Jacob Schwartz's Bar Mitzvah at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai

Jacob Schwartz, the son of the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Phoenix, celebrated his bar mitzvah in Israel at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai on June 7th.  Jacob has had a lot of person connections to people from the TIPS region as many have come to visit Phoenix.  So his family decided to have his bar mitzvah in the region and not at the Kotel, as many others have done.

 Adam stated in his blog, "One of Jacob’s many connections with Israel came as a result of meeting several of these women  (of Ethnic Flavors/Taamei Ami) during their visit to Phoenix last October. This became one of many elements to help link our son, his becoming a bar mitzvah and Israel." 

At the end of the Bar Mitzvah day, Adam writess:    "... when I asked Jacob what the highlight was for him, he commented 'All of it' adding 'How many people get to celebrate their becoming a bar mitzvah, watch how honey is made, see cows milked, a battlefield and climb on tanks all in the same day?' Seems like the desired connections have been made."

To read about the fantastic experience, please go to Adam's blog at :  http://www.jewishphoenix.org/blog_post.aspx?id=2031

If any reader would like to try to arrange a bar or bat mitzvah in our region, let your local TIPS federation representative know.

Yom Hazikaron in Seattle, 2010

To commemorate Yom Hazikaron, Israel's Memorial Day, which occurs the day before Israel's Independence Day (Yom Haatzmaut), the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle created six  eight-foot panels in memory of Israelis that had died, either in military service to Israel or as a result of terrorist attacks. 

Because of Seattle's connection to the town of Kiryat Malachi and the rural region of Hof Ashkelon, just north of the Gaza Strip, one panel was in memory of those from those two areas who gave their lives. 

Here are pictures and stories of two young men from the area:Or Shachar of Kibbutz Yad Mordechai  and Gad Rahamim of Kiryat Malachi 

 

List of names of those from the two areas that have died and are remembers at Yam HaZikaron:

And photos of many of them:  

 

Here are more photos including 23 who died on Bus #37:

memorial to Ehud (Udi) Goldwasser:

 

Michael Levin, a USY grad, made aliyah after finishing high school, and joined the IDF the following year.

 

The final panel highlighted the "local" connection, that people in the Seattle area have with those in Israel that died in terrorist attacks.   

In 2006, Pam Waechter was murdered in an attack on the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.               

 

Many people in Seattle had a connection to the Holtzbergs, the young couple in India that died in a terrorist attack in November, 2008.

Dina Tanners, the current co-chair of TIPS, lived on Kibbutz Merom Golan in November 1972 and was pregnant with her first child.  Micha Fichman was a member of that kibbutz and came to warn her and others working with her in the laundry area of an imminent terrorist attack.  She got to a shelter safely, but he was mortally wounded by shrapnel a short time later.  The place where Dina had been standing was hit, so Micha saved her life.

Other local connections: