Jew-ish.com in print

8/6/2019 Jew-ish.com in print

1/8

jew-ishmagazine

summer 201

jew-ish.com

Josh FurmanIf anyone stands for Jewish

Seattle, its him

Whitney SternThe designer and yogini saves

the world through earrings

Dave SanfordLikes feeding people, therefore

we like him

Jeremy DeutschThe Republican politician who

might actually work harder than

God

Keith JudelmanBringing new energy to theSouth End

Jew-ish goesnew-ish

Book review:Russians rocking in the free

world?

The declineof Jewishpeoplehood?

Like us, really Like us:facebook.com/jewishdotcom

Twitter: @jewishdotcom

www.jew-ish.comJewelry by Whitney Stern


2/8

ew-ish 2 welcome to our world july 8, 20

www.ew-ish.com welcome to our world

Mazel tov on this well-deservedrecognition, Josh!

Your innovation, leadership and visionhave made Jconnect Seattle one of the best

young adult programs in the country.

Thank you for your outstanding commitment to our community.

Hillel UW and Jconnect Seattle Community,

Board and Staff

Josh Furman,

Jconnect Seattle Director


By Joel MagalnickJosh Furman hadnt planned to be Seattles

go-to guy or events or young Jewish adults, butsometimes lie takes you on strange trips. Justask the guy whose events as director o Jconnect,the program or 2132-year-olds at Hillel at theUniversity o Washington, have included a circusPurim and a Sodom and Gemorrah party.

Its a career that I love and its one o those jobs where Im excited to wake up and do thework that I need to do, Josh says.

But this natural-born planner didnt start atthe top. He began by making coee at Hillels in-house ca while still attending the UW.

I was a business major as an undergrad, and

I think I always was the type that leaned towardnonprots, Josh says.He participated in one o the organizations

alternative spring breaks, which provide a weeko social justice and volunteer opportunities indeveloping countries. Now he leads them.

Its really because o Rabbi Wills men-torship, says Josh o Will Berkovitz, Hillelsormer Greenstein Family Executive Director,who rst saw Joshs talents and hired him towork or the students organization. He let myskills as an event planner really come out.

Berkovitz, however, gives credit to Josh:All I did was trust in him, and ask him ques-tions, and stay out o the way, Berkovitz says.Hes got a git, and rankly its up to our com-munity to keep him engaged in the Jewishcommunity in a leadership role and providehim the opportunities to be a leader.

Though Berkovitz let Hillel a year ago, insome ways Josh is the bridge between itsprevious director and its new one, RabbiOren Hayon, who took over the position atthe beginning o the month.

His presence here and obviously the pres-ence o the Jconnect program were major entice-ments to me, Hayon says. This is exactly thekind o programming that I think is the uture o theJewish community and is very close to my ownpersonal, proessional vision o my rabbinate.

Galit Ezekiel, Hillels director o development,has watched Joshs growth over the past sev-eral years.

Hes outstanding at building relationships just very engaging, riendly, welcoming, shesays. He really makes people eel at home andwelcomed, which is critical with young people.

Josh gets plenty o pride rom doing the bigprograms, usually ocused around holidays,

and says he always tries to provide educationopportunities within the un activities. But or aorganization that sponsors several events eacweek, sometimes its the small stu that keeppeople coming back.

During my time here Ive seen people meand get engaged, Ive seen people whovbecome Orthodox, Ive seen people whove comand embrace their Judaism in other ways, Jossays. Its a chance to connect and nd somthing meaningul to them.

Josh, 27, spent most o his early years in Porland, growing up in a amily that was very progressive and very connected to that citys Jewiscommunity.

My amily always modeled Jewish not continuity but community you always had amaround you, he says.

Part o that came rom Joshs grandparentboth o them Holocaust survivors, on his atherside. They put an emphasis on community thltered through the amily.

Theres denitely a sense o what your community can do and how it can support eacother, he says.

He has taken those early lessons to heart in hcareer, even i he sometimes orgets to step bacand look at his part in a program that has survivean ever-changing community with ever-chaning needs or more than a decade. Its with thin mind that even when he was asked or nomintions or the 10 Under 40 honorees, he was suprised that people would recommend him.

Sometimes you dont expect it when you woin the Jewish world, just because youre doing these programs and you see so many people whare amazing and you dont put yoursel in thcontext, he says.

