PHOTOS: New U.S. citizens, family and friends celebrate after a naturalization ceremony held at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education. Photos by Paige Stoyer of The Immigrant Story The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education was the perfect setting for somber and joyous celebration on June 20 as the U.S….
PHOTO: Blue Card volunteer Sarah Mizrachi, Holocaust survivor Irene Hizme and The Blue Card Executive Director Masha Pearl. April 11-12 marks Holocaust Remembrance Day or Yom HaShoah, a memorial of the 6 million Jewish people who died during World War II. The time to “never forget” has never been more vital. The Anti-Defamation League…
PHOTO: This year StandWithUs combined its Israel in Focus student conference with a community conference on Combating BDS. The joint conference in Los Angeles drew many participants from the Pacific Northwest. From left are Roland Roth, SWU Northwest managing director; Noa Raman, SWU Northwest campus director; Shayla Norris-York, Portland State University; Roz Rothstein, SWU co-founder…
PHOTO: Rohingya children in a shelter at the refugee camp in Bangladesh. Photo by Aerlyn Pfeil Speaking out for refugees For more than a decade, a small group of committed volunteers motivated by the rallying cry “Never Again” have met each month to help Portlanders respond to genocide and other crimes against humanity. Founded by…
Staff at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education have spent the past six months settling into their permanent home in the Pearl District – and that means filling the new positions that come with the larger building. For the museum’s education department, that means finally hiring a full-time educator and filling an…
Shortly after serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, my father (z”l) received a job offer from a chemical manufacturer in Pennsylvania only to have the offer rescinded when the firm discovered he was Jewish. He ended up making a living as a bookkeeper in his native Portland, where, until the 1970s, there…
Have you heard of HPV-related oral cancer? Jason Mendelsohn hadn’t heard of it until he diagnosed with Stage IV human papillomavirus-related tonsil cancer. Now he is passionate about educating parents about the importance of the HPV vaccine for boys and girls, as well as promoting oral cancer screenings for adults. Oregon Jewish Life shared his…
People often reflect and remember where they were and what they were doing at a tragic moment. I remember where I was on Jan. 8, 2011. It was early Saturday afternoon, and I was in the car between running errands when my friend, Gina Nunez, called me and said, “Gabby Giffords has been shot!” Gina…
Expanded screening panels by JScreen makes for easy “spit kit” testing of 200 diseases September is Tay-Sachs Awareness Month, an urgent reminder for people to get tested for genetic diseases so they can make informed decisions about family planning. Expanded screening panels now enable for testing of more than 200 diseases, a significant development from…
By Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D. The current widespread mistreatment of animals on factory farms is very inconsistent with Judaism’s beautiful teachings about compassion to animals. One way for Jews to respond to these inconsistencies is to restore and transform the ancient and largely forgotten Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana L’Ma’aser Beheima (New Year’s Day…
