Portland Jews attending the opening night of Food for Thought, a festival organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, April 18, 2013. (Lee Ann Gauthier) PORTLAND, Ore. (JTA) — Jessica Bettelheim, a business ethics lecturer at Portland State University and a young Jewish mother, has little time to spare on weekends. Like other professionals her age, she’s busy bonding with her husband and 4-year-old daughter, meeting friends at one of Portland’s many fine restaurants… Read more »
A well-thought out middle name is an underused tool. My middle name should be “in progress.” Jen In Progress. In my case, In Progress would remind me to be compassionate, to others, but mostly to myself. Mother In Progress Wife In Progress Friend In Progress It would remind me… Read more »
My photos on instagram paint a pretty picture. The above broccoli and cabbage are part of the harvest from our backyard vegetable garden. We took advantage of the beautiful weather today (70 degrees and sunny) to weed and pull. It’s the second season we planted; and the second season… Read more »
When you’re a parent, each day is a struggle not to live in the future. What if? What will be? What will she look like? How will he make it through? And some days are harder than others. The days when fear grips you. When headlines make you want… Read more »
What I am about to say doesn’t apply to everyone. It doesn’t apply to the immigrant family just arrived from Darfur. It doesn’t apply to the disabled veteran living in a box on the corner. But it DOES apply to anyone with enough money and sustenance to afford a… Read more »
No one understands better than a marketing professional how much emotional triggers impact our decisions. Fear. Despair. Hope. A feeling that your choice matters. A hunger for power. A desire to belong. Competitiveness. Trust. A belief that you are smarter, more sophisticated, more right. Ego. Ego. Ego. I voted… Read more »
Sometimes… All it takes is one Shabbat… One morning to clean One afternoon to cook One evening to shower and dress in your handsome clothes… Just one Shabbat. One morning to sleep in … until 7. One weekly meditation group. One quiet admission. One hour to sit with… Read more »
Ricotta flan with raspberry sauce is a lighter alternative to the traditional Shavuot cheesecake. (From "Helen Nash's New Kosher Cuisine") NEW YORK (JTA) — With its tradition of dairy meals, Shavuot is one of my favorite holidays. Arriving later in the spring — an ideal time to find delicious fruits, herbs and vegetables — it’s perfect for using fresh and seasonal ingredients. The four dishes I have selected for… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — I have mixed emotions about Natan Sharansky’s proposed agreement to expand the public space at the Western Wall to include the currently secluded area known as Robinson’s Arch. As a lifelong Conservative Jew, I applaud any plan that seeks to treat egalitarian worshipers and women’s… Read more »
The Yitzhak Rabin Center in Tel Aviv, a museum dedicated to the memory and lifework of the slain Israeli prime minister. (Courtesy Rabin Center) TEL AVIV (JTA) — The museum dedicated to the memory of Yitzhak Rabin raises nearly half its money from labor leaders. It’s just not the labor you think. Members of U.S. labor unions raised $1.4 million for the Yitzhak Rabin Center in Tel Aviv last year, 45 percent of… Read more »
Svoboda supporters attending a party rally in western Ukraine, 2012. (Svoboda.org.ua) KIEV, Ukraine (JTA) — Marching in formation, six young men in dark jackets approach an anti-government rally in Cherkasy, a city some 125 miles southeast of Kiev. At the appointed moment, they remove their windbreakers to reveal white T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Beat the kikes.” Their jackets carry… Read more »
Rabbi David Lazar, left, showing a Torah scroll to Swedish government minister Stefan Attefall at the Great Synagogue of Stockholm, November 2011. (Regeringskansliet, The government of Sweden) (JTA) — Having grown up in a devoutly Christian home, Irene Lopez would probably not be raising her daughter Jewish if not for David Lazar, the charismatic rabbi of the Great Synagogue of Stockholm. Lopez and her Jewish husband, Samuel Sjoblom, are among the Swedes who were drawn to… Read more »
Sarah Chandler FALLS VILLAGE, Conn. (JTA) — Judaism is designed to be a person’s operating system, the platform on which other areas of one’s life functions. But for many Jews, religious practice sits on a shelf alongside theater subscriptions, gym memberships and soccer practice, relegated to one of many offerings from which… Read more »
Gene Sperling, the chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors, speaking at the Reform movement's Consultation on Conscience, April 23, 2013. (Courtesy Religious Action Center) WASHINGTON (JTA) — In the battle to end the across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration, it’s all hands on deck. Increasingly for the Obama administration, which is deadlocked over the budget with the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, that means reaching out to Jews. In conference calls and in appearances… Read more »
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the chairwoman of the Republican Conference in the U.S. House of Representatives, at the center of a Jewish leaders roundtable in Washington, April 12, 2013. (Courtesy House Republican Conference) WASHINGTON (JTA) — He had them until abortion. U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) was addressing the Reform movement’s Consultation on Conscience conference about his passion, human rights and success in creating mechanisms to combat human trafficking and shine a light on global anti-Semitism. The crowd gathered in a large… Read more »
A daughter, SYDNEY JORDAN FREED, was born March 1, 2013 to Lindsey Robinson Freed and Eric Freed of Dallas. Grandparents are Felice and Gary Freed of Mesa, Ariz., formerly of Tucson, and Jeff Robinson of Dallas. Great-grandparents are Corrine Brooks of Mesa, Lin Schentes of Dallas and Harold (Sonny)… Read more »
PATTIE MARTIN, M.Ed., has been named director of older adult services at JEWISH FAMILY & CHILDREN’S SERVICES. She previously directed one of those services at JFCS, Select Care Managers.… Read more »
Esther Sternberg, M.D. ESTHER M. STERNBERG, M.D. will give the keynote address at the University of Arizona Women’s Mental Health Symposium on Saturday, April 27 at the Westin La Paloma. Sternberg will speak on “Brain Immune Interactions: The Science of Health and Well-Being.” Sternberg is director of research for the UA Center… Read more »
A display of home-brewed beers. Thinking of the bonfires of Lag b'Omer, a Jewish home brewer suggests a smoked porter. (Edmon J. Rodman) LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Sit back by the bonfire and pop open a brewski, it’s Lag b’Omer. Since we have been counting the Omer — a biblical measure of barley that was brought as an offering to the Temple — each evening from the second night of Passover, what… Read more »
Avraham Rivkind, the chief of surgery at Hadassah Medical Center in jerusalem, has pioneered several medical techniques, including several that helped save victims of the Boston Marathon. attacks. (Hadassah Medical Center) TEL AVIV (JTA) — Minutes after a terrorist attack killed three at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, doctors and nurses at the city’s hospitals faced a harrowing scene — severed limbs, burned bodies, shrapnel buried in skin. For Boston doctors, the challenge presented by last week’s bombing… Read more »