Josh Furman:If youre under 35 and you havent met

Josh, youre doing something wrong

Joel Magalnick

JoshFurmantakes ashort breakF

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By Diana Brement As chie o sta or th district Republican

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Jeremy Deutschis a busy guy, working roughly 12-hour days, sixdays a week. (We suspect its more.)

I try not to work on Shabbos, he says.Deutsch has worked or McMorris Rodgers

who represents the ar eastern counties o ourstate, including Spokane a ew dierent times.The rst was in 2003 when she made the moverom state representative to Congress. He workedon her campaign and Ive been working with heron and o or these eight years in dierent capac-ities, Jeremy says.

Aside rom a brie stint when the Ohio Stategrad returned home to central New Jersey to workin the amily business, hes worked in politics mosto his adult lie. That business, an old hotel in Belvi-dere, made Deutsch the Bob Newhart o the inn,he says, reerring to the comedians second TVshow. But, he realized, politics was my passion.

In 2006 Deutsch helped McMorris Rodgers runor re-election.

It was a bad year or Republicans, he recalls,but she kept her seat. Ater helping Luke Esserbecome Washington GOP party chair, Deutschbecame executive director o that organization.

When McMorris Rodgers was elected to a thirdterm (shes now in her ourth) she invited Deutschto come to DC or his current job.

My boss is the vice chair o the [Republicanleadership] conerence, Deutsch notes, makingher the highest ranking woman in Congress onthe Republican side.

In addition to overseeing the operations o this22-person Congressional oce, Deutsch is the

Congresswomans chie policy adviser andadministrative ocer, and assists with extraresponsibilities that come with the leadershipposition.

One is making Republicans cool, byusing new media and social media tools, hesays. McMorris Rodgers is also charged withbringing more women and minorities into theparty.

Deutsch has a new knowledge o andpassion or disability issues, too. The oldero the Congresswomans two children wasborn with Down syndrome, making her astrong advocate or rights o the disabledand their caregivers.

Weve been working in a strong bi-partisan ashion, raising awareness andchanging laws, he says.

Deutsch, a member o AIPAC beorehe took his current job, acknowledgesthat there are not many Jewish Republi-cans. He gets a hard time at amily reunions, butsays thats changing a bit with President Obamasrecent assertions about Israels borders. And inEastern Washington, while its tough to nd aminyan (outside o Spokane), the general popu-lation are unwavering and strong supporters oIsrael.

As a Jew he eels he brings an ability to ques-tion and challenge to his job where part o hisrole is to do due diligence, to look at things romall sides, he says. I think thats something webring to the table in all elds.

The 35-year-old eligible bachelor maintainsa condo with a kosher kitchen in West Seattle,but doesnt see it much these days. He tries to

stay connected with Seattle Rabbi ElazarBogomilsky, and rom time to time well do somlearning together. (Bogomilsky is also involved disability issues, as executive director o SeattleFriendship Circle.)

And he nds un in work.I love my job and what makes it un is my bos

and working or someone you believe in, he sayThat included accompanying McMorris Roge

to a Republican leadership retreat in New YoCity.

I think what the boss liked the most about thtrip, Deutsch says, is when I took her to the Canegie Deli.

JinYoungLee/OfceoRep.McMorrisRogersJeremydeutsch,leFt,WalksWithhis boss,reP.catherinemcmorrisrogers(rsPokane),through thehallsoFcongress.

One of a few:Jeremy Deutsch,

Jewish Republican


4/8


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By Emily K. AlhadeffProbably like many o her col-leagues at Brandeis University,Whitney Stern oresaw a career inhuman services. But when this stu-dent o sociology, politics and Latin American studies spent her junioryear abroad in Chile, that started tochange.

Sort o.I was living in Chile and trav-

eling into Peru, says Stern, 29. Igot inspired by indigenous womenwho live and work in dierent areaso public health...and a lot o themwere artisans on the side.

Stern met women crating on thestreet, making jewelry out o naturalmaterials.

I started o doing organic seedand coconut husks, she says o herearly jewelry designs beore movinginto metals, glass and stone.

Ater college, Whitney continuedher social services path, working ata public hospital in Boston givingree legal services. She worked on

her jewelry on the side to escape thestress o the job. And she startedturning heads.

