jtnews | october 15, 2010

t h e v o i c e o f j e w i s h w a s h i n g t o n

october 15, 2010 • 7 heshvan • volume 86, no. 21 • $210 11 17 24

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Mercer Island police have made three arrests in the van-dalism incident that left swastikas and anti-Semitic epithets spray-painted across the Northwest Yeshiva High School. All three of the teens brought into custody have addresses on Mercer Island and at least one of the suspects is Jewish.

On Oct. 6, police arrested two 17-year-old minors in the case. The third, Jared Kadish, 18, returned to the area from California where he had just started college, and turned himself in Oct. 8. Kadish is Jewish.

According to Mercer Island Detective Pete Erickson, the three suspects were served with arrest warrants and their homes searched. Evidence recovered included “mark-ers, spray paint, samples of graffiti, writings, documents about graffiti,” Erickson said. “We got a ton of evidence. It took all of [the day] to process.”

Erickson said it was unclear whether any of the evidence they collected included any anti-Semitic or white suprem-acist writings.

Rabbi Bernie Fox, head of NYHS, was unprepared to write off the accused as anti-Semitic. He pointed out that vandalism also occurred at St. Monica’s Catholic Church and Island Park Elementary School.

“It’s an expression of anger,” said Fox. “These seem to be very troubled young people and it’s very sad.”

Kadish appeared in court on Saturday and remains in custody. Bail was set at $20,000. All three defendants have been charged on one count of malicious harass-ment by the King C o u n t y p r o s e c u -tor’s office and will be arraigned on October 27 – the two minors in juvenile court.

“These are local youth. They’re graffiti artists is what they are. They’re taggers,” Erick-son said. “We’re not dealing with 30-year-old skinheads here, which is the good thing, clearly.”

R e g a r d l e s s , h e added, because of the large Jewish popula-tion that lives on the island, the department

Arrests made in yeshiva vandalism caseJoel Magalnick Editor, JTNews

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2 JTNews . www.JTNews.NeT . friday, ocTober 15, 2010

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friday, ocTober 15, 2010 . www.JTNews.NeT . JTNews OpiniOn

letters to the editorthe rabbi’s turn

Write a letter to the editor: We would love to hear from you! our guide to writing a letter to the editor can be found at www.jtnews.net/index.php?/letters_guidelines.html,

but please limit your letters to approximately 350 words. the deadline for the next issue is october 19. Future deadlines may be found online.

“The way that human beings end up treating each other on earth, it’s not that God wills it, it’s the way that human beings act.” — Author Joseph Skibell, on his new novel. See page 17.

As a prerequisite for atone-ment, in preparation for Yom Kippur, halachah (Jewish law) mandates that we ask for for-giveness — michala — if we have offended, hurt, maligned or otherwise done harm to our fellow man.

Rambam, Laws of Tes-huvah, Chapter 2:9 states:

Teshuvah and Yom Kippur only atone for sins between man and God.... However, sins between man and man; for exam-ple, someone who injures a colleague, curses a colleague, steals from him, or the like will never be forgiven until he gives his colleague what he owes him and appeases him.

Even if a person restores the money that he owes [to the person he wronged], he must appease him and ask him to forgive him.

Even if a person only upset a col-league by saying [certain] things, he must appease him and approach him [repeatedly] until he forgives him.Conversely, “It is forbidden for a

person to be cruel and refuse to be appeased. Rather, he should be easily paci-fied, but hard to anger.” Even if the injured person was severely wronged, “he should not seek revenge or bear a grudge.”

The Alter Rebbe, the first Rebbe of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, discusses the relationship between man and God and the atonement one seeks for any viola-tion of God’s will. He puts forth two steps in the restoration of the relationship:

1) Teshuvah (asking for forgiveness). In this step, a person is fully pardoned for “having violated the command of the King, [for he has] repented fully,” and therefore, “no charge nor semblance of an accusation is mentioned against him on the day of judgment so that he should be punished for his sin, God forbid, in the World to Come; in his trial he is com-pletely exonerated.”

2) Nirza Lo (It shall be acceptable for him). “Nonetheless, in order that he should be acceptable before God, as beloved of Him as before the sin, so that his Creator might derive delight from his service — [in past times] he would bring an olah offering” — a sacrifice to God.

In reviewing the Alter Rebbe’s steps in the restoration of man’s relationship with God, I have pondered how it would apply between man and man. Let me apply this in three different venues of life: Marriage, friendship and business:

1. In the area of marriage, where trust has been shattered in the case of infidelity.

2. In the area of friendship, where a very good friend has spoken gossip or much worse.

3. Where business has been done on a “handshake” for many years and the “com-mitment” has been shattered without any apparent reason.

The question is how to apply, if possible, the above two steps to the personal dynamic between fellow men.

In teshuvah, one asks for forgiveness in the proper way with heartfelt feelings of sorrow, to appease and mollify the person hurt. But now, what is the process if we must expect, on a human level, to restore the relationship as if the breakdown in trust never happened?

Can one say, “I fully forgive you, but I still don’t trust you?” And what is it that one has to do to reestablish trust as fully as before? What about in other venues of life, for example — if before the breakdown in trust, my friends/business associates were always invited to my simchas (weddings, B’nai Mitzvah, etc.)? Once I’ve granted forgiveness am I then “obligated” to invite them to my simchas as I have in the past, invite them to my home for seder dinner, to invite them to my family Hanukkah party, and so on?

Let me tell a personal story. In 2004, a committee that oversaw a major national project of Chabad, on which I had served for 15 years, became involved in a key issue on which there were differences of opinions. For more than a year, we tried to find a solution to this major issue with-out success. Finally, at the end of this pro-cess, which necessitated time and effort, let alone the energy which left me drained at the end of many a day, I put forth a radical compromise to the issue.

Many around the table congratulated me with words of mazel tov on this novel idea, but in my heart I had reservations “the deal” would hold. Late at night after the meeting, I received a call from some-one whom I admired — let’s call him “Reb Mendel.” He was quite agitated, not know-ing the full context of the compromise. He thought we had “sold out.” I greatly respected Reb Mendel. He was someone 13 years my senior and had not been at the meeting. I calmly explained the situa-tion, that he did not have all the facts and context from which the solution had been suggested. A few days later, I received a call from Reb Mendel in which he apologized and asked for michala for what he had said to me during that initial phone call.

To forgiveRabbi SholoM beR levitin Regional Director, Chabad of Washington State and Congregation Shaarei Tefilah-Lubavitch

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there must be partnersRe: “Partner or not, we need to talk” (Letters, Oct.1), Akiva K. Segan writes, urging

Israel to just keep talking whether they have a credible “partner for peace” or not.What Segan and others fail to realize is that both Hamas and Fatah’s charters call for

the destruction of Israel in its text. How can Israel talk peace with people who won’t rec-ognize their right to exist and want to destroy Israel?

Israel has consistently tried to make peace with its neighbors to no avail. Remember when Israel negotiated with the avowed PLO terrorist leader Arafat, like Hamas, at Camp David in 2000? The agreement was broken when Arafat rejected outright the generous Camp David offer by Ehud Barak and waged war with the second intifada that resulted in the loss of hundreds of Israeli lives.

Israel has only a tiny sliver of land that is no bigger than the state of New Jersey. Any further land it cedes to the Palestinians will empower the terrorists and threaten its long term survival.

Blame for the displacement of the Palestinians in 1948 and their decades-long incar-ceration in refugee (“concentration”) camps must rest solely with the neighboring Arab states that encouraged them to leave when they waged an aggressive war to destroy Israel. The Arab states have refused to grant them citizenship even though they have plenty of land. Sadly, they have been used instead as political pawns and a charge on the U.N. and U.S. taxpayers.

Segan omits to mention the nearly 900,000 Jews that were driven out by Arab and Muslim states who confiscated their property when Israel became a sovereign state in 1948 with U.N. approval. That injustice has yet to be addressed.

In reality, the majority of Arabs are not prepared for peace but still prefer a Middle East free of Jews. The main obstacle to a real peace is Islamic ideology that refuses to recog-nize Israel’s right to live in its historical homeland.

No peace can be achieved without credible partners and without the authority to make it happen.

Josh bassonseattle

I have been paying close attention to the recent news about gay and lesbian teens who could no longer take the inces-sant bullying they received at the hands of their high school peers — and ended their lives. An initiative by local sex-advice col-umnist Dan Savage and his partner first brought my attention to the matter. This initiative is called the “It Gets Better” proj-ect, in which they and hundreds of others have created short video testimonials to let these teens know that their lives can and do improve once high school ends. The videos are honest, simple, and very affecting.

But this issue, I should point out, is not just about being gay. It’s about what we do in the face of injustice against other people, whether it’s bullying or something far worse.

And it appears this issue is gaining traction: More than 3,000 Jews across the country have signed a pledge, created by the Jewish gay and lesbian group Keshet but sponsored by a massive list of national Jewish organizations, to “send a message

to everyone in our communities that we will not stand by in the face of suffering and injustice.”

But there was also the counterpunch. On Oct. 4, a firestorm was being unleashed at the offices of one of our East Coast counterparts: A few days before, the Jewish Standard of northern New Jersey ran a lifecycles listing announcing the engage-ment of two men. Then, following what the editor described as having “caused pain and consternation” to the Orthodox community, she posted an apology with a statement that the Standard would no longer run such announcements.

I was stunned. But I was not alone.Two days after the Standard’s apology,

following an outcry heard across the coun-try and as far away as Jerusalem, the paper retreated — somewhat — to the point of saying it would hold discussions with community leaders. But it did not, as of that time, reverse its decision.

Why should we be upset, and given

Our policy on wedding announcements

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4 opiNioN JTNews . www.JTNews.NeT . friday, ocTober 15, 2010

Washington State AIPAC Membership DinnerSunday, Nov. 7th, 2010 Cocktails 5:00 pm | Dinner and Program 6:00 pm

The Westin Seattle, 1900 Fifth Avenue, Seattle

$75 Dinner Featuring Yossi Klein Halevi Author and Fellow at the Hartman Institute

To register online, visit www.aipac.org/WashingtonDinner To register by phone, call 888-284-9078

For more information, contact the

Event Co-chairs Daniella Bayley & ac ie Bayley resi ent aci c orth est e ion o as assah

that the Jewish Standard serves an audi-ence 3,000 miles away, why should it matter here in Washington State? Simple. We are a community newspaper. We serve our community. It should not be incum-bent upon JTNews or any similar publica-tion to decide who within this community should or should not be included. Even if doing so may hurt the feelings or not fully adhere to the beliefs of others, it is up to us

to stand up and let the disenfranchised in. We must err on the side of inclusion. This goes for all members and segments of our community.

It is an issue far bigger than a wedding announcement, but given the outcry on both sides, the JTNews editorial commit-tee agreed that now would be a good time to bring up our own policy regarding such announcements for same-sex couples, which we adopted in 2004:

As of this time, JTNews has never run an announcement for a same-sex couple — because nobody has ever submitted one. So let us indulge in being a little self-serv-ing to note that the lifecycles section as a whole has been looking a bit anemic of late. Whether you’ve got a wedding announce-ment — gay or straight — a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, a birth, a conversion — yes, we accept submissions but have yet to run one of those, either — or, because it too is a part of life, death notices, visit the lifecy-cles page on our Web site, where you can download the appropriate form. And of course if you’ve got something to say about this policy, we would love to hear from you about that as well.

— Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews

All proceeds go for the benefit of the men and women

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reserve now: send your check or credit card order (all

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announcemenTs W Page 3

JTNews Editorial policy – Lifecycle announcements The mission of JTNews is to be inclusive of the entire Jewish community.

Therefore, the policy of the JTNews is to accept marriage, commitment cer-emonies, engagement, B’nai Mitzvah, birth and obituary announcements from all couples — including interfaith and same-sex couples — as long as at least one of the members of the couple is Jewish.

While it is JTNews’ mission to be inclusive of all members of Washing-ton State’s Jewish community, this does not include so-called “Messianic Jews,” or any others who claim to be Jewish while embracing Jesus Christ.

The JTNews Tzedakah Book.This Hanukkah, open a child’s eyes to the joy of tzedakah. Look for your copy inside the October 29 issue of JTNews.

Because giving feels good.

friday, ocTober 15, 2010 . www.JTNews.NeT . JTNews iNside

JTNews is the Voice of Jewish Washington. Our mission is to

meet the interests of our Jewish community through fair and

accurate coverage of local, national and international news,

opinion and information. We seek to expose our readers to

diverse viewpoints and vibrant debate on many fronts, includ-

ing the news and events in Israel. We strive to contribute to

the continued growth of our local Jewish community as we

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p u b l i S h e d b y J e w i S h T r A n S c r i p T m e d i A

T h e v O i c e O f J e w i S h w A S h i n G T O n

tell our advertisers you saw them in Jtnews!

inside this issueyiddish lesson

look foroct. 29the sweet issue

noV. 128 nights of hanukkah

by FRank kRaSnowSky

A halber emes iz a gantze lign. A half-truth is a whole lie.

Although this saying is a wisdom of old, it shows up in the current political scene. Contenders outdo each other in claims and charges that belie the facts.

On the coverSoferet Rabbi Chana Klebansky, who came to Seattle from Jerusalem for the completion of the Women’s Torah Project scroll, holds up the panels of the Torah that have been sewn together thus far. The final celebration and first reading from the Torah will take place this Saturday at Hillel at the University of Wash-ington. Photo by Joel Magalnick.

Teaching community service 6A rabbi and a professor are joining together to build an incubator program within the University of Wash-ington’s Stroum Jewish Studies Program to introduce students to a life of service.

endowed to israel 7Orthodox congregation Bikur Cholim-Machzikay Hadath, in a move to be proactive in supporting Israel, has directed its endowment to invest a quarter of its funds in the Jewish State.

Jews on the ballot: Andy billig 8Andy Billig loves baseball so much he became part-owner of the minor-league team in Spokane. He and his family became such a part of the community’s fabric he decided he wants to represent the district in the state legislature.

