For the third year, hundreds of Portlanders are expected to join the hundreds of thousands of people all over the world who volunteer and help others on Good Deeds Day, slated this year for March 15. In May 2007 Ruach Tova (an Israeli NGO) launched the Good Deeds Day project with 7,000 Israelis volunteering; the…
Portland native Susan Winkler decided to combine her lifelong interest in art and her broad knowledge of Paris to write her first novel, Portrait of a Woman in White, released last fall. Educated at Bennington College, Stanford University, L’Academie in Paris and the University of Geneva, Susan was recruited to write The Paris Shopping Companion:…
Most brides wouldn’t think to take duct tape to their wedding, but just like MacGyver, good event planners come prepared for every possible hiccup. So when BLC Events founder Barbara Cohen and Elyse Stoner coordinate an event, they always take a suitcase full of extension cords, duct tape, spare lingerie and a host of other…
It all began in Africa, or maybe it was in a synagogue in Lexington, MA. Though Ethan Zohn burst into the public spotlight when he won the reality TV show “Survivor: Africa” in 2002, it is the rest of his life that makes him the embodiment of survival – both for himself (despite two bouts…
Portland Jewish author and former Yale professor William Deresiewicz spends his days scaring elite college students, prospective students and their parents into recognizing the potential pitfalls of an elite education and coaching them on how to find a sense of purpose. “It’s understandable that parents want their kids to succeed and be happy,” says Bill…
By Deborah Moon Sam Sachs, 46, calls his volunteer efforts on behalf of minority rights tikkun olam, healing the world. He’s been called an advocate, activist and even an agitator. When he sued the Oregon Public Safety Academy in 1996 for anti-Semitic comments during his training there as a corrections officer, it launched a state…
As a nurse practitioner, Lisa Weiner’s favorite thing was patient education to help people make positive changes. When she and her husband, Andrew Cohen, had their first son, Ezra, 10 years ago, she decided to leave her practice to spend more time with her family. Now with Ezra and his younger brother, Reuben, 6, both…
During a six-month stay in Oregon, Israel Guide Dog apprentice trainer Yoav Ortav has learned the latest in positive training modalities. Five years ago, the Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind in Tel Aviv adopted the positive training model pioneered at Guide Dogs for the Blind (with campuses in San Rafael, CA, and Oregon)….
While Jews can trace their affinity for law to biblical days, two women now serving as legal leaders in Oregon had few female role models when they entered law school in the 1970s. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and Oregon State Bar Executive Director Sylvia Stevens, who graduated from law school in 1975 and 1981,…
Participants in the only domestic Jewish gap year program for recent high school graduates are working to alleviate homelessness while they gain social and hands-on skills that will benefit them in college and beyond. The eight teens in the first cohort of Tivnu: Building Justice gap year spend four days a week on a Habitat…
