JTNews | January 27, 2012

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january 27, 2012 • 3 shevat 5772 • volume 88, no. 2 • $2

Caryn Gold

Seattle Hebrew Academy student Asher Gold used the snow that more or less shut down the region as an entrepreneurial opportunity. Since he had some spare time on his hands on Wed., Jan. 18 with school being cancelled, he set up a hot chocolate stand outside his house on Capitol Hill. Three Northwest Yeshiva High School students, Laurel Aaronson, Kalman Clement, and Daniel Cohen gladly supported his business instead of taking finals.

Olympia 2012: Death, taxes and marriage
Joel Magalnick Editor, JTnews
In any other year, the hunt for revenue would be front and center in the minds of state legislators. And it certainly is in the minds of community organizations that advocate on behalf of the poor and the disabled. But the attention thus far in this year’s legislative session in Olympia has been the quest for same-sex marriage. As JTNews reported in November, many local Jewish clergy and organizations, including the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, Jewish Family Service, the Anti-Defamation League and Hillel at the University of Washington, have publicly advocated in favor of same-sex marriage. Ninety-six people testified before the Senate Government Operations, Tribal Relations and Elections Committee on Monday regarding Senate Bill 6239. If passed, the current domestic-partnership law, which encompasses benefits for same-sex couples, will become valid only for couples age 62 or older, whether in same- or opposite-sex relationships, and same-sex partnerships for couples under 62 would automatically be converted to marriages by 2014 if the couple does not marry voluntarily. The measure is expected to easily pass the House, and the Senate secured the 25 votes it needs to pass the bill earlier this week. A vote was not scheduled as of press time. Rabbi Jonathan Singer of Temple Beth Am in Seattle, who has been performing same-sex ceremonies for 15 years, said couples unable to marry have been relegated to second-class status. But he and his fellow clergy’s inability to civilly bind the religious ceremony is also an issue, he said. “I, along with many other religious representatives, believe that the state’s discriminating not only against same-sex couples, but against the
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Winter Family Calendar
For complete details about these and other upcoming JFS events and workshops, please visit our website: www.jfsseattle.org
FOR THE COMMUNITY FOR PARENTS FOR COUPLES

AA Meetings at JFS
Tuesdays at 7:00 p.m. Contact (206) 461-3240 or [email protected]
m

Bringing Baby Home
Learn to manage the challenging transition to parenthood m Sundays, New session begins February 19! 9:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Strengthening Lesbian Relationships
Explore how to build a healthier relationship with the woman you love! m Wednesday, March 21 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Contact Leonid Orlov, (206) 861-8784 or [email protected].

Life Gets Better: The Unexpected Pleasures of Growing Older
Wendy Lustbader will share stories and insights about how growing older can be a “joyful adventure.” m Sunday, February 12 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. Contact Ellen Hendin (206) 861-3183 or [email protected].

Parenting Mindfully
The Middah of Truthfulness Drawing on Jewish Values through Musar m Sunday, February 26 11:15 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

FOR ADULTS AGE 60+

Thinking Ahead: Discovering Sources of Retirement Income
Join us if you are about to retire, retired or helping a loved one plan for a successful retirement! m Thursday, March 1 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Contact Leonid Orlov, (206) 861-8784 or [email protected]. Shaarei Tikvah

Emotion Coaching: An Essential Part of Your Parenting Toolbox!
m

Endless Opportunities
A community-wide program offered in partnership with Temple B’nai Torah & Temple De Hirsch Sinai. EO events are open to the public.

Tuesday, March 13 10:00 a.m. - Noon

Parenting Mindfully
The Middah of Patience Drawing on Jewish Values through Musar m Sunday, March 25 11:15 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Contact Marjorie Schnyder, (206) 461-3240 or [email protected].

Mindfulness: A Path to Reducing Stress & Pain
With Charlotte Malkmus m Thursday, February 9 10:30 a.m. – Noon

Purim Celebration for People of All Abilities
A joyful, inclusive and accessible, communitywide celebration with music, activities, and a special Purim Spiel. m Sunday, March 4 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. Contact Marjorie Schnyder, (206) 461-3240 or [email protected].

Mapping the Future: Redistricting
m

FOR SURVIVORS OF DOMESTIC ABUTE
Programs of Project DVORA (Domestic Violence Outreach, Response & Advocacy) are free of charge.

Tuesday, February 14 10:30 a.m. – Noon

Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement
With Matt Preedy m Thursday, February 23 10:30 a.m. – Noon

Support Group for Jewish Women with Controlling Partners
Ongoing Confidential location, dates and time.
m

Mindfulness Group for Greater Self Awareness
Wednesdays, March 21 - May 16 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. Contact Charlotte Malkmus, (206) 861-3157 or [email protected]
m

Outing to Gauguin at the Seattle Art Museum
A docent led tour m Friday, March 2 Varying times

Kids Club: Helping Children who have Witnessed Domestic Abuse
Feb 27 – May 14 Confidential times and location. Contact Project DVORA, (206) 461-3240 or [email protected].
m

Jewish Humor
With Rabbi Robert Maslan m Tuesday, March 13 10:30 a.m. – Noon RSVP Ellen Hendin, (206) 861-3183 or [email protected] regarding all Endless Opportunities programs.

FOR JEWISH SINGLE PARENT FAMILIES

Baking with Chef Eli
Jewish single moms, dads and their children learn to make delicious Jewish treats with Chef Eli Varon. m Sunday, February 5 2:00 – 5:00 p.m. Contact Marjorie Schnyder, (206) 461-3240 or [email protected].

JFS services and programs are made possible through generous community support of

1601 - 16th Avenue, Seattle (206) 461-3240 • www.jfsseattle.org

To donate, please visit www.jfsseattle.org

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OpiniOn

the rabbi’s turn

Cherishing all of our children
Rabbi SaRah newMaRk Congregation Beth Hatikvah
Several weeks ago, I received an email from husband/wife rabbi friends announcing the arrival of their firstborn child, a son, after many years of disappointment. The proud father wrote, “We honor the miracle of IVF and thank God for the miracle of childbirth at our late stage in life.” A Modern Orthodox rabbi friend and his physician wife similarly welcomed a baby boy two years ago, after having long since given up the hope that they would become parents. “Hashem,” said the new mom, “evidently has a sense of humor…we will be ready for retirement when our son is ready for college!” All of us who have welcomed precious children into our lives, whether our own or those of close friends and family members, know the fierce love and protective instincts that these small people engender. Thus I find that a sense of dread overtakes me when Parashat Bo occurs each year in our Torah cycle. This section of text, known as “the Plague Narratives” and begun last week in Parashat Vayera, is painful for those contemporary readers of Torah who cannot help but become increasingly horrified by the thought of the human suffering which must have accompanied each plague as it overtook the land of Egypt. What cumulative terror must have visited the Egyptians as they suffered through the horrific roll call of plagues? The entire population must have been completely traumatized, even before the ninth plague of three terrifying days of complete darkness descend. But the worst is yet to come: In the middle of the night Adonai struck down all the first-born [sons] in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on the throne to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of the cattle. And Pharaoh arose in the night, with all his courtiers and all the Egyptians, because there was a loud cry in Egypt; for there was no house where there was not someone dead. (Exodus 12:30) I believe that this narrative is meant to shock us, to wound our sensibilities, and to knock us out of our complacency. The “loud cry in Egypt” reminds us that all people suffer, and the same Torah that celebrates our redemption through God’s outstretched arm also asks that we not stand idly by the blood of our neighbor (Leviticus 19:16). Pharaoh’s heart was hardened against his own people’s anguish until, at last, the final plague arrived in his own home. Are there loud cries in our world today to which we must respond, modern-day plagues that call out for us to intervene? I keep circling back to those first-born sons, perhaps longed for, like the sons of my dear friends. Many were children, babies even. The death of innocents is never acceptable, and we should be shocked, deeply wounded, and spurred to action when we hear of it. And hear of it we do. The developed world has become alarmingly aware of the plague of gender inequality, and we must not stand idly by. Tragically, while firstborn sons (and all sons) in many parts of the developing world continue to be cherished, baby girls in these lands are too often unwanted, and I suggest that until the entire world values all of its children equally, humanity has not yet achieved true liberation. As journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn reported in their book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, “gendercide” in the developing world has killed more girls in the last 50 years — only because they were female — than were killed in all of the battles of the 20th century. More girls are killed today in what is termed “routine gendercide” in any one decade than people were slaughtered in all of the genocides of the 20th century. This statistic should give us Jews pause, as we know a thing or two about genocide. Half the Sky tells the heartbreaking, personal stories of unwanted girls whose lives are as desperate as were the lives of our ancestors who suffered the cruel bonds of slavery. But as the book details, with a little of the world’s attention, a modern-day miracle occurs: The shackles of injustice shatter. Let us not stand idly by the blood of the millions of girls and women who are unloved, mistreated, abandoned, enslaved, and even killed because of their gender. Let us vow together to create a world in which no one’s hearts are hardened against innocent boys and girls and where all children are loved and cherished.

Barghouti’s own life reveals the BDS deception
RobeRt wilkeS Special to JTnews
I was an interested people-watcher at the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions presentation hosted at Seattle’s St. Mark’s Cathedral on January 5. The featured speaker was author and intellectual Omar Barghouti, now of Ramallah in the West Bank. The hall was packed with well-meaning Christian and Jewish tikkun olam-nistas, but their cause is not about people they wish to help. There was no expression of love or admiration for the Palestinian people — the planet’s perpetual victims. Their passion is about whom they want to hurt: The successful, the modern, and the civilized. It’s difficult to put a perfect word on their anarchic nihilism. Theirs is a desire to drag down nations with the temerity to be economically successful and the unforgivable hubris to protect their own people with a strong military; to wit, Israel and the U.S. Barghouti, 48, was born in Qatar and grew up in Egypt. He spent 11 years in the U.S. and earned a degree in electrical engineering at Columbia University. He has authored two books, The New Intifada: Resisting Israel’s Apartheid (2001), and his current book, BDS — Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights (2011). He is a founder of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, and one of the reigning superstars of the BDS movement. He is also a stealthy, truth-evading missile of misinformation and cleverly disguised lies. Given the good standing in the community of St. Mark’s, he should never have been let in the door. His premise, stated with no facts other than that the U.S. fights wars against Muslims, is that the United States is the world’s most colossal colonial empire and the greatest violator of human rights on the planet. He makes the patently silly argument that Israel and the U.S. are engaged in genocide and that Israel is an apartheid state. Oh, by the way, he believes Iran has a right to an atomic bomb. Israel would not continue to exist, according to Barghouti, but for U.S. government support; and the U.S. government is presently helpless to resist the all-powerful Jewish lobby and Jewish neocons. This interpretation of geopolitics would not be surprising at a skinhead barbecue in northern Idaho, but it’s a bit shocking to hear it pass without protest within the halls of a Protestant cathedral. Barghouti knows how to play a BDS audience. Never failing to take ownership of a political trope, he credits the Palestinians with inventing the Occupy Movement in the first intifada; they are the “99 percent.” If the BDS crowd has a neurosis, it would be a compulsive attraction to victims, no matter how self-inflicted their plight. If you throw in the Jews, you add the salt to the sauce until the flavor is exactly to their taste. Jewish companies, Jewish political lobbying, Jewish neocons in government — Jews are everywhere and all powerful. For this, there is a real word: Judeophobia. Continuing with his own version of history, he states that 700,000 to 800,000 Palestinians were “ethnically cleansed” before Arab armies ever entered Israel. Just how did that happen? Did the Jews put them on railroad cars and send them to concentration camps in Damascus, Beirut and Cairo? And where did they find enough railroad cars, or enough Jews to handle 800,000 people, when most were furiously filling sandbags and building defensive positions in a war no one expected them to win? Most chilling were his doctored slides. He has an image of an Israeli soldier pointing a rifle with a Palestinian boy bound and blindfolded at his feet. In a masterstroke of irony he asserts that IDF soldiers use Palestinian children as human shields. The soldier and the boy are on the same spot, but the boy is in noticeably brighter light. The two images are obviously joined in Photoshop. Another incendiary image designed to froth BDS believers is a t-shirt he says resulted from an IDF shirt-design contest. It has a cartoon of a Muslim woman with the crosshairs centered on her pregnant belly. “One Shot, Two Kills,” was the caption…in English! When I asked an IDF master sergeant and combat veteran about this, he replied tersely, “We don’t do t-shirts.” This, like almost everything in Barghouti’s presentation, is contrived, distorted, or misrepresented. Someone asked Barghouti a semi-challenging question, “What did he mean by ‘Right of Return?’” Barghouti made it clear he means the annihilation of Israel, but he is much too smooth to use those words. He said Palestinian “refugees” (over 7 million of them) should be allowed to resettle in Israel. This is the one-state canard for their real aim, the existential destruction of Israel, and the driving out of the Jews. It has three stages: Demographic, political, and when they are in control, force. There is no reason to believe that, if the Palestinians take control, Hamas and Fatah would tolerate Jews on the land with more forbearance than have other Muslim countries. The BDS dirty secret is that to advocate for BDS is to be against the existence of Israel. To be against the existence of Israel is to believe, unequivocally, that no Jews can live in Israel. This prospect is apparently of no concern to the BDS supporters
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“You can trust this script because it’s so finely written.” — Seattle Repertory Theatre artistic director Jerry Manning, on the upcoming production of I Am My Own Wife.