People started commissioningme on the side, she says.

So in late 2005, Whitney headedback to South America to startdeveloping the idea o a jewelrybusiness. But she didnt want toabandon her commitment to help-ing others.

How can I pair up my passionor social services and women and jewelry? she asked hersel. Shesbeen developing the answer to thisquestion since she launched Whit-ney Stern Jewelry Design in 2007,and shes not done yet.

Whitney produces about hal othe products she creates, most owhich are custom designs or indi-vidual clients. When it comes to theitems that go to boutiques and mid-sized stores she sends a sampledown to her partners at Baliq, a air-trade organization in Peru, whichreproduces the design with local,

sustainable materials.Other pieces are cre-ated by jewelry work-ers and metalsmithshere in Seattle. Whit-ney spends her timetraveling back andorth to Peru, andmost recently to NewYork, where her linewas accepted byHenri Bendel.

But why stopth e re? Wh i tn eyenvisions creating anonprot that wouldintegrate jewelry,womens and chil-drens health andwellness, with col-laboration with herpartners in Peru.

Ho w th a t sgoing to look? Ihave to be honest, Im stillguring that out, she says. But, sheadds, Long term? One hundredpercent. She sees it as a way togive back to the people who havegiven to me and taught me.

The combination o art, healthand womens issues is not one-dimensional or random. Beorecoming into jewelry design, Whitneytaught yoga, and she was a doula,too. When shes not traveling youcan nd her teaching six classes aweek at Urban Yoga Spa in West-lake.

Its denitely intense to do thistype o work, she says.

How does she balance it? Sel-care. And riendship, she says.Intense doesnt mean bad.

She did have to give up the doulawork, though, which she practicedor three years in North and SouthAmerica.

I was certain that I wanted to be

a midwie, says Whitney. I loveservice work.

However, the tough lie o an on-call birth assistant proved to be per-sonally unsustainable.

I also wanted more o a struc-tured business that would let mehave access to my long term goals,she says.

Whitney sees caring or women,art and body work as seamless.

It kind o all relates in my mind,she explains. Art and wellness

and health and activism and oureach. Its kind o like the integrateapproach.

Whitney, who grew up in Seatle, lives on Capitol Hill with hArgentinean husband o two yeaLeandro Fernandez. She jokes ththey could have changed their namto Sternandez but I was alreadbranded!

Leandro, who was raised Catholic, helps Whitney carry out Jewistraditions. Stern was involved Hillel, where she taught yoga, antogether they oten hold Shabbdinners with riends.

We have a multicultural Spanish-speaking home, she says.

Whitney considers her valueo sustainability, ethical businespractices and social justice exemplary o her Judaism, and she notethat her jewelry business actuaconnects her strongly to her Jewis

roots. Her great-grandather, atwhom she was named, was a jeweler in New York ater he came overom Latvia.

It comes ull circle, she sayBeore Jews were successul thewere laborers, especially in th jewelry eld.... So I eel a sense wanting to give back, not just to mamily but to the world.

www.whitneystern.com

Whitney Stern:Glass, metals and coconuts

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by Joel MagalnickLast Wednesday, Dave Sanord stopped by the

Columbia City armers market, picked up the rstava beans and summer squash o the season,and took them home to cook or dinner.

It was just a plate o those awesome veggies,what I ound rom my local armer, Dave says.

Thats Daves kitchen philosophy: Start withquality, resh, seasonal ingredients, and do whatI can not to mess them up, he says. I want tohonor that ingredient and all that work thats goneinto it.

Dave, who turns 28 this month, has alwaysbeen into ood. Growing up on Mercer Island, Iwas a chubby little kid, [I] loved to eat, he says.

Food turned into a passion as he went throughhigh school, and he cooked in his spare time whileattending Stanord University. He worked in thetech industry in Silicon Valley, but at the sametime would do grunt work in the kitchen o restau-rants down there, otentimes or no more than ameal at the end o the night.

He also did this with a roving restaurant calledOutstanding in the Field, which operates aroundthe country on arms or in caves, picks the oodrom the eld, and then prepares it or diners whosit at long communal tables. Youll start to see aamiliar theme here.

