When I was young, I often visited my grandmother in the nursing home where she lived after a series of strokes left her unable to live alone. While the nursing home was bright and clean, it felt like a hospital. After she died, I often heard my parents say they hoped they wouldn’t have to…
Developed as a close combat technique by the Israel Defense Forces, Krav Maga was founded by Imi Lichtenfeld, who added street fighting techniques to his formal training in boxing and wrestling when he was faced with ethnic violence on the streets of 1930s’ Prague. After moving to pre-state Israel, he began to synthesize his skills…
Curiosity led Daniel Benzali to walk into the Gerding Theater shortly after he moved to Portland last fall. A few days later, the accomplished actor signed on to star as Mark Rothko in the theater’s production of Red. He describes the play as “a powerful insight into an artist’s work and life and philosophy. ……
Actor Daniel Benzali began his quest to bring painter Mark Rothko to life onstage in 2004, about the same time Harold Schnitzer began his quest to bring the Portland-raised artist’s famed works back to the Portland Art Museum, where his first exhibit appeared in 1933-34. Though Schnitzer died last April, it was his drive to…
Thanks to all of you who took the time to write and tell us what you liked about the inaugural issue of Oregon Jewish Life and what other things you’d like to see. We were overwhelmed by emails and phone calls congratulating us on our first issue (some of those comments are excerpted at right)….
Introducing artist Aithan Shapira and coffee activist Debra Rosenthal Thanks to the draw of a young woman with deep roots in social action and Portland, the Rose City is now home to a rising young artist who already has made a big splash in the international art world. Aithan Shapira – like his heroes –…
Rabbi Shawn Fields-Meyer returns to Portland Feb. 27 to help women explore how their grand efforts and subtle gestures impact the world.
A quarter century ago, Congregation Beth Israel decided to organize volunteers to do something Jewish for Christmas. Over the years, the effort has included delivering Meals on Wheels and serving Christmas dinner for low-income residents in the area. For many years, Alan Rosenfeld co-chaired the committee that organized the dinner. Rosenfeld and Beth Israel volunteers…
PHOTOS – Above: Cyclists pass pedestrians and stopped cars as they cross the Hawthorne Bridge on their morning commute into downtown Portland. Since 1991 bicycle use has increased 322% while car traffic has remained static on the city’s four main bicycle-friendly bridges: The Broadway, Steel, Burnside and Hawthorne. The Portland Bureau of Transportation’s 2010 Bicycle…
With his mastery of such diverse fields as music, business and philanthropy, Genesis Financial Services Chairman and CEO Irving Levin might be called a modern-day Jewish Renaissance man. Levin believes education is the “real difference maker for social and economic mobility.” To back up that belief, he and his wife created Renaissance Foundation, a private…