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The priest and the prostitute: Storytelling as a gift to God
Rabbi will beRkovitz Special to JTnews
Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where others see nothing. —Pissarro I asked her what she was making.” The woman responded, “I’m knitting a tapestry for the alter at my church. It is a gift for God.” Tears welled up in the priest’s eyes as he recalled her response. “In my desire to avoid her, I had never noticed the cloth in her hands. I never bothered to look. Never thought to ask her story. And here this woman was knitting a gift for God.” From that chance encounter, he said, he began to learn her history. Her background. Her story. And yet the priest was reluctant to share his experience with his community despite its almost biblical power and impact. Many of the holiest moments in life are not found in churches or synagogues or in the cloistered study of sacred literature. No, the sacred moments that sustain and bind us together are the sharing of our common humanity through simple encounter — the telling and hearing of our stories, the passing along of our experiences, both epic and passing. I imagine our souls being woven out of our memories and stories — the threads of our lives. Everyone has a story to tell and deserves to tell it. The simple acts of inquiry and listening are among the greatest gifts we can offer. Telling and hearing our stories is a rare instance of a gift given and received in two directions — at once an act of solidarity and reciprocity. It knits together the fabric of our separate lives into a common tapestry. We are taught at an early age not to talk to strangers, but often we keep people as strangers when we could be building relationships. We build bunkers instead of communities. By stopping on the sidewalk and asking what the woman was knitting, the priest stepped off the path of indifference and onto the path of encounter. He stopped seeing a prostitute to be ignored and saw the face of person to engage. He awoke from a life of service to rituals and the comfort in his known world to the truth that all life is sacred. Life is made holy when service to God means service to others and choosing to live that truth in everyday actions — small acts of kindness and humanity — like engaging in a conversation. Listening to someone’s story is a way of showing respect, a way of conveying dignity. We should step further along that path — strive toward a deeper connection and ask to hear a bit, or a bit more, of someone’s story. In truth, it doesn’t matter if we are hearing a story for the first time shared by a complete stranger or for the thousandth time told by a close relative. Just as some people expect to be heard, listened to, even obeyed, others are just as accustomed to being ignored, stepped over, forgotten — even used. It is not always easy to distinguish one from the other. But the humble shrub and the trembling mountain both hold the voice of God. The time of year when we retell stories of our people has just passed. We call them miracles: A baby born in a manger, a small group of believers overcoming the odds to survive. The miracle of light in the darkness. When we tell and listen to our stories we knit together the fabrics of our separate journeys onto the tapestry of humanity. And in that way, we not only offer a gift to each other, we offer a gift to God whom the tradition says created people because of a love of stories.
Rabbi Will Berkovitz is the rabbi-in-residence at the social justice organization Repair the World. This piece originally ran at HuffingtonPost.com.

The priest walked past the prostitutes every day. He had no choice. They were stationed along the narrow road across from his seminary in Italy. But it was the older woman who caused him the most agitation. “These young guys went to ‘see’ her and it really troubled me,” he said. “She could have been their mother.” The priest confessed he never spoke with the women, studiously avoided eye contact, and did his best to never acknowledge their existence. But as is often the case, willed blindness only works for so long when proximity is coupled with repetition. And one day, while following his usual protocol of denial, the older prostitute dropped something as he was walking past. It bounced to a stop at his foot. Without thinking, the priest’s instinct toward kindness compelled him to pick up the thin wooden object, forcing the encounter he had so dutifully avoided for the past several months. “It was a knitting needle,” he said, still sounding surprised. “And out of curiosity,

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inside

Ladino Lesson
by iSaac azoSe
The flower withers, the honor remains. When a person brings flowers to a friend after an illness, the flower will eventually be thrown in the trash, while the good will that caused the person to bring those flowers will always remain.

inside this issue
The day the world listened
Prof. Deborah Lipstadt, who spoke at Temple De Hirsch Sinai this week, has made the study of the Holocaust more accessible to everyone.

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La roza se amurcha, la onor keda.

What we don’t know about Christians
It could fill a book. And, in fact, it did. Prof. Amy-Jill Levine, who co-wrote The Jewish Annotated New Testament, enlightened Seattle with her knowledge.

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Seeking Jewish artists
In mid-February, four artists from Israel will be visiting Seattle to talk about their lives and how they create their art. One of the programs will be a get-together with artists here to share stories, works and a bite to eat. The goal of the program, which will take place on Sun., Feb. 12 on Mercer Island, is to create connections between artists in both countries and to brainstorm a possible project between the two communities. Local artists, whether they do it as a professional or as a passion, are asked to bring two to three pieces of their own work and a vegetarian dish for the potluck. For more information or to sign up, contact [email protected] or 310-597-2772. A community-wide event will be held the night before, at 7 p.m. at Congregation Beth Shalom. RSVP at www.bethshalomseattle.org.

Secret lives of women
Author Iris Krasnow has made it her life’s work to study relationships. She spoke with us prior to her visit this coming weekend to speak to women across the community.

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The best of everything Jewish, as told to us by you
You voted, we listened. Everything you love in this town is listed right here.

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A teen trip to the other Washington

Late last year a group of teens from Northwest Yeshiva High School learned about lobbying on behalf of the Jewish State.

The madcap adventures of a Holocaust collector

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Charlotte von Mahlsdorf was a woman in a man’s body, and the life she lived was worthy of a stage play. That production comes to the Seattle Rep next month.

Remember when
From the Jewish Transcript, January 23, 2004 These days it’s the girls who get most of the glory, but at this game against Grace Academy, Rafi Harel of the Northwest Yeshiva High School’s boys’ basketball team makes a break that helped secure victory for his team.

MORE M.O.T.: Exercises for the legs of a dancer What’s Your JQ?: The Oscars Midrash Community Calendar The Arts Lifecycles Jewish on Earth: Tu B’Shevat conservation The Shouk Classifieds

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The first time the world listened
eMily k. alhadeff assistant Editor, JTnews
“First and foremost, who was Adolf Eichmann?” asked Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt as she began her talk on the evening of Jan. 22 at Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle. Lipstadt was the temple’s 2012 Keller Family Lecture Series speaker for 2012. Lipstadt, the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, was brought to TDHS by Rabbi Daniel Weiner, who has worked with her in the past. “The Keller Family in general and this lecture is an incredible opportunity for the Jewish community to bring in nationally and globally renowned scholars,” said Weiner. Past lectures have featured Thomas Friedman and Amos Oz. Lipstadt is the author of several books, including The Eichmann Trial, History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier, and Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. Contrary to popular belief, Eichmann was not the “architect of the Final Solution,” as he is often described, Lipstadt said. He was one cog in the machine that created the Holocaust, being responsible for deportations and concentration camp preparations from The Netherlands to Greece. “This is someone who was totally devoted to his job,” she said. “He was proud of what he did. He was happy.” Eichmann was responsible for more than 1 million murders, 330,000 of which were Hungarian Jews killed in the final weeks of the war in a last-ditch effort to rid Europe of its Jewish population. The effort was so intense, Lipstadt noted, that the crematoria at Auschwitz couldn’t handle all the bodies. She laid out the chronology of Eichmann’s capture in Argentina to his trial and eventual execution in Israel. A strong and seasoned speaker, she did not gloss over the ironies, which at times morphed into a dark humor. Eichmann’s undoing began in Argentina after the daughter of Lothar Hermann, a German (and Jewish) ex-pat and survivor, started dating his son. “She begins dating a young man named Nick.” Lipstadt paused. “Eichmann.” With Hermann’s tip, German-Jewish lawyer Fritz Bauer and Israeli operatives sniffed out Eichmann, who had changed his name to Ricardo Klement. The Israelis jumped Eichmann, detained him, forged his papers, drugged him, dressed him in an El Al uniform, and checked him through on a first-class ticket to Israel. The story of Eichmann’s coming to justice is, however, less about the man and more about the significance for the future of war crimes trials. Then-Prime Minister David Ben Gurion had a few options. He could have said, “Let Eichmann end up in a drainage ditch...that would be fair warning to other war criminals: Don’t sleep so soundly in your bed,” Lipstadt said. “But Ben Gurion doesn’t say that. Ben Gurion says: ‘Find him, bring him back here, and we will put him on trial.’ It’s a very distinctly Zionist act. What Ben Gurion is saying is...we can give Eichmann what he never gave any of the Jews.” That, she said, was the chance to defend himself. The trial began on April 11, 1961, and it incorporated not just hard evidence but also more than 100 witness testimonies from survivors. On June 20, Eichmann had a chance to speak. Eichmann gave contradictory explanations for his actions. On one hand, he was only following orders; on the other, he excused himself from involvement altogether or cited forgetfulness. To clarify, he claimed he knew the orders were wrong, but followed them anyway. This moment, said Lipstadt, “was what many people consider the moment when he really signed his guilty verdict, because if you know the orders are wrong, you’re not supposed to follow them anyway.” Most astoundingly, she said, Eichmann claimed he had saved Jews from the Final Solution, not transported them directly to it. When asked by one of the judges, Benjamin Halevi, if he was anti-Semitic, Eichmann said no. In fact, he responded, he had saved a Jewish relative and a couple in Vienna from deportation. Halevi’s response, said Lipstadt: “So when you didn’t want to follow orders, you didn’t have to.” On December 11, 1961, Eichmann was found guilty, and on May 31, 1962, he was executed by hanging in Acco. His body was cremated and cast to sea. Eichmann was one of only two capital punishment cases meted out by Israeli courts. (The other was John Demjanjuk in the 1980s, which was overturned.) The Eichmann trial paved the way for future war crimes tribunals. Its most significant impact, Lipstadt explained, was its incorporation of the witnesses’ testimonies. No international war crimes trial since then, from Yugoslavia to Rwanda, has excluded the voices of the witnesses as part of its proceedings. “The ultimate legacy of this trial is the witnesses,” she said. “This is the first time the world listened.”

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What Jews and Christians can Making connections: learn from each other Happiness must come from within dikla tuchMan Special to JTnews
Do Christians really believe that the Jews are responsible for Jesus’ death? Do all Christians believe that Christianity is the one true faith and that the “Old Testament” is an invalid document that no longer applies? From Jan. 12 to 15, Amy-Jill Levine, a professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University, came to Seattle to speak with audiences about assumptions and misconceptions perceived and repeated about Judaism and Christianity. To begin her whirlwind tour, Levine spoke with students and community memconceptions, and then listed off her top five. “When we talk about what Christians believe and what Jews believe, we’re only talking about what some Christians believe and what some Jews believe,” Levine said, making this important distinction for the audience. “Not all Christians believe the same thing, even within particular denominations.” The same holds true, she said, for Jews. Number one on Levine’s list was also number one for many of the audience members: “Deep down all Christians are anti-Jewish, because Christianity replaces Judaism.” She said that many Jews feel that Christians believe Christianity “got it right,” when Judaism didn’t quite make it. Levine explained that this concept, often called replacement theology or supersessionism, claims that upon the coming of Jesus as the messiah, the promise of the land of Israel to the Jews no longer applies and a divine connection between Jews and Israel no longer exists. “So do some Christians go in that direction? Yes,” said Levine. But “the vast majority do not.” She pointed to “The Epistle to the Romans” by the apostle Paul, which says that “the gifts given to the Jews are irrevocable,” Levine said. “Because if God goes back onto my promises then no one can trust God. So, according to Paul, the Jews are still under covenant with God.” Also, she noted, the idea of replacement theology isn’t all that uncommon. “Pretty much every religion that comes after an earlier religion says, ‘We got it better than you did. We can even see this happening within the Christian tradition,” Levine said, citing the example of the Protestant Reformation emerging from Roman Catholicism, and then the Anglicans, United Methodists, and the many other Protestant denominations that have sprung up since. Levine also spoke extensively about how Christians and Jews can understand their different interpretations of the messiah. They don’t necessarily have to agree. Instead, Jews can look at how Christianity moved forward with its interpretation of Jesus as its proclaimed messiah, and what that meant for all previous Jewish texts and keeping within the strictures of Jewish law. “The major issue here,” Levine pointed out, “is not who’s better and who’s more right, but rather, ‘How do I get along with my neighbor and respect that person regardless of that fact?’” Levine is most concerned with engaging her audiences with the history and the original texts to get real answers and gain deeper understanding, rather than placing blame, jumping to conclusions, and continuing to pass along assumptions.

JaniS Siegel JTnews Correspondent

It may sound counterintuitive, at least compared to the standards set by today’s popular culture, but journalist, author, and longtime American University professor Iris Krasnow believes that women can find renewed happiness and escape boredom — both personally and in their roles as mothers and wives — by learning to surrender. Detailing some of the fundamentals in her latest book, The Secret Lives Of Wives — Women Share What It Really Takes to Stay Married (Penguin/Gotham Books,

this all there is? I have this marriage, I have these friends, is this all there is?’” That, said Krasnow, explains the premise of The Secret Lives of Wives. “I study relationships like physicists study atoms,” she said. “It’s been my life journey, as a journalist, to look at what sustains a woman’s most intimate relationships.” The 57-year-old wife and mother of four boys, ages 22, 20, and 18-year-old twins, discussed her passion for family, revealed

If you go:
The annual Jewish Federation of Greater seattle’s Women’s division’s Connection event, “The Power of Passion,” takes place sun., Jan. 29 at 11 a.m. at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue, 900 Bellevue Way ne, Bellevue. event cost is $65–$650. Contact [email protected] or visit www.jewishinseattle.org/ Connections to register.

dIKla TuCHman

Amy-Jill Levine of Vanderbilt University talks about the differences and commonalities of Jews and Christians during her visit to Seattle.

