The Jewish Review staff
Since its e-newspaper re-launch in 2020, The Jewish Review has put the stories of Portland’s Jewish community and beyond to the eyes of readers every two weeks. Now it brings those stories to your ears. 
“The Jewish Review Podcast” makes its debut today on all major...

By ROCKNE ROLL
The Jewish Review
“I have the largest collection of the worst spine deformities of the world.”
That’s an unusual self-description, but Dr. Rick Hodes is anything but typical. It’s a collection he’s amassed over more than 30 years practicing medicine in Ethiopia, work that...

By ROCKNE ROLL
The Jewish Review

Chabad Oregon drew 200 bakers to their Pre-Rosh Hashana Mega Challah Bake Thursday, Sept. 7 at Congregation Neveh Shalom.

By MICHALA KATZ
For The Jewish Review
Beit Am, the Jewish community located in Corvallis, Ore., means “house of the people” in Hebrew. The synagogue, however, didn’t have any house or facility to call their own for many years. The “house” was purely a metaphor of the close-knit nature a...

By RABBI BARRY COHEN
Yom Kippur at its best can be a healing, cathartic experience. But the process that leads to this result is not easy.
Myths about Yom Kippur: It is a day of sadness. It is a day of self-mortification. It is a day when all our sins are forgiven. Instead, Yom Kippur is a day th...

By ROCKNE ROLL
The Jewish Review
“Growing up in Wichita, Kansas, as the only Jewish kid in my high school graduating class of 671 students, I couldn’t have imagined how large, varied, and vital the Jewish community on this continent is,” Jewish Federation of North America Board Chair Julie ...

By ROCKNE ROLL
The Jewish Review
Julie Platt, the Board Chair for the Jewish Federations of North America, was raised on Jewish philanthropy and community work. It’s a legacy she’s proud to have inherited from her father, who had died just weeks before her recent visit to Portland.
“I’m ...

The Jewish Review asked leaders in Portland's Jewish community to share their wishes for the coming year with readers. May you have a blessed and sweet new year.

By RABBI BARRY COHEN
The Jewish people are a hopeful people. Hope, optimism and joy are hard-wired into our DNA.
Just look at the holidays in the Jewish year. I don’t have column space to cover every one. We can begin with the gift that we receive every week: Shabbat. We have an opportunity to ...

By ROCKNE ROLL
The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland provides myriad services to Portland’s Jewish community, from grants to partner agencies to programs abroad and right here in Portland – including this very publication. One thing makes all those other activities possible: The annual Ca...

By ROCKNE ROLL
Conversations around the Israeli–Palestinian conflict are often difficult, especially when those involved lack connection to the myriad perspectives on the situation. That difficulty can be exacerbated by the intense environment that college campuses can create – an issue that ...

By ROCKNE ROLL
A modern – and thoroughly Jewish – twist on one of Shakespeare’s most controversial works is coming to Portland this fall.
Theatre dybbuk, the Los Angeles-based performance art group, is coming to Portland for an October residency centered on the company’s latest work, “T...

By JATHAN JANOVE
At a Hanukkah party in Salt Lake City in December 2000, Bert Spiegel z”l approached me and said he wanted to work with me to form a Jewish group for men in our community.
“Jewish women do a much better job at connecting with each other,” he said, “Jewish men have to work...

By ROCKNE ROLL
When Laura Jeser returned to Portland in 2022, one of the things that brought her back was the sense of inclusion and care she felt within Portland’s Jewish community. Now she plans to help more people experience that feeling as Associate Campaign and Engagement Director for the ...

By ROCKNE ROLL
Dignity Grows is having a party – and you’re invited!
The group will host a packing party at 1 pm Sunday, Aug. 27 at Congregation Neveh Shalom, filling the group’s signature purple tote bags with menstrual and general hygiene products for those in need.
Dignity Grows is a na...

By BOB HORENSTEIN
Approached by a Harvard student who was vilifying Zionists in October 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. responded, “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews [emphasis added]. You’re talking antisemitism.” Yet, in the 56 years since King uttered that rebuke, it has be...

By RABBI BARRY COHEN
What if we learn that we are not alone in the universe? What would be the implications? Politically? Philosophically? Theologically? Religiously?
A congressional subcommittee met on June 26 to discuss issues surrounding unexplained anomalous phenomena (UAP) (formally referred...

This is the first of an ongoing series of columns from The State of Israel's diplomatic representative to the region. 

By AMBASSADOR MARCO SERMONETA 
Dear community,
For almost a year now I have served as the Consul General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest. It has been a privilege getting to...