International

Dr. Alexander Oscar is the President of Sofia Jewish Community, Vice President of Bulgaria Jewish Community, and Vice President of European Council of Jewish Communities, and will be making a special presentation at the Maimonides Society Reception on March 5, 2012.

After the fall of Communism in Bulgaria, and throughout Central and Eastern Europe, an opportunity to rebuild Jewish life was created.

An op-ed was recently posted in the Wall Street Journal by the CEO of our partner, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Steven Schwager. The article is posted below.

A Miraculous Post-Soviet Religious Revival

As Jews around the world gather to celebrate Simchat Torah next week—the raucous holiday marking the completion of the annual cycle of public Torah readings—I am reminded of one of the more curious practices among Soviet Jews in the final decades of the Communist regime.

The AP is reporting that Turkey has now requested assistance from Israel. See the article below.

JERUSALEM—Israel's defense minister says Israel will help Turkey aid earthquake victims "as soon as possible," after Turkey accepted Israel's offer of assistance.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement Tuesday that "special aid" will be sent to Turkey. He did not elaborate.

In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in eastern Turkey yesterday, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) has begun collecting funds for relief efforts. Responding to initial reports of hundreds of deaths and wide-spread building collapse, JDC is working with its local partners -- including Turkey's Jewish community -- to ensure the victims' immediate needs are addressed. JDC's past humanitarian interventions in Turkey have included the provision of aid and training after earthquakes in 2010 and 1999.

Are you interested in doing more for your Jewish community? Do you want to learn more about how the Jewish Federation impacts Jewish people here and abroad, and help make those decisions?

Consider serving on a committee or helping out in our office.

This Summer, our partners, Jconnect and JDC, will travel to Russia to explore and serve with burgeoning Jewish communities. Applications for this Siberia trip are due this Friday, and we don't want you to miss out!

Across the country, efforts to debase and de-legitimize Israel have challenged Jewish communities in profound, new ways. These efforts have done little to further constructive dialogue or foster a real peace in the Middle East but instead have cleaved deep rifts in communities from Boston to Seattle.

Please join us for the Nordic Heritage Museum's 2011 Raoul Wallenberg Dinner and Lecture Series, cosponsored by Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center and Washington State Jewish Historical Society. The dinner will be on Tuesday, June 14 at 5:30pm and the lectures will be on Tuesdays, May 24, and May 31 at 7pm at the Nordic Heritage Museum.