CourTESy IrIS KraSnow

bers at Hillel at the University of Washington on the topic of “What Jews Get Wrong About Christianity.” She spent the bulk of her visit as scholar-in-residence at HerzlNer Tamid Conservative Congregation. A self-described “Yankee Jewish feminist who teaches in a predominantly Protestant divinity school in the buckle of the Bible Belt,” Levine “combines historical-critical rigor, literary-critical sensitivity, and a frequent dash of humor with a commitment to eliminating anti-Semitic, sexist, and homophobic theologies,” according to her biography. Levine, an Orthodox Jew who lives in Nashville, Tenn., recently co-wrote, with Brandeis University’s Marc Zvi Brettler, The Jewish Annotated New Testament, an edited version of the New Testament writings in the context of the authors and audiences at the time it was written. Although the New Testament is not subscribed to by Jews, Levine says there’s much in that book that corresponds to early Jewish history. If Jews can look objectively at the text of the New Testament and accept — though not necessarily believe — Christianity as a historical development with its basis in Jewish tradition, rather than an attack on Judaism, maybe Jews can hope for the same acceptance and respect from Christianity. Rather than lecture, Levine opened the floor to the audience’s most common mis-

Iris Krasnow, who is speaking at this year’s Jewish Federation Women’s Division’s Connections event.

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2011), this year’s keynote speaker for the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s Connections 2012 women’s brunch on Jan. 29, said that women must know who they are before they ever say “I do.” Prior to her visit, Krasnow told JTNews from her home in Annapolis, Md., that she also counsels women not to expect their partners to make them happy, and to let go of impossible expectations of perfection that inevitably creep into even the best relationships over time. “I’ve spent two years crisscrossing the country interviewing more than 200 women about their long marriages, and the happiest wives had a sense of purpose and passion outside of their relationships,” said Krasnow. “They did not count on someone else to make them happy. That is a ticket to divorce.” Very much the repentant Baby Boomer, Krasnow now advocates for devotion to family first and not career, particularly when children are young. She tries to give women of all ages tools and hope for staying in both new and maturing marriages, rather than divorcing for someone new. “As we are approaching empty nest and a quarter of a century,” Krasnow said of herself and her peers, “the buzz I was hearing from my like-minded friends is, ‘Is

the lessons she continues to learn from her nearly 24-year marriage, and shared the wisdom she’s gleaned from speaking with women of all ages and backgrounds about their 15- to 70-year marriages. “Take a break from each other,” Krasnow said, identifying one of the core messages she took away from the wives she spoke to for the book. “Find a childhood passion, go back to school, or go back to your faith. If we all knew that we are in charge of our own happiness, and that we are essentially alone in this universe, more marriages would last.” The daughter of a Holocaust survivor, Krasnow said she learned her deepest values about time with family through her mother’s experience during the war. Born in Warsaw, Poland, Krasnow recounted her mother’s escape to Paris, where she identified as a Catholic in order to survive, while her mother and seven nieces, nephews and siblings were put to death in Nazi death camps. “The Holocaust was not something I read about in history books,” said Krasnow. “I know the eggshell-thin line that separates life from death. It was something I saw in my mother’s eyes every day.” Along with these bittersweet lessons, however, Krasnow also incorporated a strong sense of identity and commitment from her mother’s life. “I grew up feeling profoundly Jewish and with a profound appreciation for
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m.o.T.: member of The Tribe

JTNews . www.JTNews.NeT . friday, JaNuary 27, 2012

exercises for the legs of a dancer • Also: The 3 percenter

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Even though her performance career in ballet didn’t last very long, Marjorie Thompson still feels the influence of her early years dancing with the New York City Ballet, “when George Balanchine was artistic director,” she says. “I was there at the right time,” reflects the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s conditioning program director and faculty member. “I got to work with Stravinsky, too…It was wonderful, a privilege.” Marjorie grew up on Long Island, studied at the School of American Ballet and joined Balanchine’s corps when she was 15. Professionals that young are rare these days. “It’s not good for the body… [or] for education,” Marjorie says. She completed high school at the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan, counting Marvin Hamlisch and Liza Minnelli among her classmates. After six years of performing, however,

diana bReMent JTnews Columnist

tribe

an injury compelled her to turn to teaching. To aid in her recovery, she started a form of exercise called the Lotte Berk method. “I loved doing the exercises,” and she left dance instruction and started teaching exercise instead. Eventually, she became the director of the studio, learning “how to run a business and work with clientele,” she says, which included influential New Yorkers and movie stars. After giving birth to her daughter, she says she found that method “didn’t feel as healthy to me anymore,” and she returned to the Pilates exercises she had done as a dancer, and began to teach that too. Most dancers do Pilates, she explained, and did so long before its current popularity with the general public. “It strengthens without creating bulk,” and helps injuries heal, Marjorie says. “Some of the dancers at PNB who I work

we offered the dancers in the company,” she says. “Then it was offered to students, then opened up to board members.” Now anyone can take the classes. Except for a short stint in Pittsburgh, Marjorie has been at PNB since then, teaching ballet, conditioning and Pilates. As a National Merit Comm e n d e d PNBConditioning program director Marjorie Thompson, standing, works Scholar, Dena Philwith a Pilates student. lips is one of 50,000. with are super strong” because of Pilates. It doesn’t sound like much, but since They may look fragile, she adds, but 1.5 million students take the PSAT college they’re not. readiness test upon which the commendaMarjorie returned to teaching dance, tion is based, it puts her in the top 3 pertoo, and in 1995 she was offered a teachcent of college-bound students. ing job at the ballet. For extra income she This math-loving senior at Northwould teach Pilates at a studio across the west Yeshiva High School hopes to attend street. Stern College at Yeshiva University in the “I would run back and forth between fall (Stern is the women’s college). She the two facilities!” she says. was hard-pressed, when asked, to think So many PNB dancers attended her of a school subject she didn’t like, finally Pilates classes that she was invited to teach in-house. “It started out in ’96 as something X PAGe 25
anGEla STErlInG

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in St. Mark’s, including many Jews. In fact, they may welcome it. Barghouti is a founder of a movement calling for a worldwide cultural and academic boycott of Israel. In speaking of his successes, he reported that Snoop Dogg refuses to perform in Israel. He seeks to deny Israeli scientists, intellectuals and university faculty opportunities to speak or have papers published anywhere in the world. So how does Israel, the nation he so despises, treat him? Here Barghouti’s hypocrisy reaches its zenith. Barghouti has recently completed graduate studies in ethics at — you guessed it — Tel Aviv University. His education was very likely subsidized by the taxpayers of Israel. At TAU his anti-Israel activities
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were so obvious and infamous, his fellow students circulated a petition to expel him. Yet, the administration of this apartheidsoaked institution refused to do so. There is an au courant expression that applies to many of the people there that night: Oikophobia. It usually means fear or loathing of one’s own home, but writers today find it apt for a fear and loathing of one’s own people. For the Christians in the room, I wish for them sufficient love of country to resist Barghouti’s loony, conspiratorial trashing of America. For the Jews in the room, and there were dozens, the passionate intensity of their oikophobia is thoroughly mystifying.
Robert Wilkes is a Bellevue-based political columnist who writes from a conservative viewpoint.

Take Time to Mourn
by Mike Selinker

This Week’s Wisdom

“The important thing is to recognize that all this stuff makes some sense in an early Jewish context. If we look at the fact that there’s mishugas in all religions, there’s a little bit of ‘I can’t possiW KrASNOW PAGe 7

bly believe that!’ All religions have that,” she said. “The point of interfaith that I like is that it’s not for everyone to agree with each other, hold hands and sing ‘Kumbaya.’ It’s to be able to understand where others are coming from, see what we hold in common, see where and why we differ.” Mother’s Daughter: Making Peace with Mom — Before It’s Too Late, New York Times bestseller Surrendering To Marriage — Husbands, Wives and Other Imperfections, and Surrendering to Yourself: You Are Your Own Soul Mate. Krasnow began her career as a fashion reporter for the Dallas Times-Herald before moving to the Washington, D.C. desk of United Press International as a national features writer where she spent several years interviewing some of the foremost celebrities in the world. Krasnow has also written for several national publications throughout her career.

family because of this heritage,” she added. “In an uncertain and chaotic world, family is the rock of our lives. I know also that we have to nurture, appreciate and savor our loved ones while we have them within reach.” Her first book, Surrendering To Motherhood — Losing Your Mind, Finding Your Soul, published in 1998, documented her choice to leave her successful high-profile career to commit to the loving chaos she found in her family kitchen with her kids. Her other books include I Am My

Mourning can be a painful process. The Jewish religion attempts to accelerate this process by intensifying it, in a tradition called “sitting shiva.” For a full week, relatives of a lost loved one observe several practices, each of which has a purpose. This puzzle shows some of the practices, and why you may want to do them during a difficult time.
ACROSS 1 JFK’s successor 4 Stick somewhere 9 Use for one’s own purposes 14 Be the first to perform (a role) 16 Rapper who cofounded N.W.A. 17 Do this to put aside vanity 19 Midnight in Paris actor Wilson 20 Critters such as 48-Down 21 “___ even close” 22 What : means in an analogy 26 Roof overhang 28 Do this to hold the loved one’s divine spark 34 35 36 37 39 40 41 42 44 45 49 50 51 53 56 60 65 66 67 68 69 DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 15 18 23 24 25 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 38 40 43 46 47 48 51 52 54 55 57 58 59 61 62 63 64 Answers on page 18 © 2011 Eltana Wood-Fired Bagel Cafe, 1538 12th Avenue, Seattle. All rights reserved. Puzzle created by Lone Shark Games, Inc. Edited by Mike Selinker and Mark L. Gottlieb.

DR.

2012 Scholar-in-Residence Weekend at Temple Beth Am

Judaism and Science: the Interface of Torah, Healing and the Human Condition

WILLIAM CUTTER

Dr.William Cutter is the director of the Kalsman Institute on Judaism and Health at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

Midrash, Healing, & Hope.

Feb. 10 -12
Jo Join us for this ex exciting and en engaging weekend. D Dr. Cutter is a vi vibrant and lively sp speaker who will ca captivate you!

close by ___ tai NL Central ballplayer “So long!” Has an obligation It may be abstract or kinetic Gardner McKay novel about a lunatic who psychologically tortures his victims Punchline response Announcer’s pride and joy Multicolored museum near the Space Needle Do this to show that you are struck down by grief Vicinity The ___ Side (where Bellevue is) EMT specialty Yukon law enforcement org. Applaud Do this to show you are humbled by your loss Singer of the 2011 hit “Someone Like You” They measure angles with theodolites ___ one’s time (waits patiently) Have as a confidante Vessel for marinara or marigolds

This weekend of learning is free to the community thanks to a generous bequest from Dr. Charles and Lilian Kaplan, z”l. RSVP is required at www.templebetham.org or call 206.525.0915. Temple Beth Am is located in Seattle’s “Jewishly Happening” North End. We are a Reform synagogue committed to helping Jews and their loved ones build a joyful, spiritual, caring and egalitarian community.

Nutty as a fruitcake Forehead Malarkey Knightly address Leverage network Ooh and ___ Piece of a piece of glassware Powerful pickup truck engine Trix or Kix Rower’s need It’s up in the air? Firebug, slangily Examination Lamp occupant With 40-Down, beverages suitable for summertime sipping Hocked a loogie Profs’ aides Book size abbreviated as 8º Put the kibosh on Hawaii’s “Garden Isle” Like an octopus Shape on a “one way” sign Pick up on Equipment It’s rolled out during a rain delay Mineralogist who developed a hardness scale Strands on one’s head See 18-Down “Don’t ___” (Pussycat Dolls single) Anxiety Lingerie shop material Cartoon foe of Scratchy Sourpuss Mani-___ Classic CD-ROM puzzle game Use a decanter Roller coaster feature Prefix with space Attention-getting sound Bullfight cry An Olympian from here might have rivalries with Olympians from BRA and ARG Campers, for short Where one films films

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Your favorites:
Joel Magalnick Editor, JTnews

What more can we say than thanks? We got hundreds of responses on your favorites in our Jewish community, from pizza to ketubot to diamond rings. so to all of you tastemakers out there, here’s what you picked: Party time! Best Place for a Bar or Bat mitzvah Party Woodmark Hotel, with its adjoining yacht club and spa, is located on the edge of the world, more or less, at Carillon Point in Kirkland. Best Place for a Wedding reception You can’t get any grander in this town than the downtown Seattle Fairmount Olympic. Best Local Party Band or DJ Whether it’s hip hop, swing, polka or the inescapable ‘80s, Premier Entertainment, starring DJ Kevin Howard spins — or is it clicks? — ’em like no other.

The Jewish Best of Everything
Best Place to Buy an engagement ring Hometown jeweler Ben Bridge has made it big — most likely because they were chosen as hometown favorite. Best Videographer Aaron Horton gets the angles and the sound to make sure your event doesn’t look like it was recorded on your uncle Jerry’s smartphone. catering for events of any size. Best Ketubah artist seattle artist Joan Lite Miller, with her onionskin Design studio, has made a career of collage-style works of art-as-marriage-contract. Best Florist Located, of course, as close as possible to the delivery rooms at swedish Hospital, Ballard Blossom will provide awesome flower arrangements for any event.
CourTESy PHIllIP KlITznEr/

JTNews . www.JTNews.NeT . friday, JaNuary 27, 2012

Best Hotel for a Simcha Seattle Sheraton is big, kosher (if need be) and right downtown if you like your events to be big, kosher, downtown, and provided with service with just the right touch. Best extreme Party Space While the sky Church isn’t exactly a synagogue, the Experience Music Project provides venue space that’s nothing if not extreme. thanks, Jimi! Best Caterer they’re attentive, tasty, friendly and kosher. Nosh Away provides

noSH away

Best Wedding Cake Baker and, just in case that kosher catered event happens to involve the recitation of some seven blessings, you can enlist those same folks at Nosh Away to make the cake since, after all, they take the cake.

