to this insignificant matter.”  read more »

Sasha Kaplan grows meals in her yard.

Escarole, spinach, Swiss chard, rhubarb, currants. Bok choy, herbs, figs. And the fence separating her 1922 Hollywood District bungalow from a neighbor’s is made of blueberry bushes.  read more »

Northwest Portland is flanked on one end by tony boutiques, high-end grocery stores, well-kept Victorian homes and eclectic restaurants. On the other are trendy eateries, chic retail outlets and sleek lofts.  read more »

This summer, Temple Emek Shalom and Havurah Shir Hadash unite once again to bring “Camp Gesher—A Bridge to Friendship” to the Rogue Valley. The camp will take place Aug. 4-8 serving children entering kindergarten through fifth grade in the fall.  read more »

This summer, Havurah Shalom plans to celebrate Shabbat outside in the wonder of creation in a series of events.

The series launched on the second day of summer with Shabbat In The Park at Laurelhurst Park with an all-age community minyan.  read more »