The Synagogue chronicles: congregation Kol Ami 11This small synagogue in the leafy suburb of Woodinville has seen some struggles of late, but it’s hanging on and making sure its congregants get what they need spiritually and communally.

There’s something happening here 12–13Our annual calendar of teen events is here! Pull it out and post it on the fridge.

living in somebody else’s body 17Author Joseph Skibell has written a sweeping novel of modern European history, through the eyes of a hapless eye doctor and his wife — a dybbuk inhabiting other people’s bodies.

how we are different 24Professor Ellen Eisenberg and her colleagues have made their academic careers in studying Jewish history, but from a West Coast perspective. She recently visited one of those communities: Seattle.

mOrem.O.T.: member of the Tribe: A new israel advocacy group 10Jerusalem post crossword 10The Arts 15community calendar 19The Shouk classifieds 22lifecycles 23

J street seattle 206-442-2077

Originally published in the Jewish Transcript on Oct. 11, 1979, page 9

Reeva Miller Levine’s “The Remnant” is exhib-ited at the Jewish Commu-nity Center. The collage piece contains fragments of a Hebrew-German prayer book.

Remember when

6 commuNiTy News JTNews . www.JTNews.NeT . friday, ocTober 15, 2010

NewTalmudClass

Sunday mornings 10am – 11am at Congregation Shaarei Tefilah-Lubavitch

Taught by Rabbi Sholom Ber Levitin Rabbi of Shaarei Tefilah-Lubavitch and Regional Director of The Central Organization for Jewish Education/Chabad-Lubavitch of the Pacific Northwest

For more information, call 206-527-1411 or e-mail [email protected]

B”H

Jewish ethics will jump out of the his-torical texts and bust out of the lecture halls of the University of Washington’s Stroum Jewish Studies Program next year. Jewish Studies has teamed up with the Jewish service organization Repair the World, which has funded the devel-opment of a new undergraduate course based in community service scheduled for this coming spring.

Two Seattle scholars, Noam Pianko, the Samuel and Althea Stroum assistant professor of Jewish Studies and the Jack-son School of International Studies, who will be teaching the course, and Rabbi Will Berkovitz, the national vice president of partnerships and rabbi-in-residence at RTW, say they can’t wait to challenge the students.

“The questions that I think are really important for students to start to grap-ple with are, ‘What am I going to do with my privileged life? What is my task in the world?’ and “What am I going to do to repair the world?’” Berkovitz told JTNews. “If we aren’t challenging students to ask those questions, then I think we’re miss-ing the mark.”

Registration for the course will open in spring 2011. Pianko envisions the Jews and Social Justice course as a large lecture-hall-type course enrolling anywhere from 150 to 200 students.

When students sign up for the course, they will spend part of their time learn-ing about the tradition of helping others, found throughout ancient and modern

Jewish literature. The rest of the time will be spent “in the field.”

“We’re the first school doing this in Seattle and at the University of Washing-ton,” said Gad Barzilai, the Lucia S. and Herbert L. Pruzan professor of Jewish Stud-ies and chair of the Jewish Studies Program at UW. “It offers a type of synergy between the practical aspects of Judaism and the more intellectual aspects of Judaism.”

Although the course is offered in Jewish Studies and explores Jewish thinkers, rabbis, and philosophers, it will not be a religiously based course, nor is the depart-ment, for that matter, added Barzilai. It is strictly scholarly and academic.

“We are interested in the student’s brains, not in the student’s religious affil-iation,” Barzilai said. “We would like to approach non-Jewish students as well as Jewish students.”

In the lecture portion of the course, Pianko plans on studying Jewish reli-gious texts and modern Jewish thinkers like Abraham Joshua Heschel. The class will also examine the role that Jews have played in social movements.

“As service learning grows, I think there’s a recognition that service has very broad possibilities,” Pianko said, “whether it’s poverty or housing, environmental questions, or working with a synagogue in their community or the world.”

The class will tackle current issues such as homelessness, child literacy, and assist-ing refugee populations. Students will also explore more personal moral dilemmas

such as how to balance and prioritize com-peting communal or global obligations that may conflict with their personal lives.

The service component of the course includes spending 20 to 40 hours of the quarter volunteering in a social service agency, on community a service project, or for a social justice campaign.

It will be facilitated through The Carl-son Leadership and Public Service Center on campus. The center offers service-learn-ing, community-based research and lead-ership opportunities for UW students.

Hoping to carry on the example set by UW Hillel students, Berkovitz recalled the work he did there that involved students in groups such as Teach for America, American Jewish World Service, Doctors Without Borders, and Engineers Without Borders in Central America.

Berkovitz left his job as the executive director of UW Hillel this past summer to work for Repair the World.

Now, he envisions this service-learn-ing class as a collaborative effort with UW Hillel. There, students can find similar ser-vice projects.

“The number of students that attend and participate in service programs and social justice programs sponsored by Hillel shows that it is something that stu-dents are absolutely gravitating toward,” Berkovitz said.

Pianko and Berkovitz are not ending their mission there. The two are also in the process of developing a study group with other Jewish Studies professors beyond

Seattle who might be interested in teaching the same program at their universities.

“The UW is a pilot,” Berkovitz said. “The ultimate goal is to create a field of study which is Jewish service learning that is embedded in Jewish Studies courses.”

Repair the World is funding both courses.

“More and more, universities are rec-ognizing the importance of their students and faculty being involved in pressing communal issues in addition to scholarly ones,” Pianko said. “This course is a won-derful opportunity for us to engage in the local Seattle Jewish community….We’re very excited about it.”

For Berkovitz, this course is the next step in accomplishing his dream. From his experience at UW Hillel, when the social services program didn’t exist, to today, where a full-time Repair the World campus director is developing programs, it’s all coming to fruition.

“I want students to be able to make the connection and to understand the deep roots in the Jewish community of service, of civic engagement, and of social justice, and that these things are deeply Jewish things,” Berkovitz said.

new courses bring community service to uW academicsJaniS Siegel JTNews Correspondent

If you go:

prof. noam pianko will lecture from his latest book, Zionism and the Roads Not Taken: Rethink-ing Jewish Nationalism Past, Present, and Future (2010) on thurs., oct. 21 at 7 p.m. in the tower auditorium, university of Washington, seattle.

Join us!

➚

Sample us!➘

You can win like this. Or you can win like that.

(Details on page 17)

friday, ocTober 15, 2010 . www.JTNews.NeT . JTNews commuNiTy News 7

HADASSAHSusan G. Komen for the cure

Hadassah: Linking Women, Building Communities, Saving Lives

Join us in Sponsorship for Race for the Cure® in Jerusalem!

For Hadassah membership or to learn more about getting involved contact Region President Jacquie Bayley [email protected] or call the Seattle Chapter office at 425.467.9099

Almost 200 people from the US will be joining the thousands on the walk.

Young Judaeans who are currently in Israel for Year Course will be participating in the walk

First ever Israel Race for the Cure®

Walk will be around the walls of Old Jerusalem

Walk is taking place on Thursday, October 28th 2010

Sponsor a Hadassah Heeler at www.hadassah.org/komen

Click “Support A Team” Scroll down to

“Pacific Northwest Region Hadassah Heelers Team.” Make your donation.

The Anti-Defamation League’s

2010 No Place For Hate luNcHeoNFriday, November 5, 2010

12:00–1:30 PMHonoring

Cantor David Serkin-PooleFeaturing

Leonard Pitts Jr.

Join us in building a better community!

RSVP to [email protected] or 206.448.5349wwwwww.jtnews.net

When the Olympia Food Co-op voted to boycott products made in Israel this past summer, Daniel Birk decided he wanted to make a statement. Rather than hold a protest or urge people to stop shop-ping at a store whose decision had upset him, the board treasurer and endowment manager of Congregation Bikur Cholim-Machzikay Hadath decided to focus his energies on doing the opposite of what the co-op had done: Help Israel.

“We were seeing what they were doing, and decided that we should take some action on this as well,” Birk said.

At the synagogue’s Oct. 5 board meet-ing, his plan was officially adopted: The BCMH endowment now has officially been directed to invest at least 25 per-cent of its funds in Israeli financial instru-ments.

At this point, the vote is more or less symbolic — around that much of the endowment had been invested in Israel Bonds already.

“It’s something that we were kind of already doing, but wanted to make it an official policy,” Birk said.

When it comes to the financial aspects of running a synagogue, having an endow-ment worth $1.6 million can be a blessing.

BCMH’s endowment hasn’t been doing much in the way of growth — pledges to the endowment are few and far between and much of the interest earned goes toward the operating budget — but being able to boast $400,000 in investments in the Jewish State can be a big way of help-ing Israel without the burden of paying for out-of-pocket programming expenses, especially when synagogues these days run razor-thin expense lines in their budgets.

“Without having to put money out that you wouldn’t get back, this is a way to not put money out, and get money back,” Birk said.

But, he added, the synagogue also adopted its new investment policy because it wanted to make a statement.

“Part of the goal is to send a message out to other shuls and other communities, and show them that there are ways for syn-agogues to show support,” he said.

The road to the vote, Birk noted, was a smooth one without controversy or much need for discussion. The board and the endowment committee, he said, both understood the point of the motion and approved it.

While a smattering of synagogues around the country have some small

investments in Israel bonds or stocks, BCMH’s investment is likely the largest in

the country thus far.

BcmH invests a quarter of its endowment in IsraelJoel Magalnick Editor, JTNews

JEFF HoRNER/WaLLa WaLLa UNioN-BULLETiN

around 200 people marched against hate on oct. 2 from Reid campus center on the Whitman college campus to Heritage Park on Walla Walla’s main street, where marchers filed in to listen to guest speakers. The march was organized as a response to a swastika burned into the grass at Heritage Park and a recent defacing of the panels on the park’s bounding wall. several members of the local synagogue, congregation Beth Israel, participated.


13th Season • Mina Miller, Artistic Director

The Music of Forgotten Village Streets Plays Once More

A timeless Chassidic legend dances into new life in this world premiere of The Dybbuk, with choreography by Spectrum Dance Theater’s Donald Byrd set to Joel Engel’s incidental music for the iconic centerpiece of Jewish theater. You’ll also hear Dmitri Shostakovich’s From Jewish Folk Poetry, and Alexander Krein’s Hebrew Sketches. Acclaimed pianist Craig Sheppard joins in Mikhail Gnessin’s piano trio.

THE DYBBUK

Tickets: $36 • (206) 365-7770 • www.musicofremembrance.org

7:30 p.m.Monday, November 8Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall, Seattle

6:45 p.m. John Sharify interviews choreographer Donald Byrd

“[Donald Byrd is] the most unconventional provocateur and dance maker/thinker of our times” –Broadway World

ONE NIGHT ONLY

a chamber music concert to mark the 72nd anniversary of Kristallnacht

When asked about his decision to run for the office of state representative, Andy Billig keeps his answer succinct.

“My daughter,” Billig said. “Concern for her generation and for future generations.”

If elected, Billig, a Democrat, will rep-resent Washington’s 3rd District, which encompasses most of the city of Spokane.

“It’s one of the poorest districts, if not the poorest, in the state,” Billig said. It’s also the community he has called home for the last 18 years.

Billig is the president and co-owner of Spokane’s minor league baseball team, the Indians. Prior to moving to Spokane in 1992, Billig worked for the Hawaii Winter Baseball League. He is originally from Washington D.C. and holds a degree in government from Georgetown University.

This is his first run for political office, but he believes that his participation in a host of other civic activities over the years has given him a sense for the needs of his district.

“I know the community well,” Billig said. “I’ve been a community and business leader. All those experiences will help you as a legislator.”

In addition to his work with the Indi-ans, Billig has also served as a volunteer for a variety of Spokane organizations that includes the Big Brothers program,

Bike to Work Week, and Greater Spo-kane Incorporated, the region’s chamber of commerce and economic development council. He serves on the board of the YMCA and was appointed by Mayor Mary Verner to serve on the City of Spokane Human Services Advisory Board and the Citizen’s Financial Advisory Committee to the mayor. Both he and his daughter, who is in the 5th grade, are active mem-bers at Congregation Emanu-El, Spo-kane’s Reform synagogue.

“The campaign itself has been valuable experience for me,” Billig added. “Knock-ing on 9,000 doors, meeting people on their front porches. It’s given me a feel for the community that I don’t think you can get any other way.”

The conversations Billig has had with fellow residents of the 3rd District have helped to shape his prospective legisla-tive agenda.

“Certainly people are concerned about jobs,” he said. “Education and the high dropout rate also come up a lot.”

For Billig, these issues go hand in hand. The high school dropout rate for the 3rd District is close to 22 percent and the median annual income for the area ranks about $10,000 less than the state median.

“It’s a cycle.” Billig said. “If you’re poor, you’re more likely to drop out. If you drop

out, you’re more likely to be poor. Providing good education opportunities is crucial.”

Billig said if he is elected, one of his first acts in Olympia will be to get an assign-ment to the House Education Committee, which does not currently have any Spo-kane-area representation. To combat the high dropout rate, Billig said he’d like to see Spokane increase the number of voca-tional programs available to high school students.

“Not every child learns in the same way,” he said. “Vocational schools can help

kids who are alternative learners gain the knowledge they need to get good jobs.”

A four-year medical school in Spo-kane is another education project Billig hopes to see come to fruition. The school would be a collaboration with the Uni-versity of Washington and according, to Billig, would “provide more doctors for the region and also be great for our econ-omy locally.”

The protection of natural resources is also at the top of Billig’s agenda. The issue is particularly tangible for Spokane voters, Billig stressed.

“All of our drinking water comes from the Spokane aquifer, which is part of the Spokane River,” he said. “It’s the sole source of drinking water for over 500,000 people. And we need to protect it.”

But before Billig can tackle these proj-ects in Olympia, he’s got to pass the test with Spokane voters.