Our COmmunity Best youth Organization United Synagogue Youth takes the prize for a safe, fun place for teens to gather and learn about themselves and their history, with the National federation of temple Youth nipping at the teenagers’ heels. Best Jewish Camp one word: Matisyahu. any camp that can get the world-famous beat

Best event Photographer Year in and year out, veteran shutterbug Dani Weiss keeps snap, snap, snapping her way to best lens in the land.

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boxer to come back year after year, not to mention the hundreds of kids who come home each summer with life skills such as lanyard-making, is tops in our book. Camp Solomon Schechter takes it! Best Local Jewish Organization, School or agency this year’s repeat winner, Jewish Family Service, has been there through thick and thin, and whatever

the state of the economy, they will offer emergency help, food, counseling, parenting classes, senior services, and so much more — now from their newly completed headquarters! Best Jewish website the one that provides the information to provide crucial community services, Jewish Family Service’s jfsseattle.org, takes it.

JoEl maGalnICK

Best Place to Volunteer, Best Local Food Bank, Best Counseling Services in the interest of space and our fingers getting numb from continually typing Jewish Family Service, we’ll reiterate that the important work this organization does for our community wouldn’t be possible without its army of volunteers.
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Jewish Family Service CeO Ken Weinberg, in his agency’s newly opened building.

Where Judaism and joy are one!
www.campschechter.org 206-447-1967 [email protected]

See why Camp Solomon Schechter was voted Best Jewish Camp 2 years in a row!

Register now!

Join the fun!

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Best Congregation Congregation Beth Shalom’s member are proud, active and overwhelmingly in favor of going the distance to be labeled Number one. they also, incidentally, took the prize for Best Jewish Supplemental School and Best Adult Education Program. Best mohel for a practice under fire of late, longtime mohel Rabbi Simon Benzaquen proudly pushes the naysayers aside and circumcises our region’s little boys with a steady hand and a light touch. Best Local Jewish Hero as one respondent said of seattle Hebrew academy’s head of school and JTNews columnist Rivy Poupko Kletenik, “Her spirit and education are unparalleled.” DeLi-CiOuS! Best Corned Beef Sandwich Here’s an interesting tidbit: Corned beef doesn’t contain any actual corn. Who knew? factoria

mainstay Goldberg’s Delicatessen’s piles up best on the light rye. Newcomer stopsky’s takes a close second with its own interpretation. Best Smoked Fish surprise, surprise! Great things came in small packages. in this case, that’s Port Chatham’s smoked seafood. Best rugelach Get ’em while they’re hot! or at least fresh out of the oven, ’cause Nosh Away’s got ’em hot and yummy.

the Build-your-Own, Post-modern Deli Sandwich (whatever that is) Here’s one: Pastrami, egg salad, chopped liver, slaw and russian dressing on dark rye, a.k.a. the Joel feldman. “What does it taste like? a magical kosher unicorn.” and for your resident vegetarian: field roast, half-sour dill pickle slices, fresh cole slaw, Baconnaise, stone-ground mustard, and thinly sliced swiss cheese. on dark rye. Yum!
Best Challah there must be some magic in that oven, because Nosh Away takes this prize too. But we want to give a shout out to Challahs for Justice, a program from Hillel at the university of Washington and repair the World that sells $1 challahs on campus to give to different social justice projects; and Challahs for Hunger, a Whitman College project that sells challahs to help out a local homeless-aid organization. Dining Out Best Burger Despite the proliferation of fancy burger joints, this one goes to an old standby. those of you who want to maintain the illusion of kashrut should ignore the mountain of bacon on the grill at Red Mill Burgers. Don’t forget the onion rings. Best Pizza once again, the kosher italian vibes of Mercer island’s Island Crust Café take the pie.

Best Sunday Brunch My father-in-law makes a point of taking the family to Portage Bay Café whenever he comes to visit. Just thinking about the berry bar is making my mouth water. Best new Foodie-Style restaurant that Knocked your Socks Off Can’t argue with this one, either. i’d recommend the dessert thali on your next trip to Jerry traunfeld’s Poppy on Capitol Hill. Best asian or Sushi We had a tie! symphony-goers love the varied countries highlighted by Wild Ginger while anyone in search of the freshest, most innovative sushi heads to Madison Park’s much-loved Nishino. Best romantic Dinner that shining beacon atop the aurora Bridge, Canlis, has not been satisfied to be the place your grand-

JoEl maGalnICK

Best Bagel they’ve only been around for a year, but Capitol Hill’s Montreal-style Eltana Bagels rolled up to the front.

How did we get voted No. 1? By making our clients No. 1! The Kent Swigard Team
Kent & Bracha Swigard
Your Community Realtors 206-722-9002 www.kentswigard.com

Keeping Healthy Play Alive ou Thank y us g Best Independent Toy Shop for votin
Little independent shop that stands out Monday–Friday 9am–9pm • Saturday & Sunday 9am–7pm 104 North 85th Street, Seattle • 206-782-0098 • www.toptentoys.com

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Thank you to JTNews readers for your vote of confidence. Louis Treiger, Attorney www.treigerlaw.com
(206) 313-1569 [email protected]

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parents take you while the valet parks the Caddy. for generations this family-owned landmark has maintained its impeccable service while keeping its mouth-watering menu updated with the times. Best Kid-Friendly restaurant Make sure you don’t step on any of those little kids while you head to the counter for another slice at Island Crust Café. Best mobile Lunch truck another tie, but local mobile pioneers Marination Mobile and Skillet roll on up for the ribbon. Best middle eastern it’s just like the real thing, because Cedar’s is a trip to the Middle east, u District-style. tHe LOCaL Buzz Best Wine List or Wine Bar With three locations, in both seattle and the eastside, Purple and its column of wine can’t be beat. Best Happy Hour after a show at the Paramount or the seattle rep, or maybe for a pickme-up after work, Dragonfish Asian Café has great specials. Best Cocktail in town if you sneak out of line while you

wait for your red Mill burger, head two blocks north to Oliver’s Twist in Phinney ridge. i hear they do amazing things with gin. Best Place to meet Friends or to Watch a game the Montlake Ale House was a nice destination to drown your sorrows after a Huskies loss, but with the stadium in pieces you’ll just have to meet your friends there all the time for a tall one. SaVe rOOm FOr DeSSert Best ice Cream, gelato or Froyo she’s been expanding faster than

an ice cream lover’s waistline, and molly moon shows no sign of stopping with her sophisticated flavors and delicate (not to mention delicious) frozen yumminess. Best Chocolatier Oh! Chocolate, in Bellevue, Mercer island and Madison Park, are the sweetest in town. Best Pie Nice Jewish girl Dani Cone started her pie empire with her mini-chain of fuel coffee shops, and, using her grandmother’s delicious recipe, expanded her High 5 Pie to its own

Capitol Hill location. Yum!

JoEl maGalnICK

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A Dynamic Home for Judaism

Beth Shalom
you, Thank ders s Rea JTNew ing for vot lom eth Sha ation B g Congre : n a row d year i ation Thir ngreg Best Co a row: year in Second Jewish Best School mental Supple Best n ducatio Adult E am Progr

Congregation

Best of 2011
• • •

Thank you JTNews readers!

Best Kosher Caterer Best Rugelach Best Wedding Cake

Thank you JTNews readers for Thank you JTNews readers for voting us Best Place Have a a Wedding voting us Best Place to to Have Wedding
411 University Street 411 University Street .· 206 287 4058 · . www.fairmontolympiccatering.com 4058 www.fairmontolympiccatering.com

www.noshaway.com Our goal is to provide the best service every day and we’re excited that JTNews readers confirmed it.

NoshAway

Congregation Beth Shalom
An egalitarian, participatory community!

6800 35th Ave NE Seattle, WA 98115 206-524-0075

BMW of Bellevue
13617 Northup Way, Bellevue www.bmwbellevue.com

425-643-4544

[email protected] www. bethshalomseattle.org

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W BeST OF eVerYTHING PAGe 13

ning, volleyball, carnivals, fairs and even concerts. Best Destination When i’m Shopping for Clothes for myself if for no other reason than you can make a stop for salted caramels at oh! Chocolate, Bellevue Square is the destination. Best Kidswear fashion and simplicity rule the day with locally owned and made goods from Cotton Caboodle. Best independent Shoes & accessories Shop if you want to support your local economy, check out Strut in seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood. they even carry israeli brands. Best Consignment or Secondhand Clothing rather than give their mink stoles

Best Bakery Located right in West seattle’s alaskan Junction, Bakery Nouveau makes the most amazing pastries in a town that specializes in amazing pastries. SHOPPin’ anD reLaxin’ Best Fitness Club You can’t do better than the Bellevue Club, where the towels and the ellipticals always smell like roses. Best Spa experience sorry guys, but you’ll have to stay home and build birdhouses while the ladies head to Lynnwood or tacoma for a day of absolute relaxation at Olympus Spa. Best gym The Stroum Jewish Community Center’s gym is great for hoops, run-

and rolls royces to the help, the rock’s most fashionable pass them on to Mercer Island Thrift Shop. thank you, dahling. Best independent toy Shop if you’re looking for electronics, guns, or Barbie, go elsewhere. Top Ten Toys in Greenwood and Pacific Place is picky about what it lets your kids play with. Best Outdoor / neighborhood Shopping indeed, University Village is outdoors. But a neighborhood? if it’s well-known, upscale shopping you need, the village is the place. Best Little, Local, independent Shop Located on Pine street at the bottom of Capitol Hill, Cake Spy has fun, original paintings, tchotchkes, its own cake cookbook, and more whimsy than should be legal in 600 square feet.

What’s the most memorable dining experience you had this year? “i had lunch at Bamboo Garden with Matisyahu!” “Definitely our small belated holiday dinner, where the two of us cooked an all-out tofurkey feast once the chaos of the holidays had died down. oven baked with freshly squeezed orange juice, garlic, soy sauce and basil marinade. Delicious, healthy, romantic home cookin’!”
Best Judaica Bellevue Judaica shoppers with a discerning eye are (challah) covered at the Temple B’nai Torah Sisterhood Judaica Shop. Best independent gift Shop Whether it’s holiday-related Judaica or just a gift for a friend or loved one, Fireworks is a whimsical and creative resource. Best independent Bookshop i spend a ton of time at Third Place Books, and judging from the number of people in our community i run into there, they too love the great selection of new and used books. Best theater Company the 5th Avenue Theater is a seattle institution by any measure. But we do want to give a shout out to the small theater company rosenstock Productions, those nice Jewish boys who had us rolling in the aisles during their December production of Wisemen. tHe PrOFeSSiOnaL LiFe Best Dentist smile big! a visit to Dr. David Isenberg’s practice in renton will certainly help that grin. Best Dermatologist Dr. Elie Levy, with offices in south seattle, is known for helping you have the smoothest skin.

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Best Lawyer if you need general business, real estate, trademark or employment representation, Louis Treiger is your man. Best accountant Bellevue’s Dennis Goldstein keeps your books immaculate and your household tax documents in order, all with a smile on his face. Best real estate agent You can’t trip in seward Park without falling into a sign featuring John L. scott broker Kent Swigard.

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Best Car Dealership if you want sleek, fast, and sculpted, BMW Bellevue is the place to go. ask for eric and tell him JTNews sent you. WHereVer yOu gO tHere’S aLWayS SOmeOne JeWiSH Best Jewish-themed or israeli Film of 2011 The Debt, about a trio of Mossad agents whose tracking of a Nazi war criminal has unfortunate repercussions, didn’t get an oscar nod, but it got ours. Best Jewish actor/Comedian of 2011 okay. We admit it. the entire section that these questions are based on was named for a song by Adam Sandler. But the best of 2011? really? What about Natalie Portman? Jon stewart? topol? Best Jewish Book of 2011 No doubt about it. To the End of the Land, David Grossman’s sprawling, soul-tearing story of two emotionally battered ex-lovers who heal from their hike through an israeli springtime is one

of the most beautiful stories i’ve read in years. Best Jewish author of 2011 and, no surprise, Grossman gets the honor, but he shares it with Daniel Sharfstein, author of The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White, a chronicle of 18th- and 19thcentury light-skinned african-american families. Out in tHe COmmunity
JoEl maGalnICK

Best Place to Hang Out and meet Other Fun Jews Latkepalooza, yoga class, shabbat dinner — you name it — Jconnect is the place to go to meet your fellow members of the tribe. Best Place to meet a nice Jewish Boy or girl the best thing about these Jconnect events is that there’s always the chance you’ll find the man or woman of your dreams. We’ve seen it. Best Local Sports team the seattle superwho? they’re old news. the team to watch is the

one with the boys in green: Seattle Sounders FC. Best Online Dating Site J-Date is no, ahem, match for any other online dating site to help you find a nice Jewish match. Best (or Worst) Political antic of 2011 You’d think they’d run out of things to bicker about, given that we’ve had more Republican candidate debates than episodes in the entire run of “the West Wing.” We’re not sure which have been more entertaining.

most important Political issue of 2011 it’s here, and it’s not going away. What we’re talking about, of course, is the economy. Yay, economy! Get better! Please! Please. name the most stunning, amusing, thrilling, or otherwise superlative local news of 2011. and tell us how it relates Jewishly, if you can. of course it relates Jewishly. the ads critical of Israel that didn’t run on the sides of Seattle Metro buses resulted in anger, lawsuits, and more lawsuits. and it ain’t over yet. But, finally, this year’s JTNews reader’s Choice awards are.

