By Sallie Pearlman Cohen When you can’t find the right words, sometimes Yiddish fits the situation best! 1. Tsedrayt (tsuh-DRAYT) All mixed up, confused. Before the Covid-19 virus, tsedrayt meant we couldn’t remember if we promised to meet a friend for lunch on Thursday or Friday. Now we don’t know what day of the week…
Photo: Joe with his daughter. By Joe Seitz I am always fascinated by how people respond to challenges. There are optimists, pessimists, different personalities, and all of the conditions of human fabric that make our life at times so beautiful, and so tragic. Much of life is about choices, and most of us know that…
Meira Spivak serves as NCSY’s Oregon Director and shares her farewell message to the Jacobys: It is with mixed emotions that I share with you that the Jacobys are moving from Portland and heading on to the next chapter in their lives in Cleveland, Ohio. Over the past eight years, Doovie and Aviva have worked…
The pandemic has not stopped Positive Charge! PDX from accomplishing two of their trademark goals: creating community and amplifying kindness. They have shifted their creative energies online hosting virtual Quarantine Karaoke Broadway Musical nights and Lunch Lounge talks. They also promoted Kindness projects specific to the pandemic, such as mask-making and card making. PC! PDX…
Photo: One of Janna’s favorite walking destinations is Commonwealth Lake Park. By Janna Lopez I’ve never been a walker and to say it saved my life might sound overdramatic. But it feels this way. In the middle of March, as the world began to shut down from Covid-19 and sheltering in place took hold, fear,…
Photo: Participants of a local At The Well New Moon Circle enjoy a long summer evening in Portland. Ilana Cloud Strunin, one of the group’s co-founders and a member of TischPDX Cohort 1 is lower right. TischPDX launched in May of 2018 to create an accessible environment for young people on the eastside of Portland…
How does one celebrate lifecycle events during a pandemic? How do we stay sensitive to the times, keep everyone safe and still have a celebration? Having planned my daughter’s baby shower pre-pandemic, all bets were off on how we would pivot for a virtual baby shower. I quickly realized that there really isn’t a roadmap…
Mazel Tov to Melissa Bloom (Aloha, Oregon) and Oren Abu (Kiyrat Malakhi, Israel) on their wedding on May 12, Lag B’Omer. Guests were able to join in virtually from all over the world to their backyard for this day of celebration. Melissa owns Yo Zone frozen yogurt in Beaverton, Oregon and Oren hopes to go…
Photo: A basket of Libe Shteyn or “Love Stones” to place on headstones. Placing a stone on a grave is a Jewish custom that dates back to at least medieval times. There are a variety of explanations as to why this tradition began. Some say that it shows to others that someone has visited the…
By Claire Delman (sixth-generation Portland Nudelman descendant) Gatherings of the Nudelman family have been happening in Portland since the early 1900s. The tradition continued this past summer when 90 descendants attended a family picnic. Eleven children of Mordechai Nudelman immigrated to the United States from Russia (modern-day Ukraine) between 1882-1901. All of them had different…
