Visit an Odessa café filled with intelligentsia or watch a shtetl family recite Sabbath prayers. At Moscow’s Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, interactive exhibits combine audio and video to recreate history. Conceived by Ralph Appelbaum Associates, the designers of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Europe’s largest museum devoted to Jewish history and culture opened…
Portland’s Moishe House, one of the few places Jewish young adults can go to casually bond, connect and learn, is on the brink of losing funding. At this residence in Southeast Portland, young Jews live together to host and plan events for members of the Jewish community. Since moving to its Southeast location in July…
When asked to reflect on the last four years, it’s not hard to come up with dozens of experiences that influenced us. Our first encounter with OJCYF was the application process. DANIELLE: After submitting multiple college applications, I realized that none of these were the hardest application I have ever written. I submitted my hardest…
Two interesting events took place the first week of March as I wrote this article. They were hardly noticed internationally, but they offer a compelling view of Israel’s modern-day reality. Negotiations to form a new governing coalition dominated the headlines in Israel. But two other events should be remembered: two Israeli films were finalists at…
Hoping to break barriers and promote discussion among Israel supporters of all stripes, J Street Portland worked with local Jewish organizations to bring Israeli journalist Gershom Gorenberg to speak on Feb. 16 at Congregation Neveh Shalom. The American-born Orthodox Jew’s recent book The Unmaking of Israel has received wide critical acclaim. Arriving jet-lagged from the…
When former Soviet dissident and current Jewish Agency Chair Natan Sharansky spoke in Portland last June, he called American universities the most important battlefield for today’s Jews. “I wrote an article, Traveling to Occupied Territories, where occupied territories meant American universities,” he said. “I understood how dangerous and successful our enemies are and the power…
By the time an Israeli military pilot saluted Jeff Silver on the kibbutz where he spent his 17th summer in 1978, Jeff was already pre-disposed toward a career in aviation and the military. But Jeff couldn’t know that now, 34 years later, he would be poised to ascend to heights few others reach in that…
Clearing clutter and cleaning house is a Passover ritual. The Jewish version of spring cleaning started a long time ago, when the Jews had to leave Egypt on the run and without lots of stuff. Today, however, life is messy, and it’s so easy to keep collect- ing more and more clutter. But does more…
To help launch a new community program that links volunteers with community needs, the Portland Mitzvah Network of the Jewish Federation of Portland is planning a broad range of volunteer projects to coincide with international Good Deeds Day March 10. In Portland volunteers will be able to choose from projects such as outdoor environmental work…
The new Portland Aquarium was inspired, at least in part, by Dr. Marc Gottlieb’s desire to give metro-area families the same opportunity to interact with ocean life that his own sons enjoy in San Diego. “We are always surrounded by ocean life in San Diego,” says Gottlieb. But his wife, Clover, who grew up near…