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JTNews . www.JTNews.NeT . friday, JaNuary 27, 2012

NYHS students learn Israeli advocacy
gRace alMo Special to JTnews
On November 6-8, 2011, five students from the Northwest Yeshiva High School had the privilege of attending and representing NYHS at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Shusterman Advocacy Institute High School Summit. Josh Applebaum, class of 2012, Halle Friedland, class of 2013, Talia Etsekson, class of 2013, Jessica Schwartz, class of 2013 and I (class of 2013) traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet up with 400 other high school students from across the country. At the conference, students learned the main issues occurring in Israel today, and how to effectively advocate for Israel. During the summit, student delegations focused on the three main issues on AIPAC’s legislative agenda: Enforcing the sanctions on Iran, rejecting the Palestinian bid of statehood at the United Naitons, and continuing the $3 billion of annual foreign aid from America to Israel. diplomatic sanctions. By simply putting enough pressure on Iran and its economy, it will not be able to thrive, so its nuclear production will go down. Also, this diplomatically isolates Iran from the rest of the world; if the sanctions are enforced, it cannot do business with other countries. On the issue of the Palestinian bid for statehood, America and AIPAC believe that Israel must negotiate directly with the Palestinians to decide what will be the Palestinian state, instead of the Palestinians going to the UN and circumventing negotiations with Israel. Lastly, Congress must pass an appropriations bill every year, and foreign aid is a huge help to Israel. Three billion dollars is a significant amount, and it is all to be spent on the military. Seventy-five percent of that money must be spent on U.S. soil,
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CourTESy nyHS

Participants in the Shusterman Advocacy Institute high school summit, from right to left: rabbi Benjy Owen, Grace Almo, Jessica Schwartz, Talia etsekson, Halle Friedland and Joshua Appelbaum.

These three issues are vital to the safety and security of Israel, and also to America. Iran is a huge threat due to the fact that

it is acquiring nuclear weapons. America can help prevent Iran from obtaining these weapons by imposing and enforcing

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which helps our economy grow. Once we understood these main issues, we learned how to effectively publicize them. Jonathan Kessler, the leadership development director of AIPAC, taught that the most effective way to get the message across is through “retail engagement.” AIPAC, he said, believes that “one person can make a difference,” and it is therefore up to individuals to make a difference by advocating for Israel. The most effective way to do so is through engagement, or lobbying. By talking to people one-on-one, you can get more people to become interested and educated than any other way possible.

It is within AIPAC’s methodology that relationships are important, and it is vital to create relationships with people so you can customize your engagement per their personalities. This methodology must be applied to AIPAC’s main form of engagement, which is lobbying members of Congress. Congress makes the majority of decisions within our government. Our representatives are very busy people, and need help to be informed about all of the issues. It is the role of the people to do so. AIPAC trains individuals on how to effectively and respectfully lobby a Congressional representative, so we learned the five steps to lobbying: Know your audience, know what you want to accomplish, know what they want

to accomplish, know your time frame, and know your exit strategy of saying thank you. These steps allow the AIPAC-trained lobbyist to understand and customize their engagement strategies to work well. The Schusterman Summit was a fantastic learning experience on how to advocate for our countries — Israel and America. I am greatly honored to have participated in the summit. I have learned a lot and I look forward to being involved in AIPAC and using my knowledge and experience to effectively educate and engage others in support of Israel.
Grace Almo is a junior at Northwest Yeshiva High School.

JIm STEvEnSon

rabbi Seth Goldstein of Olympia’s Temple Beth Hatfiloh chats with Jean Mandeberg at a tribute event for Goldstein earlier this month to launch him on his six-month sabbatical.

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Midrash goes to the movies
Rivy PouPko kletenik JTnews Columnist
Dear Rivy, It is that time of year when “Best of the Year” lists meet the awards season. It can be a full-time job keeping up! First our attention goes to the Golden Globes, then the People’s Choice, then finally the Oscars. I find myself getting obsessed and totally wrapped up in it all. I love the movies! But some of my friends find it tiresome and balk at my involvement by disdainfully lobbing ridicule my way: “Do we really care what every star of every movie wears to these events and who accompanies them?” “Is it really necessary for newspapers and blogs to print list after list of each critic’s ‘Best Pics’ of the year?” “Are folks not able to determine their own tastes? The world will continue to turn without knowing the Ten Best Movies of 2011,” they condescendingly proclaim. How can I help them see the relevance and worth of astute movie-going? The stories that movies tell, not unlike the stories that books tell, can resonate deeply with each of us. They entertain, uplift, and, at the least, provide us with a reasonable healthy respite from our routine reality while, at the most, allow us to share thoughts and reactions as we create meaningful connections with each other. All of those reviews, lists and awards are a powerful way for millions of people to bond around an idea, a plot, a story. It is almost as though we are back in time, sitting around that proverbial primeval campfire telling our stories in the dark and creating shared experiences along with powerful points of reference. We humans desperately seek these connections and shared experiences, not only because art and entertainment allow us to delve into and explore what is on the screen with others, but also because ultimately they can be one of those vehicles that helps us discover what is deep inside ourselves. That moves us toward ultimate knowledge: Knowledge of self. But as in all things — moderation is the key. Let’s not get carried away, folks! That said, I can’t help but think about all those movies and all those lists. Perhaps your friend would be intrigued by one more movie list, an inventive ten-best that adds a layer from, shall we say, our Greatest Story Ever Told, inspired by the marquees of today and the Midrash of yesterday. So with that I offer you, “Midrash Goes to the Movies!” The Tree of Life: How much more biblical can you get? Be sure to catch this sordid he-said-she-said tale of our original kin. The human desire to want what you cannot have leads to nibbling on the most forbidden of fruits. Was it the taste of the grape, the fig or the etrog to which they finally succumbed? Heads up, folks: That apple was a figment of King James’s imagination. Young Adult: Some people never grow up. And for the first young people ever created, it’s even harder! Who would have predicted that a cold-blooded murder  would be just the beginning of the tale — with unbearable burden of guilt at its core. The unprecedented dastardly deed is handled with sensitivity and inestimable mercy; he knew not that he was his brother’s keeper. The Descendants: Begot, begat and beget. This genealogical saga lays it all out for us from generations of flood to Babel, and from Adam and Noah, on to Abraham. The story’s setup may get bogged down, but the action picks up when Jacob’s descendants sell their brother down to Egypt. Look for keen identity confusion as the family sorts out its dirty laundry. The Help: Watch as forefather Abraham takes a misstep as he follows the advice of his barren wife Sarah, complicating the household’s status quo. Precarious lines are drawn and crossed between those who help and those who are helped. Catapulted from servitude to motherhood, this new status is torturous to both lady of the house and handmaiden Hagar herself. Contagion: Picking up where The Descendants leaves off, this reshaping of Cecil B. DeMille’s sensational yet dated The Ten Commandments, Contagion narrows

JQ

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its focus to a graphic tale of plagues, epidemics and disease moving from one outbreak to the next. Though an entire nation’s well-being is at stake, this is, at its heart, a tale of one Pharaoh’s family. Stubborn and unmoved, Pharaoh’s tormented persona keeps this film mesmerizing till the last scene. War Horse: A cinematic masterpiece telling the compelling chronicle of both the evils of war and of the redemptive quality of relationships between man and creature. The Prophet Isaiah is the powerful leading man, calling for an end to war, to beat swords into plowshares, and to the wolves who lie down with lambs and the little boy who leads them. A must see. The Artist: This silent film follows

Bezalel’s detailed instructions for the creation of the Tabernacle. The tension of moving the people Israel from the abomination of the Age of the Golden Calf to the Age of Monotheism brings with it inherent tensions of change and creativity. With great attention to detail, watch as the menorah, altars and many vessels are fashioned. The production is a masterpiece that truly captures an art long gone. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: A complicated, sordid tale of murder and mystery. In what way does the commandment, “You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves” of Leviticus 19:28 play in? Watch to find out. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol:

King Saul, succumbing to severe melancholia and a diabolical gripping jealousy of David, the man who will be king, teams up with Endor the witch and summons the prophet Samuel from the beyond. What sort of fate will be his at the hands of the Philistines? Don’t be divining, O King of Israel. The Lord is no longer with you. Crazy Stupid Love: In this heartwrenching epic drama of the greatest love story ever told, between the often-stupid people Israel and the anything-but-crazy

love the Almighty has for His people, the filmmaker has captured hundreds of years of devotion and dalliances, adding up to one heck of an eternal betrothal. Not to be missed!
Rivy Poupko Kletenik is an internationally renowned educator and Head of School at the Seattle Hebrew Academy. If you have a question that’s been tickling your brain, send Rivy an e-mail at [email protected].

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Thinking Outside the Tzedakah Box: Teen Philanthropy Gets a Boost
Teens and their B’nai Mitzvah projects have just received a boost through a new matching grant program at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. Now through 2014, teens who establish a Youth Mitzvah Fund at the Federation will have all donations in their fund matched onefor-one, doubling the philanthropic impact the teens can have on their community. Through a generous contribution from dedicated Jewish community philanthropists, this matching grant will help teen B’nai Mitzvah candidates learn about and experience the joy and responsibility of Jewish philanthropy. “We want teens to see that their passion for improving the world is part of what makes them a Jewish adult,” said Rabbi Emily Meyer, Teen Philanthropy Program Manager. “This grant will help teens see that they have the power to make a real, positive difference in their world.” Teens who are part of the J.Team program will also benefit this year. Any funds they raise through the J.Team Teen Philanthropy Program will be matched one-for-one, significantly increasing the allocations given to worthwhile agencies. Details on both the Youth Mitzvah Fund and J.Team programs are available at www.JewishInSeattle.org/Teens, by calling Rabbi Emily Meyer at 206-774-2230 or via email at [email protected].

Federation and SJCC Combat Teen Bullying

You read about it nearly every day… young girls bullying each other, in person and using the many electronic tools now at their fingertips. It can be cruel, and it can have a negative impact on girls’ selfesteem and life choices for years to come. Stroum Jewish Community Center, with support from the Women’s Endowment Fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, is tackling the issue of girl-ongirl bullying via a breakthrough national movement called “Finding Kind.” “Finding Kind,” the riveting documentary focused on girls in middle and high school, sets the stage for group discussion to learn how to recognize bullying when it happens, and how girls can combat it for themselves, classmates and friends. The program works toward finding a common ground of kindness and mutual respect.

“This is such an important issue for girls in our community today,” said Dan Lowen, Chair of the Special Initiatives Fund for the Jewish Federation. “We are very pleased to be able to provide some of the funding needed to ensure our daughters and granddaughters have a chance to grow up happy and healthy. The SJCC is a powerful steward in our community for providing programs to build confidence and strength in our young girls.” Finding Kind will happen in late April so look for details soon at www.sjcc.org. This is just one of seven grants made this year by the Women’s Endowment Fund. For information on the Women’s Endowment Fund, the many programs it supports, and how you can get involved, visit www.JewishInSeattle.org/Women.

Dr. Alexander Oscar, President of the Sofia, Bulgaria Jewish Community to Visit Seattle
The Maimonides Society of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle will host a special presentation on Monday, March 5, 2012, featuring Dr. Alexander Oscar, President of the Sofia, Bulgaria Jewish Community. Titled “The rebirth of Bulgaria’s Jewish community: how a neuroophthalmologist from Sophia is leading a Jewish renaissance,” Dr. Oscar will recount his role in helping to recreate a vibrant sense of Jewish life in Bulgaria and throughout the Balkan countries of eastern Europe. His story is an amalgam of medical accomplishments, the triumph of the Jewish spirit and a personal commitment to rebuild the community of his ancestors. Registration is open to all physicians, dentists and members of the health professions at: www.JewishInSeattle.org/Maimonides or by calling 206-443-5400. After the fall of communism in Bulgaria, and throughout central and Eastern Europe, an opportunity to rebuild Jewish life was created. Alek’s first contact with the re-born Jewish community in Bulgaria was in 1991, when he committed himself to helping this small but spirited Jewish community to assist its needy elderly, reclaim its Sephardic Jewish heritage, and rebuild Jewish communal life. He describes himself as a dreamer – a dreamer who believes dreams come true. His whole mission in life could be depicted in just one word, one word that means everything – tzedakah, or the everlasting feeling that all Jews share in bringing justice everywhere they go. Dr. Oscar was elected president of the Sofia, Bulgaria Jewish community in December 2007, becoming the youngest leader in the history of that community. maimonides society reception date: Monday, March 5, 2012 Time: 6:30-8:00pm place: WithinSodo 2916 Utah Avenue South Seattle, WA 98134 Cost: $18 per person includes light kosher buffet and wine ($25 after February 27) rSvp: JewishInSeattle.org/Maimonides Dr. Alexander Oscar completed both his PhD and his residency in neurology at the Medical University in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2009.

m a r k
january 30 • pJ lIbrary EVENT

y o u r

c a l e n d a r !