Although the primary was “hotly con-tested,” Billig said he feels good about his chances for the Nov. 2 general election. The 3rd District traditionally votes Dem-ocratic and both of the sitting represen-tative are Democrats. Of course that fact in and of itself is no guarantee of victory, Billig insisted.

“I’m upbeat, but I’m not taking any-thing for granted,” he said.

Jews on the ballot: andy Billigleyna kRow JTNews Correspondent

CoURTESy FRiENDS oF aNDy BiLLig

andy Billig, candidate for a seat in the state legislature in the 3rd District, in spokane.

More travels with JTNews!We learn from JTNews readers Margrethe Mickel, Leslie Mickel Carsch and Lillianna Carsch that the new Danish Jewish Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, was designed by architect Daniel Libeskind to chronicle the history of the Jewish community in Denmark

and the extraordinary events by the Danes to save their Jewish population during WWII. Located on the front door of the museum are the Hebrew letters spelling “Mitzvah.”

Be sure to pack a copy of JTNews whenever you travel. Snap a picture of yourself holding JTNews in view of a familiar or notable sight, and send it in. We print as many as we can.

Greetings from Denmark!

friday, ocTober 15, 2010 . www.JTNews.NeT . JTNews world News 9

To be perfectly honest, I was still raw and drained and did not wholeheartedly accept his michala.

Reb Mendel, in addition to being someone I had admired and learned from, was a very close and loyal friend to my father. Both our families go back to Russia. Reb Mendel’s father and my pater-nal grandfather both “sat” in the gulag in Siberia in the 1930s for their involvement in maintaining Jewish education under Communist rule. In fact, my grandfather officiated at Reb Mendel’s parents’ wed-ding. Reb Mendel sensed, when we would meet in New York after his call asking for michala, that I had not been fully mol-

lified. Erev Yom Kippur of that year, I received another call from Reb Mendel again apologizing for that call months ear-lier, where in his moment of agitation he had expressed himself sharply to me. I was moved by the call and said, with a full heart (so I thought), that I forgave him.

Fast forward to January 2006: Our daughter Raizy became engaged in New York. As is our custom, at the engage-ment party family and very close friends are invited and the engagement takes place within 24 hours from when it is publicly announced that there is a new chossan and kalla. The day of the engagement is a whirl-wind: Preparations, calls, and family in and out. At such previous simchas, Reb Mendel had always been invited. Throughout the

day, I went back and forth in my mind on whether to invite him to this simcha, but although I had granted him michala I somehow wasn’t quite there. As I pre-pared to leave the apartment to walk the few blocks to the party, and my dear wife Chanie was saying, “Enough calls, we have to go now,” something came over me.

“I have to call him,” I told myself. “Call him — do it for your father.” I made the call, and I sensed the joy in his voice to the invitation to the simcha.

By the time it took us to walk the few blocks, Reb Mendel was already there at the yeshiva — he was one of the first to arrive. He walked straight over to my father and in front of me, they embraced, and the genuine Chassidic love and broth-

erhood I saw when they looked at each other will always be etched in my memory. Two days later, as Reb Mendel was walk-ing down Kingston Avenue, at the young age of 73, he collapsed and passed away. Now my friends, how would I feel if I had not invited him to our simcha?

To be continued….

These words are in memory of my very dear friend, Yoseph Moshe Rethael ben Tzvi Hirsh Russak — Mr. Joseph Russak — president of Chabad, whose first yahrtzeit recently passed. Rabbi Levitin would like to hear your thoughts and insights. Please e-mail him at [email protected].

RaBBI’s TuRn W Page 3

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Across the United States, Jewish community profes-sionals are honing their skills of persua-sion, preparing to deal with a new crop of lawmakers who are unfamiliar with Jewish organizational priorities — and who are likely to be unenthusiastic once they’re in the know.

This season of anti-incumbent senti-ment, much of it swelling from the polit-ical right, presents the likelihood of a Republican takeover of at least one house of Congress. The GOP needs 39 seats to win in the House of Representatives; poll-sters are predicting gains of 17 to 80 seats.

The Tea Party insurgency has pushed past the GOP primaries a crop of can-didates who have never held political office. Many of the freshmen are likely to arrive in Washington sharing their par-ty’s warmth for Israel, but knowing little about the Jewish State or U.S. domestic issues that Jewish federations traditionally champion — elderly care, poverty relief and other community services.

“In the Tea Party, the concern to dis-mantle government is very strong and, for better or worse, the Jewish commu-nity has prospered and gotten used to involved government, grants, social ser-vices, government aid to Israel,” said Mar-shall Breger, the Reagan administration liaison to the Jewish community who now teaches law at Catholic University. “Once they start cutting, it’s going to be hard to make exceptions.”

The strategy, said Joyce Garver Keller, the executive director of Ohio Jewish Communities, a group that lobbies for the state’s federations, is to make friends now to prepare for more nuanced meetings after January.

“The first purpose is to make a friend, not to come cold in January,” Keller said of her initial outreach to fresh Republican candidates, who have proliferated in her state. Ohio has a disproportionate amount of toss-up elections that could unseat Democrats.

In the meetings she has with candi-dates, Keller outlines broad areas of con-cern, leading with support for Israel and the need to confront Iran over its sus-pected nuclear program, and then explain-ing Jewish community backing for safety net spending.

She anticipates a long learning curve in a number of cases.

“We have people running who have never been to Israel, and even if they have a position paper they don’t grasp that it’s more than a war zone,” Keller said.

In some cases the learning curve may be insurmountable.

Hours after Keller spoke with JTA on Oct. 8, The Atlantic magazine revealed that Rich Iott, a Tea Party-backed candi-date in the Toledo area, for years had spent weekends dressing up as an SS officer as a member of a group that re-enacted Nazi maneuvers.

Iott, who has never held public office, seemed baffled that anyone was taking offense, even after the national Republican Party made him politico non grata.

“Never, in any of my re-enacting of military history, have I meant any disre-spect to anyone who served in our military or anyone who has been affected by the tragedy of war, especially the Jewish Com-munity,” he said in a statement.

Iott was an extreme example but across the country, community outreach offi-cials fretted at a political demographic that hasn’t had much overlap with Jews.

Matt Goldberg, the Jewish Community Relations Council director in Louisville, Ky., said he was worried that spending reductions would result in cuts to security and social programs for seniors.

National officials forecast a grim winter, noting threats by incumbent Tea Party-backed GOP senators Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma to dry up spending. Despite overtures by top Jewish officials, DeMint will not budge, insiders said.

If DeMint and Coburn are joined

by another handful of hard-liners, they could muster the power to bring govern-ment to a halt, using the Senate’s arcane parliamentary rules that grant even lone senators sweeping powers to gum up leg-islation.

“If you have Rand Paul in Kentucky, if you have Sharron Angle in Nevada, if you have Joe Miller in Alaska, you can have a tremendous impact on social services,” said one official, referring to three races where budget-slashing Tea Party-backed candidates are competitive.

Of concern are possible cuts to Medi-care and Medicaid, programs seen as vital to sustaining food and medical assistance to the poor and the elderly.

“One of the things we’ve been working on with local JCRCs is looking at the most vulnerable populations, the new people in poverty,” said Josh Protas, the Wash-ington, D.C. director of the Jewish Coun-cil for Public Affairs, the public affairs umbrella organization. “Certainly a lot of the service agencies are feeling the brunt of this.”

One frustration for Jewish officials has been the demonization of “earmarks,” the district-specific spending widely derided as “pork” by conservatives. Earmarks fund an array of programs favored by Jewish groups, including naturally occurring retirement communities, the jewel in the Federation system crown, and grants that enhance security at Jewish institutions.

Matt Brooks, the Republican Jewish Coalition director, downplayed talk of a GOP takeover — but he also said Republi-can policies would not place at-risk safety nets now funded by earmarks.

“Perhaps there will be a different vehi-cle and a different level of accountability,” said Brooks, who last week oversaw a roll-out of a $1 million ad campaign targeting Jewish voters in key states. The campaign includes attacks on what the RJC says are Obama’s economic policy failures.

Robin Schatz, the director of govern-ment affairs at the Jewish Federation of

Greater Philadelphia, said she had been making the case for earmarks to Pat Toomey, the conservative Republican running for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat.

“I told Pat, ‘Earmarks are not a four-let-ter word. If you are elected, we’re going to sit down and have a substantive talk about this,’” she said. “I think he has substantive reasons. You don’t want to see bridges to nowhere — in the Jewish community we want transparency, too — but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

Another area of concern is funding for Israel, despite broad GOP enthusiasm for the Jewish state.

Keller said candidates often don’t real-ize until they get to Washington that Isra-el’s $3 billion in annual defense assistance is part of a $25 billion international assis-tance package — one the Obama admin-istration hopes to double within the next two years.

“You get a lot of people who get into office who say, I like aid for Israel, but …,” she said.

Backing the entire foreign assistance package has long been a sine qua non of pro-Israel support. Pro-Israel groups wince at conservative proposals to sep-arate Israel funding because they say it smacks of a “special case” status they’d rather not have.

Conservatives object to programs that fund family planning overseas, as well as aid for countries where governments do not vote with the United States in the United Nations and do not have demo-cratic governments.

Joel Pollak, a rare Jewish Tea Party-backed candidate hoping to oust rep. Jan Schakowsy (D-Ill.) from her suburban Chicago seat, said the likelihood was that a Republican Congress would tweak for-eign aid.

“I think it will be discriminating for-eign aid,” he said. “There will less foreign aid to countries that do not honor human rights and sponsor terrorism.”

Jewish officials flex persuading muscles ahead of possible goP winsRon kaMpeaS JTa World News Service

10 m.o.T.: member of The Tribe JTNews . www.JTNews.NeT . friday, ocTober 15, 2010

1 Seattle-area rabbi Rick Harkavy is one of the founding members of

a new organization that sup-ports a non-partisan and cen-trist approach to discussions about Israel.

Originally called Rabbis for Israel, the organization has adopted the new, more inclusive name of We Are For Israel. It supports a realistic two-state solution “with peace and secu-rity for Israel,” Rick says.

Started just this past August, the orga-nization was spearheaded by Michael (Micky) Boyden, an American-born Israeli rabbi who, Rick says, is well-respected in Israel across the political spectrum.

Rick says they’ve been “overwhelmed” by the response to this new organization.

“In a short period of time over 300 rabbis endorsed the mission state-ment,” he said. Find the statement at www.weareforisrael.org. Most of the endorsers heard about the organization by word of mouth.

Disturbed by much of what they had heard coming from American Jewish pul-pits, Boyden tapped Harkavy and one or two other American rabbis to get things started. They were frustrated by some rabbis who were stressing a far-left or far-right view to their congregations. “We feel like this is doing the congregants a dis-service,” Rick says, and congregants have been complaining.

“Our goal is to become the world’s largest rabbinical pro-Israel advocacy group,” he notes. “We represent the main-stream…. We call ourselves realists.”

Rick stresses that the group and its signatories — which now includes can-tors and other synagogue professionals — are committed to a secure Israel and to a heightened awareness of “both Israeli and Palestinian obligations” when it comes to the peace process.

Publicity for the group ground to a halt with the start of the Jewish holidays, but the organizers are planning to start things up again soon. Their primary mis-sion is encouraging people to sign on to their mission statement in order to show the rabbinate, and the public, where the majority view is.

“We just wanted to find out who sup-ported us just now,” Rick says.

We Are For Israel started from the grassroots, Rick says, and started up with no funding or political affiliation.

The group is troubled by “overt polit-ical partisanship of existing Israel advo-cacy organizations,” according to a press release. Rick says that if they were a politi-cal group they would be more aligned with AIPAC and probably opposed to the views of JStreet. “We complement AIPAC,” he

says, by bringing a similar message into the synagogues.

“We believe most Amer-ican Jews are centrists,” he adds. We Are For Israel just wants people to know the facts: “That is the key…to be well-educated, to examine the facts…as much as possible.”

Rick currently serves as rabbi for Bet Chaverim, the “very warm, intimate and caring” Reform synagogue in Des Moines (betchaverim.org).

2 Bobbe and Jon Bridge have con-tinued their generous support of the University of Michigan Law

School’s Detroit Center for Family Advo-cacy, according to a recent issue of Leaders & Best magazine, a report on alumni phi-lanthropy.

The gift supports the work of CFA law-yers and social workers who secure safe homes for children in need, in an effort to avoid the trauma and expense of foster placements.

A former state supreme court justice, Bobbe is the founder of the Seattle-based

Center for Children, Youth and Justice. She attended the University of Wash-ington as an undergraduate and for law school, but she holds a master’s degree from Michigan.

Jon, an attorney, received an honor himself recently from the U.S. Navy, for which he’s a retired Captain in the Judge Advocate Generals Corps in the reserves. He was honored most recently for his work in the development of a prototype claims processing system.

He told JTNews that it’s important for Jews to be represented in the military.

“For me it’s so important that we give back to the country that has given us so much,” he said. “We are a part of our country and we need to serve it in numer-ous ways.”

