Tommy Cohen loves dogs and needed a bar mitzvah project. So it seemed natural to combine the two and raise a puppy to help the disabled. His bar mitzvah at Havurah Shalom was in February 2012. He got 8-week- old Jalina that May. Now, with Jalina fully trained and helping a young autistic boy, Tommy…
High Holy Days 5775 Congregations around the state hold services throughout the High Holy Day season. Check our online calendar (ojlife.com/calendar) for services near you. Erev Rosh Hashanah: Sept. 24 Rosh Hashanah: Sept. 25-26 The Jewish New Year begins at sundown Sept. 24 and continues for the next two days. The holiday celebrates the creation…
Annette Gerard has always volunteered, which meant juggling board memberships, synagogue activities and raising children. So, when she moved cross-country to Rose Schnitzer Manor four years ago, she rolled up her sleeves and got to work. Annette is instrumental to the success of Purls of Wisdom, the manor’s knitting group that has donated hundreds of…
“The Point of the Lesson is to Liberate our Internal Editors” is displayed in large letters across a projection screen. The Rose Schnitzer Manor’s upstairs activity room is dimly lit so residents can read easily. Elderly students, some in wheelchairs, gather around a large wooden table for the weekly writing class led by veteran artist…
Herb Crane calls himself a creature of habit. Doing the same thing every day is how he likes to live. So, it’s no surprise that the Mittleman Jewish Community Center’s January Member of the Month has been working out for 35 years. His recent switch from another athletic club is one change Herb recommends. Of…
Serge D’Rovencourt’s yellow Nazi star has the word “Juif ” written in black. Forced to wear this as a child in France, he’s kept it along with meticulous records of how his life evolved. We met him at his “office away from home,” the Starbucks in the Pearl at NW 11th Avenue and Lovejoy. He’d…
Growing up in Seattle Naomi Malka attended Hebrew School and Hebrew High, but she doesn’t recall anyone mentioning the mikvah. “I knew Judaism said something about marital sex and how the mikvah connected with that – I thought it sounded like a cool secret ritual,” says Naomi of her reaction to hearing about the mikvah…
Though Miko Vergun becomes a bat mitzvah this month, she introduced her project to her congregation last fall. Her Nov. 9 talk at Congregation P’nai Or began simply: “My bat mitzvah project involves helping the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the country where I was born.” Miko hopes to increase awareness of the devastating effects…
You’ve seen the phenomenon at OMSI for 40 years, a 10-foot-high, ever-moving mechanical sculpture that lifts and then drops balls through its labyrinth. The gravitram, a name derived from the words “gravity” and “tramway,” is the work of artist, designer and inventor Shab Levy. Built in 1973, the OMSI sculpture is one of many custom-made…
Enid Traisman finds joy where some find only sorrow. As director of the Pet Loss Support Program at DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital, she’s learned the importance of belonging to a group and that grief shared is grief diminished. She knows bereavement is not species specific, and people who lose a beloved animal deserve support. “I’ve…