When he returned to Seattle our years ago,he began working with che Matt Dillon, bestknown or his restaurants Sitka & Spruce and TheCorson Building. Dave spent two years as a prod-

uct manager at The Corson Building, an old,reurbished, high-ceilinged building with grandchandeliers and, again, those long communaltables.

Sometime this all, Dave will be opening hisown restaurant in what has quickly becomeone o Seattles oodie centers o the universe:Ballard. While he hasnt announced the nameor started talking specic details, he has apretty good idea o what he wants it to looklike: When I moved back to Seattle I starteda meal series: All amily-style meals. It startedin my lot with Sunday brunch and branchedout to dinners, he says.

He expanded to holding the meals onarms, in parks, on beaches, at other peo-ples homes. The whole idea was not tomake money necessarily, but to start bring-ing people together, Dave says. Thatsbeen an intentional prototype or the restau-rant.

The vision or this new place is his own,but he is working with local design-and-build rm Dovetail to make that vision a real-ity right down to the long tables where hisguests will eat.

Ive already salvaged some materials romother buildings and sites around the city, hesays.

While he says hes not motivated by specicreligious institutions, he does get some inspirationrom Judaisms ocus on ood.

One o the best things about our ood tradtion is its oten a acilitator o bringing riends anamily and community together, he says.

That is something thats always in season.

Dave Sanford:Cooking for community

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By Emily K. AlhadeffSun streams through the window o Revive

Therapeutics. The small waiting room, mildlyAsian-inspired and adorned with a vase o orangefowers and neat stacks o books, emits a eelingo calm. Like it should.

Revive, which houses and co-operates withHillside Acupuncture, opened in Seward Park inearly June.

Hillside Acupuncture is the creation o KeithJudelman, 29, who opened his own acupuncturepractice in 2009 ater graduating rom the WuHsing Tao School.

I kind o just went or it, Keith says. I havethese skills, I wanted to share them. The more andmore I learn, the more I can see what is going onin people around me.

Keith, who grew up in Seattle and went to Seat-tle Hebrew Academy and Gareld High beoregetting a Bachelors degree in Anthropology romWestern Washington University, became inter-ested in Chinese medicine as part o a natural pro-gression rom an interest in Chinese martial artsand natural medicine.

Ive been studying Kung Fu since high school,he says, and that realm includes Qi Gong and Chi-nese yoga. For about ve or six years I was study-ing Chinese medicine inormally on my own andreading books and doing my Kung Fu training.

Keith holds a second-degree black belt in KungFu, Shuai Chiao, Tai Chi, and Qi Gong and teachesat Evergreen Kung Fu School. In his spare time.

Via Qi Gong and the Chinese practice o energywork, Keith was inspired to explore Chinese heal-ing arts urther, and he was driven to practice acu-puncture by the idea o living seasonally.

I we look at whats resh and seasonal in thearms, he explains, thats pretty much a goodguide.

He explains how we can understand our ownbodies and energy systems by watching natureprogress throughout the course o a year.

Diet, exercise and adequate sleep are the keysto wellbeing, he says.

I cant emphasize more the value o goodsleep and exercise, he says. But when the body

is o and starts to malunction, Keith explains thatacupuncture, by way o the bodys energy chan-

nels, can correct the root cause o the problem.Keith specializes in pain management and anx-iety, or mental, emotional imbalances. He con-siders his treatment success rate around 7580percent, but that depends on the commitment othe patient.

I always tell people to come our or ve times,he says, explaining that its like a course o anti-biotics: You still have to nish your course even iyou eel better.

I denitely encourage people especiallythose with unresolved issues they havent beenable to gure out to try it out, whether its meor another practitioner, Keith says.

Keith moved his practice to Seward Park romWallingord partly because the South End is justmuch more underserved than the North End. InWallingord, he says, he opened his practice ina neighborhood with about 40 other acupunc-turists.

Furthermore, he eels an aliation withthe Jewish community, a lot o which lives inSeward Park. He hopes he and his businessassociate at Revive can create a neighbor-hood clinic.

Keith notes that in addition to a bookshelull o Chinese medicine and Taoist philos-ophy, he is also infuenced by Rabbi Nach-man o Breslov, Martin Buber, Aryeh Kaplanand Shlomo Carlebach. He relates strongly toChassidut, as well as to the spirituality o theworld outside o Judaism.