Rabbis start Israel advocacy group for other rabbisDiana bReMent JTNews Columnist

tribe

Answers on page 23

The Jerusalem Post Crossword PuzzleBy David Benkof

Across1. Utter6. “___ and Sons” (“Joseph” song)11. “Ikey, Mikey, Jakey, ___.... We’re

the boys who eat no ham!”14. Kind of fund15. Investigation16. Shortly before?17. Prolific author of scientific and

science-fiction works19. Food container20. Fifth-largest city in Israel21. Knesset stemwinders23. Flower holders25. Mixed Arab-Jewish locale26. Stand-up comic Gottfried30. Hamburg’s river31. Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s status,

sometimes32. “___ Road” (Beatles album)35. ___ HaMelach (Dead Sea)38. 25-Across, e.g.39. Of greater concern40. Jeans pioneer Strauss41. Kiryat ___42. Feminist psychologist Gilligan43. Billionaire philanthropist George44. “The Nanny” actress Drescher46. Biblical plague48. The term of a pres.50. Toffee bar52. Wasteful54. Matbucha ingredient59. Sign of an infection60. U.S. Senator defeated in a recount

by comedian Al Franken62. Deception63. Rubbernecker64. Writer Zola of “J’Accuse!” fame65. Asner and Koch66. Many a midrash67. Customs

Down1. Actor LaBeouf (“Transformers”)2. Proto-Zionist Moses3. Modern Orthodox org.4. “Vey!”5. Get better6. “The ___ Tanakh”7. Prepare for the Kaddish8. Ph.D. prerequisites9. Double-reed woodwind10. Opera singer Sills11. SNL’s “Weekend Update” host12. Prime minister Sharon13. Club for Einsteins18. Joyous month22. One way around Jerusalem24. Part of a flight26. Head for27. A party to28. Torah29. Osama ___ Laden30. Always, in verse33. Pal34. Feminist congresswoman Abzug36. Pirkei ___37. Get wrong39. Lost tribe of Israel40. Rocker Reed42. Some punishments43. Kabbalah scholar Gershom45. Purge47. Director Preminger48. Adam’s ___49. Ancient Celtic priest50. A Marx brother51. Playwright Rice (“Street Scene”)53. Sacrificial animal55. Note56. Assassin Yigal57. Hasidic retelling of a rabbi’s

adventure58. Change for a five61. Have a bawl

CoURTESy JoN BRiDgE

u.s. naval captain Jon Bridge, left, with his father, admiral Herb Bridge. Jon Bridge was recently honored for his legal achievements in the navy.

friday, ocTober 15, 2010 . www.JTNews.NeT . JTNews The syNagogue chroNicles 11

206.215.4747 | WWW.SEATTLESYMPHONY.ORG

October 15 & 16Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 1Gerard Schwarz, conductor / Seattle Symphony

Pre-concert wine tasting by Wolfgang Puck Catering—only $10 for five pours.

tickets start at

$17

A combination of hard times and vigi-lant optimism is the recipe for the Jewish community cocktail across the country these days. Congregation Kol Ami, Wood-inville’s Reform congregation, is no excep-tion.

The 90-member congregation has experienced an approximate 10 percent membership decline over the past few years. “Sadly, but understandably,” syna-gogue membership becomes a discretion-ary expense when families and individuals rein in their spending, said Kol Ami’s part-time rabbi, Mark Glickman.

With membership down and a lower percentage of giving among existing mem-bers, Congregation Kol Ami had to let go of its administrative assistant and has not recently been able to plan any large-scale programming initiatives. A significant turnover on the board this past year has additionally left Kol Ami’s leadership in a tentative state of “gelling,” according to its president, Beverly Conrad.

That said, both Conrad and Glickman praise the congregation for its inclusive-ness and liveliness.

“This is a delightful group of people,” said Glickman. “We pride ourselves on what we see as a core set of Jewish values in the context of a culture that sometimes tries to challenge them.”

The religious school and adult educa-tion are particularly strong.

“Sunday afternoon is a pretty vibrant time for us,” Conrad said. While students attend religious school, adults gather for committee meetings and study sessions. According to Glickman, his weekly Torah study yields “fascinating and very vibrant discussions.” Among ideas for the coming year, Glickman added that “we’re going to be exploring some new annual study themes that hopefully will drive our learn-ing and our programming.” The strong sisterhood, Kol Isha, is holding a wom-en’s Torah study series this fall on Gene-sis, and recently a brotherhood has begun to take shape.

The religious school educates 50-55 students, who are an active part of the con-gregation.

As opposed to being exclusive events for families and friends, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs are “a congregational event,” said Glick-man. “We pride ourselves on everyone being there to support the young person.”

Kol Ami hosts its own chapter of the National Federation of Temple Youth, Kol Ami Temple Youth, and KOLBO, a youth group for 8th graders.

Congregation Kol Ami is doing the best it can given that it lacks its own building

and full-time staff. It rents space from the Bear Creek Methodist Church and shares Rabbi Glickman with Congregation Kol Shalom on Bainbridge Island. High Holiday services alternate between Glickman and Rabbi David Fine of the Union for Reform

Judaism, and Shabbat services rotate among Glickman and lay leaders. While acknowl-edging the limitations imposed on the con-gregation’s growth by this arrangement, Glickman keeps his sense of humor, joking he’d like to merge the two congregations into one — called Kol Salami.

“We’re always trying to embrace new traditions,” added Glickman.

According to Conrad, “Our congrega-tion might be unique in that we have a fair amount of mixed marriages. But our non-Jewish spouses are frequently as active as the Jewish spouses.”

She described the congregation as d o w n - t o - e a r t h . “We’re very open to new faces and new members. It’s not a very cliquish com-munity at all.”

In addition to providing a tight-kni t , we lcoming environment, Kol Ami members are heavily involved in interfaith activities and programming with area religious institutions.

“We’re trying to become more vis-ible,” Conrad said. Kol Ami leaders try ardently to pro-mote awareness of a vibrant Jewish pres-ence to the surround-ing community.

Despite Kol Ami’s small size, it does have a choir that not only performs at some services, but also teams up with the Bear Creek Methodist choir for

an interfaith choir festival, performing alongside various Christian choruses. As for sharing the church space, “even though we are tenants, it feels like a home to us,” Conrad said, “they’re very accom-modating. We try to do some program-ming together periodically.”

Congregants are also excited about the emerging partnership with the Islamic

Center of Eastside, also known as the Bel-levue Masjid. In April, Imam Humza Chaudhry gave the sermon at a Friday night Shabbat service, and the follow-ing Sunday Kol Ami members joined the mosque for a presentation, tour, reception and question-and-answer session.

“It was truly wonderful,” said Conrad. Glickman agreed. “Wherever we go, we want to continue

to build upon that relationship,” he said. As the relationship forges ahead, though, he acknowledges that it will call for asking tougher questions.

While the tikkun olam committee chair is vacant at the moment, the congrega-tion is involved with social action projects such as Tent City 4, a temporary neighbor-hood of homeless individuals. Kol Ami’s host, Bear Creek Methodist Church, is presently hosting Tent City 4. Kol Ami members have participated by providing volunteer services, supplies, and a dinner on October 7.

Helping in times of need is a hallmark of the community. Congregants are proud of their caring committee, which tends to community members suffering from ill health.

“The congregation invariably steps up to one another when things get rough,” said Glickman.

Conrad emphasized that no one would be turned away from program-ming or membership due to lack of funds. Although time, money and involvement are hard to come by, Kol Ami is work-ing hard to keep itself afloat, particularly through its strong member core.

“The congregation consists of a group of people that is compassionate in some of the most wonderful and inspirational ways I can imagine,” she said.

A release party for Rabbi Mark Glickman’s book about the Cairo Genizah will be held at the temple, 16530 Avondale Rd. NE in Woodinville, on Oct. 30.

woodinville congregation holds its own through hard timeseMily keeleR alhaDeFF JTNews Correspondent

STaCy SCHiLL

Rabbi mark glickman shows off the lulav and etrog to congregation Kol ami’s religious school in the synagogue’s sukkah.

wwwwww.jtnews.net

shul

jteen calendarsomething’s happening here

BBYO B’nai B’rith Youth Organization. 206-388-0837 [email protected]

usY 206-524-0075 x2503 [email protected]

Congregation Kol Ami [email protected]

Friendship Circle 206-905-4633 [email protected]

Herzl-Ner Tamid206-232-8555 [email protected]

JFs Jewish Family service 206-861-3155 [email protected]

JFGs Jewish Federation of Greater seattle 206-443-5400 www.jewishinseattle.org

NCsY National Conference of synagogue Youth 206-725-2456 www.seattlencsy.com

The Nesiya Institute www.nesiya.org [email protected]

NYHs Northwest Yeshiva High school 206-232-5272 [email protected]

Pinwheel usY [email protected]

sHA seattle Hebrew Academy 206-323-5750 www.seattlehebrewacademy.org

sJCC stroum Jewish Community Center 206-232-7115 www.sjcc.org

TDHs Temple De Hirsch sinai 206-323-8486 [email protected] www.tdhs-nw.org

WsHERC Washington state Holocaust Education Resource Center206-774-2201 [email protected]

ongoing

october15–16

NCsY LTs shabbaton – Vancouver (Chapter Board)

15–17 Evergreen Region BBYO Jewish Education Conference 2010 at Camp solomon schechter

15 TDHs JTDsY (Jr. high youth group) Tri-Temple Pizza and Bowling

17 TDHs Club 56 (5th and 6th grade youth group) Pizza and Bowling

18Alexander Muss High school in Israel Information Table at BBYO, 7–7:30 pm

22–24 Pinwheel usY Fall Kinnus at Camp solomon schechter

23 sJCC Haunted Havdallah, 7:30–11 pm TDHs TDsY (high school youth group) Laser show and Havdallah

24NYHs Open House for Prospective students entering 9th–12th grades, 11 am

26usY Israel Pilgrimage, parlor evening, 7 pm

28 usY on Wheels, parlor evening, 7 pm

29TDHs Club 56 (5th and 6th grade youth group) Youth shabbat, Laser TagTDHs JTDsY (Jr. high youth group) Youth shabbat

novembertuesdays

sHA school tours

1 Alexander Muss High school in Israel Information Table at BBYOBBYO Global Day of Jewish Learning BBYO Leadership Night TDHs JTDsY (Jr. high youth group) Tri-Temple Pizza and Bowling

3Alexander Muss High school in Israel Dinner for students and Parents, 5:45–7 pm

5–7NCsY seattle shabbaton

6TDHs TDsY (high school youth group) Youth Lounge Grand Opening

7Friendship Circle Training Event, 5–6:30 pm

12BBYO Community shabbat Dinner at stroum JCC

13 usY Cosmic Bowling with Herzl-Ner Tamid, 7–9 pm

14Chabad Bellevue “The Friends We Make Along the Way”NYHs Open House for Prospective students, 9th–12th grades, 7 pm sJCC Limousine scavenger Hunt for 6th–8th graders

15 Alexander Muss High school in Israel Presentation to BBYO Chap-ters, 7:30–8:30 pm

19–21TDHs TDsY (high school youth group)NFTY NW Fall Kallah

20usY Youth Minyan, 10 am–12 pm

21 NYHs Hanukkah Breakfast and Kids Carnival, 9 am–12 pm

22BBYO seattle Alumni Open House

decemberWednesdays

sHA school Tours

3–5 PINWHEEL usY Pinwheel Kadima Kinnus & Regional General Board Weekend at Camp solomon schechter

december 4 NCsY Casino Night

december 5TDHs TDsY (high school youth group) Hanukkah Party

december 7Friendship Circle Hanukkah Party, 5–7 pm TDHs TDsY (high school youth group) Tri-Temple Hanukkah Party

8 Chabad Bellevue Grand Hanukkah Party

10TDHs Club 56 (5th and 6th grade youth group) Movie Night — “The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader”TDHs JTDsY (Jr. high youth group) Tri-Temple Event

11 usY Youth Minyan at CBs, 10 am–12 pmsJCC Gym and swim at the JCC for 6th–8th graders

19Chabad Bellevue “Coming of Age”

19–22BBYO Ruach Convention at Portland Airport sheraton

22–30usY International Convention in Florida

januarytuesdays

sHA school Tours

7 NCsY Edmonton shabbaton

9Friendship Circle Training Event, 5–6:30 pm

13–february 17 WsHERC Pictures of Resistance:Jewish Partisan Faye schulman exhibit at university of Washington Hillel

16 Chabad Bellevue “The Dating Game” usY/Kadima ski Trip with Herzl at snoqualmie Pass. Meet to carpool at 8 am at CBs

22TDHs TDsY (high school youth group) Family Fun Night

23 sJCC Laser Tag at Laser Quest for 6th–8th graders TDHs Club 56 (5th and 6th grade youth group) snow TubingTDHs JTDsY (Jr. high youth group) snow Tubing

28–30NYHs shabbaton for current and prospective students TDHs TDsY (high school youth group) NFTY-NW Winter Kallah

29usY Into the Night Youth Minyan at CBs, 10 am–12 pm

29–30usY Into the Night at CBs, 8 pm–11 am

February5

Chabad Bellevue New York shab-baton

12usY Youth Minyan, 10 am–12 pm TDHs TDsY (high school youth group) snow Tubing at snoqualmie

13usY sushi Making at CBs, 1–3 pm TDHs JTDsY (Jr. high youth group) WhirlyBall

17–21 NCsY New York trip

20 Chabad Bellevue “My Big Fat Jewish Wedding”Friendship Circle Purim Party:Purim in Africa, 4–6:30 pm

march4–6

usY spring Kinnus, Richmond, BC

6TDHs Club 56 (5th and 6th grade youth group) sky High

10 The Nesiya Institute Nesiya summer Israel Program for High school stu-dents Open House at sJCC, 7–9 pm

11–13 BBYO New Member and Leadership Training at stroum Jewish Commu-nity Center

12 BBYO stand-up! Fundraiser DancesJCC A Purim Masquerade for 6th–8th graders

13 CHABAD BELLEVuE “Families Are Like Fudge”

25TDHs JTDsY (Jr. high youth group) Tri-Temple Event

26usY Youth Minyan @ CBs, 10 am–12 pm

27usY Mitzvah Day with Chaverim, 1–3:30 pmNCsY Basarfest

april1–3

NCsY Portland/seattle shabbat shebang

3Friendship Circle Third Volunteer Fellowship Training, 5–6:30 pm TDHs JTDsY (Jr. high youth group) Tri-Temple social Action Event

10Chabad Bellevue “The Golden Years”Friendship Circle Pre-Passover Matzoh Bakery, 1–3:30 pmsJCC Middle school Dodgeball Tournament at skyHigh sports grades 6–8 TDHs JTDsY (Jr. high youth group) GameWorks

12TDHs TDsY (high school youth group) Matzah Bowl

15–17TDHs TDsY (high school youth group) NFTY-NW spring Kallah

16 usY Youth Minyan at CBs, 10 am–12 pm

17 usY Youth Department spaghetti Dinner at CBs, 6–8:30 pmNCsY Car wash

29TDHs Club 56 (5th and 6th grade youth group) Youth shabbat TDHs JTDsY (Jr. high youth group) Youth shabbat

may1

JFGs J-serve 2011 – A global day of Jewish teen service sJCC Junior serve Day of Teen service

8 Chabad Bellevue “Reflect. Internalize. Preserve. Party.”

13–15 BBYO Election Conclave 2010 at B’nai B’rith CampNCsY Juniors (6–8th grade) shab-baton

14 usY Youth Minyan at CBs, 10 am–12 pm

15 usY Movie Night – Israeli Movie at CBs, 5–9 pm NCsY NCsY 500sJCC Go Kart RacingTDHs Club 56 (5th and 6th grade youth group) Family Fun Center

20TDHs Club 56 (5th and 6th grade youth group) Tri-Temple End-of-Year Bash

20–23Congregation Beth shalom Regional Convention in Portland, OR

22Friendship Circle Lag B’Omer Celebration TDHs JTDsY (Jr. high youth group) TDsY (high school youth group) End-of-Year Bash

23sJCC summer Camp CIT applica-tions due. Co-sponsored by BBYO.

