This column is not about the Israeli skepticism of the current Iranian/American romantic interlude that I planned to write about. And despite the next few paragraphs, this column also is not about the Israeli film industry. We are proud of the profound transformation in Israeli cinema. Over the last decade, four Israeli films have been…
On Friday night, Dec. 12, 1941 – the first Shabbat after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor – Rabbi Henry J. Berkowitz offered words of comfort and inspiration to his congregation. “There is no question that all of us are entering the hardest period of our lives,” he told members of Portland’s Congregation Beth Israel,…
A dream more than two years in the making became a reality for members of Congregation Shir Tikvah on Portland’s Eastside on Friday evening, Sept. 27. The congregation inaugurated a new Shir Tikvah-specific prayer book, or siddur, as part of its annual Simchat Torah celebration and honored congregants who went through a painstaking process leading…
Longtime Havurah Shalom member, legendary matchmaker, irrepressibly funny woman, advocate for the havenots, Torah scholar and youth mentor Emily Simon is receiving a lifetime achievement award for her professional accomplishments – as a criminal defense attorney. Emily will receive the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association’s Ken Morrow Lifetime Achievement Award Dec. 6. Created in 2000…
Dear Helen, Every time my parents come to visit something goes kaflooey. It’s like we are cursed. I have broken out in severe attacks of eczema. My husband had a car accident. Our daughter needed an emergency appendectomy. The water heater died. The cat died. That’s not all but I want you to keep reading….
Vancouver teen Mitchell Kaiser, a senior at the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, was only 11 when he became aware of the issue of clean water. Dismayed at the pollution in local rivers and streams, he began volunteering with StreamTeam, an initiative that improves the health of the watershed. In the ninth grade Mitchell…
David and Ronnie Malka opened Malka Diamonds & Jewelry about four years ago on Southwest Third Avenue, across the street from Tel Aviv Diamonds, which David’s father, Yossi Malka, has owned for 32 years. I spent an afternoon talking to the three about the family and the diamond business. What you will find is that…
Since the economy took a nosedive, I have witnessed and experienced a cooling-off period in fashion. Prior to 2008 when the economy was hot, dressing chic, accessorizing to the max and frivolous shopping spending were the norm. Since then, spending and dressing have become largely more practical as well as more creative, as we have…
As seasons change so do our tastes for what we like to eat. When spring arrives, tender baby vegetables, peas and asparagus lure us. Summer invites us to fire up the grill, because a hot indoor oven can resemble an instrument of torture on a sweltering day. Fall is synonymous with pumpkins, butternut squash and…
Despite more than two decades of programs designed to counter the trends toward higher intermarriage rates and lower affiliation rates, those trends are continuing. The initial report of a 52% intermarriage rate in The National Jewish Population Survey of 1990 launched a flurry of programs designed to reverse that trend, because intermarried couples also report…