I grew up in Seattle, he explains. Manyo my riends are not Jewish. I was a culturalanthropology major. Im very much into diver-sity and dierent cultures.

I dont try and keep the outside worldout. To me theres truth and beauty in every-thing.

Keith relates his spiritual side and hisinterest in healing energy to his lielong pas-sion, music. The bassist plays with the Jew-ish-style group Sasson and with Picoso, asalsa band.

Music was a good backdrop to get into thbecause its also very much about how diere

energies communicate, he says.All o what he does, he says, brings him closeto God.

To me the essence is striving to make a spacor Hashem in this world recognizing the unio all creation and being grateul or lie in all itransormations, he writes in an email. In practice I see this as nding our tikkun (our piece in aintegrated whole) and pursuing it.

Regarding any naysayers who disregard thvalue o acupuncture, Just come, experiencit, Keith says. I dont eel like I have to ght prove it, because its been around or 5,000 yeaand its been working and its served billions opeople.

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By Joel Magalnick A unny thing happened while I was reading

David Bezmozgiss new novel The Free World(Farrar, Straus, Giroux, $26). I went out or beers

with a ew olks and it came up that one o thewomen in our party had emigrated rom the SovietUnion when she was a little girl. When someoneasked about her experience, I told the story. Thatis, I told the story through the eyes o Alec Kras-nansky and his extended amily, who let Riga,Latvia in 1978 to make their way to Chicago.

I noted the crowded immigration centers, themonths spent in Rome (Ladispoli, my riend cor-rected me, not realizing that the town was essen-tially a seaside suburb) where the infux o RussianJews hustled and whiled away the days as theyawaited their visas to enter their new promisedland. With my riends story I got it pretty muchright.

With Alec, so did Bezmozgis.When the Soviets opened the doors or Jews to

leave in various waves in the 70s, 80s and 90s,we would hear the same story over and over asthese new Jews entered the United States andIsrael. Lie was dicult. People waited in longlines or just a loa o bread. The KGB watchedtheir every move.

Yet Alecs lie wasnt so terrible. Yes, theyhad to watch their step. And when Alec and hisbrother Karl made the decision that they wantedto leave based more on curiosity and protthan on oppression things got dicult or theirather, Samuil.

Both had second thoughts about submittingthe application. Karl had managed to acquire alarge apartment in a just-completed building andwas waiting or the decorator they had deco-rators under Soviet rule? to help them pick outwallpaper beore his wie would move in. Alec had just impregnated his beautiul but married girl-riend Polina, his coworker in the radio actory.

Everyone in this story has baggage, and not

just the Russian knickknacksthey drag with them acrossEurope to sell in Romes openmarket.

Polina had made top marksin school to achieve her posi-tion at the actory. Yet despiteher intelligence and looks, sheallows hersel to be led bywhichever man will pay atten-tion to her, whatever the con-sequences. She divorces herrst husband (whom she hadagreed to marry only becauseshe had terminated their preg-nancy and thought it was theright thing to do). She accepts Alecs proposals o marriageand America, despite the tollit takes on her aging parents,because again it eels like theright thing to do.

Samuil, it turns out, leaves his motherlandunder duress. This old (though only in his early60s), cantankerous survivor o pogroms and sev-eral wars had seen his mother and brother killed.He had worked his way up to a high position theCommunist party. He had a car and driver and awillingness to die rather than o be subjected tothe excesses o the outside world. He lost every-thing as soon as Alec and Karl put in or theirexit papers. You know things wont go well orhim when the border agent sweeps his medals which give him more pride than his good-or-nothing sons into the garbage.

The Free World shits graceully between pastand present, going as ar back as Samuils child-hood in pre-Revolution Russia and as recently asthe weeks leading up to the Krasnansky clanshumiliating border crossing. While the past oerscontext and depth, the story shines in the pres-ent: The stuy oces o the Hebrew Immigrant

Aid Society, the acelebureaucracy o the Amercan Jewish Joint DistributioCommittee, the apartme

Alec and Polina share wtheir one true riend, a statless tour guide.

These Jews are not thpoor, huddled masses mano us may remember the height o the RussiaJewish movement o the la70s. These Jews are angrTheyre shrewd. Theyll buyour lip i you try to go toar with their sister. At leathats what happened tAlec. But theyre also apprehensive rightened even

In the auto garage thKarl somehow owns, whicmight be a ront or ille

gal activities who knows what hes doing withose heavily tattooed ormer Russian prisoners Alec nally gets it: These tough guys are just ascared as everyone else about what awaits thein this brave new world.