27–29 NCsY spring Regional—Keats Island Camp

june8

NCsY All Night shavuot Learning

11Congregation Beth shalom Gradu-ation shabbat at CBs, 9:30 am–12:30 pm

19Camp solomon schechter staff Week

june 23Camp solomon schechter Oded (C.I.T.) Training: 11th grade program

through mayCongregation Kol Ami Kolbo/8th and 9th grade religious education program. Two sunday evenings/month, 5:30–7 pm, incl.dinner

Wed nightsNCsY 7–9 pm, Middle school teen lounge at BCMHHebrew High a joint project of Jewish Federa-tion and Torah High at the sJCC, 7–9:15 pm.

thurs nights 8–10 pm, High school teen lounge at BCMH

mon - thursJsu Mondays: Newport Hs, Interlake Hs, Bellevue Hs; Tuesdays: Islander Middle school; Wednes-days: Roosevelt High school; Thursdays: Mercer Island High school

inFo:

Registration begins in November!

www.bbcamp.org

Programs for Grades 9–12Junior NCSY for Grades 6–8www.seattlencsy.org

Sunday, Oct. 24 — 11 a.m.Open House at NYHS

for prospective students and families

www.nyhs.net

Sunday, Nov. 14 — 7 p.m.Open House at NYHS

for prospective students and families

www.nyhs.net

January 28–30, 2011Shabbaton

for current and prospective students

www.nyhs.net

SHAzam! SHA hosts fun Saturday

evening “Meetups”206-323-5750 x.239

[email protected]

School tours at SHA: Tuesdays in November

Wednesdays in December206-323-5750 x.239

[email protected]

Temple De Hirsch Sinai has lots of cool events this year and we want

YOU to be there!

tdhs-nw.org

For more info on our youth events, contact Jessica Hyde

at [email protected]

tdhs-nw.org

Registration now openkalsman.urjcamps.org

425-284-4484

www.campschechter.orgRegistration opens

Summer 2011206-447-1967

Join us at our Open House in

March 2011www.nesiya.org

March SAT prep begins in January

www.universitytutoring.com206-522-0109


CLIENT JOB NAME SIZE Notes:

Republican Jewish Coalition N-RJC092810_WA1_Murray 9.75x12.5 JT News (Seattle)

patty murray says she’s a friend to israel.

But real friends stand up when the chips are down.

patty murray remained silent as the obama administration pressured israel and supported israel’s enemies.

we should take notice.

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President Obama has presided over the worst deterioration of the America-Israel relationship since the Carter administration. The New York Times describes it as among “the most serious conflicts between the United States and Israel in two decades.”1

Other Democrats have noticed. And they’ve spoken up.

Senator Chuck Schumer criticized the Obama administration’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, calling it “counter-productive.”2

The Hill reports that key Democrat donors “say that the administration’s criticism of Netanyahu was excessive and will embolden Israel’s enemies.3

And Ed Koch said, “When I decided to vote for Obama, I said he was as strong in his support for the state of Israel and security as John McCain. But I was wrong.”4

Real friends stand up and speak out when it’s needed most. Now is a time when Israel could really use some friends.

Sources: 1“Israel Feeling Rising Anger From the U.S.” New York Times, March 15, 2010. 2http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20003254-503544.html. 3http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/89941-jewish-donors-may-be-chilled-by-israel-policy. 4“Koch Outraged By Obama’s Treatment of Israel Over Housing Construction,” FOXNews.com, April 1, 2010.

N-RJC092810_WA1_Murray.indd 1 10/7/10 11:46 AM

friday, ocTober 15, 2010 . www.JTNews.NeT . JTNews The arTs 15

Please vote to re-electState Representative

Marcie (Halela) Maxwell * Champion for Children & Education * Promoting Jobs & Small Business Success * Reducing Traffic Congestion * Valuing Our Community * Working for Government Accountability * Endorsed by The Seattle Times

41st Legislative District Bellevue, Issaquah, Mercer Island, Newcastle, Renton

425-466-8000www.marciemaxwell.org

Citizens for Marcie Maxwell (D), PO Box 2048, Renton, WA 98056

october 18 at 7 p.m.the beta eskesta dance troupedance recitalHaifa-based dance troupe Beta Eskesta is composed of 8-10 dancers who perform traditional Ethiopian “eskesta” (shoulder dancing), as well as contem-porary dances inspired by the unique culture and traditions of Ethiopian Jewry. $15/$10 for students/seniors. Presented by the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. Tickets at www.jewishinseattle.org/Beta. At Benaroya Hall, 200 Univer-sity St, Seattle.

october 17 at 12 p.m.Eyes Wide OpenFilmThis drama, screening as part of the Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, is set in the world of Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox com-munity and won the Best First Feature at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. $7. At The Egyptian Theater, 805 E Pine Street, Seattle. Also playing Wed., Oct. 20 at 9:45 p.m. at Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., Seattle.

october 30 at 7:30 p.m.Sacred Treasure: The Cairo Genizahbook launch party and author signingCongregation Kol Ami celebrates the release of Sacred Treasure: The Cairo Genizah, a new book by its rabbi, Mark Glickman. The event begins with a brief Havdalah service, followed by words from Glickman and a book signing. A portion of proceeds from book sales will go toward Kol Ami. At Congregation Kol Ami, 16530 Avondale Rd. NE, Woodinville. Visit www.kolaminw.org for further information.

october 20 at 7 p.m.Gogol bordelloconcertGogol Bordello is a gypsy punk band from Manhattan’s Lower East Side. In their rousing, rambling anthems, you can hear a little bit of klezmer influ-ence — and a whole lot of Israeli guitarist Oren Kaplan. $29. At Showbox SoDo, 1700 1st Ave. S, Seattle.

october 15 at 7:30 p.m.robert pinskypoetry readingThe former U.S. Poet Laureate brings his lyricisms — and himself — to the Nordstrom Recital Hall, where he will read in conjunction with musicians from the Earshot Jazz Festival. $20/$50. At the Nordstrom Re-cital Hall at Benaroya, 200 University St., Seattle.

arts

Temple B ’nai Torah invites You To a Ten Week introductory Course on Judaism

Taught by our Senior Rabbi James L. Mirel

and guest scholars

Beginning Sunday, october 24th

at 9:30 a.m.

FREE and OPEN to all. For those who are interested in exploring Judaism

and those who want a refresher course.Holidays, History, Beliefs, Life Cycle & Philosophy

15727 NE 4th, Bellevue, Wa 98008 www.templebnaitorah.org 425 603 9677

No need to register—just come for first class. For more information: [email protected]

Judaism 101


The Onion is known for getting a good laugh out of its audience, and it did just that at the Jewish Federation’s Community Celebration & Campaign Kick-Off on October 6, when editors Joe Randazzo, Joe Garden and staff writer Jason Roeder took the stage at Benaroya Hall.

As one attendee said: “I laughed, I cried, I wrotea check.” More than 800 community membersgathered to hear the wit and wisdom of the nation’s top humor publication, and the head-lines they shared certainly got a nice chuckle. Of course, what Jewish event would this be without food? And food there was! Guests sampled an array of delicious foods from Russia, Israel and New York – including piroshkies, corned beef, hummus and borscht – reflecting some of the international locations where the Federation works with our extended Jewish family. Sharon and Marty Lott, Chairs of the evening’s festivities, spoke beautifully about the importance of coming together as a community to celebrate and help those in need, and Shelley Bensussen, 2011 Community Campaign Chair, shared the vital work being done by the Jewish Federation helping our partners in Seattle and our extended Jewish family around the world. Thanks to the generosity of those who attended last night, and others who have already shown their support, well over $1 million has been raised so far to launch the Federation’s 2011 Jewish Community Campaign.

Photo Credits: Barbie Hull

As we launch our 2011 Jewish Community Campaign, we have some GREAT news: Thanks to the generosity of several leaders in our community, we can offer a challenge grant that will match any new dollars raised to our campaign. That means if you have given before and increase your gift, or if you are a first-time giver – those additional dollars will be matched! You can double the impact you have helping those Jews in need in our community and our extended Jewish family. Please join our Community Campaign at the outset and help make 2011 a successful year! Keep in mind that you have until December 31, 2011 to pay these pledges. To make a gift online, visit www.JewishInSeattle.org/ DonateNow. Your gift can go even further by making a monthly gift on your credit card. Become a Federation Sustainer today at www.JewishInSeattle.org/Sustainer or phone in your pledge or gift to 206 443-5400. Thank you again for your support. You may not know the names of those you help, but you are making a difference in thousands of lives every day – and they know and rely on your generosity.

Join the Community Campaign

Ethnic Flavors of Israel Returns!

CONNECTOR

Many will remember last year’s Ethnic Flavors of Israel events. Women from our partnership communities of Kiryat Malachi and Hof Ashkelon in Israel visited Seattle and served traditional foods representing their respective backgrounds at several community dinners and workshops.

This year, Ethnic Flavors is back with a new groupof women, here to cook, dance, sing and share their stories. The 2010 delegation includes women from many different ethnic backgrounds, including Persian, Kurdish, Moroccan, Yemeni and Indian (from the ancient Jewish community in Cochin). Join us for not only their delicious cooking but also for their inspiring and unforgettable personal stories.

Ethnic Flavors of Israel is a project of the TIPS Partner-ship – a collaboration of the Jewish Federations of Tucson, Phoenix and Seattle – which seeks to connect American Jews with the diverse immigrant communities of Kiryat Malachi and Hof Ashkelon in southern Israel.

Please visit www.JewishInSeattle.org/EthnicFlavorsfor information and registration.

Focus and Fight Poverty’s Day at the Market was a huge success as over 30 Jewish agency volunteers collected over 1,600 lbs of food and over $500 in donations for the Issaquah Food Bank, Jewish Family Service Food Bank, Rainer Valley Food Bank and University District Food Bank.

Thanks to Jconnect Seattle, Hillel at the University of Washington, the Stroum Jewish Community Center, Chabad of the Central Cascades, the Eastside Torah Center, Chabad of Greater Seattle and Temple B’nai Torah.

The Federation’s Focus and Fight Poverty initiative annually renews the commitment by the Jewish community of Greater Seattle to fight poverty through Education, Action and Advocacy. For more information, about this and other Focus and Fight Poverty programs, please visitwww.JewishInSeattle.org/FightPoverty.Focus and Fight Poverty 2010 Sponsors: Caroline Kline Galland Center and affiliates, Chabad of the Central Cascades, Chabad of Greater Seattle, Congregation Beth Shalom, Congregation Shevet Achim, Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation, Jconnect Seattle, Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, Jewish Family Service, Kavana Cooperative, Northwest Yeshiva High School, Seattle Kollel, Seattle Jewish Community School, Secular Jewish Circle of Puget Sound, Sephardic Bikur Holim, Stroum Jewish Community Center, Temple Beth Am, Temple Beth Or, Temple B’nai Torah, Temple De Hirsch Sinai

Huge Success for Focus & Fight Poverty

SUPER SUNDAY COMMUNITY PHONE-A-THON & BLOOD DRIVE November 14, 2010 • 9AM - 5PM • Register Now! www.JewishInSeattle.org/SuperSunday

Campaign Kick-Off Community Celebration

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friday, ocTober 15, 2010 . www.JTNews.NeT . JTNews The arTs 17

Jewish lore has a rich history of the supernatural, from the clay golems whose creators bring them to life to dybbuks, spirits from the afterlife who inhabit weak bodies to send messages from the great beyond. One author had an idea that kicked around in his head for years: To have a dybbuk take over the body of Sig-mund Freud.

What emerged from that idea is A Curable Romantic, Joseph Skibell’s third novel, about a dybbuk who manifests itself not in Freud, but (initially) in one of his most well-known patients, Emma Eckstein.

Getting the idea off the ground took a lot more than inventing a dead charac-ter, however. It involved research — into Freud and his writings, into the Espe-ranto movement, and into the Warsaw Ghetto — to create a story about Jakob Sammelsohn, an eye doctor married at a very young age to the village idiot in late-19th-century Galicia, who then escapes to Vienna to begin his life anew.

Sammelsohn is similar to Woody Allen’s Zelig or to Forrest Gump, fictional characters who pop up in some of modern history’s most important moments, except, as Skibell points out, “Forrest Gump runs.”

Skibell spoke with JTNews when he vis-ited Seattle on Oct. 7 to kick off his tour in support of A Curable Romantic. Between novels, he’s an associate professor in the English Creative Writing program at Emory University.

Sammelson exhibits some of the same haplessness as the fictional film characters, though where Gump was himself the village idiot — and not married to her — Sammel-son is still ignorant in the mysteries of love, despite having been married twice before he even reached the tender age of 21.