Details for all programs at www.JewishInSeattle.org

january 29 • 2012 CONNECTIONS wOmEN’S phIlaNThrOpy brUNCh • 11 am february 2 • CardOzO SOCIETy ClE

february 10 • pJ lIbrary EVENT march 5 • maImONIdES SOCIETy: dr. alExaNdEr OSCar • 6:30 pm march 14 • TUrN ThE pagE • 5:30 pm

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Candlelighting times January 27 ..................... 4:43 p.m. February 3 ...................... 4:55 p.m. February 10 .................... 5:06 p.m. February 17 .....................5:17 p.m. fRiday

7–9 p.m. — 4th Shabbat Services and dinner
Aaron Meyer at [email protected] Come together in community and prayer for the Tribe’s 4th Friday Shabbat. Dinner served after a musical service. Free. At Temple De Hirsch Sinai, Jaffe Annex, 1520 E Union St., Seattle. 7:30–9:30 p.m. — All Through the Night: a Seattle Premiere
Susanna Burney at [email protected] or 206-938-0963, ext. 107 or artswest.org A theatrical account of four German gentile women living through the rise and fall of Hitler. “A significant and moving new work,” says the Chicago Tribune. $10–$34.50. At ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery, 4711 California Ave. SW, Seattle.

27 JanuaRy


Sharon Mezistrano at [email protected] or 206-323-7933, ext. 211 Join the PJ Library and Seattle Hebrew Academy’s Early Childhood Program for a Tu B’Shevat storytime and art project. At Seattle Hebrew Academy, 1617 Interlaken Dr. E, Seattle.

tueSday

7:15 p.m. — money matters: Jewish Business Ethics
Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky at [email protected] or 206-290-6301 Topics include social ethics such as living wages, insider trading, CEO compensation, collective bargaining, as well as personal choices. Nine CLE ethics credits available. At the Friendship Circle, 2737 77th Ave. SE, Mercer Island.

31 JanuaRy

Features guest lecturers Rabbi Yerachmiel Milstein and Harold Gans. $150–$300. Call for location. 7:30–9:30 p.m. — All Through the Night: a Seattle Premiere
Susanna Burney at [email protected] or 206-938-0963, ext. 107 or artswest.org At ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery, 4711 California Ave. SW, Seattle.

Plaza, 1113 Sixth Ave., Seattle.

wedneSday

SatuRday

wedneSday

SatuRday

2–4 p.m. — Sparks of Glory Concert “Between Two worlds”
Micah Shelton at [email protected] or 206-365-7770 or www.musicofremembrance.org Russia in the first half of the 20th century saw a revival of interest in Jewish folklore and music. Program includes a Shostakovich song cycle. Free. At Good Shepherd Center, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N, Wallingford. 5–10 p.m. — Parents night out
Matt Korch at [email protected] or 206-388-0830 or www.sjcc.org Indoor soccer and basketball, art projects and fun for kindergarten through grade 5. Dinner and dessert included. Call for cost. At Seattle Jewish Community School, 12351 Eighth Ave. NE, Seattle. 7:30–9:30 p.m. — All Through the Night: a Seattle Premiere
Susanna Burney at [email protected] or 206-938-0963, ext. 107 or artswest.org At ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery, 4711 California Ave. SW, Seattle.

28 JanuaRy

7–8:30 p.m. — mystical Secrets of the Kabbalah
Rabbi Alyjah Navy at [email protected] or www.kabbalahcommunity.org Participants will receive mystical secrets of the Kabbalah for healing, renewal, purpose, abundance and fulfillment. Facilitated by Rabbi Alyjah Navy. $10 per class. At Vashon Intuitive Arts, 17331 Vashon Hwy. SW, Vashon Island. 7:30–9:30 p.m. — All Through the Night: a Seattle Premiere
Susanna Burney at [email protected] or 206-938-0963, ext. 107 or artswest.org At ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery, 4711 California Ave. SW, Seattle.

1 febRuaRy

9:30–11 a.m. — PJ library Storytime at Kol Haneshamah
Amy Hilzman-Paquette at [email protected] The PJ Library welcomes Erik Lawson as guest musician, with PJ Library manager Amy Paquette as storyteller. At Kol HaNeshamah, 6115 SW Hinds St., Seattle. 6:30–8:30 p.m. — Pajama Havdalah
Irit Eliav at [email protected] or 206-985-2503 or www.bethshalomseattle.org Come in your pajamas for a special Havdalah service, and then be amazed by the Radical Reactions program from Pacific Science Center. Free. At Congregation Beth Shalom, 6800 35th Ave. NE, Seattle.

4 febRuaRy

11 a.m.–12 p.m. — PJ library Storytime at mockingbird Books
Amy Hilzman-Paquette at [email protected] Music, storytelling and Hebrew through ASL with Betsy Dischel from Musikal Magik, a certified Signing Time academy. At Mockingbird Books, 7220 Woodlawn Ave. NE, Seattle. 7–8:30 p.m. — modern Hebrew literature with Joel altus and lisa orlick
Carol Benedick at carolbenedick@ bethshalomseattle.org or 206-524-0075 or www.bethshalomseattle.org Study the themes and aesthetics of modern Hebrew and Israeli literature. Second Wednesday of the month. Free. At Congregation Beth Shalom, 6800 35th Ave. NE, Seattle. 7:30–9:30 p.m. — All Through the Night: a Seattle Premiere
Susanna Burney at [email protected] or 206-938-0963, ext. 107 or artswest.org At ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery, 4711 California Ave. SW, Seattle.

8 febRuaRy

Sunday

thuRSday

Sunday

10:30 a.m.–2 p.m. — Connections women’s Philanthropy Brunch: The Power of Passion
[email protected] or 206-443-5400 or www.JewishInSeattle.org/Connections Author Iris Krasnow will share her insights into how women can put their passions into action in the community and maintain fulfilling relationships in all aspects of their lives. At the Hyatt Regency, 900 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue. 4–6 p.m. — matan Bat mitzvah Program
Mrs. Shaindel Bresler at [email protected] or 206-779-4373 or seattlekollel.org A Bat Mitzvah program led by Matan-trained instructors for mothers and their daughters ages 11–14. $150 for five two-hour sessions. At a private home, Mercer Island.

29 JanuaRy

6:30–8:30 p.m. — Becoming Evil: How ordinary People Commit mass murder and Genocide
Ilana Kennedy at [email protected] or 206-774-2201 or www.wsherc.org/news/ news.aspx The past century, dubbed the “Age of Genocide,” saw more than 60 million people murdered to meet the needs of the state. Dr. James Waller will discuss the unassailable fact behind this litany of human conflict and suffering. Free. At Microsoft Building 99, 14820 NE 36th St., Redmond. 7:30–9:30 p.m. — All Through the Night: a Seattle Premiere
Susanna Burney at [email protected] or 206-938-0963, ext. 107 or artswest.org At ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery, 4711 California Ave. SW, Seattle.

2 febRuaRy

9 a.m.–3:45 p.m. — First aid/CPr Training
Ben Starsky at [email protected] or 206-388-0837 or www.sjcc.org Become certified in first aid and CPR for two years. These certification classes are geared for teenagers but anyone is welcome. $75–$95. At the Stroum Jewish Community Center, 3801 E Mercer Way, Mercer Island. 7:30–9:30 p.m. — All Through the Night: a Seattle Premiere
Susanna Burney at [email protected] or 206-938-0963, ext. 107 or artswest.org At ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery, 4711 California Ave. SW, Seattle.

5 febRuaRy

thuRSday

7:30–9:30 p.m. — All Through the Night: a Seattle Premiere
Susanna Burney at [email protected] or 206-938-0963, ext. 107 or artswest.org At ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery, 4711 California Ave. SW, Seattle.

9 febRuaRy

fRiday

Monday

9:30–10:30 a.m. — PJ library Storytime at JdS
Robyn Nathan at [email protected] Storytime with song leader and storyteller Erik Lawson. Check out special age-level programming: 9:30–9:50 for 3- and 4-year-olds; 9:50–10:10 for 5-year-olds; 10:10–10:30 for more 5-year-olds. At the Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle, 15749 NE Fourth St., Bellevue.

6 febRuaRy

10:30 a.m.–12 p.m. — PJ library Song and Storytime at SJCS
Amy Hilzman-Paquette at amyhp@ jewishinseattle.org or www.facebook.com/ pjlibraryseattle Music, singing and storytelling with the PJ Library and Jeff Stombaugh. Come for the songs and story and stay for activities and playgroup fun. Free. At Seattle Jewish Community School, 12351 Eighth Ave. NE, Seattle. 7:30–9:30 p.m. — All Through the Night: a Seattle Premiere
Susanna Burney at [email protected] or 206-938-0963, ext. 107 or artswest.org At ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery, 4711 California Ave. SW, Seattle.

10 febRuaRy

tueSday

fRiday

Monday

9:30–11 a.m. — PJ library and Seattle Hebrew academy Tu B’Shevat Storytime

30 JanuaRy

8:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m. — Creating Change: Teaching about the Holocaust and Genocide
Ilana Kennedy at [email protected] or 206-774-2201 or www.wsherc.org Teacher seminar with keynote speaker Dr. James Waller on “Genocide: Ever Again.” Clock hours available. Register online at www.wsherc.org/ news/registrationform.aspx. $20. At Bellevue College, 3000 Landerholm Circle SE, Bellevue. 12 p.m. — discovery Seminar weekend
Marilyn Leibert at [email protected] or 206-722-8289 or seattlekollel.org Discovery uses scientific methods to explore the authenticity of Judaism and its relevance today.

3 febRuaRy

5:30–8:30 p.m. — Ezra Bessaroth Fruticas/ Tu B’Shevat dinner and Celebration
Susan Jensen at [email protected] or 206-722-5500 Children will perform songs and blessings that relate to the fruits of Israel. Enjoy a chicken dinner and sample dishes made with all of the different grains and fruits. Call for cost. At Congregation Ezra Bessaroth, 5217 S Brandon St., Seattle. 7–9 p.m. — nefesh B’nefesh Aliyah Planning workshop
Sarah Kogon at [email protected] or www.nbn.org.il Learn more about living in Israel, immigrant rights, employment, education and more. Online registration required. Free. At the Seattle Crowne

7 febRuaRy

SatuRday

5–10 p.m. — Parents night out
Josh Johnson at [email protected] or 206-388-0839 or www.sjcc.org Parents can go out while kids have an evening of fun. $30–$50. At the Stroum JCC, 3801 E Mercer Way, Mercer Island.

11 febRuaRy

Sunday

7:30–9:30 p.m. — All Through the Night: a Seattle Premiere
Susanna Burney at [email protected] or 206-938-0963, ext. 107 or artswest.org At ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery, 4711 California Ave. SW, Seattle. X PAGe 26

12 febRuaRy

Have you visited the new online Jewish community calendar? Find it at calendar.jtnews.net!

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January 29 at 7:30 p.m. TownMusic: Brooklyn Rider Concert This string quartet emerged from a desire to use the musical medium as “a vehicle for borderless communication.” Consisting of violinists Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen, violist Nicholas Cords and cellist Eric Jacobsen, Brooklyn Rider will perform Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op.131 by Beethoven, Suite for String Quartet from “Bent” by Philip Glass, Kol Nidre by John Zorn, and a piece by Colin Jacobsen. At Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., Seattle. Advance tickets are $20, or $17 for Town Hall members and seniors, and $12 for age 25 and under through brownpapertickets.com or 800-838-3006.

February 5 at 1 p.m. our Words, our songs Concert Featuring Cantor Marina Belenky, cantorial soloist Julie Mirel and Temple Beth Am music director Wendy Marcus, this Jewish Touch event celebrates Jewish women and Jewish music. The program includes selections from Sephardic and Eastern European folk traditions up to Yiddish theater, Broadway and contemporary composers and songwriters. Directed and accompanied by cantorial soloist and composer Peter Pundy, and narrated by Cantor David Serkin-Poole of Temple B’nai Torah. At the Stroum JCC, 3801 E Mercer Way, Mercer Island. Tickets are $5 for SJCC members, seniors and students, and $10 for general admission. Reservations recommended. For more information contact Roni Antebi at [email protected] or 206-232-7115 or visit www.sjcc.org.

