Say you’re the parent of an 11- or 12-year-old and that bat/bar mitzvah date is looming ever closer. With so many details to cover – sending invitations and tracking RSVPs, making guest arrangements for out-of-town friends and family, keeping track of your child’s progress on their drash and Torah portion, perhaps learning one yourself –…
Everyone knows the story of Noah’s Ark, right? Noah was commanded by God to build a great ship and stock it with male and female pairs of every animal on Earth. God sent down a massive flood to wipe out every living thing on the planet to give humanity, which had become irretrievably corrupt, a…
Ashland resident Judy Visser was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 11 years ago. A wife/mother/grandmother, Judy was a teacher and education director for Temple Emek Shalom who lived the active Southern Oregon lifestyle. This could have been a devastating diagnosis. This should have been a devastating diagnosis. Our telephone interview, though, began with music: Judy played a…
On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Missy Sokolsky is rehearsing “Fiddler on the Roof.” Missy’s third-grade class is staging the play because lyricist Sheldon Harnick’s son Matthew is one of Missy’s classmates at the elite Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School. The year is 1978 and 9-year-old Missy is playing Yente. She is a fourth-generation native New…
Younger donors first support causes they are passionate about – rather than institutions. It is up to organizations to inspire them and show them that their support can make a tangible difference on the wider issues. For years, many in Jewish communal service have raised the issue about the future of Jewish philanthropy. They ask,…
Mittleman Jewish Community Center Fitness Manager Jennifer Harrington understands the importance of exercise for good health. “Our wide range of classes offer cardiovascular fitness along with flexibility and balance,” she says. From cycling, Zumba and water aerobics to bodypump and Pilates coupled with personal training, we provide the variety to meet individual needs.” While individual…
To mark the 90th anniversary of the very first bat mitzvah, the Oregon Jewish Museum is hosting a traveling exhibition, “Bat Mitzvah Comes of Age,” featuring the remarkable story of how, in less than a century, individual girls, their parents and their rabbis challenged and changed communal values and practice to institute this now widely…
As director of the Oregon Health Authority since its inception in 2009 and a board member of Cover Oregon, which launches the state’s insurance marketplace this month, Dr. Bruce Goldberg is at the forefront of the state’s push to ensure more Oregonians have access to affordable health care. “Two years into Affordable Care, we estimate…
In February, Oregon Jewish Life posted a survey for singles on our website as part of our effort to get to know our readers. Now we want to share the results of that survey: Single status: Never Married – 36.54%, Divorced – 46.15%, Widowed – 17.31% Age: 20-30 – 21.15%, 40-5 – 19.23%, 50-60 – 13.46%,…
Ah, shopping for school supplies. Is there anything … worse? First of all, why do they need so darn much stuff ? I mean, honestly, are they really gonna use one pencil a week for the next 36 weeks? Plus, this school supply stuff really adds up fast. It was probably wrong to tell my…