“I was really interested in that kind of protagonist who was terrified of sex as much as he was drawn to sex, and what seemed to me the honesty of the portrayal of the man who really wanted love that actually also wanted sex,” Skibell says.

And what better way to tease that terror than to inhabit the man’s object of desire as she lies prone in the city sana-torium? This dybbuk, it turns out, is the spirit of Sammelsohn’s jilted wife Ita, who drowned herself upon the discovery of her husband’s escape.

“The thing about demonic possession is the person is free to act out this other…libidinal self,” Skibell says. “It was a real

letting out of oppression, so I think it was intimately connected with sex.”

In doing his research, Skibell found as many as a hundred documented cases of dybbuk possessions, dating as far back as Josephus in Rome and as recent as 1999 in Israel — though even the most holy of modern rabbis believed, as Freud pur-ported to, that these supposed possessions were merely psychiatric problems.

Sammelsohn and Ita are fictitious, but many of the other characters in this book are not.

“Very little is actually made up,” Ski-

bell says. “At one point, Freud has boils in between his legs that he needs to get lanced. That is in The Interpretation of Dreams.”

Skibell considers himself an admirer, but Freud still comes off as a cocaine-addicted narcissist. It was a balance he simply had to come to terms with.

“A lot of the dialogue is just Freud,” Skibell, who used text from the doctor’s

letters, says. But, he asks, “Why did people revere Freud so much for so many years? When you read his case histories, like the case history with Dora, it seems like he doesn’t help her. But then at the same time, you realize he transformed all of society, universally almost, and probably for the better, so what can you do?”

This story isn’t Freud’s, however. It’s Sammelsohn’s. And it’s a classic love story, written with a very Jewish sensibil-ity. Sammelsohn promises Ita, in return for her taking leave of Eckstein’s body, that he will wait for her. But as men will

do, in particular men who have never par-taken of the wonders of the marital bed, he forgets and pursues another.

And it’s that woman who leads us to Dr. Ludovic Zamenhof, a fellow eye doctor and the creator of the interna-tional language Esperanto, to whom Sam-melsohn becomes a confidante. And from there, as Sammelsohn squanders that rela-tionship and enters his later years, comes the Holocaust and basic survival. But Ita is never too far away, and whether it’s reminding him of his promise or saving his life, she continues to remind her hus-band of her presence.

On one level — both figuratively and literally, though we’ll leave it at that to keep from spoiling the story — the story is about how God sees humanity.

“What I was also trying to do was show that God was weeping, and the way that human beings end up treating each other on earth, it’s not that God wills it, it’s the way that human beings act,” Skibell says.

It’s here that this very Jewish book becomes a story that can appeal to every-one, Skibell believes.

Skibell also sees his book as a commen-tary on differences in perception as the centuries turned, from the 19th to the 20th and the 20th to the 21st.

“It wasn’t even just Dr. Zamenhof who had this utopian idea that human-kind was on the lip of perfection. I read a lot of Emile Zola’s work, because of the Dreyfus trial, and here was this heavy-hit-ting French novelist intellectual, but he too believed that war was about to disap-pear, and disease was about to disappear and science and rationalism [would take hold],” Skibell says. “I thought it was inter-esting that in the year 1900 there was all this great hope, but when the year became 2000, we were probably as cynical as we’ve ever been.

“Even though it really follows the char-acter in the Jewish experience, it really is the creation of the 20th century and how it went from such bright hopes to such dark realities.”

Living in someone else’s body: A Curable RomanticJoel Magalnick Editor, JTNews

JoEL MagaLNiCK

author Joseph skibell takes questions during his oct. 7 reading at Richard Hugo House. He also performed, on guitar, the song he wrote for his two-minute pitch to a Jewish literary council, based on the music of gilbert & sullivan’s “I am the very model of a modern major-general” from the Pirates of Penzance.

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18 The arTs JTNews . www.JTNews.NeT . friday, ocTober 15, 2010

NEW YORK (Tablet) — A few weeks ago, writing about Antony Polonsky’s history of Eastern European Jewry in the late 19th century, I remarked on the way that American Jewish nostalgia and guilt toward the vanished “old world” makes it difficult for us to see that world as it really was.

The reputation of Isaac Bashevis Singer, whose novel The Magician of Lublin has just been reissued in a 50th-anniversary edition, is one major example of this kind of confusion.

A large part of Singer’s popularity, there can be no doubt, comes from the way he lends himself to being read as a folklorist, writing about dybbuks and holy fools in an age-old Jewish landscape. That the world he wrote about, and the Yid-dish language he wrote in, were practi-cally extinguished in the decade after he came to the United States, in 1935, only increases the sense that he was a messen-ger from another world.

The Nobel Committee’s official biog-raphy of Singer, who won the literature prize in 1978, sums up this view perfectly: He wrote about “the world and life of East European Jewry, such as it was lived in cities and villages, in poverty and perse-cution, and imbued with sincere piety and rites combined with blind faith and super-stition.”

Look a little closer, however, and it becomes clear that Singer, far from being gentle and grandfatherly, was as shock-ingly modern a writer as Dostoevsky. He is a chronicler of spiritual disintegration, exploring the devastating effects of appe-tite and passion — even of thought itself — on souls unprotected by faith.

When devils appear in his work, as in the great story “The Gentleman From Cracow,” they are not quaint folk-devils but figures of genuine, terrifying evil. And in his post-Holocaust ghost stories, like “A Wedding in Brownsville” and “The Cafe-teria,” he seems to transcend parable, as if only the literally incredible — a party full of murdered Jews who don’t know they are dead, the appearance of Hitler in a Broadway café — could be adequate to the

unbelievable truth.The Magician of Lublin may not exactly

be “a lost classic,” as the cover of the new paperback claims — it went through sev-eral editions in the 1960s and 1970s, and was even made into a movie in 1979 star-ring Alan Arkin. But its reissuance is still quite welcome because the novel is one of the clearest exam-ples of the ways this urban, intellec-tual, 20th century writer makes use of the materials of the Jewish past.

Yasha Mazur, the title character, is a magician in the sense that Harry Houd-ini was a magician: He is an acrobat, contortionist and escape artist who performs at theaters in Poland while he dreams of making it big in Western Europe.

Another way of putting it is that he is an impostor, using sleight of hand to show people the kinds of miracles they so desperately want to believe in.

In this way, Singer makes clear, the magician is a stand-in for the novelist whose powers of imagination are also a kind of secular enchantment. And Yasha serves Singer in much the same way that Moses Herzog served Saul Bellow in Herzog, a novel published a few years later: As a surrogate self, a way of turning his own experiences and reveries into fiction.

When we first meet Yasha, he is at home with his wife, the pious Esther, who “wore the customary kerchief and kept a kosher kitchen; she observed the Sabbath and all the laws.” But, crucially, she is unable to have children, and Singer makes much of the fact that Yasha has never assumed a father’s stake in the community. He remains a kind of overgrown child him-

self, only dropping in on Esther for a few days between performing tours. And once he is back on the road his assistant, Magda, a Polish gentile, doubles as a common-law wife — so much so that her mother treats Yasha as practically a son-in-law.

As the novel opens, however, we learn that this comfortable quasi-big-

amy has been upset by Yasha’s love for a new woman, Emilia, a professor’s widow who lives a precari-ously genteel life in Warsaw. It is clear, in the way of a fairy tale, that each of these women also represents a fate: If Esther is Jewish tra-dition and Magda is artistic bohemia, Emilia represents bourgeois striving. Unlike Yasha’s other lovers, she will not sleep with him until they are married, and she will not marry him unless he con-verts to Catholicism,

takes her away to Italy, and works toward becoming famous and respectable.

The plot, which unfolds over a few days, is driven by Yasha’s uncertainty about which woman, and which life, he wants. There is also the further complica-tion that to make Emilia’s dreams come true, he will need to get his hands on a large sum of money. For the most part, the book consists simply of Yasha’s rest-less roaming through the city as he tries to make up his mind.

As he goes from apartment to tavern to synagogue, Yasha also keeps up a frenetic internal debate. Like Bellow, his contempo-rary and occasional translator, Singer makes a middle-aged man’s joyless womanizing a symptom of a deeper spiritual crisis.

In the first few pages, he contrasts Esther’s piety with her husband’s skepticism.

“Yasha spent his Sabbath talking and smoking cigarettes among musicians,” Singer writes. “To the earnest moralists who attempted to get him to mend his ways, he would always answer: ‘When were you in heaven, and what did God look like?’ “

It is a mocking question but, as the book unfolds, also a deadly serious one, for it becomes clear that Yasha’s lusts are the product of boredom and despair: “Like a drunkard who drowns his sorrow in alcohol, he thought. He could never understand how people managed to live in one place and spend their entire lives with one woman without becoming melan-choly. He, Yasha, was forever at the point of depression.”

But if Yasha is unable to commit to Esther, or to his ancestors’ beliefs and way of living, he is equally unable to commit to Emilia and break with his inherited con-science. He changes his mind about God and Judaism literally from one page to the next.

When Yasha stumbles into a prayer-house and puts on tefillin for the first time since adolescence, he is filled with a sudden sense of God’s presence.

“Yes, that there were other worlds, Yasha had always felt,” Singer writes. “He could almost see them. I must be a Jew! he said to himself. A Jew like all the others!”

So ends chapter 6; as chapter 7 begins, he starts to wonder, “Why all the excite-ment? What proof is there that a God exists who hears your prayers? There are innumerable religions in the world, and each contradicts the other.”

The last part of the novel is colored by Yasha’s increasing pain, and his reckless refusal to get a broken leg treated — as if he is half-consciously willing himself to die, as the only possible escape from his quandary.

“His fingers had become white and shrunken, the tips shriveled like those of a mortally ill person or of a corpse. It was as if his heart were being crushed by a giant fist,” Singer writes.

As it turns out, the novel has a differ-ent ending in store for Yasha. His sins will be punished by death, but not his own; and the guilt of this culminating tragedy will drive him into an act of penitence that recalls both the legends of the Baal Shem Tov and the stories of Kafka.

The dark power of The Magician of Lublin is nowhere clearer than in its con-cluding message — that for a modern man, to return to God may require a decision as violent and frightening as any crime.

Reprinted from Tabletmag.com, a new read on Jewish life.

For I.B. singer’s ‘magician,’ some torturous decisionsaDaM kiRSch Tablet Magazine

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friday, ocTober 15, 2010 . www.JTNews.NeT . JTNews commuNiTy caleNdar 19

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For a complete listing of events, or to add your event to the JTNews calendar, visit www.jtnews.net. Calendar events must be submitted no later than 10 days before publication.

1300 114TH AVE SE • SUITE 106BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON 98004TELEPHONE: 425.454.2701FAX: [email protected]

S.M. PIHAC O M P A N Y

SAMUEL M. PIHA, CCIMPRINCIPALCELL: 206.794.6008

COMM

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LEASING & SALES

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KirklandPerformanceCenter

the baudboys & the perfect gentlemennovember 5 7:30 pm

Two all-male a cappella groups in one night!

tom wopatnovember 6 8 pmBroadway singing sensation!

www.kpcenter.org · 425.893.9900

Candle Lighting Timesoct. 15 ............................ 6:05 p.m.oct. 22 ........................... 5:52 p.m.oct. 29 ........................... 5:40 p.m.Nov. 5 ............................. 5:29 p.m.

FRiDay 15 octobeR 6:15–8:30 p.m. — Bringing Baby Home

Marjorie Schnyder at familylife@jfsseattle.

org or 206-861-3146 or www.jfsseattle.orgCouples of all backgrounds are invited for this workshop series for expecting couples or couples with a baby or toddler at home. Registration space is limited. Cost includes materials. Scholarships available. $150/couple. At Jewish Family Service, 1601 16th Ave., Seattle.

SatuRDay 16 octobeR 7–10 p.m. — Women’s Torah Siyyum Celebra-tion

[email protected] or 206-547-3914 or

www.kadima.orgCome see and celebrate the completed Women’s Torah and enjoy a kiddush luncheon after Shabbat morning services. Then join the artists and scribes behind the Women’s Torah Project for a panel discussion on the project. $20 donation. At Hillel UW, 4745 17th Ave. NE, Seattle.

SunDay 17 octobeR 7–9 p.m. — youth Mitzvah Fund

Marla Goldberg at marlag@jewishinseattle.

org or 206-774-2230 or www.jewishinseattle.orgParticipants invite friends and family (through Bar/Bat Mitzvah announcements, for instance) to donate into an individual fund. Each year, YMF teens determine which nonprofits should receive money. Funds continue to grow through added gifts throughout high school, as they learn about the process and importance of giving. Location TBD.

MonDay 18 octobeR 6:30–8:30 p.m. — introduction to Mah Jongg

bit.ly/cCZzV4

Experience the fun, challenge, and social camaraderie that Mah Jongg offers. Learn the tiles and the rules of the game. Enjoy the experience of playing in a comfortable environment. Register online. $15/$20 for nonmembers. At the Stroum Jewish Community Center, 3801 E Mercer Way, Mercer Island.

11 a.m.–12 p.m. — Women only Torah Study Class

www.chabadissaquah.com

Mrs. Nechama Farkash leads this weekly Torah study group, in which women will discuss the corresponding Parshah. At Chabad of the Central Cascades, 2141 SE Blacknugget Road, Issaquah.

tueSDay 19 octobeR 7:30–9:30 p.m. — Spend a High School Semester in israel info Session

Judy Greene at [email protected] or

212-678-8883Tichon Ramah Yerushalayim, the spring semester program, and USY High, the two-month, partial-semester program sponsored by Ramah Programs in Israel, are open to students in 10th-12th grades.

Daniel Laufer, director of the Ramah Jerusalem High School, will present an overview of the program and answer questions. At The Cahn Home, address upon RSVP, Redmond.

