You don’t need to show up – in person or virtually – in order to be there for your community.
As the pandemic continues down an unpredictable path, the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland decided to focus on keeping everyone safe physically – by forgoing an in-person event – and emoti...

They’re back! “They” being animals, smiles and Jennifer Felberg, all of which returned to Cedar Sinai Park this fall.
The pandemic has seriously limited both human and animal visitors to senior living campuses for nearly 18 months. As much as residents have missed seeing family and friends,...

Israeli innovator Refael Shamir arrived in Eugene early this month as a visiting scholar at the University of Oregon, where he will work with graduate students and Ph.D. candidates to adapt his physiological monitoring technology for the U.S. market. Shamir, 31, is the founder of Letos, a compute...

Solomon’s Legacy will explore climate change from a legal perspective on Zoom at 11:45 am, Oct. 27.
“Climate Change and the Public Trust” will feature University of Oregon Professor Mary Wood and Nigel Savage, founder of Hazon, the Jewish Lab for Sustainability. Solomon’s Legacy is the Je...

When “Mending the Social Fabric” opens Oct. 7 at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, it will be a work in progress. Just as tikkun olam, repairing the world, requires ongoing attention, Bonnie Meltzer’s interactive fabric exhibit will evolve over its four-month run ...

PHOTO: Violinist, singer and Jewish music expert Michelle Alany discovered the joy and challenges of outdoor concerts during COVID.

BY KERRY POLITZER

Portland prides itself on its diverse and vibrant music scene. But with the pandemic-related closing of venues, local musicians have had to reinv...

Despite the global pandemic, 36 teens from Oregon were among the nearly 4,000 American teens who traveled to Israel this summer on multi-week trips designed and heavily subsidized by the new RootOne run by The Jewish Education Project. Two Oregon programs provided additional funds to help local t...

In his first Rosh Hashanah sermon at Congregation Shaarie Torah, Rabbi Gary Ezra Oren challenged congregants to perform 18,000 mitzvot or “regular acts of kindness” in 5782. “In our world, a little kindness can really make someone’s day, and a lot of kindness can restore hope, joy and pos...

BY RABBI ARIEL STONE

I admit it, I’m afraid of the dark. The dark I’m afraid of is the kind that our ancestors used to associate with the primeval forests of Europe. They were deep and pathless, thick and disorienting. The darkness within which we mark the New Year of 5782 is caused by a vas...

Want to help the Earth, feed the hungry, learn gardening tips, enjoy the outdoors, schmooze and teach Jewish values all at once? As many Portland Jewish Academy families have discovered, Kindness Farm is the place to do it. 
Kindness Farm is a nonprofit located on a 1-acre plot off Southeast 127...

BY DEBORAH MOON
PJ Library has hired two part-time parent ambassadors – Sonia Marie Leikam and Ilana Jaffe-Lewis – to help create experiences and connections among the 1,020 young families across the Greater Portland area who receive free PJ Library books each month. 
PJ Library sends more t...

BY JENN DIRECTOR KNUDSEN
Grief affects every part of our lives and can be a lonely road to travel. Due to the ongoing pandemic, coping with grief has been more isolating than at any time in recent memory.
To address individuals’ grief and shore up their ability to cope, Jewish Family & Child Se...

PHOTOS: Clockwise from top left: High school interns Mazzi Katzen, Suretta Plawner and Ben Rosenfeld, and SWU Northwest high school speaker Aviv Attia. Below right is Rayna Davis, Emerson Fellow at the University of Oregon.

StandWithUs has announced its 2021-22 Kenneth Leventhal High School Int...

PHOTO: “Cannot Predict Now” reads the Magic 8 Ball Rabbi Eve Posen used as a Zoom background for a Neveh Shalom town hall about High Holiday plans. The rabbi views the unpredictability of the Magic 8 Ball as analogous to life in an ever-changing pandemic.

BY DEBORAH MOON

Even before Multn...

PHOTO: Even before the new mask mandates, Lisa Schroeder required her staff to wear masks at her reopened Mother’s Bistro & Bar in downtown Portland.

BY DEBORAH MOON
After a year of vacillating restrictions and conditions, Mother’s Bistro reopened June 3 with limited days and hours in a down...

PHOTO: Kohanim Manny Cohen and Allen Kenner bless the Havurah Shir Hadash community.

The Havurah Synagogue in Ashland recently celebrated its 36th anniversary as well as the 25th anniversary of Rabbi David Zaslow serving as the spiritual leader of the community.

“Twenty-five and 36 are s...

Beth Hamon's new album gets delayed debut; Kept home by COVID pandemic, a writer writes; Musical Midrash meets milestone with song.