Kehilla | Our Community
Meet the NEW Hadassah at a special women’s retreat
Centennial Convention
Come With Us to Israel! October 15-18, 2012
Book before Dec. 31st for the best rate. ®

PNW Region & Seattle Chapter Hadassah 425.467.9099 [email protected]

The Anti-Defamation League is a leader in fighting prejudice and protecting civil rights for all. Contact us to connect your passion for social justice with your Jewish roots! Email: [email protected] Phone: (206) 448-5349 Website: www.adl.org/pacific-northwest

Make time for you! Renew and refresh yourself who adds, “we’ll create a dynamic Jewish sisterhood through this retreat.” and meet the NEW face of Hadassah. Come have an amazing experience bonding, sharThe NEW Hadassah: Live! Laugh! Love! will be ing, learning, laughing and connecting! held March 10–11, at lovely Cedarbrook Lodge just south of Seattle. Surrounded by the lodge’s 18 acres of The NEW Hadassah: Live! Laugh! Love! costs only $100, including room and board (double occupancy). natural beauty, we’ll drink a little wine, tell a few stories, stretch our minds and our muscles, and enjoy the For more information and to register contact the Pacific company of women from around the Pacific Northwest Northwest Region office at [email protected] or 425-467-9099. region. Bring a friend and make new friends. Part social, part R & R, part educational, and open to Founded by Henrietta Szold in 1912, Hadassah, members and non-members alike, The NEW Hadassah: Live! Laugh! Love! gives you a chance to explore your The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, is best known for its two Jerusalem hospitals that provide beauty and sensuality—inside and out—while learning to tell your own compelling story. You’ll also learn about up-to-date treatment to Israelis and Palestinians alike, America’s largest Jewish organization and one of the and produce internationally recognized, cutting-edge medical research. Hadassah initiates and supports prolargest women’s volunteer organizations in the world. Relaxation, great food, laughter, and good wine are included.  gressive health care, education and youth institutions, and land development in Israel.  In the US, Hadassah “I want everyone in the region to have the opportunity to meet like-minded, creative, smart women they enhances American and Jewish life through education and Zionist youth prowould never meet if it wasn’t grams, promotes health for Hadassah,” says Jacquie awareness, and proBayley, president of the region serving Alaska, Washvides enrichment and growth for its members. ington, Oregon and Idaho, live laugh love

206-447-1967 www.campschechter.org

Where Judaism and Joy are One

Yossi Mentz, Regional Director 6505 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 650 Los Angeles, CA • Tel: 323-655-4655 Toll Free: 800-323-2371 [email protected]

Saving Lives in Israel
Discover, Experience, Embrace ISRAEL…the journey of a lifetime

Kol Haneshamah is an intimate congregation, open to people of different backgrounds and traditions. We meet twice a month at Alki UCC in West Seattle. 6115 SW Hinds St., Seattle 98116 E-mail: [email protected] Telephone: 206-935-1590 www.khnseattle.org

Judy Cohen, Director of Admissions [email protected] 206-829-9853 www.amhsi.org

AlexAnder Muss HigH scHool in isrAel

Find out how you can be part of Kehilla
Eastsiders
Call Lynn at 206-774-2264 or E-mail her at [email protected]

Seattleites

Call Cameron at 206-774-2292 or E-mail her at [email protected]
Temple De Hirsch Sinai is the leading and oldest Reform congregation in the Pacific Northwest. With warmth and caring, we embrace all who 206.323.8486 enter through our doors. www.tdhs-nw.org We invite you to share our past, and help 1511 East Pike St. Seattle, WA 98122 shape our future. 3850 156th Ave. SE, Bellevue, WA 98006

Northwest’s College Preparatory Jewish High School

Gary S. Cohn, Regional Director Jack J. Kadesh, Regional Director Emeritus
415-398-7117 [email protected] www.ats.org American Technion North Pacific Region on Facebook @gary4technion on Twitter

Visit us at www.nyhs.net (206) 232-5272

The premiere Reform Jewish camping experience in the Pacific Northwest! Join us for an exciting, immersive, and memorable summer of a lifetime!

friday, JaNuary 27, 2012 . www.JTNews.NeT . JTNews

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February 20 at 8 p.m. Bombay Beach Film The Northwest Film Forum’s American. Film. Week. features Israeli-born Alma Har’el’s Bombay Beach, an artistic study of California’s destitute. With visuals of desolation and original music, Bombay Beach won Best Documentary Feature at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. At Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., Seattle. For more information call 206329-2629 or visit www.nwfilmforum.org/ live/page/series/1994.

Through February 2 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Movie The film adaptation of Jonathon Safran Foer’s novel about Oskar Schell, whose quest to connect with his deceased father sends him on an emotional scavenger hunt through post-9/11 New York. See our review on jew-ish.com. At select theaters around the state.

professional directory
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.

to jewish washington
Graphic Design
Spear Studios, Graphic Design Sandra Spear 206-898-4685 ✉☎ [email protected] • Newsletters • Brochures • Logos • Letterheads • Custom invitations • Photo Editing for Genealogy Projects

1/27 2012
ACCeSS The DIreCTory onlIne www.jtnews.net www.jew-ish.com

Counselors/Therapists
Betsy Rubin, M.S.W., L.C.S.W. Individual and couple counseling 206-362-0502 [email protected]  I have more than 30 years exerience helping people deal with getting past the parts of their lives that leave them feeling stuck or unhappy. My practice relies on collaboration, which means that together we will create a safe place in which we can explore growth together. I believe that this work is a journey and that I am privileged to be your guide and your witness as you move to make the changes that you wish for.

Dentists (continued)
Michael Spektor, D.D.S. 425-643-3746 ✉☎ [email protected] www.spektordental.com  Specializing in periodontics, dental implants, and cosmetic gum therapy. Bellevue

☎☎

☎☎

☎☎

☎☎

Senior Services
Hyatt Home Care Services Live-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.

Catering
Matzoh Momma Catering Catering with a personal touch 206-324-MAMA Serving the community for over 25 years. Full service catering and event planning for all your Life Cycle events. Miriam and Pip Meyerson

☎☎

Wendy Shultz Spektor, D.D.S. 425-454-1322 ✉☎ [email protected] www.spektordental.com  Emphasis: Cosmetic and Preventive Dentistry • Convenient location in Bellevue

☎☎

Insurance
Eastside Insurance Services Chuck Rubin, agent 425-271-3101 F 425-277-3711 4508 NE 4th, #B, Renton Tom Brody, agent 425-646-3932 F 425-646-8750 www.e-z-insurance.com  2227 112th Ave. NE, Bellevue We represent Pemco, Safeco, Hartford & Progressive

☎☎

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Certified Public Accountants
Dennis B. Goldstein & Assoc., CPAs, PS Tax Preparation & Consulting 425-455-0430 F 425-455-0459 ✉☎ [email protected]

☎☎

Jewish Family Service Individual, couple, child and family therapy 206-861-3152 ✉☎ [email protected] www.jfsseattle.org  Expertise with life transitions, addiction and recovery, relationships and personal challenges —all in a cultural context. Licensed therapists; flexible day or evening appointments; sliding fee scale; most insurance plans.

Financial Services
Hamrick Investment Counsel, LLC Roy A. Hamrick, CFA 206-441-9911 ✉☎ [email protected] www.hamrickinvestment.com  Professional portfolio management services for individuals, foundations and nonprofit organizations.

☎☎

☎☎

ConneCTInG ProFeSSIonAlS wITh our jewISh CommunITy Dentists
Toni Calvo Waldbaum, DDS Richard Calvo, DDS 206-246-1424 Cosmetic & Restorative Dentistry Designing beautiful smiles 207 SW 156th St., #4, Seattle

Newman Dierst Hales, PLLC Nolan A. Newman, CPA 206-284-1383 ✉☎ [email protected] www.ndhaccountants.com  Tax • Accounting • Healthcare Consulting

☎☎

College Placement
College Placement Consultants 425-453-1730 ✉☎ [email protected] www.collegeplacementconsultants.com  Pauline B. Reiter, Ph.D. Expert help with undergraduate and graduate college selection, applications and essays. 40 Lake Bellevue, #100, Bellevue 98005

Mass Mutual Financial Group Albert Israel, CFP 206-346-3327 ✉☎ [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

☎☎

United Insurance Brokers, Inc. Linda Kosin 425-454-9373 ✉☎ [email protected] F 425-453-5313 Your insurance source since 1968 Employee benefits Commercial business and Personal insurance 50 116th Ave SE #201, Bellevue 98004

☎☎

Jewish Family Service 206-461-3240 www.jfsseattle.org  Comprehensive geriatric care management and support services for seniors and their families. Expertise with in-home assessments, residential placement, family dynamics and on-going case management. Jewish knowledge and sensitivity.

☎☎

Photographers
Dani Weiss Photography 206-760-3336 www.daniweissphotography.com  Photographer Specializing in People. Children, B’nai Mitzvahs, Families, Parties, Promotions & Weddings.

☎☎

☎☎

Solomon M. Karmel, Ph.D First Allied Securities 425-454-2285 x 1080 www.hedgingstrategist.com  Retirement, stocks, bonds, college, annuities, business 401Ks.

☎☎

The Summit at First Hill 206-652-4444 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.

☎☎

☎☎

Funeral/Burial Services
Hills of Eternity Cemetery Owned and operated by Temple De Hirsch Sinai 206-323-8486 Serving the greater Seattle Jewish community. Jewish cemetery open to all pre-need and at-need services. Affordable rates • Planning assistance. Queen Anne, Seattle

Linda Jacobs & Associates College Placement Services 206-323-8902 ✉☎ [email protected] Successfully matching student and school. 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

☎☎

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Thousands of readers in print and online = Thousands of prospective clients

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History lessons: A complicated story of a complicated survivor
chaRlene kahn Special to JTnews
“A rumination on the preservation of history: who records it and why? What drives its documentation? Is it objective truth, or the personal motive of the historian?” These questions were penned by the playwright Doug Wright during the process of writing I Am My Own Wife. The struggle that took him 10 years gave him much in return: By the unusual method of inserting himself as a character, Wright found a way to tell the complex life story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, born in eastern Berlin in 1928 as Lothar Berfelde. One year after the one-person, multicharacter play with the curious title premiered on Broadway in 2003, Wright received the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play. His work contains multiple layers of complexity, not solely that of von Mahlsdorf’s gender identity — the “third sex,” a woman trapped in a man’s body — but the character’s obsession for retrieving furniture and antiques tragically left behind by deported Jews during Hitler’s reign of terror. Von Mahlsdorf penned a story about her life, I Am My Own Wife: The True Story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf,  which was published in 1995. She died in 2002. Wright called von Mahlsdorf a hoarder of history, though the post-unification

If you go:
I Am My Own Wife by doug Wright will be performed at seattle Repertory Theatre from Feb. 3 to March 4. The play contains “mature themes,” according to the theatre’s website. For information and tickets, visit www.seattlerep.org or call 206-443-2222.

KErI KEllErman

Nick Garrison as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf in Seattle repertory Theatre’s production of I Am My Own Wife.

German government gave the hoarder a merit award for preserving an entire Weimar-era tavern, the Mulack-Ritze. Further complexities within this story of survival abound, through family abuse, the Nazi and post-Nazi era, through the Communist East German regime and into a reuni-

Lunch with the Author!

fied Germany. Given the adventures she had throughout her life, Von Mahlsdorf could have been a more truthful caper for an episode of the original Mission: Impossible TV series. Seattle Repertory Theatre  is staging I Am My Own Wife, directed by Jerry Manning. Seattle actor Nick Garrison plays the key role — or roles — as he represents more than 30 characters. For Seattle native Garrison, it looks like he’s found his métier. Called “Mr. Personalities,  a one-of-a-kind performer who’s found his voice” by Seattle Met magazine, Garrison played Master of Ceremonies in 5th Avenue Theatre’s production of Cabaret in 2008 and performed in the offBroadway production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Growing up in Seattle,  Garrison acted in productions at The Northwest School and studied voice with Emilie

Berne before leaving for Europe and later New York. According to Seattle Rep’s Katie Gottlieb Jackman, Manning, the Seattle Rep’s artistic director, hand-picked Nick Garrison for the one-person role. Manning met Wright in 1995, when Manning was casting director for New York Theatre Workshop, but “the timing didn’t match up until now,” Manning explained. Manning’s and Garrison’s mutual enthusiasm for the play cut through Seattle’s three-day freeze: Calling in for their snow-day interview with JTNews, their mutual, straightforward passion, their connection with the play, and their emphatic respect for its author and its message prevailed. “You can trust this script because it’s so finely written,” Manning said. “We are taking great pains to honor Doug’s choice of words.” Questioned about the collecting of furniture — from the homes of deported Jews — both Manning and Garrison believed von Mahlsdorf’s intents were for purposes of good: “Charlotte was interested in the family and what that piece represented,” Manning said. “The character’s acquisition of the furniture represents the families and the incredible loss during the war, and the
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What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank (Knopf) by Nathan Englander Thursday, February 16 at 1pm
Join us for a special luncheon event with Nathan Englander downstairs in the Third Place Pub. Tickets are $30 and include a signed copy of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank and lunch provided by Vios! Space is limited, purchase your ticket today!

6504 20th Ave NE 525.2347 www.ravenna.thirdplacebooks.com

friday, JaNuary 27, 2012 . www.JTNews.NeT . JTNews

m.o.T.: member of The Tribe

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W M.O.T. PAGe 8

admitting that writing is not a favorite, although she loves to read. She credits NYHS for her achievement. “I think my school…provide[s] us with good study habits and study skills. They make learning enjoyable,” she says, adding, “I know that sounds corny.” An athlete who plays volleyball and basketball for the school, Dena hopes the girls’ basketball team makes it to the state finals. The volleyball team did make it to

the state championships this fall, but the Shabbat-scheduled game could not be changed and the team had to forfeit. “There’s a huge interest” in girls’ sports at NYHS, Dena reports, even though only about half of the 100 students are girls. Dena is finance chair of the school’s student council and has made the dean’s list every year. Her family attends Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath, where she helps out with Shabbat youth programs. “I babysit a lot,” she says. “I like working with kids.”

She expects to study something sciencerelated in college. When we spoke, Dena had just been accepted t o a s eminary program in Israel, which she will attend next academic year, before starting college. She’ll study at Midrashet Harova, “just a couple of minutes’ walk from the Kotel.”

CourTESy nyHS

National Merit Commended Scholar Dena Phillips, number 33 on the basketball court, at a recent tournament.

NWAA & The Stranger present

$29

Ticke

ts fro

Join us for our upcoming services!
m

Special Musical Shabbat

Kol Zimra: A Shabbat Shirah of Temple’s Music

The Lady. The Legend. The Dirt!