FRiDay 22 octobeR 12:00–1:30 p.m. – Robert Vasen Foundation Community Luncheon

Robert Vasen Foundation at

[email protected] or www.robertvasen.com/foundation/luncheon/Robert Vasen, a young member of the Seattle-area Jewish community, was killed in 2006 by a drunk driver. The foundation bearing his name will be holding a fundraiser luncheon to help with tutoring programs for at-risk teens. $125 suggested donation. At Qwest Field – West Club Lounge, 800 Occidental Ave. S, Seattle.

8–10 p.m. — The Westerbork Serenade206-679-3271

This one-man show by David Natale tells the stories of Jewish cabaret performers held by Nazis in a transit camp. $20. At The Odd Duck Theater, 1214 10th Ave, Seattle.

SatuRDay 23 octobeR 6–9 p.m. — art Sale and Jewish Foods Social

Sherwin Alpert at sherwinalpert@comcast.

net or 206-577-0403 or betchaverim.orgBet Chaverim welcomes the community to participate in celebrating Jewish foods and local arts and crafts. Some pieces will be donated and sold at a silent auction; other artists will have their pieces on display and for sale. Community members interested in selling or displaying art should get in touch by Oct. 22. $5, $10 for families. At Bet Chaverim, 25701

14th Pl. S, Des Moines.



SunDay 24 octobeR 6–8 p.m. — Northwest yeshiva High School open House

[email protected] or 206-232-5272

Northwest Yeshiva High School open house for prospective students and families. RSVP for more information. At Northwest Yeshiva High School, 5017 90th Ave. SE, Mercer Island.



SatuRDay 30 octobeR7 p.m. — israeli Columnist Bradley Burston

206-442-0277 or [email protected] or

www.jstreet.org/seattleAs peace talks continue between the Israelis and Palestinians, renowned Israeli commentator and Ha’aretz columnist Bradley Burston will discuss “Pro-Mideast in America: Getting Past ‘Pro-Israel’ and ‘Pro-Palestine.” Hosted by J Street Seattle, and co-sponsored by Congregation Beth Shalom and the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. At Congregation Beth Shalom, 6800 35th Ave. NE, Seattle.

cal

Dentists

Toni Calvo Waldbaum, DDSRichard Calvo, DDS

206-246-1424 ☎☎Cosmetic & Restorative Dentistry Designing beautiful smiles 207 SW 156th St., #4, Seattle

Warren J. Libman, D.D.S., M.S.D.425-453-1308☎☎www.libmandds.com��

Certified Specialist in Prosthodontics: • Restorative • Reconstructive • Cosmetic Dentistry 14595 Bel Red Rd. #100, Bellevue

Arnold S. Reich, D.M.D.425-228-6444☎☎www.drareich.com ��

Just off 405 in N. Renton • Gentle Care • Family • Preventive • Cosmetic Dentistry

Martin A. Rabin, D.M.D., P.S. Kirkland: 425-821-9595☎☎Seattle: 206-623-4031☎☎www.rabinimplantperio.com��

Specializing in Periodontics.Dental Implants • Cosmetic Gum Surgery Oral Conscious Sedation

Michael Spektor, D.D.S.425-643-3746☎☎[email protected] ☎✉www.spektordental.com��

Specializing in periodontics, dental implants, and cosmetic gum therapy.Bellevue

Wendy Shultz Spektor, D.D.S.425-454-1322☎☎[email protected]☎✉www.spektordental.com ��

Emphasis: Cosmetic and Preventive Dentistry • Convenient location in Bellevue

connecting professionals

with our jewish

community

financial services

Hamrick Investment Counsel, LLCRoy A. Hamrick, CFA

206-441-9911☎☎[email protected]☎✉www.hamrickinvestment.com��

Professional portfolio management services for individuals, foundations and nonprofit organizations.

Mass Mutual Financial GroupAlbert Israel, CFP

206-346-3327☎☎[email protected]☎✉

Jamison Russ206-346-3266☎☎[email protected] ☎✉

Retirement planning for those nearing retirement • Estate planning for those subject to estate taxes • General investment management • Life, disability, long-term care & health insurance • Complimentary one hour sessions available

Solomon M. Karmel, Ph.D First Allied Securities

425-454-2285 x 1080 ☎☎www.hedgingstrategist.com ��

Retirement, stocks, bonds, college, annuities, business 401Ks.

funeral/Burial services

Hills of Eternity CemeteryOwned and operated by Temple De Hirsch Sinai

206-323-8486☎☎Serving the greater Seattle Jewish com-munity. Jewish cemetery open to all pre-need and at-need services. Affordable rates • Planning assistance.Queen Anne, Seattle

graphic Design

Spear Studios, Graphic Design Sandra Spear


• Newsletters • Brochures • Logos • Letterheads • Custom invitations • Photo Editing for Genealogy Projects

insurance

Abolofia Insurance AgencyBob Abolofia, Agent

425-641-7682☎☎425-988-0280 [email protected] ☎✉

Independent agent representing Pemco since 1979

Eastside Insurance ServicesChuck Rubin, agent

425-271-3101☎☎425-277-3711 f

4508 NE 4th, #B, RentonTom Brody, agent

425-646-3932☎☎425-646-8750 f

2227 112th Ave. NE, Bellevue We represent Pemco, Safeco, Hartford & Progressive

www.e-z-insurance.com ��

you come highly recommended.

online!Post your own listing on our Web site and choose even more options, including your

logo, up to five photographs, and detailed text you can update any time.

If your business is on the Eastside or South Sound, call Lynn at 206-774-2264;

Northend or West Seattle, call Stacy at 206-774-2292

Call 206-441-4553 for more information, or log on to www.jtnews.net and click on

the Professional Directory logo to get started.

professional directory to jewish washington

10/152010

care givers

HomeCare Associates A program of Jewish Family Service

206-861-3193☎☎www.homecareassoc.org��

Provides personal care, assistance with daily activities, medication reminders, light housekeeping, meal preparation and companionship to older adults living at home or in assisted-living facilities.

Hyatt Home Care ServicesLive-in and Hourly Care

206-851-5277☎☎www.hyatthomecare.com ��

Providing adults with personal care, medication reminders, meal preparation, errands, household chores, pet care and companionship.

Seniors Helping SeniorsHome Care Agency

206-971-6616☎☎www.seniorshelpingseniors.com��

A senior helping another senior. We offer all the services you need to remain in your own home: transportation, errands and doctor appointments, companion and per-sonal care, homemaker services, pet care and more. A way to give and receive.

catering

Leah’s Catering, Inc. Seattle’s Premier Kosher Caterer


Full Service • Glatt Kosher Delivery or Pickup • All your catering needs. • Va’ad supervised.

Madison Park CafeSimmering in Seattle for over 30 years

206-324-2626 ☎☎Full service catering for all your Jewish life passages: Bar/Bat Mitzvahs • Weddings • Brit Milah • Special Occasions. Karen Binder

Matzoh Momma Catering Catering with a personal touch

206-324-☎☎ mAmAServing the community for over 25 years.Full service catering and event planning for all your Life Cycle events. miriam and Pip meyerson

certified public accountants

Dennis B. Goldstein & Assoc., CPAs, PSTax Preparation & Consulting

425-455-0430☎☎425-455-0459 [email protected]☎✉

Newman Dierst Hales, PLLCNolan A. Newman, CPA

206-284-1383☎☎[email protected]☎✉www.ndhaccountants.com ��

Tax • Accounting • Healthcare Consulting

college placement

College Placement Consultants425-453-1730☎☎[email protected]☎✉www.collegeplacementconsultants.com ��

Pauline B. Reiter, Ph.D. Expert help with undergraduate and graduate school college selection, applications and essays. 40 Lake Bellevue, #100, Bellevue 98005

Linda Jacobs & AssociatesCollege Placement Services

206-323-8902☎☎[email protected] ☎✉

Successfully matching student and school. Seattle.

counselors/therapists

Jewish Family Service Individual, couple, child and family therapy

206-861-3195☎☎www.jfsseattle.org��

Expertise with life transitions, relationships and personal challenges. Jewish knowledge and sensitivity. Offices in Seattle and Bellevue. Day and evening hours. Subsidized fee scale available.

Frances M. Pomerantz, MSLicensed Marriage & Family Therapist

425-451-1655☎☎[email protected] ☎✉

Specializing in couples and individuals. Facilitating better communication, more satisfying relationships, increased self-awareness and personal growth. Day & early eve hours available. 1621 114th Ave. SE, #224, Bellevue 98004

mohelim

Rabbi Simon Benzaquen206-721-2275 • 206-723-3028☎☎

Fastest Mohel in the WestCertified mohel

photographers

All About GraphicsJoel Dames Photography

206-367-1276☎☎www.joeldamesphotography.com ��

Events, Commercial, Portraits, Graphics, Albums • All your photgraphic needs

Dani Weiss Photography 206-760-3336☎☎www.daniweissphotography.com��

Photographer Specializing in People.Bar/Bat mitzvahs, parties, promotions &weddings. Reasonable rates Digital or film

physician

Lakeview Family Practice Mindy Blaski, MDWe provide expert personal medical care

206-526-0210☎☎www.lakeviewmD.com��

mindy Blaski mD is Board certified in Family Medicine. She and the staff take pride in personal and up-to-date medical care! Dr. Blaski speaks Yiddish, Hungar-ian and Spanish.

Vision Improvement Center of Seattle, PSJoseph N. Trachtman, O.D., Ph.D.


108 5th Avevue S, Suite C-1 Seattle, WA 98104 Serving the Central District. Vision improvement and rehabilitation.

senior services

Jewish Family Service206-461-3240☎☎www.jfsseattle.org��

Comprehensive geriatric care manage-ment and support services for seniors and their families. Expertise with in-home assessments, residential placement, fam-ily dynamics and on-going case manage-ment. Jewish knowledge and sensitivity.

The Summit at First Hill206-652-4444☎☎www.klinegallandcenter.org��

The only Jewish retirement community in the state of Washington offers transition assessment and planning for individuals looking to downsize or be part of an active community of peers. multi-disciplinary professionals with depth of experience available for consultation.

friday, ocTober 15, 2010 . www.JTNews.NeT . JTNews world News 21

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Here are some recent stories from Israel you may have missed.Dancing with Pamela

Former “Baywatch” star Pamela Ander-son is preparing to dance into Israelis’ hearts.

Coming off her sixth-place finish on America’s “Dancing with the Stars,” the 43-year-old Anderson will appear as a guest judge in the sixth season of Israel’s “Dancing” version. In addition to voting and offering the Israeli dancers feedback, the former model and Playboy cover girl reportedly will do some dancing, too.

Anderson’s comments will be subtitled in Hebrew.

Don’t mess with the monkeysA new security barrier going up in

Jerusalem will protect Israeli families from a new kind of intifada: rock-throwing chimpanzees.

The chimps at Jerusalem’s Bibli-cal Zoo begin throwing rocks whenever they became agitated, The Jerusalem Post reported. And their rock-throwing antics usually generate large crowds, agitating them even more.

The new reinforced glass barrier, which is not called a security fence, coupled with filling in the moat in the chimpan-zee exhibit, will allow the chimps to come right to the glass and get a close-up view of their human audience.

Freezing eggs for future fertility

Healthy Israeli women in their 30s can now freeze their eggs for future use.

Under the Health Min-istry’s national health care package, the women will be allowed to freeze 20 ova harvested in up to four extractions.

Until now, only women undergoing current fertil-ity treatments or potentially egg-destroy-ing treatment such as chemotherapy were covered for egg freezing under the national health care plan.

The new law, which went into effect

at the beginning of the month, will also allow Israeli women to serve as egg donors, meaning that Israelis will not have to look to women abroad for egg donations.

High prices for iPhone 4

Whoever said talk is cheap never tried to pur-chase the latest smartphone in Israel. Israelis pay the world’s highest prices for the new iPhone 4, accord-ing to several surveys.

An unlocked 16 giga-byte iPhone 4 purchased in Israel will cost nearly $1,100, compared to prices in the $700 range in Brit-ain and Canada, according to the Israeli business daily

The Marker.The discrepancy in price comes from

several factors, The Media Line reported, including Israel’s hefty 17 percent Value Added Tax and the fact that one company,

iDigital, has a monopoly on the distribu-tion of Apple products in Israel.

The high prices send many Israelis to eBay to buy their devices, or to buy when they are abroad.

Biding their time for BieberYoung Israeli music fans are keeping

their summer music calendars open after hearing that teen pop star Justin Bieber will perform in Israel.

Seven Israeli producers are vying for the opportunity to bring the 16-year-old heartthrob to center stage in Israel next summer or perhaps in April, Yediot Achronot reported last week. The perfor-mance in Israel would be part of Bieber’s “My World Tour” that began in June fol-lowing the launch of his second album, “My World 2.0.”

Bieber recently accepted an offer to perform in Israel at a private event held by a French millionaire, according to Yediot. The cost to stage a Bieber concert in Israel is estimated at $1.5 million, the newspa-per reported.

Meanwhile, a Facebook page called “Justin Bieber fans in Israel” had 11,224 fans as of Sunday.

israel under the radar: dancing with pamela, monkeys go mad, and welcoming Justin bieberMaRcy oSteR JTa World News Service

Cynthia Williams Call me for current market information Call 206-769-7140

Managing Broker, EcoBroker Quorum—Laurelhurst, Inc.

[email protected] www.seattlehomesforsale.net

Office 206-522-7003

Russ Katz, RealtorWindermere Real Estate/Wall St. Inc.206-284-7327 (Direct)www.russellkatz.com

JDS Grad & Past Board of Trustees MemberMercer Island High School Grad

University of Washington Grad

Other critters are considered

DOg-walking anD pet-sitting

Rates start at $20 per 30 minutes

For more info:www.deliriouspetsitting.comC

ater

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to c

ats

and

dogs

I believe women take on the role of nurturer first and foremost. So who is taking care of them?

Karen Calara MSPT, CSCSWomen come to me to find

support, get better, and go on to live vivacious lives.

