Category Archives: Washington Jewish Week
Europe Abandons the Jews Again
By Daniel S. Mariaschin We suspected it wouldn’t last much more than a week. In the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, there was an outpouring of support for Israel in Europe. Read more » »
Sukkot’s Added Meaning in Gondar
By Jan Lee For many of us in North America, Sukkot is a time for expressing our fortune. It’s not only a time when we observe God’s commandment to “dwell in the sukkah” as a reminder of the Israelites’ journey out of slavery, but a time for expressing and showing the richness of our heritage as a people. Read more » »
Dagmar R. Henny
On Sept. 16, Dagmar R. Henny of Takoma Park, Md., passed away at the age of 92. A Holocaust survivor, Dagmar was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1931, fleeing the Nazis with her father during their reign. Her mother was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944. Read more »
Marilyn Bookford Bargteil
On July 15, Marilyn Bookford Bargteil, of Jerusalem. Born Dec. 2, 1940, she lived in the Washington area most of her life, until moving to Israel in May. She studied drama at the University of Maryland, but left to work at IBM and NASA as an engineer on one of the Apollo projects. Read more » »
‘Not in My Neighborhood’ A Montgomery County project maps the story of antisemitic, racist housing laws
(istock / Gettyimages / George Marks) Restrictive housing covenants, which denied racial, ethnic and religious minorities the right to live in certain neighborhoods are a thing of the past. But in Montgomery County, their long-term impacts can still be felt. Read more » »
Virginia’s template in the fight against antisemitism
By Eric Fusfield When Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) issued an executive order establishing a Commission to Combat Anti-Semitism on his first day in office last January, he set in motion a number of significant developments. The Virginia commission is the first statewide body devoted solely to confronting the world’s oldest social illness. Read more » »
Some Jewish groups are quiet on far-right extremists’ election in Israel
From left: Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben-G’vir. Netanyahu: Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Jerusalem/Roman Kubanskiy; Smotrich: Ethan Fuld via Wikimedia Commons: Ben-Gvir: David Denberg via Wikimedia Commons Few of the American Jewish Read more » »
Rachel Sonia Sieradzki
Rachel Sonia Sieradzki, of Rockville, died on Sept. 11. She was born April 3, 1995, in Washington, D.C. She attended the Jewish Day School (JDS), Hebrew Day Institute, Westbrook Elementary School, Pyle Middle School and Whitman High School. After high school, Rachel attended Montgomery College and graduated with her A.A. in Liberal Studies. Read more » »
What Queen Elizabeth meant to a British Jew like me
(Photo courtesy of Victoria Jones/Getty) Jeremy Havardi The death 0f Queen Elizabeth II after 70 years on the throne is a devastating loss for Britain, the Commonwealth and the free world. It is hard to overstate the sense of grief that will be felt at her passing, including from within the Anglo-Jewish community. Read more » »
My long march to thinking about abortion rights as a Jewish issue
Sarah Leavitt My first abortion clinic escort job was in Madison, Wisc., where I grew up. My best friend’s mom was an abortion provider, and we would sometimes volunteer at her clinic on the weekends. Read more »