Like lie itsel, nothing ever goes as planned, athe Krasnansky amily nds out when their sposor in Chicago changes her mind and they mudecide where they can go. Boston? San Francisco? Calgary?

To live in these places you could marvel them every day, but who did? In the same wayou took a beautiul girl and made her into a wiThe wie remained enchanting, ull o mystery, everyone else.

For 350 pages Bezmozgis keeps us enchanteinterested, and waiting to see what mystery thamily must solve to get them to their new, reworld.

The free world comes at a cost


8/8



Jew-ish is getting a new look!

Coming soon, jew-ish.comis launching a new site with anupdated design, more user-riendlyeatures, a community calendar,weekly themes and a growing teamo writers.

Jew-ish is the only online andprint magazine by, or and prettymuch mostly about 20s and 30sJewish (or Jew-ish ) Seattleites andeveryone who loves them. Withits team o resh talent, we aim toprovide insightul commentary,enlightening observations, criticaleedback and hilarious homilies onwhat it is to be Jew-ish around herethese days.

Now put that in your Kiddushcup and drink it.

Want to join our world?Jew-ish is on the lookout or

compelling story ideas about thingsgoing on around town, so remem-ber: I you see something, saysomething. Wanna write or us?Were taking on storywriters andcommunity experts to join our panelo columnists. Send pitches, que-ries, shout outs and your rstbornson to [email protected]. Its thateasy.

By Emily K. AlhadeffThe death knell rings again. Ater

a strong 5,000-year run, Judaism is

closing its doors.Maybe.Maybe not.One Thursday night, a bunch o

us young, active Seattle Jews gath-ered in Louisas Restaurant in East-lake to hear Brandeis proessor o American Judaism Jonathan Sar-nas relections on the uture oAmerican Judaism.

Im deeply concerned about thedecline o Jewish peoplehood, hesaid. What hes talking about is thelack o a battle cry, a rallying cause,the kind o mission that kept world,or at least American, Jewry unitedaround causes like Soviet Jewry inthe past.

The whole notion o the nextbig thing has more or less evapo-rated, said Sarna. At one point hewas asked to help come up withthe Next Big Jewish Idea Biggerthan Birthright! but nothingever came to be. The best examplehe could come up with is MoisheHouse. He seems to ault the apathyo the young leadership or not jump-

ing on the opportunities aorded byinvestors. I was wondering where allthese eager investors are.

According to Sarna, this lack omeaningul bonds among Jews,added to declining synagoguememberships and intermarriage, isthe biggest threat to our uture, andwe have to do something about it.Can we identiy a mission compel-ling enough to the American Jewishcommunity to become passion-ate about and to rally around? heasked. Whatever happened to theconcept oklal Yisrael? He imploredus to go out and nd a cause.

I can think o dozens o reasonswhyklal Yisrael is foundering: disil-lusionment with Israel, a distaste ororganized religion, or a preerenceor Americanisms like individualityand independence to start. But Sar-nas desperate questioning pluckeda chord that vibrated in my headuntil I located its pitch: The ques-tion o how to perpetuate Judaism,how to develop a cause, how to staytogether, is putting the cart beorethe horse. The underlying questionis, Whats the point oklal Yisrael?

What is the point o Jewish peo-

plehood? The truth o the religiodoesnt speak to the majority as motivating actor; an illusive cultur

bond is too abstract; social justicis not intrinsically Jewish; culturcommunity has no substance ansuggests exclusivity. It seems likso many Jews identiy with beinJewish because its in their bloodor because it just eels naturaDo these abstract associations, this cultural and religious climatsuggest an unashionable ethncentrism? Are these even in anway substantiated? How are thepassed down? Why bother passindown Judaism anyway, especiaamong those who distance it roanything that has to do with religioand history? Because its just whwe do?

I invite you to share your thoughtWhat is the point o Jewish peoplehood? And how do we keep going?

Jo in the conversat ion o jew-ish.com, on Facebook www.acebook.com/jewishdotcoand on twitter @jewishdotcom.

From the blog:The decline of Jewish peoplehood

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