Physical Therapy for Women1836 Westlake Ave N, Suite 202 • Seattle206.283.1030 • www.thenextsteppt.com

Co-sponsors: AJC Seattle Jewish Film Festival • Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue • Congregation Beth Shalom Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle • Temple B’nai Torah • The Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle The Seattle Jewish Community School • The Stroum Jewish Studies Program at the University of Washington

Herzl Ner-Tamid cordially invites you to join us at

Torahthon4“The Gems of Jewish

Learning: Exploring the Many Facets of Judaism”

• Wednesday Evenings November 3, 10, and 17 • 7:00 – 9:30 pm

• Special Opening Night Reception starting at 6:45 pm

• $15 per evening (two classes) or all three evenings for $36

• For more information and to register, go to www.h-nt.org or call 206-232-8555 ext 220Herzl Ner-Tamid 3700 East Mercer Way, Mercer Island, WA 98040

aPPLE CoRP.

october 15, 2010 @jtnews

cleaning services

domestic angelsClean your house and office

Reasonable rates • Licensed/Bonded Responsible • References • Free estimate

Seattle/Eastside

Call Yolimar Perez or Maria Absalon206-356-2245 or 206-391-9792

[email protected]

bet alef meditative synagogueteaching Position

for our unique 2 year B’nai Mitzvah ProgramSundays from 9–12:30 in North Seattle

Beginning Hebrew and prayers

Résumé and cover letter to shellie oakley at [email protected]

college placement

WE NEED CARS!• Free Pick-up • No DOL filing

• No smog certif. • Running or not

Donate your used car to Chabad & receive a tremendous tax write-off.

• Any vehicle okay • Plus RVs, boats, real estate, lots, etc.

206-527-1411

Traditional Jewish funeral services provided by the Seattle Jewish Chapel. For further information, please call 206-725-3067.

Burial plots are available for purchase at Bikur Cholim and Machzikay Hadath cemeteries. For further information, please call 206-721-0970.

funeral/burial services

cemetery gan shalomA Jewish cemetery that meets the needs of

the greater Seattle Jewish community. Zero interest payments available.

For information, call temple Beth am at 206-525-0915.

complete funeral/burial servicesServing the needs of the greater Seattle community

Planning assistance • Affordable $2295.00

Howden-Kennedy funeral HomeDennis 206-799-3334 • Jack Barokas 206-725-0364

announcements

entertainment

linda Jacobs & associatescollege Placement services

206/323-8902 [email protected]

a college eDUcatIon Is a maJor InVestmentSensitive professional assistance to ensure a succesful match between student and school

home services

senior services

Gift Certificate Available!

a housecleaning service Seattle Eastside 206/325-8902 425/454-1512

www.renta-yenta.com• Licensed • Bonded • insured

Commercial & ResidentialtoRChdown/shingle speCialties

new • re-roofs leaks • repairs 24 hours

lic. #roofM**961pD

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shouk

help wanted help wanted

Temple De Hirsch Sinai seeks a dynam-ic, organized, experienced manager with excellent development, marketing and communication skills to lead our short and long term financial development efforts, collaborate with Board, Clergy and Temple Staff and assist the Executive Director overseeing administration of TDHS.

Submit your resume and cover letter to Larry Broder at

[email protected]

TEMPLEDe Hirsch Sinai206.323.8486 | [email protected] | www.tdhs-nw.org

Assistant Executive Director

(Development & Administration)

seeking writersPoems (3 max) and/or essays and fiction (under 5,000 words) on Northwest and Jewish themes from established and emerging writers for Spring 2011 issue of Drash. Include separate page with contact info and short bio.

Deadline: December 15, 2010 submit by snailmail only to: Wendy Marcus, Music Director

Temple Beth Am 2632 NE 80th St., Seattle 98115

206-525-0915 www.templebetham.org

michael bilavskymusician & singer

One man band Keyboard piano

Plays & sings all types of music for any simcha

Bar/Bat Mitzvahs • All your special events

I do it all! From klezmer, Hassidic, Israeli to swing & rock & roll.

Customize the music to your taste.

For more info, call 206-528-4722

or [email protected]

DevelopMent assistantJewish Family service is currently seeking a part-time (30/hours/week)

Development assistant to join our marketing team.

In this role, you will provide support to the development and marketing staff with all aspects of the agency’s annual and legacy campaigns. You will be part of an energetic, fast paced environment working with donors, volunteers, and team members. Duties include creating correspondence, taking meeting minutes, creating reports and developing proposals and other materials for committee meetings and events. Must have excellent customer service skills. You will work with the database software program, Raisers Edge, to keep notes updated, reports generated and prospective information up to date. At times, you will provide support and back up for our Marketing Department with social media and website management.

Requirements• Excellent writing, communication, customer service andorganizational skills.• Excellent computer skills including proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite of products including Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook. Raiser’s Edge experience preferred.• Knowledge of social media and website management, blog, and email marketing software preferred.• Must be a team player.• Bachelor’s Degree required.

Jewish Family service – seattle (JFs) firmly embraces the belief that repairing the world begins here at home. JFS delivers essential human services to alleviate suffering, sustain healthy relationships and support people in times of need. It’s been that way since 1892, and we don’t plan on changing now. Our 10 different programs are as diverse as the community we serve including domestic violence prevention and alternatives to addiction, counseling, refugee and immigrant services, in-home care and a food bank. Our staff of friendly, dedicated, passionate professionals is driven by our mission and values. If you want to make a difference in the lives of others, Jewish Family Service might just be the career move you’ve been waiting for! Check us out at www.jfsseattle.org.

Jewish Family Service offers a generous benefits package including:• Health, dental and vision insurance• Life insurance and Long Term Disability• Employer-paid Pension and 403B Plan• Long Term Care• Paid holidays, vacation and Jewish holidays

JFs is an equal Opportunity employerto apply, send résumés to [email protected]

afH options provides fRee Placement assistance in

adult family homes when the current residence of a loved one is no longer the safest option.

• Complimentary nursing assessments• Placements based on care needs, location & cost• Comprehensive screening of care facilities• Personalized tours available 7 days a week• Follow up calls and visitsServing families of King and Snohomish counties

Call us: 206-786-9124 or visit us at: www.afHoptions.com

next issue: octobeR 29

ad deadline: octobeR 20

call becky: 206-774-2238

Become a fan > jtnewsTweet with us > jew_ish

friday, ocTober 15, 2010 . www.JTNews.NeT . JTNews lifecycles 23

How do i submit a Lifecycle announcement? Send lifecycle notices to: JTNews/Lifecycles, 2041 Third Ave., Seattle, WA 98121E-mail to: [email protected] Phone 206-441-4553 for assistance. Submissions for the October 29, 2010 issue are due by October 19Download forms or submit online at www.jtnews.net/index.php?/lifecyclePlease submit images in jpg format, 400 KB or larger. Thank you!

FOR INQUIRIES AND INFORMATION: WWW.BUSH.EDU OR CALL (206) 326-7736

B’nai Mitzvah, company parties, reunions, weddings, a cozy dinner for 50...

www.we l ldoneven t s . comWhat will make your event memorable, beautiful, and easy on you?

A powerful middle school experience means the world to your child.

• Culture of collaboration & respect• Average class size of 15 students• Located at Green Lake in Seattle

Billings admits students of any race, color, religion, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin.

Visit us at an Open House, 7 p.m., Nov. 9 or Dec. 8.www.billingsmiddleschool.org • (206) 547-4614

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A powerful middle school experienceowerful middle smeans the world to yyour child.

Three years of vigorous education moves students ahead for life.

Bat MitzvahHana Rae Goldroot

Hana will celebrate her Bat Mitzvah on October 23, 2010 at Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue.

Hana is the daughter of Robin Goldstein and Tim Root. Her sister is Maya Alisse Goldroot. Her grandparents are Ronni and Richard Goldstein of Ventura, Calif. and Bill and Sherry Root of Ann Arbor, Mich.

Hana is a 7th grader at Timbercrest Jr. High. She enjoys books, computers, drawing, clarinet and piano.

Bat MitzvahSarah Benette Powazek

Sarah was called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah on October 9, 2010.

She is the daughter of Laurie and Alan Powazek and the sister of Josh and Jonah. Her grandparents are Linda and Mervyn Gerson of Nevada and the late Regina and Ben Powazek. Sarah was named for her Grandpa Ben.

Sarah is a 7th grader at Issaquah Middle School and enjoys skiing, dancing, playing viola, spending time with her friends, and baking. For her mitzvah project, she will hold a bake sale in support of Share Our Strength — Bake Across America, an organization raising money to end childhood hunger.

Bat MitzvahArielle Rachel Behar

Arielle will celebrate her Bat Mitzvah on October 16, 2010 at Congregation Ezra Bessaroth in Seattle.

Arielle is the daughter of Norman and Lisa Behar of Seattle and the sister of Eliana. Her grandparents are Phillip and Judy Koppel of Bellevue, Isaac Behar of Seattle, and the late Eleanor Behar.

Arielle is a 6th grader at Seattle Hebrew Academy. She plays on volleyball and basketball teams, and enjoys swimming, boating, and playing piano. For her Bat Mitzvah project, she is volunteering at the Jewish Family Service food bank.

When you let JFS “Tribute Cards” do the talking, you send your best wishes and say you care about funding vital JFS programs here at home. Call Irene at (206) 861-3150 or, on the web, click on “Donations” at www.jfsseattle.org. Use Visa or MasterCard. It’s the most gratifying 2-for-1 in town.

2-for-1 “ You’re Amazing” Cards

approaches any crimes, in particular van-dalism of this nature, as hate crimes and investigate as such.

“I am impressed and pleased that the Mercer Island Please Department acted effectively and efficiently,” said Fox.

Mercer Island has three Jewish facil-ities. The yeshiva high school, near the center of the island on its main north-south thoroughfare, was one of four facil-ities vandalized between Sept. 14 and 17. According to the Mercer Island Reporter, one of the minors arrested is a suspect in other vandalism incidents as well.

vanDaLIsm W Page 1

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Join the diplomats & stafffor consular services,

culture events, andprograms about Israel.

For a complete list ofevents and services offered,

please visit www.israeliconsulate.org

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Being Jewish on the East Coast is not the same as being Jewish on the West Coast. It’s a feeling a lot of people may have, but can’t quantify in any specific way beyond the availability of pastrami and corned beef. Ellen Eisenberg has made her career about the study of those differences, and how the history of Jews on the West Coast is so different from those who either migrated to or stayed East.

“American Jewish history is so domi-nated by New York, and there is sort of an attitude that once you know New York Jewry, you know American Jewry and everything else is a kind of microcosm.” Eisenberg said. “We know that’s not the case.”

Eisenberg, a professor of American His-tory at Willamette University in Salem, Ore. has spent between the last 12 and 15 years studying West Coast Jewry. She came up to Seattle at the beginning of the month for two separate events based on two sepa-rate books she has recently authored or co-authored. One, a history of Jewish response to Japanese Internment, The First to Cry Down Injustice? Western Jews and Japanese Removal During WWII, was the subject of a talk she gave for the Stroum Jewish Studies Program at the University of Washington. The other, Jews of the Pacific Coast: Rein-

venting Community on America’s Edge, was written over the course of 10 years with fellow experts Ava F. Kahn and William Toll. Eisenberg spoke about this book and heard from many of the people most inter-ested in the subject of local Jewish history at the Washington State Jewish Historical Society’s annual meeting.

Eisenberg said there has been ongo-ing debate about whether differences exist between different populations of Jews around the country, as well as the impor-tance of those differences.

“At some times it’s reduced to, ‘Are Jewish Southerners more like other South-erners or are they more like Jews in other parts of the country?’ and there are pro-ponents on both sides of that,” Eisenberg said. “As we compare notes on different communities in different time periods, we really came to a conclusion that the differ-ences were significant, that it wasn’t just superficial.”

In the case of Jews that came West, often starting with the gold rush in the mid-1800s, those differences were immediate.

“Starting from the moment of settle-ment, Jews came in with everybody else, so they weren’t newcomers coming to this established society,” Eisenberg said. “The diversity of the population here meant

that Jews were received as part of the white majority.”

The openness and inclusion that came with everyone being new to these parts meant that the sensibility of being a white minority religious group was different than in the East.

That inclusion extended into areas where Jews typically might not have been allowed in places like New York, includ-ing country clubs, chambers of commerce, and even elected office.

Here in Washington, one of Seattle’s early mayors, Bailey Gatzert, was Jewish, as was one of its territorial governors. In some of the smaller towns, the Jewish store was often the centerpiece and sometimes the first brick building. Anti-Semitism did rear its head at times, including a period in the 1920s and ’30s in Los Angeles when Jews who had founded the chamber of commerce were no longer allowed to be members. But, Eisenberg noted, “that didn’t happen in other cities.”

What has distinguished the Seattle area from its other West Coast counterparts is its Sephardic population.

“The Sephardic community made up a larger percentage of the total Jewish com-munity than anywhere else, really,” Eisen-berg said.

Jews of the Pacific Coast covers ground all the way to the beginning of the 21st century.

“I get nervous when the history gets too recent, because it’s hard to draw conclu-sions based on something that happened last week,” Eisenberg said. “But we did try to move the book in that direction.”

Research took time, and having access to records was a challenging experience at times — though not always.

“We’re very fortunate here in Seattle that they’re all consolidated here at the University of Washington,” Eisenberg said. “There are communities that have some of their own records, but the Jewish Historical Society has done a good job of bringing them together in one place, with professional archive management. That’s not true in many other places.”

Meeting some of the people whose families and institutions she has written about has been an eye-opening experi-ence, she said. Though nobody has offered significant conflicting historical accounts, Eisenberg said she has heard some feed-back from history enthusiasts that sifting through archives can’t offer.

“They were quick to correct my pro-nunciation of local names and terms,” she said.

How we are differentJoel Magalnick Editor, JTNews

jtnews | october 15, 2010

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