To honor Shabbat Shirah, the Sabbath of the Torah portion recounting the Song of the Sea, we bring together all the worship music ensembles of Temple in one night of song, joy and praise. Experience the full range of our incredible musical liturgy, from Rock Shabbat to our youth choir, Kol Doreinu; Temple’s Adult Choir and Cantorial Soloist, Emily Ziskind.

10 Years of Rock Shabbat

Joan Rivers
In her benaroya hall Debut

an evening with

It’s hard to believe that ten years have passed since Temple pioneered this cutting edge, contemporary approach to Jewish worship. And while the personnel and elements have evolved over the years, the power and spirit of the Rock Shabbat Ensemble continues to inspire and engage countless members of our Temple community and beyond. Join us for a night of celebration for what we’ve achieved and what we will build together.

February 29 · 8pm

Mark your calendar for March 11 and join us for our Purim Celebration!
Share our past. Shape our future.

Visit www.tdhs-nw.org for more information.

The material in this show is for adults and is not suitable for children or those easily offended.

benaroyahall.org · 206.215.4747

FRAN LEBOWITZ: PUBLIC SPEAKING
a Conversation with DAN SAVAGE and the Audience

MArCh 2 · 8PM
BENArOYA hALL
photo: Brigitte Lacombe

benaroyahall.org · 206.215.4747

photo: Christopher Staton

Best at winning tickets to see Joan?

Mazels to Tannen Adam baum! to Mazels ! tz Lynn Ka

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W CALeNDAr PAGe 21

HFla annual Brunch
Judie Sherr at [email protected] or 206-722-1936 or hfla-seattle.com Annual brunch of the Hebrew Free Loan Association membership. The new board will be installed. $36–$50. At The Summit at First Hill, 1200 University St., Seattle. 1–3 p.m. — life Gets Better
Marjorie Schnyder at [email protected] or 206-861-3146 or jfsseattle.org

“The Unexpected Pleasures of Getting Older.” Author event and reception with Wendy Lustbader. At The Summit at First Hill, 1200 University St., Seattle. 5–9 p.m. — SJCS annual Gala
Karen Friedman at kfriedman@seattlejcs. org or 206-522-5212 Honoring Shoshana Stombaugh and presenting the Kaplan Award to Danielle Yancey. At the Seattle Jewish Community School, 12351 Eighth Ave. NE, Seattle.

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impossibility of restoring it,” Garrison added. The Grunderzeit Museum, a restored manor house, was created by von Mahlsdorf in eastern Berlin to hold collected furnishings of a past era, furniture left behind after its owners were taken by Nazis, and later collections rescued before mass urban demolition by the East German government.

Wright is gay and portrayed that part of his own persona in the script. “The Jewish and gay community have a shared sense of exile and persecution and of being survivors,” Garrison said. I Am My Own Wife may serve to remind its audience that regardless of differences, believing in justice, valuing the uniqueness of identity, and preserving what is beautiful may be the best way to learn from history.

january 27, 2012

shouk @jtnews
college placement tutoring/homecare ExpEriEncEd, caring local woman availablE for funeral/burial services
CEMETERy GAN ShALOM
A 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.

the

admissions counseling

A COLLEGE EDUCATION IS A MAJOR INVESTMENT college placement consultants
Expert help with undergraduate and graduate college selection, applications and essays.
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lifecycles

27

life
W OLYMPIA PAGe 1

freedom of our religious expression,” he testified before the committee. Sen. Ed Murray (D–Seattle), the primary sponsor of the bill, testified that for religious entities opposed to same-sex marriage, “no religion will be barred from deciding how they want to marry, nor will they be held legally liable under this legislation for making those decisions.” As far as the budget is concerned, community organizations are very concerned. Like she has done for the past several budget cycles, Governor Christine Gregoire has proposed cuts to grants for lowincome families and residents on disability programs, as well as to the state’s Basic Health insurance program. “Because this is now the third straight year of a budget deficit, we’re continuing to work on making sure the social-service safety net isn’t eviscerated for the people who need it most,” said Zach Carstensen, the Jewish Federation’s director of government affairs. “We can’t just make reforms and cuts anymore. We need to find some new revenue.” At this point, a working group in Olympia on which Carstensen sits is recommending that everything should be on the table, “from sales tax to securitization to closing tax preferences.” Ken Weinberg, CEO of Jewish Family Service, said he would agree that the state should look at a modest, graduated income tax, though he doesn’t expect to see one in his lifetime. “I think it takes real courage to do that,” Weinberg said. “It feels like we’ve got a state that’s falling apart. I don’t want it to fall apart. We need more money.” For JFS, which provides many of the social services on the state’s chopping block, the question of where the money will come from is at the top of its leaders’ minds. “If we need to cut expenses, how would we go about doing that?” Weinberg said. Despite the fact that indicators show the recession has ended, JFS is still seeing increases in its demand for its food bank and money so people can afford rent and utilities. Though Weinberg feels like things may be improving beyond his own agency, “I have not seen, here, the economy turning a corner,” he said. Weinberg added that the state’s legislators’ choices will negatively affect the people who most need help, as they did long before this recession began. “I don’t think anyone should rest easy after they make those [choices],” he said. “I think sleep should be lost until we’re able to reinstate those programs and increase them.” Senate Bill 6068, bi-partisan legisla-

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tion supported by the Jewish Federation and various Jewish communal agencies, was written in response to the December death on Mt. Rainier of Brian Grobois, an Orthodox Jewish hiker from New York. The Pierce County coroner’s office found bruises on Grobois’s body it felt were worthy of examination, but his family’s objections to the defiling of the body, a violation of Jewish law, led to a last-minute injunction to stop an autopsy. “It is the Jewish belief that the soul continues to live on after death, and the body is sacred and must return to the earth whole and complete,” testified Rabbi Zalman Heber of Chabad of Pierce County before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Jan. 17. Heber worked with the Grobois family and helped them obtain legal counsel while they were in Washington to retrieve Brian’s body to bury him in Israel. The Washington Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners opposes the bill. “I think this bill would substantially hinder my ability to do what I do now, which is compromise with families, educate families, do the work that needs to be done to ascertain the cause and manner of death,” testified Whatcom County’s medical examiner Gary Goldfogel. Goldfogel, himself an observant Jew, said he is “neither insensitive nor ignorant of the burial traditions and the religious concerns of Orthodox Jews and Muslims.” When issues of religious conflict have arisen he said, “we have always been able to sit down and work it out.” But the Federation’s Carstensen said his research, which included conversations with rabbis from different denominations, medical examiners and others who work with families of the deceased, found the medical examiner always ended up performing the autopsy. “The Jewish beliefs and the sanctity of the body took a back seat to the medical examiner’s need or desire to perform an autopsy,” he said. Carstensen said this state’s legislation was modeled after New York’s law, which he called “the gold standard,” but that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee met with rabbis, imams and medical examiners this week to make the bill’s intent more clear. Regardless, legislation is needed, he said, because the current system does not allow for families to have a say in the process. “The default is to cut, poke and prod and ask questions later,” Carstensen said. “If someone has to go to court to say, ‘Hey look, my rights, my religious liberties ensconced in our state’s constitution are being overridden here,’ if someone has to come to court every time that that arises, that’s a system that doesn’t work.”

Bar Mitzvah

Adam Gold
Adam celebrated his Bar Mitzvah on January 7, 2012, at The Summit at First Hill. Adam is the son of Caryn and Philip Gold of Seattle and the brother of Ethan and Asher Gold. Adam’s grandparents are Ruth and Charles Abrams of Santa Barbara, Calif., and Eileen and Ron Gold of Sonoma, Calif. Adam is a 7th-grader at Seattle Hebrew Academy. He enjoys reading, snowboarding, basketball, cross country and volunteering for the Friendship Circle. 

Bar Mitzvah

Jeff Menaker
Jeff will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah on February 4, 2012, at Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue. Jeff is the son of Samuel and Tatyana Menaker of Bellevue and the brother of Michael Menaker. His grandparents are Polina Menaker of Brooklyn, N.Y. and Galina Motorina of Bellevue. Michael is an 8th-grader at Odle Middle School. He enjoys participating in the Prism Program and playing soccer and lacrosse. For his mitzvah project, he is collecting video games to donate to Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Birth

Elias Benjamin Zallman
Nadav Tanners and Dr. Leah Zallman announce the birth of their son Elias (“Eli”) Benjamin Zallman on August 15, 2011 in Cambridge, Mass. Elias weighed 9 lbs., 7 oz. Eli’s grandparents are Dina Tanners of Seattle, Paul M. Tanners of Spokane, and Marcy Bernbaum of Washington, D.C. He is named for his maternal grandfather, the late Eric Zallman, and his paternal great-grandfather Benjamin Tanners.

How do I submit a lifecycle announcement?
Send lifecycle notices to: JTNews/Lifecycles, 2041 Third Ave., Seattle, WA 98121 E-mail to: [email protected] Phone 206-441-4553 for assistance. Submissions for the February 10, 2012 issue are due by January 31. Download forms or submit online at www.jtnews.net/index.php?/lifecycle Please submit images in jpg format, 400 KB or larger. Thank you!

Lisa Crunick | 206.941.1287 Hypnotherapist and EFT Practitioner www.lisacrunick.com/weightloss

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Express yourself with our special “Tribute Cards” and help fund JFS programs at the same time… meeting the needs of friends, family and loved ones here at home. Call Irene at (206) 861-3150 or, on the web, click on “Donations” at www.jfsseattle.org. It’s a 2-for-1 that says it all.

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28

Jewish oN earTh

JTNews . www.JTNews.NeT . friday, JaNuary 27, 2012

The invisible savings in local, organic food
MaRtin weSteRMan JTnews Columnist
It’s cheaper to buy local, organic foods than industrially produced ones — except the savings are invisible. Invisible, that is, to anyone who doesn’t buy, handle or grow them. Local and organic was all our ancestors ever knew — even up to our grandparents’ time. Then came farming’s “Green Revolution” of the 1950s, with “miracle” chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and “factory” farming. And with it, a host of hidden costs that you don’t pay with local, organic foods. This Tu B’Shevat, which falls this year on the eve of Feb. 7, let’s celebrate those savings: • No costs for air, land and water pollution, or soil erosion • No costs for food-borne illnesses, and health care system burdens • No costs for feeding antibiotics to fish and animals, nor for antibiotic resistance in animals and humans • No taxpayer subsidies to agribusiness, fossil fuel, drug and water industries, and • No reduced nutrition levels in fruits and vegetables. So, what make these cost savings “invisible”? First, the agribusiness, water, drug and fossil fuel industries hide them on their balance sheets, which makes their operations look more profitable. They simply don’t account for the costs of soil erosion, pollution cleanup, accidents and illnesses, food recalls, nutrition losses or human antibiotic resistance — until an incident occurs that they must pay for. Likewise, they do not subtract government subsidies. Between taxpayer subsidized operations and costs they offload onto the public, they deliver lower-priced foods than the local organics you find at your farmer’s market. The industrial food system delivers more than enough food for America. But it also creates and hides vast costs that simply don’t occur in the local, organic food system. The problem with hidden costs is when they’re out of sight, they’re out of mind. But we should pay attention. Even though business doesn’t pay these costs, you do. Your tax dollars subsidize agribusiness water consumption, fossil-fuel inputs — pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and fuels — drug company antibiotics, and vast factory farms, but they rarely pay for enforcement actions to hold these industries accountable for the damage they do. Your healthcare costs increase to cover obesity, respiratory and heart diseases that result from pollution, and overeating cheap, heavily subsidized, heavily promoted processed and factory-farm–grown foods. America’s food systems are largely opaque. What we need instead are transparent ones. In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, author Michael Pollan notes that, “Transparency is a more powerful disinfectant than any regulation or technology.” He cited an organic operation called Polyface Farm in Swoope, Va., which runs self-sufficiently by growing a variety of crops and meats. Most American farms today are not self-sufficient, because they only grow only one cash crop. More than 93 percent of America’s meat and poultry farmers produce chicken (39.6 percent), beef (28.6 percent) or pork (25.3 percent). More than 90 percent of America’s farms produce genetically modified corn (27 percent), soybeans (24 percent), hay (18.7 percent) or wheat (18.6 percent). Polyface, on the other hand, grows all these products, none of them GMO, using smart labor techniques, natural fertilizers, and carefully conserved water. It’s one of a growing number of such farms across the U.S., and its operations are entirely transparent to its customers and the public. All Polyface slaughtering is done cleanly and humanely, and regular USDA inspections show it’s healthier meat than what comes factory farms. But Polyface only distributes its products within 100 miles of the farm. Once we move beyond that range, to apples from New Zealand and Chile, or bell peppers from Mexico and Israel, “organic farming” becomes a commodity operation like conventional farming. Studies by the United Nations and other agencies assert that small-scale, low-input, agro-ecological and organic farming is more effective against today’s climate and population challenges than energy- and chemical-intensive industrial agriculture. The best way to reject industrial agriculture is to simply not buy its products. Are we food consumers up to the challenge? Can we buy more local, seasonally produced and organic foods, shift our diets away from meats and buy direct from farmers markets? The answers are up to each of us this New Year of the Trees. Participating in a local food economy requires “more effort than shopping at a Whole Foods,” writes Pollan. What better holiday than Tu B’Shevat to take the first step?
Author and teacher Martin Westerman writes and consults on sustainable living. He can be contacted with questions at [email protected].

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