UPDATE JAN. 10: The public cast nearly 17,000 votes for the Top 12 Jewish Star Talent Search finalists! Amazingly, there was a tie in the 14-18 age bracket – so there are SEVEN Jewish Star Grand Prize winners! 14-18 Bracket winners: Ellie Fern (Scottsdale, AZ), Andrew Goldstein (McKinney, TX), Noah Levine (Austin, TX), Marc Luban…
“Mom, there’s that Nazi I told you about.” “What?” I responded in disbelief. My daughter and I were grocery shopping in Scottsdale, not exactly a hub of neo-Nazi activity. Then I remembered the week before she had mentioned a neo-Nazi walked into the restaurant where she was eating. He was in his early 30s and…
“You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.” – John Wooden Although reflection is often the norm as one year ends and the new year begins, this year, we at Oregon Jewish Life are genuinely focused forward, on the future. Why this year in…
Years ago a joke made the rounds of how a Jewish man spotted a friend reading an Arabic newspaper and exclaimed, “Moshe, have you lost your mind?” Moshe replied, “Well, I used to read the Jewish papers, but what did I find? Jews being persecuted, Israel being attacked, Jews disappearing through assimilation, Jews living in poverty….
Twenty-eight years ago, I had a chance encounter with a talented and beautiful young actress, at an ATM in Los Angeles. Rebecca Schaeffer was just 21 years old, and had already starred in a successful sitcom with Pam Dawber, called “My Sister Sam.” I knew she was from Portland, and as we chatted, I told…
