Tag Archives: emanu-el spokane

On Tuesday evening the Spokane community is invited to a vigil at Temple Beth Shalom to honor those killed Saturday at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

A Spokane great-grandmother will be honored in Olympia soon for her work as a teenage Dutch Resistance operative during World War II.

According to Jewish Virtual Library, the world contains roughly 13.7 million Jews. An estimated 5.4 million of these live in the United States, making up just 1.74 percent of the country’s population. Even in the nation with the second-largest Jewish population (after Israel), we are a small minority. In light of this, the task of engaging millennials—- people who are currently 13 to 30 years old — can appear crucial to the very survival of Judaism.

Next week Congregation Emanu-El will begin offering its Taste of Judaism course — a free, three week class on modern Jewish spirituality, values and community.

The grant-funded course is designed for unaffiliated Jews, interfaith couples and families and those curious about Judaism.

Back when I lived in Seattle, I wrote for a blog called Jew-ish.com. My editor there, Leyna Krow, moved to Spokane in the fall of 2010 for graduate school. A few months later, she posted a brief essay titled “Feeling way too Jewish in Spokane."